The Forbidden Fruit

by S. K Munt

  I remained in a state of semi-shock for the rest of the week. Not only because I was the only person in possession of all of the facts and understood how messed up everyone was, but because the person who now knew more of my truths than anyone was the person who loathed me the most. I’d lost my mind in my anger with the duchess and had said a lot of things that could motivate her to kill me, but I tried not to let that weigh on my mind. If she was a pure Nephilim, as she’d proclaimed to be- then she would have to defy her every natural instinct in order to do murder to someone who was beloved by her own kin, and the fact that she’d gone to the effort to actually treat me cordially since told me that she’d taken my threat seriously and considered me one, if not an ally.

  I didn’t know how she was going to manage to get me out of my contract prematurely because like she’d said- she hadn’t even been able to bend the rules for Kohl. But I was so angry with Kohén still, that I didn’t care if her method for evicting me came in the form of banishment, and I intended to tell her so if too long passed without her thinking up an alternate escape plan. So long as I’d only be banished for a petty crime- the sort that would see me forgiven and accepted by another kingdom, it didn’t matter, and if the golden man came at me in the mood I was in, I’d welcome the chance to thump him straight back to hell! Him any other mean-spirited banished individual who tried to ruin the ruins of my life!

  Preferably, I would have liked to demand a transfer to Pacifica so that I could be close to Kohl, and I went to great lengths to spend more time with the Atticus in my last few days there, including a belated tour of the barracks with him and Kohl after all in the hope that he’d welcome my transfer one day, but I didn’t get my heart set on it or mention anything about my escape plan to Kohl at all. I was done tying my future to another man’s kite, and knew that I needed to think up not only a plan B to fall back on if Kohl and I fell through, but a C and a D- and studying every minute of every day for my next round of exams seemed like the best course of action to action all. If Kohl loved me as he said he did, the next three and a half years would fly by in a whirlwind of letters until we could be reunited- even if we didn’t get to see one another again until we’d come of age. And it was probably safer if we stayed apart too, because now that the spark for Kohén had been snuffed out from inside me, I had a whole lot of guilt-free time to pass, mentally undressing and absolutely ravishing Kohl’s naked, perfect body, and I wasn’t so sure that I could be trusted not to pet the true Prince Charming personally, if we were legitimately stranded on a tropical island together for three years.

  Kohl and I got one chance to be alone together before I went home, following a knock on my window. I’d been pacing my floor in the darkness, contemplating going to his barracks to find him and damn the risk, and wishing on one of the many fireflies that blinked past my window at dusk that he’d come to me, so when I heard the tap on the timber frame, I flew across the floor so fast that I almost tripped.

  ‘Easy…’ I heard him chuckle as I clawed the white curtain out of my way and hoisted myself onto the sill. His arms were waiting for me already and I leaned into his warmth and now oh-so-familiar scent and nuzzled his shoulder as he pulled me outside and into the small gap between my window and the hibiscus hedges behind it, which offered privacy screening, but little space.

  ‘I don’t want to go…’ I mewled as he cradled me and lowered us to the silvery grass. ‘Can’t I oversleep in the morning and miss the boat back? Perhaps get lost in the jungle?’

  Kohl wasn’t wearing his eye patch, but his hair was obscuring the opposite eye so he flicked it out of his way with a twitch of his head and leaned in so that or noses met. ‘You think Kohén would allow anyone to pull up the anchor and leave you behind?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said honestly, and when he pulled back a little to let me see his doubtful expression, I nodded and pulled him back. ‘Do you think I ran because the sight of him with other women made me fall out of love with him? Or because I realised that he doesn’t comprehend the meaning of love enough to have ever truly felt it for me?’ I held up my finger. ‘And don’t give me that ‘natural needs’ business or you’ll end up on my list too.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Kohl said honestly. ‘The need for a woman is one thing, but taking on several at once including her best friend, to get back at the girl you claim to love is just depraved, especially when you’ve made it obvious that you don’t like the best friend at all.’ He made a face. ‘I’ll admit that group sex is a tempting fantasy and there’s probably not a man on this earth who hasn’t daydreamed about such a thing, and I KNOW that Karol’s done it many times, but Karol’s not in love with anyone, so it’s less grotesque to me. But no, I’m in love with you and I couldn’t even…’ he winced. ‘They looked like a bunch of animals fighting over a carcass, only I couldn’t tell which one was the carcass!’

