Page 57

“Yes, well. You’re here, aren’t you?”

“I’m here.”

My breath caught. Those two simple words had speared me in the strangest way. Tenn’s eyes cast a white glow along the walls and ceiling of the tent.

“Alright. First thing I want to know. What the heck is going on with the white eyes? Why do they change colour?”

“That is… a representation of intensity.”

“Intensity?” I rolled onto my side to face him. Then, I raised my hand above his face. His eyes sent my hand’s shadow stretching across the tent.

“Intensity of feeling. And I’ll have you know, I had my eyes under very good control before you came along.”

“Is that an accusation?” I asked, wiggling my fingers and watching the shadows dance across the leather.

“Merely a statement of fact.”

“Hmm.” I let my hand drop. I almost let it fall directly on his chest, but at the last second drew it against my own body. “So you didn’t experience this sort of intensity before I got here?”

“No. I did not.”

Well that was… Interesting? I wasn’t sure I really had much more info than before.

“You can ask me something, if you want,” I said. “If there are any human customs you’re curious about. Or if there’s anything in the book you’re unsure about, now that you’re reading it.”

“There is one thing,” he said after a taut silence, “that I am curious about.”

“Oh?”

“It is not something I have questions about. I’m rather more curious about experiencing it.”

“What is it?” I asked, propping my head up on my elbow to better see his face. His eyes seemed to grow brighter as they turned my way.

“The human kiss thing.”

I just about fell off my own fucking elbow.

“You… You want to try kissing someone?”

“No. I don’t want to try the kiss thing with someone,” he said instantly. “I only want to try it with you.”

“O-Oh.”

Was it hot in here? And had the tent always been this freaking small? It seemed like every bit of space was filled with Tenn. His body, his presence, the intensity of those white eyes as they never left my face.

I had to say no. Right? For all my squawking about appropriate boundaries and agonizing over how close I’d gotten to him in my sleep last night. Oh, God, what if I’d be, like, corrupting him with my kiss? Zabrians didn’t seem to have any sort of kissing custom. It’d be like I was adulterating him with my perverted human lips.

But he wasn’t a child. He was likely even older than me – at least, I got that impression. And he’d been with a woman before, at least someone he’d been in a relationship with, if not in love with. What was one measly human kiss compared to that?

It would be fine.

Probably…

I mean, he’d asked for it! I was helpinghimout! He’d said he was curious. That was it. This was probably like a sterile science experiment to him. An interesting little slice of human experience he could file away in that big purple head of his.

“Tasha?”

“Alright. Deal.”