by S. K Munt
‘Yeah?’ Kohl pushed his hair out of his face and grinned at me, his teeth and eyes sparkling much like the water on his bronze skin, and my relief that he was not furious with me almost made me sag. ‘Thanks Lark. Maybe I could teach you a few tricks sometime?’
‘Lark’s not really a water person,’ Kohén said, interrupting us by spiking his board in the sand beside me and shaking salt water over me so that I squealed, for the Pacific Ocean was ice cold. ‘And you’d probably find it harder to manipulate waves to suit her than you do for yourself… cheater.’
They exchanged a wrinkled-nose look of fraternal annoyance and I raised an eyebrow. ‘Wait… you tailor-made that wave for yourself?’
‘He did,’ Kohén said, sitting beside me and grinning up at Kohl. ‘Why do you think he’s so good? He knows what it’s gonna do!’
‘Well, then I’m even more impressed,’ I said, leaning against Kohén so that he’d be more distracted by my skin against his than my flattery of the boy he was clearly trying to take down a peg or two. I winked at Kohl, whose annoyed expression melted away a little. ‘And yes, I’m booking a private tutorial before I go, if that’s okay?’ I turned to Kohén and smiled. ‘Maybe then I’ll be less embarrassed to surf beside you when we get home, hmm?’
‘Knowing you, you’ll end up scoring a ninety-seven out of one hundred on that too and make my ego regret approving it.’ Kohén teased, but he didn’t baulk at my private surfing lesson suggestion because as I’d assumed, he was already leaning in for a nose-rub. ‘But still, I’d like you to learn to surf for me very, very much.’ He hovered over my shoulder to whisper: ‘By the way, you’re in BIG trouble with me over what you said to my parents... over my knee, sort of trouble. And you-’ he made a face at Kohl. ‘Nice rainstorm last night. Really, the timing couldn’t have been more disastrous.’
‘Huh?’ Kohl asked, his eyes moving to me, and my muscles seized up, but his expression was unreadable when he turned back to Kohén. ‘Did it rain?’
‘Right on my parade,’ Kohén said, ‘just as things were getting good and moist already-’
‘Kohén!’ I slapped his leg hard and he yelped and rubbed it. ‘Now you’re the one who’s in trouble! In fact, you’re looking down the barrel of a four-year drought!’
‘Good thing I have Kohl then, eh?’ he teased, then dangled his finger over my head. ‘Help a brother out huh? I could use some precipitation right between her-’
‘Wait until she’s a free woman then,’ Kohl interrupted, winking at me. ‘And I’ll see what I can do.’
I was certain my eyes would have bugged out of my head, but luckily, Kohén took the low blow with good humour. ‘You know when you wink with an eye-patch, we don’t see it the way you mean it, right?’ Kohén teased. ‘And as for the other thing- not a fucking chance man.’
‘Then start working out,’ Kohl chuckled, lifted his eye patch and made a big show of winking as he backed away. ‘That’s what got Kelia damp for me! Guess some things you don’t get by birthright hey- like preference?’
‘I am going to kick your ass!’ Kohén yelled after his brother, and I was so glad that no one was sitting close enough to us to have overheard that entire exchange.
‘In four years, if you’ve worked out enough to even try!’ Kohl called back, and I fell on my back laughing.
Kohén swooped down and kissed me briefly: ‘Tell me again that he doesn’t want you,’ he muttered.
‘Of course he wants me,’ I said, kissing him back but only a peck. ‘Look at me- who wouldn’t? In fact, he’s already declared his love, and offered to marry me when you fail to! Now I have him and Karol as back up plans, like the clever little duckling that I am.’
Kohén shielded the sun from my eyes so that I could stare up into his face. ‘If you’re trying to goad me into out-smarting my brothers by keeping my word… you’re succeeding.’ He grinned when I pumped my fist triumphantly and kissed me and when he pulled back again, his face was more serious. ‘I’m not thrilled by some of the things you said to my parents this morning Larkin- mother especially-but thank you for helping me convince my father that you want me the way that I want you.’
‘How mad are they?’ I asked.
‘Plenty.’ He wriggled his eyebrows at me. ‘But it’s worth it.’
‘What is?’
