Page 40 of Fall Love

Suddenly, Tate is everywhere. His chest against my back and his hand over mine, steadying the pole.

“If you weren’t pregnant, I’d just lift you up.”

“I’m not a child,” I snap, because he’s made me very aware that I’m a woman. The sunshine heat of Tate behind me. The pressure of his hand over mine.

He slides one hand down to my wrist while his other hand cups my hip.

“Here,” he whispers near my ear. “Gentle.”

He slows the motion of the stick that had been jostling in my lame grasp. With our joint control, the cage is in the correct position to catch the apple. I only need to⁠—

Tate runs his thumb up the inside of my wrist, as if taking my pulse. Can he feel it? How it hammers? How the blood is rushing inside my body?

With a tender hold on my wrist, he twists my arm just the slightest bit, and the apple pops off the tree, dropping into the basket.

“You did it,” he breathes, his breath tickling the side of my cheek.

I stare at that apple as we lower the stick together. Perfection in a fruit, blamed for the fall of humanity.

Tate lowers the stick until the basket is in my line of sight.

“First pick. You should take a bite of sweet victory.”

“I can’t do that.” I glance around like someone might see me take a bite of an apple before we’ve paid for the collection.

He shrugs. “People do it all the time. We’ll pick plenty more.”

Tempted, I reach into the basket and withdraw my first picked apple. The bite is sweet like he said, and the juice bursts in my mouth, seeping out the corners. I reach to swipe up the drool, but Tate is so close, and he’s quicker. He uses his thumb to catch the juice leaking from the corner of my lip.

Our eyes meet, especially as he draws his thumb across my lower lip. I stop chewing, just holding a hunk of apple between my teeth as we stare at one another.

He clears his throat, attempting to break the spell between us, and pulls back his hand. I slowly chew the remainder of the bite.

“Here.” I hold out the apple. “It was more of a team effort. You should take a bite as well.”

Tate stares down at the round fruit with a singular bite in it. I’m about to pull my hand back, suddenly feeling like Eve in that dangerous garden, tempting Adam to savor her pick.

Tate finally takes the apple from me and positions it in his hand so he can take a bite right over mine. His mouth covers where my teeth punctured the skin and scooped out a hunk of juicy goodness. His lips kissed the space mine did.

I watch as his teeth carve an even bigger hole in the fruit. His throat bobs as he chews. He meets my eyes once again.

“Delicious,” he hums around the chunk of apple in his mouth.

Forget the fall of mankind, my knees are suddenly weak from the way he’s looking at me. Chewing that bite that he took over mine, like he’s savoring every crunch and swallow. Like he just kissed me.

And I suddenly want him to do the real thing.

CHAPTER 15

[Tate]

We finish our time at the farm with hot cider, an apple donut, and a photo shoot on a tractor.

“I feel ridiculous,” Neve says when I pick her up by the hips and set her in the seat of a low tractor. The thing is ancient and painted bright blue.

“You look adorable.”

“I’m not a bunny,” she grouses.