SIN and HONEY: Seven Years of Longing

Chapter 35: Rachel

Rachel had bathed in the pitch-black night using water from the well before wrapping herself in a wool blanket and stepping back inside, her wet hair curled to the side of her neck in one spiral. Jacob sat up in the mat, a hint of a smile on his lips. She devoured him with her eyes: his sculpted chest, the thick curve of his shoulders, his lean forearms with strong veins that she could see, even in the soft lamplight.

"Come here," he said, calling her to him.

Rachel didn't walk over to him so much as she was drawn in by the invisible coil of his desire for her. She reached the sleeping mat and suddenly became unsure of what to do, what to say, or how to thank him for loving her in a way she wasn't sure she deserved.

Luckily, Jacob already had ideas. His hand reached out and, through the blanket, encircled the once-forbidden curves of her hips. His hands tickled as they swept across her damp skin. The tips of her hair rained little droplets of water on his chest. He looked up at her, his eyes roaming her flesh, and suddenly she was conscious of her bony hips, the birthmark on her chest, just above her breasts—all of the flaws their separateness had protected him from.

"Are you shy, now, wife?" Rachel flushed deep red and hoped he couldn't see. He tilted his head back down and parted the ends of the blanket so his lips could kiss her bare stomach. Rachel's breath caught at the lure of his lips on her skin. Finally.

"No more torturing me with a single glance or a peek at your tempting flesh?"

Rachel fought to find words through the growing haze of desire. "I don't know what—"

He smiled again, standing and taking the edges of the blanket from her hands. He discarded it to the side of the mat and cupped her cheek, leaning down to kiss her. It wasn't a kiss of anticipation, but of fulfillment. His mouth was hot and hungry, more demanding—and Rachel wanted to give in. If only, after so much dreaming, she knew how.

"Did you like that?" he whispered, and she nodded, her lips still singing. "How about this?"

Jacob tilted her head back and kissed her neck, pulling her naked body toward him so she could feel his warmth. She nodded again, as he led her down to the mat and laid her out atop the sheets.

"Have no fear," Jacob said between kisses, traveling down her damp body led by his lips. He kissed her ribcage, gripping her thigh so firmly she thought it might bruise. Rachel gasped, her hips tilting upwards toward his warmth. "I'm sure we will find the temptress in you again."

Tingling all over, Rachel arched her back as Jacob's lips found her ribcage. "Do you like being kissed here?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Rachel said, then laughing when he tickled her. "But I don't like being tickled!"

"Good, we've found something you don't like. Now I can cross it off the list," Jacob said, his hands running up and down her thighs before sliding up her body and circling her breasts. "As for me, I like this."

Rachel bit her lip. "What else do you like?" she asked, staring down at him as he kneeled by her side.

"Let me show you," he said, lowering himself farther, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. "And then you can tell me if you like it as well."

When his lips touched her, it eclipsed all her senses at once; her body went completely numb except where his lips and tongue were exploring her. Only when his hand gripped her thigh tighter did she cry out, but not in pain. When his other hand reached up to tease her nipples, she clawed at the sheets and gasped, both thrusting toward him and pulling away at the same time. The pleasure was so intense.

Jacob looked up. "Do you like that?"

"Yes!" Rachel exclaimed, before nervously lowering her head back to the pillow.

"Don't be ashamed," Jacob said, sitting up and removing his robe before crawling back up her body. "Didn't you know? Before you are married, it's the woman's job to tease the man. And after you are married ..."

Rachel laughed, enjoying how it felt to have his body on top of hers. "Then I suppose I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

Jacob kissed her, and Rachel felt desire pooling between her legs once more. "No more trouble than you put me through these last seven years. Come here."

She would never be the same obedient Rachel that she was before, but that night she learned one thing: when her husband said come, she came.

****

The following morning, after Jacob kissed her sweetly before heading into the fields, Rachel began her day with Leah by her side.

It started the same way it always did, with a few hidden differences if one looked closely enough: Leah braided her hair tight behind the nape of her neck and Rachel rubbed cassia oil into her skin, protecting it from the hot, dry sun. At breakfast, Rachel noticed how Leah and Levi risked brushing their fingertips as they reached for the same carafe, and how their matching rings—Levi's symbolic, an oath of fidelity to Leah—sparkled in the morning sun.

Rachel slowly lost her fear of learning something new, and Leah taught her about the bees and how to coax the sweetness from their hives. They worked with the bees in the mornings and many in the camp gossiped when the four of them were nowhere to be seen for long stretches of time. Now, Leah and Rachel preferred to spend their evenings with Levi and Jacob sitting on the floor of Levi's tent, bottling honey in clay jars—sealing them tight, like their secret life.

Sometimes people whispered when they walked by. They all knew the truth but kept their words to themselves, careful not to upset Jacob's leadership and generosity. When Leah had her first child and he was blonde and fair, not dark like her husband, rumors knit together the pieces of their story that those new to the camp tried to discover. As new babies were born and the elders died, the story was whispered less and less.

But the women remembered. Leah and Rachel had stopped calling them The Birds, for sooner or later they themselves would become those older, wiser sages passing down the lessons their mothers taught them—about courage and sacrifice, longing and regret. But to protect their secret from being known to a new generation, when Amit died and Mirah took her place, she started to spin a different tale. Over time, only the love story of Jacob and Rachel, the trickery of their father, and the price Leah paid remained.

Once, there was a beautiful girl gathering water from the well, Mirah whispered to groups of gathering children over the years. She fell in love, but had to wait seven long years to marry the man she desired.

Leah and Rachel would smile, their faces cast in shadows from the evening fires. Yes, the dream went something like that.

But the truth was theirs alone.

                                                                                    *****

Well, that's the end of SIN AND HONEY: SEVEN YEARS OF LONGING! *sniffle* I hope you all enjoyed it. If you are so inclined, a review on Amazon would be much appreciated: http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Years-Longing-HONEY-novella-ebook/dp/B00ZASNWQG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 

But, this is only the BEGINNING of the SIN AND HONEY series. There will be 6 books in total, ALL of them available as e-books on the major websites (Amazon, B&N, iBooks...) for $2.99. 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Betrayal-SIN-HONEY-novella-ebook/dp/B00ZB2P7VY/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1435754003&sr=1-2

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-touch-of-betrayal/id1004008868?mt=11