Someone as strong as Gideon shouldn't kiss with this much care, the gentleness in it at odds with everything Harrow always expected the other girl to be--everything she'd been until they were forced together at Canaan House, until the layers of themselves started to fall away. Harrow's breath shivers in the wake of that soft, hesitant touch of Gideon's lips to hers, her eyes still tightly closed.

They stay that way even as she presses forward, kissing Gideon again more firmly, with just a little more purpose.