Forbidden Fruit

3.

The sounds of knocking tore Lilith from her frantic search. She had been so groggy until halfway through her shower, that she had forgotten exactly how she had come home the night before. But once it hit her, it went for the knockout. She had been on a date—a rather pleasant teasing date with a lovely young woman named Amber—and had gotten sidetracked from her goal of taking things slow by food that was so good it was orgasm-inducing. The night had picked up in intensity as her own arousal had aroused Amber. But before Lilith could act on it, she had encountered... Eve. Or actually no, it hadn't been Eve. It was the cook. The one who had been responsible for the food that had awakened more than just sensations in Lilith, but memories. It had caused Lilith to make a fool of herself by blurting out Eve's name. She had paid and bolted from the restaurant. Amber had gone with her and had tried to reignite her passion, but it was too late. One look at what seemed to be a reincarnation of Eve, and she was done. She had sent Amber home and then had teleported herself to her own bed. And her purse? Her wallet with all her IDs? Her phone with the numbers of not only her human acquaintances and coworkers, but also for the few greater beings who kept in touch? They were no where to be found. She wasn't even sure if she had grabbed any of them when she had run from her own embarrassment.
Now, someone was here and she hadn't found a single important thing. Still... she needed to answer the door. Not many people visited her, or rather, not many humans. That meant it was probably no one she wanted to see, and yet also no one she could afford to keep waiting. So she draped a silk sleeveless robe on so she was at least pretending to be a little modest, and sauntered over to the door.
"And what the hell do you..."
Lilith's voice died in her throat as she finally saw who it was standing at her door. The cook with Eve's appearance lost the smirk she had initially worn and instead let her face slacken with awe and desire as her eyes wandered over Lilith's barely covered naked body.
"Hi."
She was there. Lilith could barely understand it. The one person—or rather the only person other than Eve—that Lilith had wanted to see. And she was looking amazing. She was no longer in her chef's uniform. Now she was in a beautiful leather jacket, a Lady Death printed top that flaunted the familiarly enticing curves Lilith was always weak against, jeans so tight and form fitting that it was a form of torture for Lilith to see and not touch, and leather boots that rose to the middle of her perfect calves. Lilith couldn't help but mirror the cook's awed expression.
"Hel-hello... I... it's... y-you're he-here..."
Lilith closed her eyes in embarrassment, and felt the blush she had been suppressing flood its heat all over her body. It was impossible. It had to be a dream. The girl she could not stop thinking about just magically showed up at her front door? That couldn't be real, could it? But the pounding in her chest told her it was. The way she had just stumbled over all her words and nearly blurted an I love you in the middle.
Lilith was a complete and utter fucking mess over this woman.
"Y-yeah, I... uh... you left your purse and... well... you left all your stuff at the table, and you over paid by way too much to be excused as a tip."
The woman's voice surprised Lilith. She was used to people making all sorts of adorable mistakes and even being unable to keep from saying their thoughts unprovoked. Even Eve had been prone to get turned around. At least during their first few years in the garden. After, when Lilith found her trying to raise two beautiful boys while Adam was randomly gone, Eve had become more confident and capable. It had been Lilith's turn to be flustered and unable to speak clearly at first.
But this woman, with nearly everything about her physical presence screaming that she was Eve reborn, she only stuttered out of normal awkward sheepishness at the circumstances. She only hesitated in order to think over what she wanted to say. Otherwise she spoke clearly, confidently. It wasn't adorable, or cute. It didn't endear Lilith to the woman like listening to Amber had. It was far more than that. She found herself melting. Lilith didn't melt anymore. Or she hadn't, until last night. Until she ate food that tasted like Eve had cooked it. Food this woman had cooked. Lilith opened her eyes enough to gaze at this gorgeous person standing in front of her. She was holding Lilith's purse as though she was carrying a precious treasure. The sight pulled a chuckle from Lilith's lips.
"And you decided to track me down to return my lost baubles? How gallant."
The corners of the woman's absolutely kissable mouth twitched as though she was attempting not to let her smirk return. Her eyes flicked from Lilith's eyes to her mouth and Lilith caught a brief intake of air. She smiled. Even though the woman was more confident, it didn't mean she was unaffected. The woman was holding back. So Lilith dared to coax her to let go. She reached out and took her purse from the woman, one hand gripped the strap while the other accidentally wrapped tenderly around the woman's left wrist.
"And what reward do you seek, my knight in cool black leather?"
Lilith felt the woman shudder through the contact and a beautiful blush blossomed in her cheeks.
"Evangeline."
"Hmm?"
The woman slipped her hand out of Lilith's grasp and levelled a determined expression at her that somehow made Lilith's pulse quicken.
"My name. It's Evangeline Jones."
