The Tangled Tree Read online

  10.

  Kohén moaned softly and wrapped his arms around me, kissing me back with salty, lush lips. I moved my hands to unlace Kohén’s slacks, knowing that coming together in here would be not only cathartic but amazing, but Kohén shook his head gently, batted my hand away and then placed it back on his shoulder.

  ‘No…’ he whispered huskily, scooping me up in his arms and carrying me back towards his bed. ‘There’s something else I’d much rather do in here- something I’ve dreamed of for as long as I can remember…’ he kissed me again and then began to sink onto the bed, twisting as he did until I was lying on the mattress on my back, with him leaning down to kiss me from above. My eyes fluttered open, curious to see where he was going with this (and a little scared to think of what nasty things he’d imagined doing to me with so much time to plan ahead) but Kohén just kept on kissing me, slowly and sweetly, sighing into my mouth and moaning when I kissed him back. His kisses were lovely, and I loved the way my scalp tickled when he tugged the fastener out of my hair and began to work free the braid we’d woven together the night before… but soon enough my hair was out and we were still just kissing while my body was throbbing all over for need of his intrusion, so I started to worry that he’d forgotten that we didn’t have long up here, and moved to unlace his slacks again. Kohén was hard against my hip and I moaned in need, but he chuckled, fished my hand out of his waistband before I could stroke his silken skin and laced his fingers between mine- pinning my hand back to the bed and squeezing it gently.

  ‘Stop trying to undress me,’ he scolded me gently. ‘Can’t you see that this is my ultimate fantasy? Kissing you! And I won’t have you ruin it with your wanton ways!’ My eyes and mouth popped open with shock but he chuckled again and nuzzled my nose with his. ‘Seriously… I was forced to… well, to do that thing in a bit of a rush the first time, and every time I look at you, I get so excited that I end up rushing again.’ He twisted his lips gently against mine but then leaned down to chastely kiss my chin, then my collarbone. ‘But when I imagined making love to you, I imagined it happening after months and months of doing other stuff first, you know? Kissing you… courting you… taking you up to my bedroom so that we could hold hands and flirt and inch closer and…’ he moaned and kissed me again, rolling over on top of me a little more so that he could take my other hand, and my heart skipped a beat, tripping some kind of wire and loosing what felt like a million butterflies into the pit of my tummy. ‘Can we do that?’ he whispered, breaking contact with our lips just long enough to ask: ‘Can we start over, Larkin? Your hair… you look almost as exactly as you did that night of the ball, when things truly began to go off course with us, and I’d like a second chance to get them on course again. I mean, I still feel like a virgin every time you touch me so… can’t we pretend that we are, and build up to… to doing that other stuff?’ He fanned my hair out using his fingers. ‘Not as a master and slave… but as two best friends who know they’re meant to be together?’

  My lips parted in surprise. Can you? I thought, incredulous, and he smiled angelically- an illusion made all the more authentic-looking due to the gentle morning light filtering through the stained glass above him. Can you actually have me, without having me?

  ‘Of course I could,’ Kohén answered my silent question, robbing me of my breath as I realised just how many times he’d already done that- read my mind perfectly. ‘If you would like that too, I… you know I’d give you anything you asked for!’ he cupped my face and began kissing it all over, and the butterflies in my tummy flapped their wings. I moaned and re-directed his lips to mine and then suddenly we were kissing deeply and breathlessly. My hands reached up and caressed Kohén’s smooth, muscular biceps, and he slipped one arm beneath my head to cradle my neck while his other reached around and pulled my face more forcefully up to his. It only took a moment or two for my heart to stop pounding with joy and start pounding with lust, and I felt Kohén grind his erection against my thigh quite a few times to take the edge off for himself as well, and yet every time I moved to caress him again- to let him know that I was perfectly happy to do everything that came naturally to us now that he’d gone and gotten me hooked on it- Kohén would growl and press my hand somewhere else- against his face, his chest, his own… and soon enough I was certain that the pressure building up inside me would explode.

