by Tasha Black
“Oh, god, no,” Honey reassured him. “It’s just called that. Alcoholic drinks just have funny names sometimes. This one is juice and fruit and wine and grain alcohol.”
“I see,” Kitt said, sounding like he didn’t see at all. He didn’t put the drink down, but Honey was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be trying any more of it.
Which was probably for the best. With the sizzling heat between them, at least one of them should keep their head.
“So, you have two friends with you, right?” Nikki piping up with someone new was unusual.
Honey swallowed down a twinge of jealousy. It didn’t matter if Nikki was flirting. Kitt was not Honey’s boyfriend.
“Yes,” Kitt replied, “we are visiting from…” He trailed off and looked at Honey again.
Oh.
“They know, Kitt,” she told him. “It’s okay, they’re my friends - they’ll protect your secret.”
“Thank you, women,” he said sincerely to Addy and Nikki. He appeared to be completely at peace with the idea that they would not sell him out.
How could he trust them all so completely when they had just met?
Honey was beginning to see that being Kitt’s friend was a huge responsibility. She was almost afraid of learning too much, having too many secrets of his to keep.
Nikki, on the other hand, seemed to have no such qualms. “Why didn’t you bring your friends with you tonight?”
“Honey said that I could stop by,” he said. “She did not mention my brothers. It would be rude to bring uninvited guests when Honey has been so accommodating.”
Addy chuckled. “If you think she’s accommodating now, wait until the rest of that pitcher’s gone.”
Kitt looked confused.
Honey shot Addy a look and leaned forward. “I’m very sorry, Kitt. I should have invited you to bring your brothers.”
“That’s alright,” Kitt grinned. “I like having you all to myself.”
He had a dimple on one of his cheeks. She could see it through his five o’clock shadow - it was sexy as fuck and she felt herself gazing at him greedily, trying to memorize where the dimple was, the reddish flash in his dark hair, the perfect symmetry of those devilish gray eyes.
There was another knock on the screen door, a loud bang of a knock.
Then the door crashed open and another man let himself in.
Chapter 10
Wade Travers was walking alone again.
He hadn’t exactly intended to go on this particular walk, but his feet seemed to carry him out of his room, down the plush carpet of the main house hall and out onto the moonlit lawn of their own accord.
He strode past the pavilion where the fruity guitar instructor with the ponytail flirted with one of the lifeguards. Wade considered busting up their little party, but it wasn’t worth the bother when they were only talking. Maybe on his way back down he’d see some tits if he went over to scare them back to their cabins.
The pool lights were off, so the stars reflected in the lake beyond stood out against the darkness. Wade wondered carelessly if Honey would think walking by the lake was romantic. He’d do it if she wanted to, even if he got a couple of mosquito bites and the muddy bank ruined his Cole Haans.
But only if he was pretty sure he’d get some action afterward.
That was the problem with Honey McCarthy. She was not a reliable piece of ass. As a matter of fact, she had managed to avoid giving it up at all, in spite of Wade’s big-hearted attempts to romance her, including a trek off-campus to a nearby burger joint he loved.
But Honey was unmoved by his advances. She had even supposedly decided she didn’t want to date him.
An ordinary guy might have kicked the dirt and moved on.
But Wade was way too smart for that. He was rich, or at least he would be as soon as he had access to his trust fund. And he knew how women thought. He had even bought that sneaky, best-selling book about how to trick a man into proposing by pretending you didn’t care about him. And one of these days, he might even read it.
Honey wasn’t from a rich family, and she wasn’t smart enough to get rich on her own. Wade couldn’t blame her for being sly by trying to land a guy like himself. As a matter of fact, her low cunning had earned her his begrudging respect.
He had no intention of marrying her, of course. But with that strong, curvy body of hers he knew she’d be a fun lay for the summer. He always had one. And she would enjoy the perks that went along with dating a stakeholder’s kid.
As it turned out, Wade was learning that he liked a little challenge. So long as no other guys went sniffing around her, he’d give her a long leash. For now.
And no other guys would dare go sniffing around. Staff and guests weren’t allowed to fraternize. And staff members weren’t technically allowed to date, although that rule was never really enforced. But it didn’t matter. The male staff knew better than to get in the way of anything Wade Travers wanted.
He hummed a little tune to himself on his way up the hillside, stopping only when he got to the big staff cabins. He didn’t exactly want anyone to know that he was up here.
It wasn’t that he was a creepy stalker or anything like that. It was just that he worried about Honey up in the senior ladies staff cabin with only the two other girls. Their living room was a screened porch - anyone could get in there if they wanted.
So Wade liked to come up here some nights and keep a vigil. So far he had never got close enough to hear what they were talking about, but he liked the sound of their female voices and the sweet ripple of Honey’s laugh through the screen.
And if anyone ever came up here to give them any trouble, of course, he’d be right here, ready to protect her.
He reached the rhododendron bush that normally concealed him, and then slid his phone out of his pocket. He pulled up the camera and did that reverse pinch motion on the screen to zoom in.