It was clear she was trying to make some point, but Lilith wasn't sure what it could be. All that mattered was that she now knew the woman's name. Evangeline Jones. Not Eve. It sparked something that had been dormant in her for longer than she thought possible. Lilith couldn't help but catch her breath.
"What a beautiful name! Mine is—"
"Lilith Saint-Sade."
Lilith blinked. She had forgotten that she had chosen that as her last name. And somehow, Evangeline had learned it between last night and this morning. Or there was just the slightest chance...
"You've heard of me?"
Evangeline shook her head and waved a hand towards the hand that still held Lilith's purse.
"It was on your license."
Lilith raised an eyebrow in a way that was half question/half warning. Evangeline had snooped. She had gone through her things. So what else did the woman find? Lilith was tempted to search her purse for anything that might have been dangerous for any human to know, but then Evangeline gave a nervous chuckle and raised her hands in surrender.
"I was looking for a way to find you."
"And you succeeded."
"Yeah..."
That fact—that one innocuous bit of information—felt strangely significant to Lilith. As though something told her it was supposed to have been impossible. Like they were never supposed to meet. Like He didn't want Lilith to ever interact with Evangeline. Lilith blinked back that thought and instead focused on the fact that it had happened. Evangeline was here at her home. Lilith smiled, basking in how wonderful it was to get to look at this gorgeous woman. Evangeline smiled back at Lilith with such blatant desire dancing in her eyes that Lilith broke. She couldn't hold herself back anymore. She grabbed Evangeline by the lapel of her leather jacket, and pulled her—gently—past the threshold before shutting the door.
        When she turned, Lilith saw Evangeline glancing around the place. It had been so long since she had anyone new over that for a moment she just stared. Then seeing her now, Lilith was surprised by how Evangeline looked. Even though she looked exactly like Eve, Evangeline was vastly different. Eve didn't move like this, didn't have the same feeling of self-assuredness without Lilith helping her come out of her shell, didn't smirk with the same type of flirtatiousness that seemed never far from Evangeline's mouth. And now Evangeline was staring at her art. The art that she poured every feeling she ever hidden into creating. Sapphic and vulnerable and empowering.
        "So it's not just your phone screen."
        Lilith's heart stopped.
        "What?"
        She moved further into the open living space to find Evangeline with her jacket off, revealing muscular shoulders with the hints of tattoos snaking around her neck and into the racerback of her top. There were other bits of tantalising art inked into Evangeline's flesh. It seemed to enhance her figure and bring out aspects of her personality that Lilith wanted to explore. Last night, Lilith had hidden her own tattoos with her clothes and makeup. She was proud of her self designed tattoos, but they could be a little much for the first date unless it was going to be a hookup. Because tattoos—at least to her—were perfect to draw people's intrigue and interest. However they tended to get distracted by how they flowed on her body and forgot that they might actually mean something.
        And then she saw the art that Evangeline was staring at.
       Her.
       The self portrait she had created with coaching from a few of her friends from Japan. Her first attempt at melding her style with that of mangakas, and—in her professional opinion—it showed. Her self portrait was lacking in her eyes. There were other portraits of her that those same friends had done, and each one brought tears to her eyes by how much they captured her in different ways. Her version was... strictly erotic. It begged the viewer to stare at the naked and messy vision of a woman in the throws of getting herself off. And Evangeline was right. It was her phone's background. Or the incomplete version was. The one without her tattoos present to further tantalise the image. But...
       "How did you know it was on my phone?"
       Evangeline spun, revealing her wide eyes and just how much that blush had deepened. But that had been her reaction to the final piece. It took a second, but Lilith was rewarded for her patience with the morphing expression. Evangeline went from clearly impressed and turned on to absolutely mortified and embarrassed.
       "I kinda... opened your phone to use the maps app to find my way here. That's all I did though. I left everything else untouched... well... I saw the notifications but I didn't go through them or anything. I promise."
        Lilith sighed. So this is what it took to actually fluster the woman. She had to show Evangeline something that would make anyone else become a gibbering fool, and then she had to hint that maybe Evangeline had done something wrong. If it had been Eve—like when He delivered His judgement and unfair punishment on her for what Adam accused her of doing—she would have been in tears. Which was why Lilith never played the manipulative accusation games with her. Which was why she hadn't meant to imply it now. But Evangeline had merely looked regretful and embarrassed. She hadn't broken like Eve would. She just had that annoyingly inflexible self morals. She expected herself to be above reproach but didn't seem to think she was. Over something as minor to Lilith as opening her purposely never locked phone. True, Lilith had never really expected anyone to touch her phone and there were a number of contacts that reached out who Lilith preferred not to let anywhere near any human. But she also didn't want to hide if she ever did get a partner again.
         "Did you like the one on my phone better, or the final piece you were just gawking at? And please, don't worry about my phone. You could have looked at everything on it for all I'd care, though if you did I'd hope you'd tell me so I might explain it."
