The Forbidden Fruit

by S. K Munt

  ‘To the devil with you!’ Kohl snapped and turned away, but not before I saw his tears spill over. ‘Both of you!’ Then there was a splash, and I knew that Kohl was swimming out of the poolroom the way he’d come- through the northernmost courtyard, between us and the now practically abandoned harem.

  And it would feel like a ghost town for me. Emmerly was gone, Lette was gone, Elfin was gone and soon enough, Kelia would be gone too, leaving me with Elijah and Karol’s whores for company. Tears welled in my eyes again but then something cold was sliding around my neck and my fingers flew to it, half-expecting to find some sort of medieval cuff being fixed into place, but discovering something colder, and far more valuable latched there instead.

  Oh… no!

  In Kohén’s hand, was the black velvet bag that he’d dropped earlier, and around my throat, I knew, was Pacifica’s treasure- and my new collar. ‘A gift, for my darling,’ he whispered, wrapping his arms around me and rolling me onto my back before lifting my knee once more. ‘And a reminder that I can, and will-’ he pause to kiss the inside of my knee as he caressed my rump, ‘-make all of your dreams come true.’

  And then he was making love to me again, and after only a few beats, there was nothing that I could do to stop him, discourage him or keep my own visceral responses under control. He didn’t thrust into me as he had before though, but rolled his hips, first feeding me his length and then grinding his pelvis against mine, hitting a special place inside me and then at the apex of my sex over and over again, generating the kind of friction that made me float higher and higher out of my body until my muscles seized up around him, and refused to relax.

  ‘Oh…!’ I dug my heel into his ass, and he gripped the bed-head with his other hand and bellowed out a: ‘Yes!’ as he thrust into me hard enough to make the bed legs scrape against the floors- detonating my clit with one perfect smack of his flesh against mine.

  ‘Oh! Oh...OH!’ my hips began to shake as the ineffable pleasure washed over me in waves that I had to ride to the end. ‘Oh, Kohén… OH!’

  ‘Yes! Oh, you look so… you feel so… MINE!’ Kohén cried, dropping his weight onto me heavily and wrapping his arms around my neck and shoulders in order to lift me up to his kisses as he forced my hips down with his suddenly relentless thrusting. ‘I love you!’ he gasped. Not an inch separated my body from his: our legs were looped around one another’s and his tongue was tangled around mine as my fingers pulled at his hair and dug into the firm rise of his ass, urging him closer and closer still, and when I started convulsing again, only this time from the inside out with a quickening of muscle flexes around him, I heard him let out a bellow and suddenly, an incandescent blue light flashed, coming from every point where he was inside me and staining the mist around us periwinkle.

  ‘Mine!’ he cried to the ceiling, before dropping his chin to show me how his eyes has transformed from merely blue, to glacier-blue- to jewels. ‘My girl! My love! My beautiful, angelic little temptress- give me your ecstasy!’

  ‘Oh, Kohén YES!’ I couldn’t have kept that exclamation in if I’d tried either, and a shudder went through him and then suddenly he was fucking me with abandon, pumping load after load of hot, thick and silken semen into my palpitating core and crying out as though he were being pummelled, not I. ‘Oh!’

  My climax was so intense that it rattled my bones but he clamped his body around mine and drove on and on until we heard the thunder crack outside. I knew it was Kohl, and Kohén did too, but then my knee was over his sweaty shoulder and he was snarling like a rabid animal as he pushed into me again, deeper and deeper, barely retreating, only straining to stuff every inch of himself inside me. He kissed me ardently as he sobbed his gratitude to god for me and I cried too, and our kisses tasted as salty as they had that night in Pacifica when he’d taken me in the Caldera- when my free will truly had bent to his.

  I don’t know how long we went on like that- rolling in a sweaty tangle of limbs and devouring one another with every sense that we had as we and the fog and the music became one entity, but eventually, a stampede of feet broke through our lustful haze. Kohén pushed off me, trembling all over and flushed and together, we listened to the sound of hundreds of Eden’s guests scrambling through the corridors from every entry point of the castle, as they ran inside to seek shelter from the rain that was suddenly pounding onto the roof. They ran by our door too, coming from one of the staff access entryways down near the boiler room, no doubt, and I turned away, trying to hide my overheated and humiliated face- willing the need to pass out to overwhelm my other senses. I wanted to black out, and I could feel the shadowy fingers of shock rake through my mind in an attempt to comply.

