The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  It’s only inevitable…. right? If I do it now, I’m lighting a fuse, of sorts. But the longer the fuse goes unlit, the more explosive the whole situation is becoming...

  ‘What?’ Cairo asked, his tone guarded. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘I’m just thinking…’ I walked to the edge of the terrace, stared down at where the Artisan dancers were putting on a scarf dance for the sailors that were enjoying their dinner out on the common, and then turned back to Cairo, smiling over how easy it was for a woman to work a man into a malleable lump by popping her hip suggestively. Back in Eden, I’d resented my so-called ‘gift,’ but I’d been trying to own my beauty since Cairo and I had met, as Sam had suggested, and I’d discovered that the things that made a woman weak in a man’s eyes were precisely what challenged a man’s strengths.

  ‘About…?’

  ‘What if I agreed to kiss you in exchange for you taking the money, right here, right now?’ I asked softly, and Cairo stood up so fast that he thunked his head on a rotted, low-hanging beam.

  ‘Can you say that again please?’ Cairo stepped out of the small tower, rubbing his head and squinting at me in suspicion. I felt for him because a hit like that would have put out my lights, but it was only my empathy that forced me to hold back a triumphant smile. ‘Because it sounded like you just offered to give me the kiss I’ve been dreaming of for the past two years and a cash bonus- and that’s just insane.’

  ‘It’s not insane,’ I said, my lungs and throat tightening as he closed the gap that I’d opened between us. I cocked my head to the side, allowing my hair to fall over one shoulder so that it would be stained by the last, pinkish rays of the sun and so it would most certainly bring out my eyes. ‘I’m very proud and ambitious, Captain Kingslater, and I want to be able to look back on the establishment of this kingdom and know that even though I accepted help from outsiders, I was able to compensate them in return- to stand on my own. I’ll never be able to undo or outdo what my mother did for me when she built this place, and that’s a hard enough pill to swallow on its own… but I can repay you now, and I desperately want to.’ Cairo was still creeping up on me and the closer he got, the more I had to lift my head in order to hold his gaze. That was intimidating, but I help my ground and craned my neck accordingly. ‘So if you’re willing to give up the white knight shtick and actually admit that you could use the money- that I can help you in some way- I’ll help you sleep at night as well.’

  All of the softness had left Cairo’s eyes, and now they were as hard and as glittering as chrome. ‘I told you that I don’t count myself as one of the good guys, your highness.’ He caught my hair between two of his fingers and gently slid it down, tugging on it so gently that my scalp tingled. ‘I’ve done all I have done for you in the hopes of winning your favour- and your powerful mother’s- with it. It’s a manipulation, straight up, and I expect it to pay off considerably one day. So why would I want to waive my right to be called your hero, when I enjoy playing the part so much?’

  ‘Because you know that I’ll never fall in love with you, so long as I feel obligated to, or paid for,’ I whispered, pressing my hands against his chest and feeling downright cocky when I felt how hard his heart was pounding. ‘And because agreeing to my terms will give you what you really want…’ I stretched up and whispered: ‘My lips, on yours right now...’

  I felt a shudder go through the massive pirate, as his arms clasped my hips. ‘If we do this…’ his voice was strained, his expression agonised. ‘If we connect… it’s going to change things between us, you know that, right? Get me as addicted to the taste of your lips as I am to your redolent scent, and I’ll probably never pull up my anchor again.’

  I did know that, and my hands were trembling, but I wet my lips and ever-so-gently nudged the bulge between Cairo’s legs with one of my thighs under the pretence of shifting my weight, and smiled inwardly when I saw his jaw knot. ‘How can you be so certain of that?’ I whispered, pulling out every doe-eyed, lash-fluttering, lip-trembling Companion trick in the book. ‘Maybe I’m a horrible kisser.’

  Cairo’s eyes slitted. ‘I suppose there’s only one way to find out.’

  He’s so big! I thought, mindful of the fact that what I’d ‘accidentally’ bumped into, had been about the length of my forearm. So strong. If he loses control...

  But I smiled coquettishly. ‘There is- and if you want to find out, you’d better agree to my terms, Captain Kingslater, before I rescind the offer. Take half off the money and invest it back into your Armada, and we’ll seal the deal with a kiss.’

