Free A Kiss For a Cure by Sidney Bristol

channeled whenever she handled her sharks.
    As Zeus approached, she fanned her hands out as big as they would go and gently kicked, rising in the water. Zeus angled for her, his mouth opening and closing, showing her row upon row of razor-sharp teeth. Reaching out, she grasped his snout and lifted it away from the reef bed. Slowly, Zeus rose until he was upright in the water and completely immobile.
    Her breath hitched. Between her two hands she could count the number of times she’d successfully induced tonic immobility on her sharks.
    Withdrawing her hands, she gently backstroked in the water. On a smaller breed of shark, the hypnotized state could last for up to fifteen minutes. But a shark the size of Zeus wouldn’t be out for more than a few moments.
    Waving at Cai, she gestured for him to head for the Center. She waited until he’d gotten a head start, before kicking off.
    When she glanced behind her, Zeus was nowhere to be seen.
     
     
     

 
    Chapter 7
     
    Cai scraped his hair back and tied it out of his face. The preparations for dinner were done, but he didn’t want to start cooking without Jordan. Experiencing her world yesterday, sharing the most important part of her life, solidified his desire to be part of it. She might not love him now, but given enough time he knew he could win her over. But time wasn’t on his side.
    She’d spent a big chunk of the day in the lab working with the data she’d gathered from the sharks and waiting for his serum to finish. The idea that an injection could take the place of a real person was appalling, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her. She wanted to help, but not in the way he needed.
    He needed to show her.
    They’d managed to unpack most of her belongings. It surprised him that as the daughter of affluent nobility, she owned little. A dining table was one of the things she lacked. Cai created one by stacking plastos and laying the lid of the largest container over the makeshift table legs. They’d have to sit on the ground, but with a sheet thrown over the top, it wasn’t half bad.
    Behind him, the doors whooshed open.
    “I’ve got it.” She waved her hand at him, clenched in it was something small and white.
    He straightened from arranging the table. “What is it?”
    She stopped short, staring at the table as if it were the first she’d ever seen. “What are you doing?”
    “Setting the table.”
    “Oh.” Her brows drew down into a line.
    “What did you come up with?” He gestured to a spring-loaded syringe. The kind used for emergency injections.
    She held out her hand, grinning. “It synthesized. I tested it twice and got the same results. This could be your answer.”
    He didn’t want to crush her excitement, but he couldn’t see how this solution was anything but a temporary fix. One he didn’t need with her in his life. This serum violated the things he held dear, his way of life.
    “Aren’t you excited?” Her smile transformed her face. She was beautiful when she smiled. He’d give anything to keep it there.
    He spoke slowly, trying to couch his feelings in words that would not hurt her. “It’s a lot to take in. Much of who my people are is our dependence on feedback. Our culture is built around celebrating it. Giving that up is…strange.”
    “But don’t you want independence?”
    He closed the distance between them and grasped her shoulders. “Do you want rid of me that badly?”
    Her head jerked back. “That’s not what I said.”
    The fabric between them dampened his awareness of her, but not enough he couldn’t pick up on the flutter of nerves.
    “I know. But it’s, difficult, for me to think like you do.” He smiled to soften his words. He plucked the syringe from her palm and examined at the clear liquid inside. It was an innocent gesture. A solution, in dire circumstances, could save his people. “It’s safe?”
    She cleared her throat. “There’s always a margin for error without extensive