That had been inside her?
His shaft extruded from an open slit at his pelvis. It was long and thick, the dark coloring at his base matching his stripes while the skin at its rimmed tip was a shade lighter than his normal ochre. He lacked a scrotum, and his cock seemed to be secreting its own lubrication, but it was the four two-centimeter-long tendrils around the base that made her eyes flare with true surprise.
Those were what had been stroking her as they made love.
Eva squeezed her thighs together even tighter. She could almost feel the touch of those tendrils, caressing her most intimate flesh.
He followed her gaze downward and grunted softly. “You must rest before I take you again, female.”
Eva’s head snapped up, and she met his gaze. Heat suffused her cheeks; there was a predatory glint in his eyes that spoke of ecstasy to come.
She cleared her throat. “I, uh, still need to clean up.”
He frowned slightly, confusion again creasing his brow. He leaned closer to her, nostrils flaring, before one of his tentacles slid up from her right calf to brush the inside of her thigh. She inhaled sharply.
Understanding eased his expression. “I did not realize. Kraken usually perform such acts in the water.” He relinquished his hold on her, shifted aside, and pointed toward the bathroom.
“Thank you,” Eva said. She lifted her foot, took one step, and her knees buckled.
Rather than fall to the floor, she fell into the wall of flesh and muscle that was Kronus. She didn’t understand how he could move so fast — it seemed almost unnatural — but she was grateful for it. His arms slipped around her only long enough to adjust her position before scooping her up.
Eva slid her arms around his neck and buried her face against it. His skin muffled the laughter that bubbled out of her as her shoulders shook.
He paused halfway to the bathroom. “What is wrong, Eva?”
“Nothing,” she replied, folding her lips inward and biting them to keep her laughter contained. But it was no use; she couldn’t stop it.
He was silent until she calmed somewhat. “What is amusing?” he asked in his serious voice, which sent her into another burst of giggles. “Female, are you broken?”
“What?” she managed to squeeze out.
He frowned. “Is something wrong with you?”
Eva took several deep breaths, attempting to calm herself. “I was just thinking about how you’re the one who helped me walk again….”
“And that is amusing?”
“Well, yeah, because you just sexed me so hard that I can’t walk now.”
His eyes widened with sudden alarm. “I will bring you to the clinic,” he said, tightening his hold on her and hurrying toward the front door.
“Kronus, no!” She raised her head and took his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. “No. I’m fine.”
Perplexation mingled with the slowly fading panic in his expressions. “But you said I—”
“You didn’t hurt me. You just…made my knees weak.” She glanced away from him, skin flushing. “It felt good. Really good.”
The tension in his muscles eased, and he relaxed his hold. For a few moments, he remained in place, within arm’s reach of the front door. Then he turned around and headed to the bathroom.
“Why does your kind seem incapable of speaking plainly?” he muttered.
Eva narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He twisted his torso to carry her carefully through the bathroom door. “Everything from humans is always…metafords and double-meanings. It is confusing.”
“Metafords? What is— You mean metaphors?”
Kronus frowned deeply, narrowing his own eyes. “I mean what I said.”
His tone nearly had her laughing again; had her correcting him bruised his ego? Fortunately, she held it in this time. “Well, most people aren’t as blunt as you.”
“There would be a lot less pointless small talk if they were,” he grumbled. Despite his gruffness, he was nothing but gentle as he sat her atop a stool in the corner, just in front of the toilet.
Nonetheless, his words caused a small pang in her chest. Did he view all their shared conversations as pointless? Was she nothing more than an annoyance to him?
“So…you’d rather not talk to me?” she asked quietly, folding her hands in her lap.
His frown intensified. His lips parted as though he meant to speak, but only a soft breath escaped him at first. He shook his head and dropped into what she now thought of as the kraken squat — tentacles splayed and torso low.
“You are the only one I want to talk to,” he replied, voice just as quiet, as he cupped the back of her prosthesis and lifted its foot off the floor. He raised her skirt with his other hand, exposing the prosthetic limb in its entirety.
“Even if it is pointless small talk?”
Kronus pressed the button that released the pin holding her prosthesis in place. He slipped the artificial leg off and carefully propped it against the wall. “It is not pointless with you.” He lifted his gaze to meet hers. “If I can learn even a tiny…something about you, it is never pointless.”
Her stomach fluttered. Everything about Kronus was intense; his actions, the way he spoke, even the way he looked at her. It had never been like that with Blake. Their relationship had been a whirlwind of excitement and instant attraction — though that whirlwind seemed more a breeze now, compared to what she had with Kronus. The more distance she gained from her joining with Blake, the more she realized there’d been no substance to their relationship, no depth…
And if she knew that after only a couple weeks of reflection, she had no doubt the love between her and Blake had been fleeting. Hell, it probably was never love at all. It had been lust sprinkled with some adventure. She’d been hurt when he broke their union, but most of that pain was because she’d been left with nothing — she’d lost her leg, lost her friends, and then lost her only source of support. At heart, her suffering hadn’t been about losing Blake; it had been about being alone. She cared about him and was glad he’d come to no harm, but what she felt for him had never been love.
She knew that now.
