by Tasha Black
Two guys went up to give an Aikido demonstration and Honey found herself zoning out a bit.
All she could think of was Kitt. She was glad they were in the front of the room, because if she’d been anywhere that she could see him without turning around, she knew that she would have been staring. As it was, she fought her instinct to swivel around in her chair and look for him.
He’s just another stupid guy.
Nikki got up next, along with a guy from the audience. They talked about the theatre program for a few minutes, then acted out a really funny scene from some Neil Simon play or other.
The guy went and sat down. Then Nikki spoke for a moment about the program.
“I do private monologue coaching sessions, of course,” she said. “And in our fun group classes, you’ll perform scenes from Neil Simon, Noel Coward, Wendy Wasserstein, Elomere Claudel…”
Nikki’s face turned white.
“Oh,” she said, looking straight at Honey.
Honey looked behind herself, wondering what Nikki was freaking out about. But no one was behind her.
She turned back to Nikki and gave her a questioning look.
“Um, Elomere Claudel, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and more,” Nikki finished. “So be sure to check us out.”
There was light applause and Nikki dashed back to her seat.
“Honey,” Nikki whispered to her. “What exactly did Kitt say to Violet?”
“Um, I don’t know, something about how they always talked about the weather and her mother, and how he wanted to talk about them,” Honey said.
“Did he say this? Every morning I meet you here, every morning you smile at me with your kind eyes. Every morning I’m here by your side, talking with you about the weather and your health and your mother, and all I want to talk about is us.”
“Um, yeah,” Honey said. “Wow.”
“It’s from a play,” Nikki hissed.
“What?”
“It’s from a play, a play by Elomere Claudel,” she said. “Violet signed up for one of my theatre classes. We don’t start until next week, but that’s one of like fifty plays they can choose scenes from to work on. I think your alien was only helping her memorize—”
“Honey McCarthy,” Debra Stine said loudly into the microphone.
“Oh god,” Honey said, getting up.
All she wanted to do was explore the idea Nikki had just brought up. Hope glimmered in her heart that maybe Kitt had meant what he said when he told her that he loved her.
She thought “We were just rehearsing a play” was something cheating jerks said on bad sitcoms, not something that actually happened.
But, apparently, she had been wrong.
Kitt really was just a nice guy trying to help someone.
And she had ruined everything by rejecting him so soundly last night.
And now she had to get on the stage and speak.
Publicly…
For five full minutes…
Honey was good at a lot of things, but speaking wasn’t one of them, especially in front of a group like this one. She had planned to say a few quick words and then dance. That was how all the head dance instructors had always done it at Maxwell’s. It was the best way to encourage guests to sign up for classes.
And she’d been so convinced she would dance that she hadn’t put together a presentation. Not that she was likely to be able to present one anyway, she would trip over her words as she always did when presenting in class.
She was basically guaranteed to get fired today.
Honey stepped onto the stage and looked out into the enormous room.
“Hi there,” she said. “I’m Honey McCarthy. I’m the dance teacher.”
The audience stared at her soundlessly.
To save her life, she could not think of one additional thing to say.
“I’m going to do a dance demonstration for you,” she said. “I teach partner dancing, but today I’ll dance the woman’s part myself, so you… so you can see… um…”
There was a small commotion in the audience.
“Excuse me,” said a deep voice. “Pardon me.”
“My apologies for being late, Honey,” Kitt said loudly as he bounded onto the stage with her.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“No one makes you dance alone,” he whispered back.
Some kind soul in the booth hit the lights before she had time to argue.
Kitt took her in his arms and the music began.
The moment their feet started moving, Honey felt confidence bubbling up in her chest again. Speaking in public was terrifying. But dancing in public felt natural to her.
And Kitt…
Well, Kitt had been dancing a technically perfect tango yesterday. But today he seemed to have transcended the steps and entered the soul of the dance. His fierce bravado was almost palpable.
It suddenly occurred to Honey that Kitt wasn’t dancing for fun, or to help her.
He was dancing to win her.
And he was doing it as if his life depended on it.
She caught her breath as he dipped her, so low to the ground she could feel her hair sweep the stage.
His gray eyes burned into hers.
Could she continue to resist him?
Did she even want to anymore?
He spun her around, her skirt was flying and there were murmurs of admiration from the audience.
“You’re mine, Honey,” Kitt whispered.
“I’m no good for you,” she whispered back.
He dipped her low again, his jaw rippling with tension.
“You’re everything for me,” he whispered. “And you need me too. I’m the only one who can break your curse.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You said every man you date goes crazy,” he said. “I find that hard to believe. But even if it were true, I’m not a man.”