  I am nothing but his. There is no need for me to actively participate in this life anymore, because he will do my thinking and feeling for me...

  ‘Go with God, darling,’ my mother had said when she’d left me, but it was Satan who I wept to for assistance when I felt him enter me again. Not because I wanted him to stop- but because I didn’t.

  ‘My princess,’ he whispered, but that was a lie and we both knew it.

  I was a Companion now, and would never rule over anything but the harem again; least of all myself.

  Epilogue

  Kohén found a way to transport me back to the harem while I was unconscious and when I came to, I was soaking wet, wrapped in the golden throw from the end of my bed and shivering violently in front of the fire that had been lit within my unused hearth. I heard the sound of my bath running over the crackle and pop of the fire and the blood pounding in my ears and I moaned softly, lifting my hands to grasp at my head, feeling as thought it would split apart. I wasn’t sure where the headache had originated from or how long I’d been out for but clearly, champagne, distress and too much sunlight was a bad combination and now, I was paying for it with pain along with everything else.

  ‘I have a healer on the way, darling,’ Kohén’s voice was low, and I felt his lips brush my cheek before he moved away. I turned slightly and watched him through narrowed eyes, rubbing my head and wondering what time it was, and what was going on. Obviously not much time could have passed since we’d been in the poolroom because I was still saturated from being brought to the harem through the pool and then the rain, but my mind felt as clouded as though a storm had been settled over it for years. Kohén was scrambling around the room picking things up and humming to himself, and I hated myself for noticing how good he looked… not just physically, but how contented he seemed spiritually- enough to make him positively luminous. He had a golden towel wrapped around his waist, and though there was a slight dent between his brows to indicate that his mind was focused on some important task, he was humming under his breath and it sounded lovely.

  ‘Can’t I just take some sort of medication?’ I groused, pushing up and moaning when I felt my skull contract in protest. ‘Ohh…’

  ‘For the headache you could, but I need you to be uh, soothed in other ways,’ Kohén had the grace to blush before sliding a book neatly into position on my shelf. ‘And don’t worry, it won’t be Karol coming to heal you. Not this time and never again.’

  ‘You’re having me healed for my comfort?’ I asked acidly, and he smirked knowingly and held up the wooden ring before putting it on top of the shelf next to the pillowcase by my door. ‘How thoughtful.’

  ‘And for mine. I’ve just read a few more lines of Kohl’s uncensored passion, and the urge to hear you cry out my name again is most overwhelming.’ He nodded toward the bathroom while my gut jerked in discomfort and guilt. ‘We’ll get cleaned up in a moment, then I’ll have you healed, then I’ll give you a chance to eat something while I go and calm my parents down and silence that infernal Kelia girl so she stops trying to beat down the harem door to demand an update- but after that…’ He stood above me and gazed down at me with black eyes. ‘Yeah, I’m pretty much going to fuck you until you forget his name.’ He shrugged. ‘Sorry, but I’m not as good a writer so I’ll just have t
o make you feel my devotion in the physical sense.’

  My insides cramped up, bringing my attention to the raw pain still burning inside me now that Kohén’s magic thrall had worn off. ‘As you wish, master,’ I lifted my hand to the choker around my neck. ‘I better start working this off now, hmm? One down- ten million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine to go!’

  Kohén’s face creased in a more pronounced way. ‘Okay for starters, that is NOT payment for services rendered, my love. That is a gift from Atticus Hartley in Pacifica’s name.’ I blinked at him and he leaned in and kissed me. ‘He said that if I could win your love and get you farming Pacifica, that was mine to gift to you, and the fact that you will now wear it publicly- when I can trust you to go out in public and sparkle as brightly, that is- will help rationalize your reasons for waving off your freedom and appease what would be a lot of confused people otherwise. I get you, but you still get to realise your cotton dreams in a tropical paradise- so no sacrifice was made by either party.’