But what did she feel for Kronus? Was it simply gratitude?
He’d been there from the beginning of this new phase of her life, and she’d always be thankful for all he’d done, but it wasn’t that. Gratitude didn’t make her heart pitter-patter at the thought of seeing him, didn’t make her stomach twist into knots when he was near, didn’t send a rush of heat through her when their eyes met. It sure as hell wasn’t what made her crave the feel of him inside her even now, when her knees were too weak to hold her upright.
His hands slipped under her skirt, and his fingertips brushed over the slickness coating her inner thigh. Eva’s breath caught. Kronus stilled, keeping his eyes locked with hers for several seconds before hooking his fingers under the woolen sock covering her stump. He drew it off, folded it, and tucked it in the top of her prosthesis. He returned his hands to her thigh to peel off the liner, holding it delicately to avoid scratching her or damaging the material.
She placed her hands upon his, stopping him before he could remove the liner completely. “I…I can do this.”
His hands stilled, but he did not pull them away. “I know you can. But I am tending to you now.”
Why had everything been okay while she wore the prosthesis, but now she could barely look at her leg, much less allow him to see it uncovered?
Because with the prosthesis, I can pretend it’s real. That I’m whole.
Maintaining her hold, she pressed her lips together and stared at her leg.
He resumed the movement of his hands.
“Kronus, please, I can do it,” she said, tightening her grip. She couldn’t keep her desperation from seeping into her voice. They’d just shared something wonderful, and she’d felt beautiful and desired for the first time in weeks. She didn’t want this…deformity to taint that.
&nb
sp; Her struggles did not deter him; he slid the liner off, exposing her stump. She removed her hands from his, grasped the hem of her skirt, and attempted to pull it down over her leg, but he caught her wrists in his tentacles and stopped her. Tears blurred her vision as she turned her face away from him.
Kronus cupped her jaw with one hand, directing her attention toward him. “What is this?” he asked. “Speak plainly. Help me understand, Eva.”
She blinked, allowing the tears to spill down her cheeks. “I don’t want you to see it.”
“I have already seen it. Many times.”
“I don’t want you to see it now. Not after we…” She closed her eyes and fought the trembling in her lower lip. “For a moment, for that wonderful moment with you, I felt whole. I felt…beautiful.”
“And why should that be any different now?” His thumb slid across her cheek, wiping away the moisture. “What have I done to make you feel otherwise?”
Eva opened her eyes. “You haven’t done anything. You’ve been…perfect. You are perfect.”
Something subtly softened in his expression. His other hand slipped under her left knee, and the pads of his fingers drifted lightly across her skin. “As are you, Eva. What has been taken away from your body does not take away from you.”
Her chest warmed and tightened with emotion. “But it’s…ugly.”
“I have seen ugly,” he said, his hold on her strengthening infinitesimally, “and there is nothing about you that could ever be such.” Raising her leg, he bent down and placed a gentle, lingering kiss just below her left knee. His eyes never once faltered in holding her gaze; they shone with adoration and pride like she’d never seen.
Eva brushed her fingertips along the side of his face and around the outer rim of his siphon.
“Whatever people see when they look at us outside these walls,” he said, shifting his hand from her jaw to the back of her head as he rose and tipped his forehead against hers, “however we may feel out there…in here, we are just ourselves. Nothing more or less. You will never be judged here. You will never need to hide. Not from me. Just be.”
She caught his face between her hands and kissed him. Her tears continued to fall, but she focused solely on him. His fingers slipped into her hair, claws lightly grazing her scalp, as he returned the kiss.
Pulling back, Eva rested her forehead against his and grinned. “Now, if we’re done with all this small talk, we should get cleaned up.”
He withdrew uncertainly, brow furrowed once again. Eva made no effort to contain her laughter this time as she brushed the moisture from her cheeks.
Kronus’s mouth curled into a smile that glittered in his golden eyes. She didn’t know if he’d understood her humor — he was serious almost all the time and seemed to have trouble telling when people were joking — but it didn’t matter. The happiness on his face was genuine, and she was glad for it no matter what had brought it about.
Without speaking, he moved his hands to her right foot, removed her shoe, and set it aside. Eva held his gaze as he grasped the hem of her shirt and slowly raised it. His fingers trailed tingles in their wake as they brushed over her skin. She lifted her arms when he pulled the garment over her head. His eyes fixated on her bared chest.
“I should have removed your clothing,” he muttered as he draped her shirt over the top of her prosthesis. Splaying his fingers and stretching the webbing between them, he covered her left breast with his palm.
Eva released a shuddering breath and reflexively arched into his touch. Her nipple hardened.
He shifted his hand to take her nipple between the pads of his forefinger and thumb. He lightly pinched, stroked, and squeezed her sensitive flesh, sending a thrill straight to her core. Her breath quickened with every brush of his fingertips. Fire sparked low in her belly, and her sex clenched in need.
“Take off the rest,” Eva heard herself say before she could stop.
She yelped as he suddenly slipped his hands beneath her backside and rose, lifting her off the stool. Tentacles coiled around her legs, supporting her weight, as he shifted his hands to her waist. He hooked his claws into the fabric of her skirt and already tattered panties and tore them apart with ease.