‘Knowing that you’re doing this willingly, and not because I’m asking you to.’ And Kohén swooped down again and captured my mouth in a longer, more sustained kiss. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him back, and he moaned and pulled me up into his arms. My heart was pounding from the stress of it all, and knowing that once again poor Kohl was being forced to watch. But I was Kohén’s and when he released me, the smirk on Elijah’s face across the way as he gave Atticus a thumbs up told me that if I wanted to attain the power to make anybody happy, I had to play by the rules, and better than the rest of them.
I was also laughing on the inside- I’d just confessed my feelings for Kohl and my plans with Karol too him and he hadn’t even blinked. Telling the truth was easier than lying, for my truth was too insane to be given a second thought.
‘God…’ Kohén nuzzled my neck. ‘This is so perfect. You look like you’re a mermaid, and you’re in my arms in paradise…’ He grinned at me. ‘I’ve been hard all night. I tried to deal with it, but it won’t go down.’
‘Really?’ I asked, fluttering my eyelashes. ‘What a coincidence- I was up late reading the bible, and about how touching oneself is a sin.’ I shook my finger at him and said: ‘the old God is very angry with you now. Perhaps that thunderstorm last night was his doing.’
‘Ha ha,’ he pecked my lips again and stood up. ‘Nice try but not even you’re that reckless, and I’m fairly certain that they stopped leaving Bibles in resort rooms a long time ago. Besides-’ he threw a towel at me, covering with sand. ‘That storm was an act of brother, not God and you’re going to seriously earn yourself a spanking if you keep up the lip.’
I blinked. ‘You mean, they’re not one in the same?’ I turned to look back at Kohl. ‘I swear, he looks exactly how I imagined God-’ Kohén’s hands pulled me off the ground and spun me so that he could plant another hard kiss on my lips.
‘That’s one,’ he whispered, and a chill went through me.
No- that was Karol, and suddenly, Kohén seemed as like him, as Kohl did to God.
15.
It was eventually time to leave (the sharks started filling the bay as dusk approached) and though Kohén tried to catch my eye when we all got out onto the track again, I began to move toward Jovi, who I was becoming very fond of and who I didn’t feel weird about hanging on to, for his breasts bounced more than mine. But before I’d taken two steps, Kohl slung his arm around my neck and said loudly:
‘So, Larkin. I heard you say that you wanted to go faster earlier today, but your guide was too worried for your welfare to do it?’
‘That’s correct,’ I said sadly. ‘But I understand.’
‘Well, I don’t give a fig for your welfare,’ he said, launching himself up onto his horse and then extending one salty wet hand to me. ‘So... do you wanna ride with me?’
I did, and no one but Kelia and Constance looked disturbed when he flung himself up onto his saddle and pulled me on behind him- though Kohén did make a face and gave him the finger, and I smiled, mollified to see that I had guessed the right way to flip him off when he wasn’t looking, all of those months ago.
‘Hold on tight,’ Kohl whispered, turning his head to mine. ‘This is going to get a little out of control.’
I pressed my cheek to his bare, warm and insanely broad back as we galloped off and whispered: ‘I hope so!’ and he chuckled again.
We set a cracking pace, and it wasn’t long before it was just Kohl and I crashing through the jungle paths alone. The wind blew through my hair and the leaves ahead of us formed a canopy, allowing dappled sunlight through and though we were bouncing along pretty hard, I had no qualms with pressing
myself against Kohl’s hot, bare back for support. His heart was racing as mine was, and I breathed in deeply and exhaled long and heavily, soaking up the moment of solitude.
‘Are you enjoying Caldera Island, beautiful?’ Kohl called back to me, and my heart started to gallop faster. ‘I’ve been dying to ask but I can’t seem to get a moment alone with you.’
I swallowed and smushed my face into his back. ‘I know…’ I complained. ‘And I’m so sorry Kohl. I don’t think I would have come if I’d known that he intended to use this trip to romance me, and right in front of you! I feel wretched, absolutely wretched!’
