Page 28 of Rising from the Depths

“Now what?” she asked.

He backed away from her; it was her first opportunity to watch his entire body move, to study the strange gait created by his tentacles simultaneously pulling and pushing to drag him over the floor. The muscles of his middle bunched and stretched, and Eva found herself staring. The defined muscles of his abdomen were suddenly quite appealing.

Kronus stopped in the doorway. “Walk.”

Eva blinked, dragging her gaze up to meet his eyes. “How?”

“Justmove,” he growled, his skin flaring red once more, but it wasn’t so quick to revert to its normal color. “You have three legs now instead of one, and you still continue this whining?”

“You are such anass!” she snapped. Howdarehe? He had no idea what she was going through, what she’d lost. He had no right to judge her!

She lifted one of the crutches and moved it forward. The cushion pressed into her armpit uncomfortably. She shifted her weight onto the crutch, lifted her leg, and immediately tipped to the side.

Her heart lurched, and she squeezed her eyes shut, body tensing for the inevitable impact.

Strong hands grasped her upper arms, halting her fall. She opened her eyes and tilted her head back to find Kronus in front of her again. What was the appropriate response? Gratitude, laughter, tears? She didn’t know how to feel.

“The sticks are your leg,” he said in a low voice, standing her back up. “Together. Do you understand?”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked again. “Why do you care?”

“Because I do. Nowwalk.” He pulled away again, tentacles stretching and contracting as he returned to the open doorway.

“Why are you so damnbossy?” she demanded even as she obeyed his command.

Using both crutches at the same time provided much better balance, but she was still weak from lack of exercise and food, and wobbled one way or another many times. Each time, Kronus was there to catch her. Over and over he spat that same word —walk— and whenever she neared him, he moved farther away, leading her on the slowest, most pathetic chase around the clinic she could imagine. Eva cursed him the entire way.

She grew more accustomed to the crutches with each passing minute, but walking with them became increasingly taxing as her limited strength waned.

Eva stopped in the clinic hall, limbs shaking and perspiration dampening her hair. She couldn’t keep her limbs from trembling. “Enough!”

Kronus swept his gaze over her from head to toe and back again and nodded once. He moved close to her, placed a steadying hand on her back, collected the crutches from her weary arms, and passed them to a tentacle. She sagged against him, and he bent slightly to scoop her into his arms. Moments later, he had her back in the room, settled on the edge of the bed with the crutches against the wall nearby. She hated him for his mobility, hated him for how easy it was for him.

He captured her chin firmly between his finger and thumb and tilted her face up to meet his gaze. She glared at him and grasped his wrist. He’d been nothing but rude and pushy, and she wasn’t in the mood to take even one more of his damned commands or insults.

“You did well, female,” he said softly. His golden eyes shone with gentle praise, gleamed with pride.

Pride forher.

Something within Eva broke. Her heart quickened, and she couldn’t look away from him. His pulse thrummed beneath her fingers, matching the speed of her own. He shifted closer and lifted his free hand, brushing hair away from her cheek with the backs of his fingers. His skin had changed color again — a faint maroon tint.

One of his tentacles slid over her foot and coiled up her calf. Eva’s lips parted, and her eyes flared. His suction cups, each of which lightly kissed her skin as they moved, sent tingles through her; they were at once stronger and softer than any lips could’ve been.

Desire filled her, unbidden and undeniable. Her breasts felt suddenly heavier, the tips of her nipples hardened beneath the gown, and heat suffused her as his touch traveled higher. Her grip on his wrist tightened. She didn’t know whether to push him away or pull him closer.

How could her body react so strongly to a kraken’s touch? It was more powerful than anything she’d ever felt with Blake. How would those suction cups feel on other parts of her body? Her stomach, her breasts, her…sex?

Kronus’s nostril’s flared. He narrowed his eyes, and his pupils expanded from horizontal slits into rectangles. The tentacle around her leg rose higher still, settling on her thigh. The color of his skin slowly deepened from a mere tint to full-blown maroon as he released her chin to lay his fingers along her jaw. His gaze dipped to her lips. Tension radiated from his body, and his tentacles shifted restlessly on the floor.

When he leaned his head closer, she tilted her face toward him, sliding the tip of her tongue over her lips in anticipation. The moment felt right, despite everything that had led to it. Perhaps it was desperation, or a need to feel something,anything, beside pain and sorrow. Perhaps it was a need to feel like she mattered to someone, somewhere.

Another of his tentacles trailed over her left leg.

The sensation was so startling to the new, sensitive skin of her wound that Eva released her hold on his wrist and cringed away from him.

Whatever madness had overcome her shattered at that instant.

“Don’t,” she rasped.

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