  When it got to the point that I simply couldn’t take the wanting any more, I rolled swiftly, getting myself on top of him and rocking myself against him. He opened his mouth to say no but I leaned down and kissed him hard, catching both of his hands and pinning them to his soft comforter- assuming the role as master whether he liked it or not. I rolled my hips a few times as he gasped and grunted and then suddenly he hissed a warning and forcefully tore his hands from mine. I gulped and pulled back just as a barely-visible wave of spark-encrusted energy rolled across the open room behind him, and for a moment, it felt like the entire room had trembled.

  ‘Shit!’ he whispered, sitting up and glancing around him as a book toppled off the top of his desk and fell to the floor, along with a small free-standing mirror. ‘Was that loud? What’s with my power lately? It’s like I keep shorting out or something!’ he looked back to me as he moved to sit up saying: ‘Larkin we’re probably going to have to play this game in your room-’ but I pounced him again, mesmerised by the way that his lower abdominals had crunched together and bulged when he’d lifted his shoulders off the bed. So beautiful! He was just so damned beautiful! And the light glowing down on him through the sky window above wasn’t exactly hurting the whole ‘angelic’ thing that the Barachiel men had going on!

  Kohén moaned and wrapped his arms around me, sitting up as he returned my heated kisses until I was straddling him with my hair falling around us like a crinkled veil, and though I knew he was determined to get me out of there, and although I knew I would eventually comply given how likely it was that the rest of his family would wake up soon, I milked the moment for all it was worth, soaking in the scent of him, which was what I loved the most about being in his room. Kohén always smelled incredible, but usually, his natural scent was diluted by environmental factors and lately- one of those factors had been the white rose oil of the harem, which I despised. But this was Kohén’s environment and his scent was potent and everywhere and it was the most incredible aphrodisiac I’d ever encountered, so though I was happy that Kohén had finally brought me here, I was already feeling sorry for myself and how miserable I was going to feel once I’d been returned to the harem again. I waited for my sub-conscious to pipe up and point out that it was all going to be my own damn fault for letting the charade I was supposed to be playing for Kohén’s benefit get this far, and that this was all going to end up hurting me more in the long run… but I’d evidently killed my inner voice with wine and sex the way I had killed Satan’s with God’s name, because she didn’t say a word, allowing me to do the one thing that I never got to do- live in the moment without a single regard for the consequences. That was a dangerous way to live for someone who had everything on the line like I did, and no sooner had I thought how lovely it would truly be to take everything good at face value and turn a blind eye to everything bad, then a ‘consequence’ came barging through the door.

  ‘Darling we’re being attacked!’ I heard someone cry. ‘Amelia-Rose and her father have come to warn us that-’ I looked up just in time to see the duchess duck under Elijah’s arm and enter the room (the king’s angel ring was still pressed into Kohén’s door lock) and though she’d been making a beeline to the bed to ‘rescue’ her sleeping son, she came to a sudden halt halfway between his bed and his desk when she saw me. In fact she stopped so suddenly that she almost lost her balance and fell over, which was exactly what King Elijah looked like he was about to do when his gaze shifted to where I was- on top of his son. That would have been mortifying enough as it was, but when I saw two strangers gathered in the hall behind them- an older man and a very young, very beautiful gi
rl- my mortification found a new rock bottom to slam into. The man turned his face, embarrassed- but the girl gawked at us blatantly.

  ‘Oh My God!’ Constance cried, exactly as her spouse bellowed: ‘What is the meaning of this?!’ and Kohén practically shot me across the room when he sat up swiftly. He caught my rump with his hip to prevent me from flying off of his lap, but there wasn’t much he could do to keep me in his arms because Constance had regained her equilibrium, darted across the room and was now dragging me off the bed and her son using my bicep. Her nails were long and sharp and they cut into me and Kohén’s expression immediately transitioned from ‘OOPS’ to indignant, but before he could lunge after me, his father appeared behind him, grabbed him by his arm and threw Kohén backwards so quickly that Kohén didn’t have the chance to defend himself- especially seeing as how his eyes had been on his mother and full of concern for me instead of looking out for his own interests. As I landed awkwardly on my backside, my prince hit the wall hard enough to cause the clock that he had hung on it to shake free and crash to the ground on top of him, and I gasped, horrified when he flopped face first to the floor- his back so red from the impact that it looked like second-degree sunsting. The strangers in the doorway gasped as well, and though Constance stepped in front of me to prevent me from going to Kohén’s assistance, she also cried out for her husband to calm down.