‘So this is a new development then?’ Kohl asked, and his voice was strained. ‘I was a bit shocked to see the way that he’s been draping himself over you, but I had no way of knowing if this is how you’ve been this whole time or-’
‘No,’ I shook my head and squeezed him more tightly. ‘I would have told you if we had such an intimate relationship, and I wouldn’t have been sending you, uh… signals, if his sudden passion went two ways. I mean, there have been moments between us in the past, but they have always been sporadic and there have been none since my sixteenth, okay?’ I hesitated. ‘Well, we shared one kiss around the new year but that was seven months ago, and it was supposed to be the last for four years,’ I shook my head. ‘He’s been Mr Arm’s length all year but now he’s an octopus and I’m very confused and am sorry to have confused you too.’
‘You don’t have to make excuses for your relationship with him, or your conduct,’ Kohl said back, keeping his voice loud to be heard over the pounding of hooves against the dirt packed road. ‘He has told me a few things, of course- that he was pretty sure that he messed up with you by going to Emmerly when you may have been coming to him. That you told him I love you just before then, during your initiation but refused to discuss a future with him after, and that you have cooled toward him completely since the week I left. I hoped it was because of me-’
‘It was for many reasons, and he is right about several of them and clueless about the others’ I said, hugging him tightly and thinking about Karol’s leer. ‘But yes, your arrival and departure changed me, and that has altered the dynamic between your twin and I so drastically that I don’t know what I want anymore.’ I sighed. ‘But he’s pretty set on marrying me still, and though I have refused to consider it until I am free, and think it is the most inconceivable, hair-brained plan I’ve ever heard- I cannot lie to you and say that I wouldn’t… I mean… if it was possible I- I…’ I rested my head on his back and groaned. ‘God, do we have to discuss this now? I just wanted to soak you up while I had the chance to!’
Kohl slowed the horse to a trot before bringing it to a complete stop, and then wrapped his arm around mine so that one of his hands was caressing the ring on my right hand, but his other was holding the reins and horse steady. ‘I’m sorry Lark- I want that too. But like I said: I know how I feel, and what I’m willing to risk to win your hand… but I cannot fight my brother for something he has already won again- it will break me.’ He touched my neck, where the bruise was. ‘As it broke me to see you together last night.’
‘That was your rain?’ I asked. ‘You did it to break us apart?’
‘No. I did it because I could not help it. But yes, I am glad that I broke you apart because I wasn’t sure if you were kissing him by choice or force. Seeing you running away after- and not staying with him to ride out the storm- improved my mood greatly though. Just as seeing you laughing together today instead of fighting eased my mind from worrying that he’d been too forceful.’
‘He wasn’t trying to force himself on me,’ I said quickly. ‘I still don’t believe that he’s capable of that. But your father is hoping he will and is wondering why he hasn’t, so I had to allow Kohén to…’ I touched my neck and winced. ‘Ruin me a little, even if only on the surface.’
‘I thought as much- I’ve heard mother complain about you endlessly since she arrived.’ he let out an annoyed sigh. ‘She believes that you are set on joining with him or becoming his favourite whore who he will not part with- effectively ruining his chances of marrying a good girl like herself. And yet father wants Kohén to keep you around if he loves you so dearly- but only so long as you are his favourite little whore and not his master who interferes with his need to breed and join with someone else.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘How lofty their dreams for him!’
Kohl chuckled. ‘I know. Luckily for me, they don’t care what I do!’ He looked into my eyes, and then exhaled. ‘But I do care- a little- about what you do, sweetheart. I want to be with you, and I can handle knowing that you are indulging him in this feigned romance to appease his royal ego… and if he betrays his word to you by taking you by force, I will still take you into my arms after, and settle for being your second so long as I am your only from thereon.’ He swallowed. ‘But if you had lingered and reached for him as he had reached for you after that downpour, or if you go to him willingly because he is your first choice… I would not reach for you after.’
‘You cannot reach for me at all,’ I whispered. ‘You saw how he handled Kelia yesterday- I can’t even imagine what he’d do if he saw us touching this tenderly!’
