TKSterling
A scientist on a mission meets a New Zealand ex-pat who's made the mountains his home. They end up together when a medical emergency forces her to hire the only guide available. Together, they'll search for a legendary healing spring that ancient traders protected for centuries. What they find will change everything.
Mara doesn't want a Western adventure-bro leading her to the most important discovery of her career. But from their first conversation over tea, Teo proves he's nothing like she expected: fluent in multiple languages, steeped in local culture, and surprisingly well-read in Chinese philosophy.
Caught between cultures her whole life, Mara has learned to trust the I Ching, the ancient oracle that's guided her since her mother's death. The coins keep pointing her toward Teo, toward patience, toward something she can't quite name yet. And as they trek deeper into jade country, trading stories and vulnerabilities, she begins to understand: some discoveries aren't about what you find, but who you find it with.
Teo thought he'd left his past behind in New Zealand. But this brilliant, stubborn researcher who scrunches her nose when she thinks and argues with him about routes is making him reconsider what home means.
When they finally discover the spring-and its impossible bioluminescent ecosystem with genuine healing properties-they'll need to decide: How do you protect something miraculous? How do you bridge ancient wisdom and modern science? A slow-burn romance about finding your place, your people, and your purpose in the space between cultures. For readers who love: intelligent characters, cross-cultural romance, adventure with substance, spirituality woven with science, and relationships that develop through genuine connection rather than forced proximity.