  I turned my face away, recalling the conversation I’d had with Atticus the night before and wondering if he’d handed this to Kohl after then or that afternoon when I’d been released. I’d said that I wouldn’t work for him as Kohén’s whore but now I realised that I had no choice, for as long as Kohl was alive, I had to do whatever I could to keep Kohén mollified which included working off his debt with a smile on my face to placate the prime minister as well. I wanted to cry but that would not work in Kohl’s favour either, so I trapped my emotions behind rapid blinks and nodded, conceding acceptance.

  Oh well, I’ll get to farm…. that’s something...

  ‘Secondly...’ he traced my jawline with his fingertip, ‘we pay the girls in the harem a lot more than a dollar’s worth of gold each time so your calculations are ludicrously inflated,’ he moved my face back to his, and his eyes were blue again. ‘Thirdly, for the heaven that I just felt between your legs, I would need to give you five or six of those for you to be duly compensated and finally-’ he paused while I ducked my heated face to break the opia, ‘-you and I just made love three or four times, not once. Though I could tell you were lost to yourself, you were more than eager to-

  ‘What?!’ I looked back at him, horrified, and he nodded.

  ‘It’s two in the morning, you know,’ he tightened the knot on the towel around his hips and wriggled his eyebrows. ‘We’ve been locked in that poolroom while the party went on without us and inside- all night.’

  I stared at him, bewildered and wondering if he was lying, but then I saw the clock on the wall above my bed and saw that he was telling the truth about the time at least, for it was two a.m. I bit my lip in embarrassment and Kohén smiled triumphantly and tickled the underside of my jaw before whispering: ‘I told you that we were destined to be together.’ He blessed me with one deep, wry dimple. ‘How can you argue that now that you’ve seen for yourself, that time literally has no meaning when I’m inside you?’

  He was making the air feel foggy around us again, but I still had plenty of arguments to the contrary. ‘What about the rest of your family?’ I asked coolly, seeing his eyes heat as they travelled down to my chest and feeling desperate to put those coals out. ‘Do you think you’ll mother will agree that this was destiny, considering how proud she was of you for abstaining earlier?’

  Kohén’s dark brows drew together, and his jaw flexed. ‘My mother is a cold, moody woman Larkin, and I’m used to disappointing her while doing my best to make her proud- so I’ll feel no remorse for invoking her wrath while being true to myself- for once.’ He tugged on my choker. ‘Besides, her delight today stemmed mostly from Kohl’s release- not yours, and I thought you knew her better than that, by now.’ He kissed me a little harder, like a gentle punch of his mouth against mine. ‘I thought that you were on my side when it came to her, and too clever to believe that she wants any happiness for anyone that doesn’t serve some selfish purpose of her own.’ He looked menacingly down into my eyes, but his anger could not mask his hurt. ‘But clearly, I thought wrong- and often- about your state of mind and the strength of our bond.’

  My heart stalled. ‘Kohén-’

  ‘Don’t even attempt an apology now,’ he released my necklace and reclined back, hooking his arms around his knees to balance himself. ‘What’s been done cannot be undone, but once my mother reverts to treating you like a whore again because you had sex with someone you love to save your ass and Kohl’s- you’ll feel sorry enough for yourself, and I- vindicated.’

  I released a breath that I hadn’t been aware that I was holding. Was he right? Would Constance revert to treating me like a whore now that I was a Companion? Or worse- would she treat me even more poorly than before, because the sacrifice had come at Kohl’s expense? I felt ill for a moment and then remembered; her secret. Maybe mine was out, but I still had hers and so, she would have to tread carefully, even if she felt like stomping my skull in. ‘Have you seen them? Did they say anything-’

  ‘No,’ he gave me a slightly mirthful smile. ‘They’re too busy trying to divert attention from our penumbric relationship to send any our way themselves. In fact, I believe that they cracked open several crates of the new marshmallow champagne from New Rome just after all hell broke loose. You know- to get everyone drunk enough to distract them from the unseasonable rain… and the missing princes.’

  I bit my lip harder. ‘Kohl is missing?’