She tried and failed to hide her smile.
“Besides,” he continued, his gray eyes flashing. “I have no interest in dating you.”
“You don’t?”
“I’m going to marry you,” he said firmly, and lifted her over his head.
The audience went wild.
Honey could only be glad the music was too loud for them to have heard the conversation.
Kitt lowered her to the ground and then bowed deeply several times.
A few staff members stood to applaud and he bowed again, even deeper. He was really chewing the scenery.
Honey laughed. She was glad the stage agreed with him. He was a fantastic dancer.
She found herself wondering vaguely if he might like to open a dance school with her.
“That was our five minutes,” she shouted over the applause. “Be sure to sign up for classes and private or couples lessons at the studio.”
They left the stage and sat together at the table with Nikki and Addy.
“Holy crap,” Addy mouthed to Honey from across the table.
Nikki patted her knee.
Kitt still held her hand in his. She wondered if he would ever let go. She sort of hoped not.
He smiled down at her and gave her hand a squeeze.
The rest of the room seemed to fade away.
Chapter 29
Kitt held Honey’s hand tightly. He hadn’t let her go since they’d left the stage. He wished he never had to again.
But now the evening was winding down.
At least for Kitt and Honey it was. For everyone else it was utter mayhem.
The drinks were flowing and the staff and guests were still dancing.
Addy was at the table, having some sort of drinking contest with Remington, they appeared to be drinking carbonated soda pop. A group of their fellow waiters cheered from the sidelines as Remington downed a glass in a single gulp, with tears in his eyes.
In the corner, Indiana swayed with Nikki in his arms.
This was good. All would be well with them if he and his brothers mated
with these three women who were already like a pack. They could help each other, and be like a family.
Kitt looked down at Honey. She was chatting with yet another person who wanted dancing lessons. He was pleased that tonight had been a success for her. She might become very prosperous if so many people wanted her to teach them.
There was an expression of soft wonder in her face that he liked to see. Honey so often looked worried. Tonight she looked like she felt… lucky.
Finally, the last of her admirers wandered off.
“Wow,” she said, smiling up at him.
“Do you want to stay and dance, or… whatever they are doing?” Kitt indicated Addy and Remington.
“Oh, god, no,” Honey laughed. “I’m exhausted. But the staff will be here partying all night long. Did you want to stay?”
“No, I’d like to get out of this crowd,” Kitt told her. “Can I take you home?”
She looked up at him thoughtfully. Then she seemed to make up her mind about something.
“No,” she said. “There’s someplace else I’d like to go.”
“I’ll take you wherever you’d like,” he assured her.
“Good,” she said. “Let me say good-bye to my friends.”
He watched as she wound her way gracefully through the crowd to whisper into Addy’s ear.
Someone touched his arm, and he turned to see his friend, Violet.
“Hey, Kitt,” she said. “Thanks again for helping me.”
“It is my pleasure to be of assistance,” he told her solemnly.
“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Violet said. “But my husband is in for the weekend and he’s going to help me finish up learning the scene, so there’s no need for us to meet up tomorrow.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Kitt said. “Was it terrible to be separated from your husband for so many days?”
Violet laughed for a minute, leaving him more confused than before. Then she patted him on the shoulder and headed into the crowd.
When Kitt turned back to see where Honey was, he found her right behind him. And she was smiling.
“So you were just helping her with the play,” Honey said.
“Of course,” Kitt replied, taking her hand and leading her to the door.
“I didn’t know that,” Honey said.
“Oh,” Kitt replied, wondering why she had mentioned it.
“I saw you with her in the pavilion,” Honey explained as they stepped out into the night air.
Kitt enjoyed the feel of the cool mist in his lungs. He longed to freeze the scene and examine it from every angle, but he was too interested in what Honey was saying.
“Violet is a gifted actor, isn’t she?” He was pleased that his mate took an interest in the talents of his friend. But there was something else about the way Honey was speaking, a note of relief in her voice that he couldn’t piece together with the situation.
“Yes,” Honey said. “I guess you are both gifted actors. I heard what you were saying to each other and I thought… I thought…”
The truth of what Honey must have thought landed on Kitt and he stopped mid-stride, thunderstruck.
“You thought that I was attracted to Violet,” he said.
She nodded, looking a little miserable.
“But you knew I wanted you for my mate,” he protested.
“But I heard you say you wanted to be with her,” Honey told him.
And so she had.
This business of being human was complicated. Kitt wasn’t sure he would ever be clever enough to anticipate and avoid the many blunders he might enact.
No wonder she had thought he was going crazy.
