Chapter Text
Some forbidden things have a scent—like doors you know you shouldn’t open.
Even before touching the handle, you just know. You’re not meant to step inside.
Nova couldn’t take her eyes off the grey walls. Cold, silent, and void of words, the meeting room was suffocating everyone inside. Across the table sat Colonel Caleb Xia. Not a single wrinkle marked his uniform. The medals on his chest, the insignia on his shoulder—silent reflections of a past etched with honor.
But Nova wasn’t looking at the medals. She was scanning his face.
Hard. Unbreakable. And sinful in how tempting it was.
Nova cleared her throat.
“I can’t overlook the orders you’ve violated,” she said, voice tense but steady. “I’ll have to report this, regardless of your rank, Colonel.”
Caleb raised his head. His gaze was heavy. There was no anger in his eyes. No regret either. Only… a quietly burning fire. And in that moment, Nova understood what she was dealing with.
“Commander Mornn,” Caleb said, voice low, velvet, and edged with threat. “I didn’t break the rules. I broke through the lies behind them.”
Nova’s fingers clenched the edge of the table. If Caleb kept talking like this… she’d be complicit too. But in a different way. A more personal. More intimate.
And more sinful way.
“This isn’t about your version of the truth,” she said. “You disobeyed fleet regulations. I gave you direct orders.”
Caleb leaned in slightly. He was now speaking over the table, and there were only inches between them.
“What if the rules are wrong, Commander?”
Nova went breathless for a moment. Because Caleb’s voice didn’t just land in her ears—it echoed in the depth of her being. Because his gaze wasn’t one meant for a superior officer… It was the look a man gives a woman. One that seeped beneath her skin and unbalanced everything she thought was stable.
Nova stood up.
“This interrogation is over,” she said sharply. “Return to your post, Colonel.”
But Caleb didn’t move. He watched her, silent. And something pierced through the silence: desire.
At that moment, Nova saw herself like a reflection in glass—disciplined, strong, fearless… and trembling on the inside. Because in Caleb’s eyes, she saw something she’d long buried.
And worse—she had it too.
It was a forbidden desire. Nameless, denied, yet swelling with every brush of contact.
Finally, Caleb stood. He slowly walked around the table. Nova didn’t back away. They stood face to face. Their breaths nearly touched. The line between them wasn’t just rank, or ethics, or duty. It was more.
“You’re pushing me away because you’re afraid of yourself,” Caleb said. “And you’re right to be. Because we… we’re standing on the edge of a cliff we were never meant to fall from.”
Nova said nothing. She couldn’t. Because there was only one sentence burning at the edge of her lips:
“Kiss me.”
But if she said it, there’d be no going back. Everything—her career, the legacy of her father, the command she’d fought to earn—would be shattered.
Caleb leaned in just a bit more. His lips brushed her cheek—but didn’t quite touch. And yet, it felt like he had. He caressed her with his eyes. Stayed silent. Then whispered in her ear:
“If you think I’ll really stop when you tell me ‘no’... then you never truly knew me, Nova.”
Then he turned and walked away.
But what lingered wasn’t just the sound of his footsteps. It was something deeper, echoing in the room, in her body, in her soul:
the touch of sin.
---
One Week Later
They met again on a dark evening, behind the training grounds, in an abandoned hangar. It wasn’t official. It wasn’t coincidence either.
Nova knew he’d be there that night. Because Caleb hadn’t stopped. Every glance, every point of contact, he asked her the same silent question:
“Do you really not want this?”
And every time, Nova lied.
That night, something electric filled the air. She stood behind Caleb.
“Why did you call me here?” she asked. But she already knew the answer.
Caleb didn’t turn. “I didn’t. But you came.”
“I came because—” Nova paused. Her words collapsed mid-sentence.
Caleb turned and caught her. One hand slipped behind her neck, the other around her waist.
“Because you wanted me to hold you like this,” he said in a low voice.
Nova held her breath.
“Because, like everything forbidden… I tempt you. And you like it, Nova.”
A kiss fell—right on the line they weren’t supposed to cross.
It wasn’t just a momentary brush. It was a kiss that defied orders, burned every rule, and turned every vow into ash.
Their breaths tangled. Their hands caught fire. And in that moment, everything they’d sworn to protect unraveled.
Nova shut her eyes. Because if she opened them, she’d have to face one thing:
her own desire.
Caleb’s voice echoed in her ear:
“This isn’t just a mistake, Nova. This… is a fall. And we collided at the bottom of it.”
---
That night, nothing remained the same.
Because they hadn’t just touched the forbidden fruit.
They’d bitten into it—together.
And that bite marked a beginning with no return.
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