Some part of him that was closer to animal than man and ruled entirely by instinct told him not to drop his hand, to keep them connected. It wasn't the only part of Kyle that wanted to, but despite unintentionally lingering over the brush of their fingers as he secured the book in his grasp, he brought his hand back to him in a reluctant retreat. Of course he felt it, that instantaneous spark of connection that they shared through the Force and only magnified more intensely every time they came into direct, physical contact.
Kyle wasn't sure when it had started becoming more than that, but it was growing increasingly more difficult for him to deny even to himself that he didn't feel something else. Another spark, one that had nothing to do with the Force and everything to do with the way his skin seemed to come alive under her touch. A sensation that reminded him for the one hundredth time in recent months that he no longer felt repulsed by the idea of physical contact, and actually craved it, and was as much to do with their shared connection in the Force as it had to do with Freya herself, he was sure.
He couldn't even begin to sort out what it all meant, but luckily, Freya's reply distracted him entirely from his own thoughts.
Yes, you do.
Only momentarily panicked that she'd somehow sensed his most private thoughts despite how carefully he was guarding them, Kyle was still quick to recover as he rearranged his features in a more neutral expression while still regarding her with new interest. Something about her words had an effect on her even as he felt a small lump briefly lodging in the back of his own throat. She was doing that thing where she deliberately avoided eye contact for a moment to collect herself, that strategic push of hair away from her face also an act that Kyle had all but memorized by now without fully realizing it. If he wasn't mistaken her cheeks were almost pink, but not quite.
'Unfamiliar' was certainly the word for this, if no other. Nearly every step they'd taken together thus far had been completely unfamiliar waters to Kyle, and yet that had only seemed to draw him in further instead of distancing himself from her. Even now, standing in the middle of this bookstore and feeling more out of place than he could remember feeling in a long time, Kyle also felt strangely resistant to the idea of removing himself from the situation.
The war inside him over what he should do and what he wanted to do raged on.
Eyes catching on the movement of her blouse strap along bare skin, Kyle had to drag his eyes away from it, immediately returning them to the book now grasped firmly in his two hands. Months ago he might have been tempted to try and read her thoughts in order to solve the growing question marks behind her motivations for bestowing him with a gift like this, but in another shocking twist to the day's events, Kyle was preoccupied enough to be content with letting the mystery be. Freya was a riddle he didn't mind going unsolved today.
"If you say so," he replied after a pause, meeting her gaze and tilting his head thoughtfully in an echo of hers. He thought that Freya might have meant it, that his company today was somehow enough of a gift, as baffling a notion as that in itself was. Something still told him that wasn't all she meant. Maybe that was the Force nudging him within the tension that seemed to exist between the two of them. Or maybe it was the smile pulling at the edge of her lips.
He contemplated leaving it at that and making his exit, but still reluctant to leave her side, Kyle groped blindly for a reason to prolong their detachment for a little bit longer. "Can I walk you somewhere?"