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I picked my way through the crowded Coruscant market place and tried to keep Poe in my line of sight so I didn’t get lost. This was my first time on the ground, fetching information for General Organa, and I was so nervous, my stomach was in knots.
Meanwhile, Poe was wandering from stall to stall, taking his own sweet time, damn him, sampling bits of food here and there as he browsed.
“How can you possibly eat right now?” I said.
Poe picked up a skewer full of meat that sizzled and dripped with spicy oil. He shrugged.
“Easy. Our contact isn’t due for another hour.” He peeled off a piece of meat and offered it to me. “Got plenty of time to enjoy the sights and try some of the local cuisine.”
I shook my head. “No thanks.”
Poe waved the skewer at me. “You didn’t eat anything at breakfast either. If you’re not careful, you’ll make yourself sick.”
He started poking around the next stall filled with sunset orange fruits, shaped like eggs. I stepped in beside him and lowered my voice.
“Shouldn’t we be heading to the rendezvous point at least?”
“Why? It’s only a fifteen minute walk from here.”
“Our contact may show early.”
Poe picked up two of the fruits and addressed the vendor – a thin Twi’lek man – in a language I didn’t recognize. After some brief haggling, Poe flashed his smoothest, most charming smile and the vendor dropped two of the fruits into his waiting palm. Now that his hands were full between meat and fruits, I hoped that would keep him moving for a little while.
“What are those things?” I said, nodding at the fruits.
“Spotmelons.” He tossed one to me and I caught it. He broke his own melon open and the interior was smooth and peach-pink.
“I’m not hungry,” I said, attempting to push it back to him.
“You will be later. Keep it. I come out here for these alone sometimes. They’re worth the trip.”
I took a tentative sniff at the spotmelon – sweet as cantaloupe with a hint of honey and strawberries.
“You come all this way just for food?” I said, stowing the melon in my jacket pocket.
He shrugged. “Why not? It’s good food. Take advantage of it while you can.” Poe bit into his own melon, closing his eyes and making an obscene sucking noise. He swiped at the juice dripping down his chin with the back of his hand. “And our contact won’t show early.”
I crossed my arms. “You know that for sure?”
“Nope. Just a hunch. Most contacts like to put this stuff off to the last minute.” He hesitated, studying the doubt on my face, and finished off the last of the spotmelon in another bite. “But,” he added around the mouthful. “If it’ll make you feel better, I guess we could start moving in that direction.”
“Thank you.”
After only a few feet though, I realized Poe wasn’t following behind me. I turned to see that he’d stopped at another display of food, his hand pressed to the top of a clear display case.
“Come here,” he said, waving me over without looking away from whatever had his attention.
“Poe,” I sighed in exasperation.
“I know, I know. No more than two or three minutes tops. Just take a look at this.”
I clenched my teeth and dragged myself to his side reluctantly.
A selection of sweets were exhibited beneath a transparent case as if they were jewels. Each piece of confection glistened with sugar crystals fat as dew drops, sculpted to look like flowers, planets, moons, even tiny space ships.
“I promise,” Poe said. “You’ve never tasted anything better than a handcrafted Coruscant confection in your entire life, no matter what part of the galaxy you’ve traveled to.”
Fingers tugged at my sleeve. A petite older Falleen woman with green skin was smiling sweetly at me as she pressed a piece of candy into my hand.
“For you,” she said, her Falleen accent strong and thick. “A gift.”
I glanced down at the candy, wrapped in gold and white lacy paper.
“What is it?” I said.
“Kith mint,” she chirped, pleased, then ducked into the back of the stall and out of sight.
I pulled the wrapper off to find a small white candy inside with an intricate pattern of yellow swirled all around it like vines. I still wasn’t really hungry, but Poe was so enamored with the treats that I couldn’t help a tug at the thread of curiosity in my mind.
“What’s a kith mint?” I muttered.
Poe raised his head. And just as I popped the mint into my mouth, he said, “You don’t want to eat that.”
Burning heat raged in my mouth as soon as the mint came in contact with my tongue. My eyes went wide and I spat it back out.
“Why didn’t you warn me?” I said.
Even though the mint was in the dirt now, my entire body was sweating and my face was flushed.
“I did warn you,” Poe said.
“After it was already in my mouth! That doesn’t count! Damage done!” I panted against the relentless heat that only seemed to get hotter and hotter. “Just find me water. Quickly.”
“Won’t do any good.”
I bit back a growl of frustration. “Ice then. Liquid. Anything!”
“Still won’t help.”
“Poe!” I fanned my face with both hands, tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m sorry!” Poe spread his hands, helpless. “How was I supposed to know you’d go around eating kiss mints?”
“What…” I gasped. “…the…kriff is a kiss mint and why does it feel like my face is on fire?”