  Cairo did not take his eyes off my mouth as he whispered brokenly: ‘You have your deal, you manipulative brat…’ he wet his own lips while I went limp with relief. ‘Though I can’t help but feel like I’ve been duped, and that this is your clever way of getting kissed without admitting that you want it as bad as I do.’

  I looked up into his eyes. ‘Does that upset you?’ I demanded softly as I wrapped my arms around his neck and willed the knots in my stomach to dissipate. ‘To know that I’ve been fantasising about your mouth on mine all winter?’

  ‘Oh sweet Jesus…’ Cairo groaned and moved one hand up to cup the back of my neck, and I knew that he was lost to himself. ‘How long do I get to kiss you for?’

  My wings coiled tightly, preparing themselves to burst free, but I was light-headed from arousal all the same. ‘Until it becomes something that we can’t handle,’ was my breathless return, and then the pirate captain was crushing his mouth against mine and I was holding onto him like a drowning woman.

  30.

  Libertie City, Raphael

  Larkin Aztaroth

  For so long as I’d feared that the chemistry between Cairo and I was completely dependant on the anticipation that kept it from becoming anything real, but as soon as his mouth slanted against mine, I knew that he and I were more than a little compatible. I could not compare the kiss to any that I’d had before because the circumstances and the man that I was kissing this time were completely different to the others, and the feel of his beard against my sensitive skin was strange and unfamiliar... but within seconds the movement of his lips against mine went from being tentative and exploratory to messy and desperate, and my emotions mimicked that raw beauty.

  I can’t handle him… I realised, my fingers twining through his hair as his curled into fists in mine. He’s not even a Nephilim and yet I feel completely overpowered!

  And I was. Cairo Kingslater was not a prince that had been raised to ‘woo’ a woman with a gentle touch and a polite approach, but a rule-breaking, lustful barbarian that took what he wanted when it occurred to him to want it without apologising after, and that was how he kissed me. He did not play with my face or stroke my hair and back the way Kohén had- he twisted me away from the ledge, backed me into the tower and slammed me up against the wall so hard that the entire thing shook, showering us with a coat of dust and crumbling stone. I groaned as the movement caused the bulge between his legs to press into the apex of my thighs and through my skirts, and although that changed the intention of the kiss, it ignited my body from the inside out with a blistering heat that must have raised my body temperature considerably because Cairo grunted and ran his hand down the back of my shoulders.

  ‘You’re so fucking hot,’ he gasped, before swirling his tongue around mine and squeezing my buttocks through my skirts before he hitched one of my knees around his waist, ‘and sweet.’ He slid his tongue against mine as he claimed my mouth again, massaging it so deeply that my sex spasmed in response. I wasn’t getting kissed- Cairo was fucking me with his mouth and I was more than willing to surrender myself to it because I hadn’t felt that alive in years. He tasted like wine- a perfect mix of sweet and bitter, and when he pulled his mouth back, softening the kiss somewhat, I mewled and kissed him back aggressively, taking advantage of the opportunity that every woman in Libertie would have gladly traded a limb for, by sliding my hands down his chest and to his stomach. I moaned
when I felt his prominent abdominal muscles fill the palms of my hands even through his linen shirt, and I probably would have started tearing off his buttons so that I could caress them more intimately, but Cairo chuckled then, making them tense in my hands.

  ‘It’s becoming something we can’t handle,’ he whispered hoarsely, lacing his gigantic fingers between mine and squeezing my hand in warning. ‘I want to respect your boundaries, your highness, but the feel of your hands on my skin is-’ he groaned when I slid my other hand under the tail of his shirt and caressed the chiselled ridges of his lower back.

  ‘Sorry… but you’re just so perfect...’ I whispered, parting his lips gently with my own and capturing his erotic sigh. I couldn’t believe how perfectly at ease I felt to be in his arms, and I supposed that was because for once, I had been the one to initiate the intimacy. Also, it didn’t hurt to know that if he went too far, my escape was only a flap of my wings away. ‘In every way.’