He lifted the phone out of the bushes, without revealing himself. The cabin was lit inside, so he could often see the girls sitting around in their nighties. The one girl, Addy, never seemed to be out of her bathing suit, and the other one, Nikki, had a hot little teddy. Wade had thought more than once about having a quick fling with one or both of the others, just to make Honey jealous.
But tonight was not going to be a night for such pleasant schemes. Because what Wade saw in the camera frame made his blood boil.
There was a man in the cabin.
Chapter 11
Kitt sat on the sofa, balancing the strange beverage on his knee and trying not to sweep Honey up in his arms and spirit her away.
She wasn’t making it easy, the way she gazed into his eyes, and clenched her fingers on the sofa cushions, as if she were about to launch herself at him.
Suddenly someone was banging on the door, and it flew open violently, crashing against the wall.
Instinct kicked in and Kitt found himself standing between Honey and the open doorway in a heartbeat.
A big man with yellow colored hair stepped into the room. “What is this?” His booming voice sounded furious.
He and his brothers inhabited human bodies. But an unexpected side effect of the transformation had left them all with some gifts that allowed them to be more than any human could hope to be.
It was time for Kitt to use his.
A strange calm came over him as he allowed himself to alter his perception of time. He stretched the moment out in order to get a better idea of what was going on.
The man’s voice dropped lower as his movement slowed to a crawl.
Kitt felt Honey’s hand wrap slowly around his shoulder. Then she was gracefully swinging herself around his large frame, her hip sliding across his waist, coming to rest just in front of him.
Her hair was still rearranging itself after her landing when he heard her speak to the man.
“Wade,” she said, her voice stretched and deepened, “this is my cousin, Kitt.”
Kitt was prepared to take lethal action if he needed to.
> But the man stepped back reflexively at Honey’s words, his posture losing most of its threatening nature.
Kitt closed his eyes in relief and willed his own state of mind back into the pace that allowed him to interact with these creatures.
The scene sped up immediately.
“Is he here for a visit?” the man called Wade asked.
“He’s working as a waiter,” Honey said. “He and his brothers just arrived today. I thought I’d catch up with him earlier, but it’s been so busy.”
Wade smiled, his thick lips pulling back over large white teeth like he wanted to eat Honey. “That’s alright,” he said. “But staff members still aren’t allowed to fraternize, even if they are family.”
Fraternize was a curious word, it had the word for brother inside of it, which should mean that family members would be in greater danger of fraternizing than non-family members as far as Kitt could understand it.
Though they were not family members.
Honey had told a lie.
“Understood, Wade,” Honey said.
“Good, Honey,” Wade said in a tone that made Kitt want to punch him in the nose. “I won’t mention it to my father then, since you’d both be out of a job. But you’d better get out of here, kid.”
“Kitt,” he said politely, offering his hand.
“Whatever,” Wade said, not looking at him.
Wade wasn’t looking at Kitt because he was looking at Honey’s breasts.
“I will see you tomorrow,” Kitt said hopefully to Honey.
She turned and smiled at him. “Yes, of course.”
He left quietly, if begrudgingly, determined not to cause her further trouble with the son of her employer.
Even if he did seem like a colossal jerk.
Chapter 12
Honey fought the urge to talk to herself as she tidied up the living room after her friends had turned in for the night. She would not stoop so low as to grumble out loud about stupid Wade stupid Travers. He wasn’t worth it.
There were only a few mason jars and a small selection of the endless parade of towels and flip-flops Addy shed throughout the day like a molting snake.
Sometimes Honey wondered what Addy’s energy level would be like if she didn’t spend eight hours a day swimming. As things were, the poor girl was desperate to get in the water each morning and positively sloth-like by the time she came back to the cabin.
But at least in the water she’d been safe from Wade.
Honey rued the day she’d caught the big jerk’s eye.
She placed the mason jars in the kitchenette sink and ran warm water over them.
Not that bigness was a reason not to like him.
Kitt was big, enormous even, but somehow he wasn’t threatening at all.
As a matter of fact he’d moved so fast to protect her earlier, she would have sworn it was impossible.
A wave of gratitude washed over her.
Not many people ever stepped up to protect Honey McCarthy. She’d always had to take care of herself.
There was another tap at the door.
She dried her hands and approached tentatively. What was she supposed to do if it was Wade? She hadn’t thought to ask earlier what he was doing up by her cabin in the first place. What if he was stalking her?
But when she reached the door, the figure on the other side was not Wade.
“Honey,” Kitt whispered to her.
She grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him inside, turning off the lights in the living room as she did. If anyone was outside she didn’t want them seeing him in here.
Honey, what are you doing? You should send him back to his own cabin.
But Honey wasn’t listening to the little voice in her head just now.
“What are you doing here?” She whispered as quietly as she could and prayed her roommates were asleep.
“That man,” Kitt whispered back. “I didn’t care for the way he spoke to you.”
Honey froze, at a complete loss for words.