         "Oh...um...okay. What do you mean by explain it?"
         Lilith was tempted to just ignore answering or getting her question answered. To rush over, throw herself into Evangeline's surprisingly well defined arms, and let the woman make a mess of her—something she hadn't been interested ever expressly wanted. Oh, she did enjoy mutual messes and even being the only one to receive if that was what her partner wanted, but she had never been the one to actually desire to be the mess. Not even with Eve. So this impulse fantasy startled her out of herself. She quickly attempted to pull herself together and decided that she wanted to see how far she could push this woman. How close they could actually get.
         "I'm not sure you're ready to find out. And besides you haven't answered my question. I asked first after all."
         Evangeline gave her a considering look. And even though she knew it wasn't Eve—knew that she absolutely shouldn't let her guard down for any woman quite yet—Lilith felt herself relax and almost drop all of her very reasonably constructed walls. Even her body seemed to relax—shifting her out of her eras-practiced perfect posture—and she suddenly remembered that she was wearing only her sleeveless robe and not actual clothes. For the first time in her life, Lilith felt a little underdressed for facing off with the literal woman of her dreams. And yet she also wanted them both to be wearing a lot less. Thankfully Evangeline rescued her from spiralling further.
        "Are the tattoos in this one accurate?"
        The considering look had twisted into something daring, and more flirtatious than Lilith had thought possible. She was challenging Lilith. Daring her to reveal the truth that the art might not be fantastical. Daring Lilith to open herself for attack. Or maybe to take off her robe and have Evangeline compare for herself.
        Lilith blushed and attempted to readjust her posture back into her perfect confidence that had slipped under the woman's gaze. She did not need to be imagining these things, even if she was used to entertaining such thoughts in any other situation. This was different. It felt different. Evangeline felt different from any of the women she had been interested in. Lilith had been looking for something more than what she had with anyone else since Eve, and she felt like Evangeline deserved to be given the chance to prove it could actually happen. That she could be that person. So she couldn't give in to her impulse for sexual gratification. She had to open herself emotionally, not just her thighs this time.
        "They were, until I added a few new pieces as the years went on. The picture on my phone screen was taken before I added the tattoos to the final piece. I might add the new ones in at some point."
         Evangeline's eyes widened.
        "You did this?!"
        "I made nearly every piece of art in the entire place. The ones I didn't have plaques to give proper credit."
         Lilith watched as Evangeline turned to gaze at all the art in the space, and ending once more on the self portrait of Lilith on the verge of an orgasm that had actually ripped a good cry out of her.
         "Fuck!"
         She laughed—and damn, how long had it been since she laughed like this—as her own memory seemed to sync up with the present as Evangeline let out the same word she had.
         "Thank you. Now, would you like something to drink?"
        As she asked the question, she adjusted the way she stood so one leg poked out of the robe. Even if she wasn't going to bed the woman, Lilith was going to flirt her ass off. Evangeline certainly noticed the shift in stance—as evidenced by the raised eyebrows—but she pursed her lips, clearly preventing herself from smiling. Like she didn't believe she could trust Lilith's words.
        "Are you sure you want to ask me?"
        Lilith blinked and crooked her head. The way Evangeline had spoken made her skin prickle. There was a strange implication that she wasn't sure she understood.
        "Who else would I ask?"
        At that, Evangeline stared at her. It felt like she was trying to see through her. Like she was looking for a lie. It made Lilith extremely uncomfortable and self-conscious. So she shifted.
        "You know what? Forget the drinks. How about you let me get dressed and I'll take you out for lunch."
         Evangeline's stare tightened, but she remained silent.
         "Please, Evangeline. There's no one else I want to ask."
         Only then did she see the woman relax. Evangeline let out a sigh before fixing Lilith with another somewhat serious look.
          "Fine, but it's not a date. And call me Eva."
           Lilith's heart clenched. She wasn't sure what had soured the amazing chemistry that had been between them, but at least she was going to spend more time with Eva. That had to count for something. Didn't it?
            She offered Eva a simple nod in response and quickly headed for her bedroom. It wasn't a date... that was fine, but Lilith could still do her absolute best to look perfect for Eva. She pulled off her robe as she entered her closet. She ignored all of her gowns and skirts and outfits that she normally wore to seduce or draw the eye or flaunt her figure. None of them were right for this. None were practical and said I'm not just trying to find a warm body, I want to give this a real shot right out the gate enough for her liking.