“Kronus!” Eva braced her hands on his shoulders as he pressed her back to the cold wall.
“You have other clothing,” he growled. His hand settled over her breast again to resume its prior movements. Lifting her higher, he dipped his head and closed his lips over her other breast.
The heat of his mouth made her gasp. She closed her eyes and settled her hands on his head, moaning at the suction as his tongue rasped over her sensitive nipple. His tentacles moved along her legs, warm and strong, and she could no longer tell how many of them were there.
He lifted his mouth and growled against her breast. “Your scent already has me starving for more of you, female.”
“Now,” she rasped. “I want you now.”
His hands fell to her backside again, gripping handfuls of flesh, as his tentacles positioned her legs to either side of his torso. He slid her down his body, her exposed sex brushing over his sculpted muscles until her legs were around his waist and the head of his cock pressed to her entrance. Without hesitation, he pulled her down and thrust deep inside her.
She dug her nails into his shoulders and opened her mouth in a silent cry that was cut off by a dominating kiss. His lips claimed hers, his breath filled her lungs, and his body branded her with searing heat.
Kronus lifted his hands and closed them around Eva’s wrists. He forced her arms up over her head and pressed them against the wall, shifting his hands up to twine their fingers as much as possible, palm-to-palm. Not once did his quick, powerful thrusts slow.
Kronus growled, breaking the kiss. “Look at me, female.”
Eva opened her eyes and met his burning gaze; its intensity had built to a frantic gleam.
“You are mine,” he snarled. “Nothing will take you from me. No one will take you from me. Do you understand me, female?”
“Yes,” Eva breathed. She cried out as his tentacles angled her hips upward, making his cock sink even deeper.
He leaned closer, pressing his chest against her breasts, and brushed his flat nose against her cheek. “Tell me who you belong to.”
“You.” She gasped when he nipped her ear, the prick of pain adding to the growing pressure in her core.
“Louder,” he commanded. “Tell me who.”
The tendrils at the base of his cock fluttered around her clit, stroking it each time his pelvis met hers. Eva whimpered as she felt the first tingles of an oncoming climax. She fought against his hold, tightening her fingers on his. She was trapped against Kronus and the wall, forced to take everything he deigned to give, and she relished every moment of it.
“Tell me!” he bellowed.
“You!” she screamed. “Oh God, you!” Pleasure burst through her. Her sex clamped down, her inner walls quivering so intensely it almost hurt. Her moans rose in pitch as euphoric waves struck her like the ocean crashing against the seaside cliffs.
Kronus’s roar reverberated in the bathroom, filling up all the space that wasn’t occupied by their intertwined bodies. His heat blossomed inside Eva as he ground his hips against her pelvis, pushing his cock as deep as their bodies allowed. Her sex greedily drew him in, craving more.
Time passed as Kronus held her limp form. They breathed heavily, unmoving but for their heaving chests.
Eva rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and inhaled in his scent. “You, Kronus,” she whispered. “I belong to you.”
Chapter 14
Kronus turned his head to the right as he floated out of sleep. Grayish early dawn light filtered into his den through gaps in the front window curtains. Though he’d risen around this time on most days, he considered it too early now — why leave bed when Eva lay tucked against him, enwrapped in his tentacles? Her body heat was blissful, and though the bed had been sized for a single kraken, it wasn’t c
rowded or cramped. He enjoyed the feel of her skin against his.
She’d spent three nights with him, and they’d shared the bed during each, savoring one another’s closeness and exploring each other’s bodies with hands, fingers, and tentacles.
His eyes roamed around the room once they were adjusted to the faint illumination. The furnishings, which remained sparse, were blanketed in a calm, comfortable gloom. Many of the shadowy forms were familiar sights upon waking, but the few additions and rearrangements made the space feel new and exciting. Knowing the cabinet — which she called the armoire — contained her clothing now, or that the pantry was stocked with abundant food suitable for a human, was an unexpected source of satisfaction to him.
Eva had been through two full days in his den now. Though she was still somewhat clumsy, she managed to move about with little assistance — even without her prosthetic leg, she’d regained enough strength to walk using only one crutch.
He’d faced two struggles, neither of which should have surprised him. The first was a struggle to avoid mating her constantly; the dwelling wasn’t large, and they must’ve come together in nearly every possible place within by now. He had to remind himself often that she was human; even were she not still recuperating from her injury, she needed rest sometimes.
Her own seemingly insatiable appetite for him didn’t help his self-control.
His second struggle felt less immediate but proved no less difficult. He found himself instinctually compelled to help her with everything. Oddly enough, the conflict was in part between those instincts and his pride — both in himself and in her. She was a female whose capability had been diminished by her wound, but she was not helpless. There was a difference between lavishing her with pleasure and coddling her, a difference between providing for her needs and treating her as a helpless creature. Sometimes, those distinctions seemed uncomfortably subtle.
He tightened his hold on her slightly. Her head was resting on his shoulder, and her slow, steady breath was warm across his chest. Absently, he trailed the tip of a tentacle along her calf, relishing the slightly salty flavor of her skin.
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