  ‘Calm down?!’ Elijah repeated, grabbing Kohén by the hair and hoisting him violently off the floor. ‘Why? These disrespectful little bastards have humiliated me for the last time this week!’

  ‘And you believe that throwing them about will garner your respect?’ the duchess asked, incredulous. ‘Because it’s not enough that they’re drawn to whores like you are- now you must teach them how to solve their problems with violence too? You reap what you sew, Elijah- and you have sown some wild oats with your seed so do not attack them for being uncultivated! That error is yours!’

  My jaw dropped as Elijah gave her an ugly look over his shoulder. ‘You are right, so allow me to harvest them before they grow beyond my control- a chore I will see to now, by putting my foot down- on their matching, ever-smirking faces!’ Elijah dropped Kohén again and lifted his knee, and when I saw that he was about to stomp Kohén’s head, a garbled scream began to gargle out of my throat. I lunged forward off my knees but only made it to the edge of the bed by the time Constance grabbed me again- just as Shepherd Choir raced forward and pulled Kohén out of Elijah’s reach.

  ‘I understand that you have reached a breaking point after a chaotic week, your highness-’ Shepherd Choir was a tiny, white-haired man, but when he pulled the still-dazed Kohén behind him, he made himself look ten feet tall to me, ‘-but I think we both know that Kohén here should not be held accountable for all of your troubles. It is advice and guidance that the young prince is clearly in need of- not the physical manifestation of anger that has built up inside you.’ He turned around and pushed Kohén gently towards Amelia-Rose. ‘See that he gets out into the hall with his brothers, darling, and then all of you retreat to the ballroom as we’ve been instructed. The duchess, king, the young lady and I will follow quickly.’

  ‘Yes daddy,’ Amelia-Rose said in a voice that was so mellifluous that it actually made me flinch. She turned and placed her hands on Kohén’s shoulder, attempting to steer him away while giving me a loaded look that I hadn’t a chance of deciphering, but Kohén stepped out from underneath her arm and walked back in, shaking his head as his eyes fixed on me.

  ‘I’m not taking a step without her and-’

  ‘YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD!’ Elijah thundered and I cringed as Shep went white and stepped back, giving up. ‘I’m not playing here, boy! Allowing a Companion into our private quarters has a punishment of fifty lashings for each of you, and if you do not move quickly to save your own back, then I will administer all one hundred of them to her, understood?’

  Kohén’s eyes widened as he stopped stalking towards me and turned on his father. ‘Those punishments are never actually enforced, and you know it!’

  They weren’t? That was news to me!

  ‘Because no one is ever stupid enough to break the rules!’ Elijah retorted, and I cringed. Yep, trust me to be the first Companion to get hit over the head with the rule book!

  ‘Must we discuss this now while there are people bombing the castle?’ Amelia-Rose demanded, fiddling with the pearl buttons of her white, high-necked, tight-fitting blouse. ‘We need to protect those that matter, not fritter away time on those that don’t!’

  ‘They’re bombing the castle using the kerosene that you and Kohl so generously snuck out to them without my permission to keep them warm, and don’t think I won’t be having a serious chat with you two later about that, either!’ Elijah snapped at her, and Amelia-Rose cringed and cowered a little as he pointed out the door. I looked to the Shepherd for a reaction, but his face was too composed for me to know if he took offence to the king reprimanding his child. ‘But you’re right, I don’t have the time to parent or punish anyone right now so I’ll say this only once more: You have five seconds to get out of this wing and downstairs, Kohén Barachiel, because that will give me about twenty seconds to sneak her out after you and back into the safety of her wing before anyone else notices that we have a displaced Companion! And if you waste one more second of that time then I won’t bother returning her to the harem, but to the cells! Five, four-’

  ‘But she can’t be exposed to other people!’ Kohén spluttered. ‘There are too many people out there who would abduct her! Especially if the opportunity presents itself during chaos!’