  ‘Stop!’ he pleaded. ‘I’ve never been this hard before in my life!’ he grasped my face and looked me square in the eye, panting when he asked: ‘Perhaps being aroused by me is a new experience for you, but I’ve been besotted with you since the moment I first saw you-’

  ‘So was I,’ I admitted, caressing his jaw. ‘Before we spoke, when I saw you in the mist…’ I smiled bashfully. ‘I thought you were God in those first few moments... did I ever tell you that?’

  ‘What?’ Cairo hissed, pulling back, grey eyes wide with shock.

  I nodded, giggling gently. ‘You were just standing there in the snow, and even though you didn’t know it, I was on my knees before you, gazing up at a being so divine that I thought you were heaven sent,’ I leaned in and kissed his lips gently before I whispered: ‘and now that I know that you are exactly that, I don’t see how I can be expected to fight my attraction to you anymore. I want you to take me back to my bed and-’

  ‘Larkin, stop.’ Cairo’s voice wasn’t angry or hostile, but it was cool enough to snap me out of my trance. He put me gently down on the floor and backed away, holding up his hands, and for a moment he looked so like Karol in those last few awful minutes in the tower that my stomach twisted. ‘I can’t hear these things, all right? You’re killing me.’

  I pressed my hand to my wildly hammering heart. ‘What things?’ my voice pitched somewhat shrilly. ‘You’ve been asking me for two years to say such things- to admit that I am falling for you! Was it a game? To bring Satan’s daughter to a heel-’

  ‘I love you, Larkin Aztaroth, and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hear that you feel the same!’ Cairo twisted away from me, raking his hands through his hair, and it was only then that I realised that I’d pulled it out of its ribbon so that it was hanging sexily around his shoulders. ‘But if you believe that I am like a God or a Saint or have anything in common with such entities, you are surely mistaken: both in your impressions of me, and of the feelings that they have evoked within you.’ He looked back at me, holding out his hands. ‘You are Satan’s daughter yes, but you are the kindest, most generous, fairest and humane soul that I have ever met. I mean, you’ve already been through hell and back- your soul is as pure as a newborn babe’s is!’ he rubbed at his face before he looked up at me, and when he did, I saw how exhausted he was. ‘But I am a pirate, Larkin. I have been good to you, but only because there was something in it for me, and we both know that. That’s not usually my way though, make no mistake of it. I have been cruel to others- vicious even- and I won’t hear that you are falling for me until you know that it is me you are actually falling for. Me with all of my sins and baggage and…’ he leaned back against the tower wall and kicked the trap door shut with a crack that made us both grimace, ‘my criminal history. Do you have any idea how quickly the old me would have slit your throat for that gold or the diamonds on your crown if you weren’t so goddamned kind and desirable?’

  I swallowed hard. ‘You’re a good man now, Cairo, and my kingdom’s treasures are safe in your hands. Everybody thinks so, and even if you have committed a few sins, I’m sure that you’ve atoned for them by now with all the good things you have done for us, yes?’

  Cairo scowled at me. ‘All you did was make love before you were married and tell a handful of white lies to save other people... and yet your father tells me that you practically imploded from the guilt that plagued you after. So how am I to expect that you’ll forgive me for the atrocities that I have committed, when I know that you couldn’t even forgive yourself for a few misdemeanours?’

  I arched an eyebrow. ‘I watched a girl get murdered by the twins and never told a soul. That’s a bit more than a misdemeanour, don’t you think?’

  Cairo met my challenging glare with a look of derision. ‘I slaughtered an entire family by myself, Larkin- in one night. And not only did I take a lot of pleasure in ending all seven lives, but I felt no remorse after- not then, and not even now, though I know that my soul has been stained forever by my actions.’

  Seven people? A whole family? I knew that I must have gone as white as a sheet because Cairo’s expression flattened out in defeat. ‘Wh-why did you do that? Were they pirates or-’

  ‘No, they were nobles from Janiel. My friends and neighbours… a family that I’d once hoped to marry into one day…’ He sat back on the squat brick edge behind him- the remnants of the opposite wall of the tower- and glowered at me. ‘They were Iana’s family, Larkin- and I killed almost every last one of them.’

