Nothing happens.
Fifteen minutes later, he lifts the fruit to his mouth and touches it to his lower lip.
The sunset deepens around us. My stomach cramps again, and the smell of the fruit is everywhere, coating my tongue, making it hard to think about anything except how hungry I am.
Fifteen minutes later, he places a small piece on his tongue, and we wait again.
The light fades, birds call in the trees, the spring bubbles nearby, and Jade’s breathing from where Logan’s holding her is shallow, rapid, and wrong.
Finally, Kieran swallows.
“No bitterness, burning, or numbness.” He takes another bite, larger this time, even though protocol says you’re supposed to wait eight hours before eating more. He takes another, andanother, and when the fruit’s finished, he picks one from the tree and holds it out to me. “It’s safe.”
My stomach clenches so hard my vision spots.
“You need to eat,” he says, coaxing me now. “You’re running on nothing.”
He’s right. But we need to give it more time before knowing if the fruit’s safe or not. We should get water from the spring first, since that’s the most important thing we need to survive. And according to the texts, abundance in these waters is always a trap, and?—
Kieran steps closer. His heat burns through my scanning like a flare in the dark, and his fingers curl around the fruit’s golden flesh, juice dripping slow and thick down his wrist. A drop slides along the inside of his forearm, tracing the path where the tattoo of the anatomical heart sits beneath his pushed-up sleeve, and the way he’s looking at me makes me want to fall into his arms and never leave.
“Open your mouth.”
The command is quiet and low. His eyes drop to my mouth and stay there, dark and heavy-lidded, and my core temperature spikes so fast my own scanning registers it.
My lips part without conscious permission.
“That’s it,” he says, closer now, softer than I’ve ever heard him. “Good girl.”
The words hit me low in my stomach, my scanning whiting out for a full second before stuttering back to life. And then he’s raising the fruit to my lips, and the flesh is soft and warm, the smell filling my head until I can’t think about anything else.
“Bite,” he says, and I do.
The taste explodes across my tongue, and my eyes flutter closed as a soft moan escapes me. The juice is honey and sunshine, and it spreads through my body like warmth, light,and every good thing I’ve ever felt condensed into a single moment.
The thermal map I’ve relied on my entire life vanishes in a heartbeat, and in its place there’s just unfiltered, unmeasured sensation. Kieran’s heat is against my skin with no numbers or data attached to it, and all I have left is the feeling of him, warm and real in a way my scanning’s never let me experience.
When I open my eyes, he’s watching me as if he’s forgotten every rule he’s ever followed.
“More?” His thumb traces my lower lip, the touch sending another rush of warmth through my body.
I nod, unable to speak as he raises the fruit again, and then I’m taking another bite and another, the sweetness filling me until there’s no room left for anything else.
The last of the sunset paints his face in gold and amber. The green of his eyes is luminous now, and he’s looking at me like I’m the only person in the world who matters.
“Better?” He reaches for my hand, his fingers lacing through mine like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Yes,” I say, and it comes out soft and dreamy. “I feel…”
I feel everything and nothing. I feel his pulse through his fingertips, and the heat of his palm against mine, and none of it comes with measurements or baselines or data points. For the first time in my life, I can feel without thinking, and it’s more peaceful than I’ve ever imagined.
“I know.” His thumb strokes patterns on my skin that leave tingling trails in their wake. “I feel it too.”
The others have faded into background noise. The birds in the trees, the bubbling of the spring… none of it’s important compared to the solid reality of Kieran Cross standing in front of me, touching me and looking at me like he’s finally stopped fighting the pull between us.
“We should...” I try and fail to remember what we should do. I always have a list, but the place in my brain where the list lives is empty, and I don’t miss it in the slightest.
“Later.” He steps closer, closing the last few inches between us, and the heat of his body against mine makes everything else disappear. “Right now, I just want to be here, with you.”