  ‘That’s exactly right,’ I said. ‘It didn’t break my heart so much as it cured me of him.’

  ‘Really?’ Kohl asked. ‘You were so upset! When I let you go, I was so scared that you were never going to come back-’

  ‘But you let me go,’ I said tenderly, ‘and I ended up spitting out ‘I love you and I’m sorry, can we talk? I have a secret-’ to a stranger mid-orgy.’ I smiled ruefully when he blanched. ‘You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me there though. I could have laughed. In fact, he was so in the moment that I don’t even know if he heard me, and I hope he didn’t.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kohl admitted. ‘The rain chased them apart and he came running out and when he saw me, I gave him the foulest look I have. He said: Where is she? And I said: In the rainforest and making some serious time, and he said: You let her go alone? And I said: She’s not mine to protect, but yours.’ Kohl paused. ‘He told me to go screw myself and then took off after you-’ Kohl turned me in his arms so that I was sitting on the sand between his open legs, and stroked my hair. ‘And he hasn’t spoken to me since.’

  I glanced over my shoulder. ‘He’s avoiding you?’

  ‘Like a plague of bubonic wasps,’ he confirmed.

  I frowned. ‘Gosh, I hope he doesn’t suspect that we have feelings for one another…I got the feeling he did the other day.’

  ‘Ha- you saw him with Kelia- he’d flip his lid if he suspected. Nah... this is an old brotherly war injury rearing its ugly head- rivalry and rivalry alone. As kind as he’s always been to me, he has a habit of pulling rank and is not used to me standing over him. I went off at him after he kissed you and called you a corpse last year instead of just admitting that he liked you, and told him that if he ever hurt you again, I’d break his face.’ Kohl gathered my hair into a ponytail. ‘He didn’t take the threat too seriously then, but I’ve gotten bigger and uglier than him and have a reputation for breaking the occasional arrogant face so…he’s smart to avoid me, but not smart enough to suspect that you could love someone other than him.’

  ‘Maybe he doesn’t care,’ I said softly. ‘He didn’t actually care about you and Kelia- just the fact that she cared bothered him. Ugh, you’re right- it’s so petty.’

  ‘Yeah but it’s genetic,’ he teased. ‘I loved the fact that Kelia preferred me. It was good for my starved Barachiel ego.’

  I chuckled. ‘That makes sense. You’ve got something to prove- but he’s treated like he proved the theory of gravity, and it isn’t right. So I don’t care why he’s not threatened by us, so long as he leaves ‘us’ alone out of spite.’

  He pulled my face back and stared into my eyes. ‘Are you certain that’s what you want though? You’ve been close for a long time, and I sure as hell don’t believe that he’s over you, even if he is pissed still.’

  ‘He’s never been under me, not completely, and if you say that with all of your Nephilim needs, you couldn’t participate in an orgy to hurt me intentionally, then the same ought to go for him because you’re twins,’ I said flatly. ‘He’s not suffering- he’s just been raised to believe that it’s okay for him to
do things, even if he wouldn’t abide it in return, and I cannot love a man who is so sexist and selfish.’ I twisted in his arms and pressed my hand to his chest. ‘Not when I have a man like you to compare him to.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s his fault, honestly,’ Kohl said.

  ‘I don’t either- it’s your mother’s fault, and father’s and Maryah’s and Resonah’s and Adeline’s and… you were lucky to be sent here Kohl, because being raised outside of the palace has ensured that a man with Nephilim blood bypassed becoming a ruler, and became an angel instead,’ I rested my head on his shoulder and smiled up at him. ‘And a divine one indeed. Hard work looks superb on you.’ I rubbed my face into his bicep and tasted his sweaty, coconut-scented skin. ‘And tastes good too…’

  ‘You’re ethereal,’ he whispered, tracing my lips with his fingertips. ‘Your smile is so wide and bright and your skin so hot, I swear it’s going to drop five degrees at least when you sail away.’ He nuzzled his nose against mine. ‘And not because it’s coming into fall, wise-ass, and I know you were going to say that.’