  Kohén’s hand sparked as he cracked his knuckles. He tried to pass off the gesture as casual, but I could see the intensity of the anger dwelling just beneath the surface off his eyes in light of my concern. ‘He’s not at the party or in his room, according to Kelia, so I guess so.’ I moaned softly to hear her name mentioned and to be reminded that Kohl was still in danger. I’d agreed to keep the secret yet- but Kelia was determined to see me suffer, so who knew what she would do, or whom she would run to, when she realised that she was out and I was locked in? Kohén kissed me again- a little more softly. ‘I know, I know... she’s a problem, but a problem who is not adverse to taking bribes, so she’ll be handled quickly and quietly.’ He released his knees and moved to rise. ‘Now, let me finish cleaning up this mess so I can take you into the bath and continue working off MY debt of gratitude-’

  I caught his chin with my fingertips and held his gaze to mine, dragging up all of my old Companion training as I did and trying to make myself look vulnerable and needy. If we’d already lost at least ten hours, then I had to fix the Kohl situation, and fast! ‘Can’t we deal with Kelia first? And find Kohl?’ I asked, pouting my lower lip and invoking my inner Scarlet O’Hara. ‘I won’t be able to relax enough to take your beautiful cock inside me again, until I know that she isn’t out there putting all of our reputations in jeopardy.’ Kohén’s lips parted around a shallow breath, and I smoothed my hand down his bare, warm chest. ‘And I want you inside me again soon, Kohén… you’re such a wonderful lover.’ I drew him down so that I could kiss him gently, and felt his heart racing. It was so strong! How had I never noticed before that his pounded twice as hard as any human’s who I’d ever embraced? ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could get all of the nasty stuff out of the way with, so that we could stay in bed for hours at our leisure?’

  Kohén caught my hand and held it to his chest, then hunched over a little more to kiss me back. ‘Kelia knows that she will be banished if she repeats a word of this until I have confirmed it with her. So relax…’ he ran his lips down to my neck and suckled on my pulse and suddenly, I remembered a fragment of a moment in which he’d done that while taking me from behind and shuddered, scared to realise that he was telling the truth- we must have made love for the better part of eight hours which meant that I’d been completely absorbed by his passion. ‘I will work my way into your heavenly little pussy with relative ease when you are well enough to accommodate me again-’ I sucked in a hot breath of shock, and felt the muscles inside me clench around both need and lingering agony. ‘...Only I pl
an on staying buried inside you for years without respite, not hours, my love.’ I whimpered again, and he pulled on my hair, tilting my face back to meet his so that I could see the bright flash of his eyes. ‘By the way, I know you’re trying on the coquettish thing to make my male ego more malleable, but don’t waste your time with the pouts and the wide eyes, little bird.’ He bit my lower lip and mumbled: ‘Remembering the way that your soaked little cunt clenched around me guarantees that I KNOW you don’t want to run, not deep down anyway.’ He slapped my backside playfully and got up, and my stomach clenched again to see the way the front of his towel was jutting out now. ‘Besides, by the time Kohl’s ship back to Caldera Island departs on Sunday, you won’t be able to walk- much less climb an electric fence to run after him.’

  ‘How romantic you are,’ I muttered, dropping the act and sagging back down as he loped off and picked up a handful of smashed china from one of my many ornaments that Kelia had pitched about. “And how DARE you be in a good mood!” I wanted to scream, but bit my tongue.

  But Kohén only chuckled. ‘You know that I am.’ He glanced back at me and rolled his eyes at the sight of my genuine- and pissed off- pout. ‘I was forced to do something drastic and unethical today, Larkin and I feel awful about that. But the reasons why I had to have not changed, nor has the fact that if you’d only been forthright and loyal, as you are contractually obligated to be in all matters concerning us- this wouldn’t have happened. I mean, I’ll suffer my share of the guilt, little bird, but only mine.’ He shrugged. ‘Besides- the fact that I felt nothing short of euphoria inside you after so many years of frustration has healed most of my hurt, so I know that I’ll be able to be everything that you need me to be, once you give me the chance, and that will help me sleep at night as well.’ His beautiful eyes flashed, but not in anger- only passion. ‘And I swear on my life Larkin… I will find a way to heal you in return, and you will come to see me as your Prince Charming again... even if you don’t believe that now.’