Genesis 3:6-7, KJV: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.
Warm, golden rays pierced the layered emerald leaves of the fragrant ylang-ylang tree as Eve sat beneath, watching Adam as he slept peacefully. He was tired from his daily walk, and she couldn't blame him.
But she was bored. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy watching her husband sleep; he was extremely attractive, with his dark brown hair falling to his shoulders, the tanned planes of his face, the long, curling eyelashes which Eve often told him looked exactly like a giraffe's. His body was well-muscled, tanned, and sprinkled with dark hair that thickened around his penis, which, in repose, was soft and relaxed. He looked content, happy.
Eve wished he would wake up.
Restless, she shifted his head from her thigh and gently rested it on the soft, mossy earth.
"I'll just take a short walk," she mused to herself as she pushed her body up. She plucked a yellow blossom from a branch and tucked it into her hair. "He'll never know I'm gone." She began to wander away from her husband, taking in the breathtaking beauty of her surroundings as she walked. The perfume of the ylang-ylang tree seemed to follow her. Her breasts swayed as she walked, matching the rhythm of her hips and the movement of her hair, which hung in dark, luxuriant waves all the way to the curve of her buttocks. Her feet touched lightly upon a path littered with soft moss and leaves, shaded by trees and vines and lit with dappled sunlight.
She heard the distant chatter of monkeys in the trees, and even further, the trumpeting call of the elephants. She laughed, a bright, ringing sound that was swiftly dampened by the surrounding jungle, when a lemur crossed her path, its tiny body rustling the underbrush. Another followed and louder rustling sounded as the two animals wrestled and played.
She passed a stand of Magnolia trees and breathed in their scent with a deep, satisfied sigh.
An orange tree appeared around a bend and she plucked an orange from it and tore it open with her nails, enjoying the lush sweetness of the pulp within. She passed lemons and limes, apples, pears and vines heavy with grapes.
She was in the process of skirting around the tree-that-had-no-name when she stopped abruptly in her tracks.
Standing before her was a man.
She had never seen any man but Adam here, and the shock nearly caused her to drop the fruit in her hand. The air around him seemed to shimmer and glow with a strange light that faded even as Eve noticed it.
This man was like Adam, but not. He was taller, perhaps more muscled, and his hair was deep black, as dark as nights with no stars or moon, as dark as the wood from the ebony tree. It flowed just past his shoulders in gleaming waves and curls. His eyes were piercing, an intense shade of green that Eve had seen only in the eyes of the jungle cats.
He moved with the ease of one too, and while she was hesitant to meet his gaze, his own eyes did not falter.
"Don't be afraid," he said calmly, while Eve stood attempting to gather her thoughts.
His voice comforted her immediately. It was smooth and deep, and reminded Eve of the sound of the streams as they traveled in their beds and moved smoothly around the rocks and plants in their way.
"Tell me, have you tasted the fruit of this tree?" he asked, moving towards the tree-that-had-no-name.
"No. Absolutely not," she replied firmly, taking one quick step back followed by another. "It is forbidden."
"Is it?" the man's mouth quirked up on one side and he casually reached out, snagged a bit of fruit with one hand and took a bite out of it before Eve could protest.
"You -! You aren't to eat that!"
"Oh? And why is that?" His teeth flashed white in his swarthy face as he took another bite. Juice glided from his lips to the neat triangle of hair beneath.
Eve wasn't quite sure how to answer. Adam had stressed to her that the tree was forbidden; to him, the fruit from the tree was poison, and while he had named all other plants and creatures in their garden, he had refused to name this one.
"Am I stricken dead?" the man asked, taking a third bite.
"No," Eve admitted, puzzled.
"Do I look ill?"
Eve examined him carefully. He didn't appear to be in anything but perfect health. "No."
"Do I look as if the fruit is bitter or unpleasant to the taste?"
"On the contrary, you appear to be enjoying it."
He snatched another from the tree and held it out to her with a smile. "Then why don't you try some?"
Eve studied the fruit in his hand. It was of a greenish-red skin with yellow pulp, and suddenly she felt she must have it. After all, there was nothing else around them that was forbidden to eat. She ate from the banana tree, the citrus trees, the apple and pear trees.
She took the fruit. It looked so innocent, so sweet and juicy and refreshing, and she was suddenly ravenous.
She bit into the fruit, piercing the thin skin with her sharp, white teeth. Her mouth was suddenly filled with the sweet pulp and she closed her eyes in rapture.
Deep laughter rang around her and she opened her eyes to see the man smiling at her.
"Delicious, isn't it?"
"Yes," she said in marvel. "It is wonderful. I only wonder why I never ate it before." She bit into the golden flesh again.
He shrugged and they stood watching one another enjoy the forbidden fruit through bold eyes.
She watched juice drip from his lips down his dimpled chin, and then follow the line of his neck. It dripped down his powerful chest and flat abdomen, ran down his forearms and dripped from his elbows, and still he ate. He took another fruit from the tree, then another, and handed Eve a second one.