  I giggled because I had been about to point that out, but he plucked the hibiscus bloom out from behind my ear and pressed the petals gently to my lips. ‘I love you,’ he whispered.

  ‘I love you too,’ I replied, and because it was the first time in my life that I’d uttered those words without any obligation to, or fear that they’d be used against me, my eyes stung with sentimental tears. I rolled over to straddle his hips and hitched my sari up to my thighs, and then said with a stuttering heart and a soul full of desire: ‘And I want you, Kohl.’ I pinned the flower behind my ear and enjoyed the way his eyes brightened when I whispered: ‘Now.’

  It felt as though time were suspended just for us after I’d voiced my desire, and my heartbeat paused with it. Kohl blinked up at me, and though his handsome features were alarmed, his hands reflexively clenched near to my hips.

  ‘Larkin… we can’t.’ He looked pained to admit it, but he said it all the same. ‘If I kiss you and you so much as press your lips back-’

  ‘I know,’ I whispered, and then stretched above him so that my breasts were almost suspended over his face. His pupils dilated as he stared up at them, but I plucked a frangipani hanging low from the tree pushing against the bungalow, then dropped it on him. It hit his lips and rolled down his chest. ‘That’s one kiss,’ I whispered, stretching out to pull off a whole bustle of them in one go. Then I wriggled back so that I was on his thighs, pressed the next bloom to his lips, and then let it roll down him as well. ‘That’s two…’

  Kohl leaned his head back. ‘Mmm…’ he whispered. ‘That tickles.’

  ‘Three…’ I removed another, and ran this one down the centre of his chest, over his abdomen and then oh so gently, over his lap. He moaned a little, and when I saw the front of his pants grow tighter around the bulge beneath, my heart quickened.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he whispered, eyeing me with foggy curiosity.

  ‘Making love to you,’ I clamped the edge of the next pure white stem between my teeth and leaned down to gently run it along his length. ‘Without touching you.’

  ‘God…’ he watched me intently. ‘The heat of your breath…’ he closed his eyes and rocked a little when I dropped that flower onto his lower stomach. ‘Lark….’

  ‘Four,’ I placed the next between my teeth again and this time when I bent to his waist, his erection had lifted away from his body in a very prominent, very sexy way. ‘Five…’ I brushed against him again taking my time, letting my head and lungs fill with the scent of frangipanis and the slightly musky, sweaty and utterly masculine aroma of his anatomy through the silk. By the time I was halfway along him, I had to exhale and he moaned and shivered, and when I reached the tip of him, a small wet spot appeared in the cloth clinging to it, making me grow damp as well. I shifted so that I was straddling one of his thighs and pressed my crotch against him, moaning softly when I felt my sex tingle. ‘You’re so beautiful…’ I whispered. ‘I don’t have enough flowers to demonstrate what I’d like to do to you right now… but taking this...’ I plucked another bloom and ran it along him again, ‘-into my mouth would be a start.’

  ‘God! Lark…’ Kohl went to reach for me, but I leaned forward and he reclined in fear. ‘You’re wet… you have to stop or I’m…’

  ‘I am, but you won’t,’ I whispered, and traced a spiral over his abdominal muscles with the flower, watching it snag between each indent, glorying in the sight of him arching and panting and straining against his silk pants. I began to breathe more rapidly, and rocked again. ‘Six…’ I pressed that bloom to his lips and they parted. His nostrils flared to catch the scent and when I trailed it slowly over his jaw and down his neck, he arched that to me too and gripped the grass on either side of him.

  ‘Fuck… Larkin…’ Kohl tried to sit up and when he opened his eye, it was so blue that I knew I had to act quickly or end up in a situation that neither of us would be able to prevent from escalating because I wanted him more than freedom. It would pass, but we had to pass it swiftly together.

  ‘Seven…’ I ran my next flower down between my cleavage and he moaned, his cock flexing under the silk obviously, and making me clench for the need to feel it inside me. Straddling both of his thighs again to access myself, I knelt tall, bowed my back and ran the waxy petals down my centre and to my hips, imagining him plunging into me and he watched, panting.