‘I know,’ he cringed. ‘I feel awful for telling him about her writing to me but I couldn’t help it. One of the natives who was helping us unload the luggage saw Kelia hugging me and asked if this was the great beauty that I’d spoken of who wrote to me so often, and she said yes with a big, proud smile- not realising that Kohén was right behind her!’ I groaned. ‘Yes,’ Kohl went on. ‘Kohén didn’t alert her to the fact that he’d overheard her then and there, but he asked me immediately about her after you two left, and because he was clearly in a bad mood already, I tried to laugh it off; saying that it was nothing and that I’d been talking her up for appearance’s sakes, and that I’d only sent two postcards back, you know? But when she came looking for him to give him a hard time about your get-up, she walked into his bungalow, saw me sitting on the couch, assumed he was out of earshot and told me that she’d missed me desperately.’ He chuckled. ‘But Kohén was in the kitchen and though I knew he’d heard every word, I didn’t anticipate him detonating about it the way he did, and embarrassing her.’ He shook his head. ‘She’s pissed at me now and though I feel badly about the way it played out, I am relieved that she has backed off.’
‘So am I,’ I confessed. ‘God, I’m an awful person.’
‘No, you’re bound to a man against your will, but draw every other man with eyes, ears or a nose to sense you with to you like bees to pollen.’
I smiled. ‘I am so crazy about you right now for getting that overused analogy accurate, because everyone else says honey, but the instinct drives them to copulate with the bloom.’
‘I read,’ Kohl joked, and not for the first time. Then, he picked me up and easily twisted me so that I was sitting in front of him, face to face, and the motion made my heart skip a beat. ‘And I’m trying to get a reading on you, so hold still while I do that, okay?’ He clasped my face in his hands and lowered his head so that his eyes were staring into mine, and I couldn’t breathe. His gaze moved to my mouth, then back up to my eyes, and he smiled. ‘I don’t think a man alive has ever wanted to kiss someone as badly as I want to kiss you, every time that I see you.’
‘You can’t,’ I whispered, but my face tilted to his. ‘Kohl I want to explore what’s between us, but it must be done carefully for the next few years with every sense but touch, you understand that, don’t you? I will not break my vow to him.’
‘I won’t kiss you,’ he promised, and then plucked a frangipani from the lei around his neck. ‘I don’t want to outrightly betray my brother any more than you do, and I love you more for keeping your word to him. But….’ he pressed the bloom to my nose, and I closed my eyes and inhaled the heavenly aroma, before he moved it to press against my throat and then ran it down to my clavicle with the most delicious, most tentative touch I’d ever
known. I shivered. ‘If I were allowed to put my lips on you,’ Kohl’s voice was husky, ‘this is what they’d be doing…’ he ran the frangipani down between my breasts and I gasped and arched, moaning when he passed it over my belly button. I felt a rush of heat between my legs and as though he sensed it, he agonisingly-slowly trailed the petals over my hips until I gasped. Then the bloom was against my lips and I whimpered and heard him suck in a breath.
‘And they say there’s no electricity on this island…’ he whispered. ‘What I feel right now could light up Tariel!’
I opened my eyes. ‘Was that electricity?’ I whispered. ‘Because I feel more like I’m on fire- the kind of fire only you will be able to put out, being the beautiful, powerful Nephilim that you are.’
His eyes darkened. ‘You care for us both,’ he whispered. ‘And you have imagined futures with us both and without either. I don’t want to push you Larkin, or steal his girl via manipulation, or cause either of you any strife- but I can’t walk away from this unless I am forced to. So tell me, honestly, that you are set on him and I will release you and find a way to treat you like a sister. But tell me that you could love me more- tell me that there’s even the slightest chance- and I will steal as many chaste moments of your time as I can between now and our twenty-first birthdays.’
‘That’s all you need from me?’ I asked, awed and touching the small silver hoop he’d had pierced into his right ear, like the bird attracted to shiny things that I was. ‘The affirmation that we have a slight chance? No physical gratification demanded, and no promises to be made?’
‘I cannot demand what you cannot give,’ he whispered. ‘I know that you are between a rock and a hard place. But, if you could give me the slightest indication of how you see me… eye patch and all… that this could be enough for you...’
I smiled, took the flower from his fingers and pressed it to his lips. ‘This is what my lips would be doing, if I were free to use them on anybody that I wanted to,’ I whispered, and then trailed it down his neck and over his chest. The look he gave me could have set the rainforest on fire, but we heard the approaching stampede of hooves before that spark could ignite us. Kohl twisted me again until I was behind him, and then guided my arms until they were around him once more before I’d even had the chance to blink. He let out a: ‘Ha!’ and then we were off, and though I knew we’d just had an incredibly close call, I was suddenly too drunk on Kohl to care.