“He spoke to you, like he… owned you,” Kitt said carefully. “Like you were a thing, instead of a woman.”
A fire of recognition burned in Honey’s chest.
This man was from another planet, but he understood. Understood the ferocity that sizzled just beneath the surface of her skin, threatening to overwhelm her with the size of her resentment at being pushed around by men, pushed around by her mother’s string of boyfriends, pushed around by her inability to be good at anything except dancing - an activity that was supposed to be for pretty little girls who did what they were told.
“He doesn’t own me,” Honey said.
“No, he does not,” Kitt agreed.
He didn’t ask her any questions. And he didn’t try to kiss her, as the few men who fancied themselves her rescuers liked to do.
“We used to date,” she said. “Wade and I.”
“He was your boyfriend?” Kitt sounded incredulous.
“I didn’t know he was a massive jerk at the in the beginning,” Honey said, trying to whisper even more softly, though clearly no one was around. “It didn’t work out.”
“How is that possible?”
“Well, I realized he wasn’t a good person, and then I didn’t want to date him anymore,” she explained.
Kitt shook his head. “For my kind it is different.”
“That’s what Posey said in her note,” Honey mused. “You just sort of fall in love and then it’s forever, right?”
“Yes,” Kitt said, his gray eyes solemn.
“What if you make a mistake?” Honey heard the little quaver in her voice.
“I don’t think we can,” Kitt whispered.
Honey gazed up at his handsome face. He was so strong, so uncomplicated.
It would be easy to fall in love with him.
Of course he’s complicated. He only seems like he’s not because he’s new to Earth. Who knows what he was in his old form, on his own planet?
But the voice faded away and the world seemed to stand still as Kitt lifted his hand to caress Honey’s cheek for the second time that day.
“Thank you,” he whispered to her.
“For what?”
“Thank you for being my friend,” he whispered back. “Tomorrow you will meet my brothers.”
“Yes, that will be nice,” she replied.
“This is nice too,” he said, his hand still touching her cheek.
He wasn’t lifting an eyebrow or grinning crookedly. Everything about his voice and expression told her he was making an earnest observation. He found it nice to stand in the dark, whispering with her.
Honey smiled at him until her cheek lifted his fingers.
“Your smile brings me joy,” he sighed. “I wish that you wanted a mate.”
I do, I do, I do…
“It’s not that easy,” Honey said, placing a hand against his chest.
She was intending to pat him once on the chest and then turn, in a gesture of dismissal.
But his chest was so warm, so rich with the contour of his muscles and the steady beat of his heart…
There was a sound from Addy’s room, like a sleepy moan.
They both froze.
But the cabin was silent again.
“Birds mate for life,” Kitt leaned in to whisper in her ear, “and coyotes and termites, and golden eagles too.”
She felt her hand slide up over his shoulder and her whole body lean into him, as his breath tickled her ear.
“Humans mate for life,” he whispered. “Man’s young take many years to mature, and single status is lonely, for the human is a social creature given to sadness when alone.”
“I-I have friends,” she whispered back.
“I know this loneliness, Honey McCarthy,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Though I have only been human this short time, surrounded by my brothers and the kind workers at the observatory.”
“Do you mean… sexual frustration?” Honey almost cringed at t
he idea that she had brought up such a topic. But it was too easy to be honest when her conversation partner was so serious. And there was something about the darkness that made her bold.
“No,” he chuckled. “They were very eager to find outlets for my sex drive.”
Whoa.
“The scientists wanted to offer us freedom, Honey,” Kitt said. “They hoped to cement our humanity with sexual climax instead of love.”
“Did it work?”
“No,” he said sadly. “Though many women exerted themselves strenuously on the videos, not one pierced my soul.”
Oh.
“Oh, you don’t mean…,” Honey struggled for words. “You were supposed to take care of the climax yourself?”
“Yes,” he said. “It was pleasant. But not as pleasant as this moment.”
In Honey’s experience very few things were as pleasant or as unsettling as this odd conversation in a stranger’s arms.
“Will you ever long for a mate, Honey?”
“Maybe one day,” she allowed.
“Do you feel no urgency?”
Suddenly the drumbeat of her pulse was loud in her ears and Honey could feel every humid molecule of air, every swirl of his fingerprint against her cheek.
“You were born with one million eggs,” he whispered. “Each of them a perfect globe of potential, a planet of children inside of you, waiting, waiting for your mate.”
The movement of his lips against her hair was unbearably light.
She longed to press herself against him, kiss him fiercely, run her fingers through that coppery hair.
But it was surrender, and she knew it. She would ruin everything.
And this man was too good to ruin.
With a heavy heart, she forced herself to pull away.
“I need to get some rest,” she whispered, turning away from him and wondering at how the sweltering cabin felt cold when his arms were no longer around her.
“Honey,” he whispered. “I’m sorry if I have offended you.”
“You haven’t offended me,” she turned back to him, her best dance teacher smile plastered on her face. “Thank you for checking on me. You’re a good friend, Kitt.”