  ‘Press it to yourself….’ he whispered. ‘Then give me that kiss. I want to know how you taste…’

  ‘Yes, your highness…’ I murmured and he sat up but did not grab me- only watched the downward descent of the sweet little bloom. I ran it beneath myself and between my legs, then back up to press it against his lips. His eyes rolled back into his head.

  ‘Your scent…’ he breathed. ‘It’s more pure than the flower…’

  I smiled, plucking the last flower from the small branch of stems, but before I could use it, he took it from my fingers, pushed my head back gently and pressed it to my forehead. ‘Eight,’ he rasped, and I shivered as it slowly passed over my nose, then lips, then jaw, evoking a trail of heat and never losing contact. The pressure was too light to do much but tickle, but the lack of pressure caused enough desire for more to make my skin heat. When it slipped between my breasts I cried out, and then when it landed against my lower stomach, I couldn’t take it anymore. I looked at Kohl and he was panting, and when he pressed the flower between my thighs under the hem of my rucked-up skirt, I gasped, snatched it and plunged my fingers into my bikini bottoms, pressing the petals against me.

  ‘Nine!’ I mewled, and began to come apart. I lost hold of the flower and slipped my finger into myself and allowed his lustful expression and grunt of desire push me over the edge. ‘Yes!’ I spasmed and Kohl groaned, pulled my hand from my panties and suckled on my finger. I felt each suckle resonate on my clit and Kohl’s grunts began to increase. To help him, I pulled the only flower left within reach from behind my ear and rocked forward on him hard, locking our hips together as I pressed it to his heart.

  ‘Ten!’ I gasped and Kohl began to thrust up into me until I felt something warm and wet flood against my sex from beneath. Understanding robbed me of my breath, and I watched in fascination as his eyes closed and he fell back, taking me forward and over him. His teeth bit down around my knuckle and when I felt him pry my wooden ring loose, my heart spiked in alarm, but then he sat up, still gasping, cradling me on his lap and lifted his ring to my left ring finger instead of the right.

  ‘This means that I love you and that I am yours for always, even if we never join or marry or even see each other again,’ he stuttered out the words, and slid the ring over my knuckle, bringing tears to my eyes. He trapped my face in his hands and his eyes were the palest, prettiest blue. ‘I am yours, and I will wait faithfully for you and only you until you are free to come to me. And if you cannot or do not wish to, send it back to me, and I will let you go, my beautiful fire
fly.’ He threaded his fingers through mine and squeezed my hand tightly. ‘But wear it as long as there is a chance for you to love me as you did him, and that is the only promise you will ever have to make a Barachiel man again.’

  I began to cry. ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ I whispered, even though my heart had already run off with the hope that I would be free to return to him and much sooner than he thought. I kissed the wooden ring, brushing my lips against his knuckles. ‘Why can’t I stay?’

  ‘Because this world isn’t as fair as I thought it was,’ he said sadly, but lifted his stone amulet to his lips and kissed it. ‘But perhaps together, we can change that somehow so that nothing as ridiculous as that bible can ever be written again!’

  So I returned to Eden with a broken heart full of hope, and a fistful of frangipanis.

  THE CREATION STORY

  BOOK VI.

  THIS TEXT IS NOT TO BE EDITED, ALTERED, SUMMARISED OR TRANSLATED INTO ANY LANGUAGE. OFFENDERS WHO ATTEMPT TO WILL BE CHARGED WITH TREASON AGAINST CALLIEL AND PUT TO DEATH.

  God’s heart twisted with a million emotions as Satan threw herself headfirst into the stream of furious energy that he’d released, assuming in shock that the fight would end then and there. And yet, the light hit her upraised hand and ricocheted off the large diamond on her finger to strike the tree above their heads instead. There was a brilliant crack followed by a dozen screams of fright, before a sizeable, flaming branch fell to the ground with a thud behind Satan, putting a wall of fire and smoke between her and God, and Miguel and his people. She yelped when a small branch full of leaves glanced off her wings, and some of her black feathers immediately charred and fell to the ground, which hurt God as much as it hurt her. But she was not dead- far from it, and was on her feet again a moment later, glaring at him and flapping her wings to blow the linger embers clinging to her feathers free.