“When you eat it, someone kisses you to make the heat go away. Then all you taste is really sweet apple or apricots or chocolate, whatever. Depends on the kind of mint you get.”
A flare of panic mingled with desperation in my chest. “So just…grab someone off the street and kiss them?”
I turned, fully prepared to make good on this plan when Poe caught my elbow.
“Doesn’t work like that. You have to be interested in the person, like a significant other or a crush. It creates a hormonal, chemical reaction or something.”
I whined in discomfort. “And if I don’t have anyone?”
Poe shifted with a wince of sympathy. “The heat wears off after a few hours.”
My whine turned into a shriek. “A few hours!?”
“I think.”
My shriek shattered into a tiny, strangled squeak. “There’s nothing I can do? Nothing at all?”
Poe grimaced. “Not that I know of. Sorry.”
I bent over my knees, gulping for air. Poe placed a comforting hand on my back.
“There’s really no one who could…” He floundered. “You know…help?”
I swallowed a sob of agony. “No one.”
A pause.
“Poe?” I continued in a pained voice.
“Right here.”
“Why is it getting harder to breathe?”
“Stand up.” Poe’s hands were on my shoulders, guiding my posture to straighten out. “Let air get into your lungs.”
As I fully stood, Poe cupped my face in his hands, stepped forward and kissed me. The moment his tongue slid into my mouth, a rush of soothing coolness eased the unbearable heat from before. I whimpered and clutched a fistful of Poe’s shirt, yanked him closer as I melted against him, pliant with relief.
I opened my mouth to him, allowing his tongue to sweep over mine. I let out a small, pleased sound as Poe’s hand drifted to my lower back. He pulled my hips flush against his and that small pleased sound turned to a sinful moan in my throat. Peppermint and vanilla exploded in my mouth and the only heat left was from Poe’s tongue, slick and warm and so perfect.
I broke away far enough to draw in a shuddering breath, lips still hovering above Poe’s mouth. His fingers curled around the back of my neck, thumb nestled beneath my ear. He gently tilted my head up to look him in the eye.
“Better?” he said, searching my face.
“Stars, yes.”
I swayed further into him and my forehead dropped to his shoulder.
“You knew that would work, didn’t you?” I said, muffled against the side of his neck.
“Not really,” he replied. “I was pretty sure you’d slap me but at least that would distract you for a minute or two.”
The Falleen woman returned, looking far too pleased with herself as she held out a tray, filled to brimming with kiss mints in a rainbow of colors. Poe roamed the selection then picked a mint covered in a livid red wrapper.
“Are you sure you want to…?” But I didn’t get to finish.
The mint had already disappeared into Poe’s mouth. A crimson flush crept up his neck and his eyes watered.
“I should make you suffer,” I said as I placed my hands on either side of his face, stroking his cheekbones with my thumbs.
“That…” Poe coughed, wheezed. “That would be mean.”
“How long have you wanted to kiss me?”
“Months.”
Sweat turned Poe’s curls damp and sticky against his forehead.
“And you never said anything?” I asked.
“I didn’t…kriffing hell…didn’t think you’d be interested. Come on,” he pleaded, soft and hoarse. “Help me out here.”
“In a minute.”
Poe groaned, closed his eyes and leaned forward into my hands.
“You have to be honest with me first,” I added.
“Anything.”
“Did you plan this?”
Poe hesitated. “Not…exactly. Well, I mean, I was the one who was supposed to eat the mint, not you. I thought…” He broke off, tugging the collar of his shirt open by three buttons, revealing the hollow of his sweat-slick throat. “I thought if I had the mint, you’d take pity on me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Am I taking pity on you now?”
“Babe,” he rasped. “Please?”
I squinted at him, considering, then let my hands drop from his face. I hooked two fingers into his belt and pulled him closer.
It was even better to kiss him the second time, to hear the utterly filthy sigh of relief he let out when my tongue pushed into his mouth and my own lips felt the warmth of cinnamon candy. I kept kissing him, plundering his mouth, until there wasn’t a trace of cinnamon left and all I tasted was Poe.
He broke away with the breath of a laugh, tucking me under one arm, close against his chest, as he spoke in a low voice to the Falleen woman. She passed over an assortment of the mints, tied up with a pink ribbon in a black velvet bag.
“You don’t need those to get me to kiss you, Poe,” I said. “You could have just asked.”
He glanced down at me. “Really? You would’ve…wanted to?”
I nodded, heat blossoming across my face that had nothing to do with kiss mints.
“I think I’ll still bring them along anyway,” he said, smiling against my hair.
“Why? They’re awful.”
“Just in case you change your mind.”
Poe fished out another mint, unwrapped it, and before I could bat it away, it was in his mouth. I caught his face in my hands.
“You can’t have that whole bag in one sitting,” I mumbled against his lips.
He grinned. “Watch me.”