           Instead she went over to the two sections that had nothing to do with her sexual or romantic lives. Her artist outfits and her riding gear. These. These felt right. They were not about using her body as a shield for her heart. Sure some of her riding outfits made her look amazing, but not in the same way as the others. The art clothes were completely messed up and tended to be ill-fitting. But she didn't want her usual things. She wanted to show Eva more of her. So she grabbed a sporty bodysuit to act as underwear, a pair of cargo pants that were reinforced to protect from road rash and tearing, and one of her extra large canvas painting tees. The overall effect made her look... human. She knew that just hiding her body didn't turn her "ugly" —gods, she hated that such a word was ever invented and wielded against people who just didn't fit the temporary social idea of beauty—but at least it made it harder for her to lean into the comfortable seduction tactics she had used for... had there been a time when she didn't try to sexually entice the people she was interested in? She was a little concerned that she didn't know the answer.
        Instead, she walked into her bedroom and found her phone. She wanted to tell Kazrathel about Evangeline and get their thoughts on how she should approach the Eve look-a-like situation. And then she opened her phone and saw the notifications. Lucifer was still being a whiny daddy's boy. Amber was certainly persistent. She seemed to have definitely been interested, and kept going on and on...
        Lilith froze. Eva had seen this? So then...
        Suddenly the woman's reluctance and her strange insistence on if she was who Lilith was actually want made a lot more—horrible—sense. Lilith was still shocked she had told Amber that Eve had died. But this? Eva learning about her identical appearance to Eve via the drunk text of a possessive and lusty first date? That was a nightmare. One she had to fix, right now. Thankfully she was nearly dressed. She threw on a pair of calf length biker babe boots with visible steel toes, grabbed her phone and wallet, and rushed out to the living space.
        "Eva, there's something you need to—"
        Her voice died in her throat as she found Lucifer standing in the middle of the space, looking like a handsome middle aged human about ten years older than her or so, wearing a tailored charcoal and ivory suit with pearl accents, and giving her that same brown nosing grin that was filled with undeserved condescension. Eva was sitting in one of Lilith's wingback reading chairs, looking confused and more than a little nervous. Her eyes flitting from Lucifer to Lilith as if trying to figure out which one she should trust. Which one she should be afraid of.
         "You should really know better by now, Lil. You can't just do whatever you want and ignore Father like that."
         "Luc..."
         Lilith let her exasperation turn his nickname into a sigh, and then promptly ignored him. She had a guest. A guest who ranked higher in her priorities than Eva knew. And certainly higher than once more beating the shit out of His favourite little sycophantic son.
       "Eva, ready to go?"
      To her credit, Eva seemed to relax slightly when she heard Lilith talking to her. She nodded and started to stand. Of course, Lucifer then move to block Lilith's path.
      "Don't ignore me, whore."
      Finally, Lilith looked towards the man who tricked Cain into killing his brother. The one who got one of his demons to help Adam blame Eve for breaking an arbitrary rule. The one who took everything from her because his daddy told him to.
      "Luc, shut up. You know damn well that I've never listened to you or your precious Father since the day I first started breathing. Why would I start doing either now? If you want something, text me and wait for me to respond. That's how that works."
       She made to slip past him and join Eva, who was already near the front door. Lilith was just grabbing her jacket, keys, gloves, and helmet when suddenly she had her back slammed against the wall and Lucifer's hand wrapped tightly around her throat.
       "You should listen to your betters, little girl. You remember what happened the last time you got in our way."
       "If you don't take your hand off her right the fuck now, I promise you'll lose it."
       Lucifer froze at the sound of Eva's voice. If she wasn't being messed with by the most annoying little dick with a self sabotaging streak, Lilith would probably have been tempted to beg the woman to fuck her right there. But unfortunately they weren't alone, and she was really trying to do this right. She glanced at Eva and realised just then that the woman had pulled a knife—not a small one either—and held it as though ready to take Lucifer's arm in one slice. Holy fuck, was it hot to see this side of Eva. Still... bad. Lilith had to deescalate this situation.
       "Eva, it's alright. Luc here is just leaving."
       After a moment where all she did was stare at Lilith like a disappointed cat, Eva removed her knife from the equation. Lilith turned her gaze onto Lucifer expectantly. He glowered and tightened his grip. That was met with the raising of a single perfect eyebrow. They stood like that for what felt like hours, until finally Lucifer let her go and whined.
       "Fine... but Father won't be pleased."
       "Then you better go soothe His ego, I know you're good at that. Had a lot of practice by now."
        Lucifer seethed at the innuendo Lilith made sure to make obvious by twisting her voice, but he didn't say another word. He didn't try to kill her, or hit her. He didn't touch either of them at all. He just huffed angrily for a while and then left. Leaving Lilith standing there—heart racing— staring at Eva. She hadn't expected the woman to leap to her defence like that. It was... fuck, it was a huge turn on she hadn't ever realised she had. She knew that she needed to be good and focus on building an actual relationship or at least a friendship with this woman, but all she wanted to do right then was pull Eva close and kiss her. And from the way Eva was glancing towards her mouth, Lilith suspected that at least part of Eva felt the same way.