  ‘Three-’

  ‘I’ll see her returned to the harem unharmed!’ Constance cried, waving her arm. ‘Just go, Kohén, or you’ll only cause her more grief!’

  ‘Two-’

  ‘I’m GOING!’ Kohén exclaimed, and then stormed from the room after sending me an anguished look that wasn’t without a trace of warning- warning me not to do anything to antagonise his parents further, or betray his trust. I heard him pounding a path down towards the foyer as Constance sighed in relief behind me (she still had the back of my toga and was holding me in place) and Elijah threw up his hands, whirling on us.

  ‘One!’ he began to step around the bed towards me, face still red and furious, distorting his own good looks gruesomely. ‘Right- you! Will a day ever pass in this castle during which I don’t develop a headache as a result of your actions?’

  I furrowed my brow and pulled back from him, swallowing hard as I swallowed down all of the nasty things that I wanted to say to him, because Constance had expressed it all rather eloquently herself a few minutes beforehand with the whole seed-sowing thing anyway. I didn’t want one hundred lashings- but I didn’t want one-hundred and fifty lashings even more, so I figured that the only smart thing that I could do in that moment was to do what I’d done all week- bite my tongue.

  ‘I’ve heard that she cannot speak for she is already in shock and mourning the loss of a close friend…’ the shepherd said, looking to me and cocking his head. ‘Is that true?’

  I swallowed again and nodded, wiping away the tears that had started to trickle from my eyes when I’d seen Kohén hit that wall. I felt awful for lying to Shepherd Choir and pretending that I was still mute, but I had thrown myself on the sword too many times before in the past in the interest of doing what was right and had nothing to show for it but multiple stab wounds to the heart.

  ‘Well then, that means that she cannot speak for herself or for Kohén, so it would not be fair to speak at her either, especially not when you know that she’s also suffering from an awful week.’ He glanced at Elijah. ‘Nor would it be honourable to whip a girl as punishment for a crime that she is incapable of committing.’

  Elijah turned to him. ‘What do you mean by that? She’s in a wing that she’s forbidden from entering, and you see it with your own eyes!’

  ‘Ahh yes, but I also saw you unlock this door with a specific key made to fi
t a specific lock to get in here, and I would assume that she does not have a copy of that key in her own possession, correct? It had to have been in Kohén’s?’ Elijah nodded and the shepherd shrugged. ‘So she could not possibly have made her own way into the monarch’s wing- she had to have been invited, and as Kohén’s Companion, she is not allowed to turn down any invitation from him, is she? So punishing her for breaking the boundary laws, would be akin to punishing her for following the ones that demand her submission… and that doesn’t sound very kind or fair to me…’ Shepherd’s pale green eyes landed on me and they were full of empathy that made my eyes water, and triumph that made my heart sing. What a kind, wise man he was… and how little he must think of me! ‘Does it to you, your highness? Because I’m beginning to wonder if it’s this girl’s actions that require correcting- or the guidelines that she must adhere to.’

  Elijah’s draw dropped in response to the syllogism that the shepherd had just flattened him with and I wanted to applaud. But...

  ‘It’s not the guidelines that need correcting, it’s the fact that she’s here at all that needs to be addressed!’ Amelia-Rose said, shooting me a look that was less-difficult to figure out due to the disgust in her brumous eyes. ‘Kohén shouldn’t be punished for fornicating with a woman in his chamber- he should be prohibited from having access to ill-fitting women, period!’

  Ill-fitting? I thought, glaring daggers at her and making no move to hide it. The only thing ill-fitting here is your hideous blouse! Your cup may runneth over lady, but the neckline of your shirt certainly doesn’t!

  Elijah sighed a long, low sigh. ‘I suppose you have a point,’ he grumbled. ‘But something has to be done to prevent this from happening again, and I don’t have time to -’

  ‘No, you must go and check on the rest of your people, I agree. So let’s postpone dealing with this matter until later on, all right? I’ll speak to Kohén myself and stress the importance of leading by example- even when it comes to following the most insignificant rules- and we’ll see Larkin back to her harem on the way, so long as you’re certain that it’s safe.’