  The sky was darkening, and the wind suddenly felt so cool that I inched to the right so that my back was against the very wall that Cairo had pinned me to just moments ago. I was shocked by Cairo’s revelation, but I was not as inclined to judge him for what he’d done as he’d obviously assumed that I would be, because I knew that he’d loved his Iana, and wouldn’t have hurt anyone that loved her without good cause.

  ‘What did they do to her?’ I asked softly, and something inside Cairo relaxed a little. I scratched at my jaw a little, and knew instantly that his facial hair had irritated my skin. ‘I must have all the facts.’

  Cairo crossed his arms across his chest and stared down into the safe with a pinched expression, and I knew that he was staring into his past. ‘I grew up believing that my aunt and uncle were my real parents, as did everybody in Janiel, and so I was treated like a noble child every day of my life. I had the best education, I went on wonderful trips, I got to rub elbows with other noble children...and at my side, always, was my neighbour, Iana Selimpor.’ He smiled gently. ‘She was the only girl my age in our entire neighbourhood, and so we grew to be the best of friends. She kissed me when we were four, and I told her that I would marry her when we were five. We told everyone, and no one doubted it. When they laughed, it was in fond agreement, because she and I were like two halves of a whole.’ My chest grew tight, because I’d had a bond like that with someone once- or so I’d thought. ‘When my father came for me, he pretended to be a wealthy benefactor. Everyone was told that I was being sent to New Rome for an advanced education, and because he was afraid of being exposed, I only had just under an hour to pack and accept the news. I ran out my window and told Iana and we wept, but there was nothing to be done about it. We were torn apart under the pretence that I would return soon, but it wasn’t until we were sailing away that Captain Kingslater admitted the truth; that I would never live in Janiel again: that I was an orphan from a pirate wench that he’d sneaked into Janiel. He claimed that she’d owed him a debt when she’d perished, and because it wasn’t uncommon for sailors to weasel spies in lawful society, he’d sneaked me in to be raised by his sister. I’d get to keep the name I’d been using for years: Cairo Fischer, and I’d even get to return to Janiel for visits so that I could serve his purposes- but first I needed to be made into a man.’

  ‘So that’s why you ended up being shipped from one colony to the other in various parts of the world?’ I asked.

  Cairo nodded. ‘My upbringing was harsh compared to that of Blue Collar
children because I worked all day long, but there were wonderful moments too. When I flip through my memories, I see that I have seen and done things that no one else has ever been lucky enough to experience, and I thank my father for giving me that life even if it came with a lot of hard work, even if some of the things that he did did not always sit well with me.’ He sighed. ‘But I never stopped longing for Iana. I was allowed to visit her three times over the course of the next seven years and every time I went I was scrubbed off, dressed up and sent back into Callielian society like a trophy of accomplishment. I’d grown taller and stronger than the others by twelve, could speak several languages, and so I was the envy of every other boy my age. My aunt and uncle were congratulated for seeing to my education so thoroughly, and Iana’s parents made it clear that as soon as I was old enough to settle down, they’d agree to a marriage between Iana and I. Not a joining- an actual marriage, and though Iana and I should have been a bit bewildered by that, we were not. We still loved one another, you see, and time had done nothing to diminish that.’ He smiled sadly. ‘She was so beautiful, Larkin. At first glance she was quiet and shy and well-mannered, and I always came across as being the outgoing one. But the truth was that she had a mischievous streak that was beyond compare. The craziest things we ever did together were her suggestion, and even at the age of six, she had me skipping class so that we could go on adventures. When we were caught I’d take the fall and be chastened about being a bad influence on sweet little Iana, but we weren’t caught very often because of her genius scheming.’ He was glowing so much that it was as though the last of the sunset was being channelled through him. ‘Her looks left me breathless too. Her hair was black and curly and thick, and her eyes were the lightest shade of violet…’ He looked up at me. ‘That was what first dropped me to my knees when I saw you, you know- your violet eyes. I’d never seen another pair that shade since I last saw her…’ he shrugged. ‘I figured it was a sign that we are destined to be together, and I still haven’t been convinced otherwise.’