“What, because I’m all regulations and reprimands?”
“Because it tastes like someone still remembers how to care about something.”
I pause. The silence stretches between us, heavy with meaning I didn’t ask for.
“You always say stuff like that?”
Kaz shrugs. “Only when I mean it.”
We sit like that for a few minutes. The sun is hot, the porch paint drying in slow glistening waves. Our knees are inches apart. The wood beneath us creaks with every breath. A breeze dances through my hair and I feel it—feelhim—too close and yet not close enough.
“So what’s the story with you, Starling?” he asks softly. “You’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“The one people get when they’ve seen too much and still keep showing up.”
I want to laugh. Or tell him to shut up. But he says it without judgment, and it feels like he sees me—not the rank, not the file,me.
“I don’t have a story,” I say, lying.
“Sure you do. Everyone here does. Why else would we fly?”
“To get away,” I whisper.
He nods like he understands. “Or to chase something we lost.”
We don’t talk for a while after that. Just sip lemonade and pretend we’re not two disasters waiting to happen.
His hand brushes mine on the stairs.
I should move it.
I don’t.
His fingers shift, intertwining.
And suddenly, it’s like the air gets sucked out of the world. My heart lurches, breath shallow. Every nerve is tuned to him, to the heat of his skin, the way he watches me like I’m the only thing keeping him grounded.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” he says.
“You shouldn’t.”
“I know.”
But I don’t stop him.
When his mouth finds mine, it’s not tentative. It’s a surge, a desperate, hungry thing that devours sense and structure. I taste lemons, sweat, sunlight, and something sharp that’s only ever been Kaz.
His hands find my waist. Mine go to his shoulders. We’re locked, pressed together, and I forget everything—the Academy, the rules, the line I’m not supposed to cross.
Until I feel it. The soft tug at my back.
The clasp of my bra gives.
I break the kiss like a shot, shoving him back with one hand.
“No.”