“Malik, my employer, he told me to do anything to help the guests,” he said. “So I was helping her with her lines. But I did not think about what anyone listening might assume.”
“It’s okay, Kitt,” Honey said, walking on. “I should have asked you.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
She was quiet a moment.
“Honey,” he said. “You don’t really believe that you’re cursed, do you?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Sometimes it feels like I am.”
They had nearly reached the staff commons cabin on the hillside above the bank when the soft rain began to fall.
They climbed the wooden stairs in silence.
At last they reached the screened room overlooking the lake. The sun had long ago disappeared behind the mountain. But the moon and stars peaked through the wispy clouds, doubling in the mirror-like surface of the inky lake.
“Beautiful,” Honey said, looking down at the lake.
“Yes,” Kitt said, looking at Honey.
She turned to him, and her eyes were filled with hope. “Kitt, I don’t know what’s going to happen if we get together,” she began.
“Honey,” he said. “I told you, you don’t have to worry about any curse with me. I have chosen you. You will accept me, we will mate, and we will marry. There will be no dating.”
“Kitt,” we just met, she protested.
But something in her voice told him she was arguing because she thought she should. But she didn’t actually think she should hold off, not really.
Kitt had danced with her. He knew her heart.
So he knelt before her and asked her again.
“Honey McCarthy, I choose you as my mate. Will you accept me?”
“Dance with me first?”
Chapter 30
Honey McCarthy was dancing naked in the staff commons cabin at midnight.
But this time it wasn’t a dream.
Kitt had watched her remove her clothing, his gray eyes flashing with barely restrained emotion.
Now that her dance had begun, she knew it would be only a few moments before he joined her.
The cool air kissed her bare breasts and swirled around her moving body.
The only sounds were the call of the cicadas and the light rain outside, and her own breathing.
Honey heard the music with her body, like a passionate violin, accompanying her as she danced away the last of her fears and the final measures of her solitude.
Then Kitt was with her.
It was incredible to think that he had not been born into this body. He moved like he had trained all his life in Honey’s own style of modern ballet.
He lifted her high above his head, and lowered her slowly again.
“I accept you, Kitt,” she whispered in his ear on the way down. “I will be your mate.”
He smiled into her hair.
“I will spend my life bringing you pleasure,” he said gruffly. “We are one.”
Then Honey felt something come unhinged.
One moment they were talking and whispering.
The next it was as if the world had frozen.
Fireflies hung motionless in the air outside the screened room. Raindrops stopped in mid-fall, sparkling like diamonds. The flame of the candle on the table paused in its endless dance.
The sound of the cicadas had become a tone rather than a chirp.
She blinked, and looked around.
“Honey,” Kitt breathed.
“Did you… did you take me with you?”
“I think you’ve assimilated my gift,” he said slowly. “My brothers in Stargazer warned me of the possibility.”
“This is incredible,” she said.
He pulled her close in a hug so hard she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to breathe.
“Kitt, are you okay?”
“I’ve always been alone in the in-between time,” he told her, letting go enough to be able to gaze into her eyes. “I’m so glad I can share this with you.”
She went up on her toes to kiss him, and then they were dancing again, swaying as he ran his hands over her hips squeezing and molding her curves, as if he wanted to be sure of her.
She slid a hand up his muscular chest to cradle his face. His jaw was rough, but she could feel the delicate muscles inside working as
he kissed her.
There was such desperate hunger between them, and also such sweetness.
Kitt lifted her in his arms again and Honey felt her entire body melting and softening for him. She was his now, she was ready to accept him in every way.
When he slid her down again she molded herself to him, wrapping her legs around his waist.
The evidence of his need was stiff between them. He was so large that she was almost frightened, in spite of the ravenous pull of need in her own core.
“Kitt,” she whispered.
“Honey, I need you,” he whispered back.
“Yes,” she told him. “Yes, yes, yes…”
He carried her over to the picnic table, grabbed the candle and blew out the frozen flame.
Honey laughed.
Kitt lowered her to the table, so that she was seated on the edge. Then he let go of her to peel his t-shirt off.
Once again the beauty of his masculine form overwhelmed Honey. Kitt was all muscles and golden tan.
He put one hand next to her hip and leaned down to slide off his jeans and shorts.
Honey tried to remember how to breathe. His nearness was doing things to her and the knowledge of what was to come made her happy and frightened at the same time.
This was real.
He straightened up again and caught her hand in both of his, then placed it against his chest.
Honey could feel his heart beating, strong and steady.
“I am yours,” he told her.
And somehow, though he towered over her, a hulking hunk of a man, she knew it was true. That she had laid claim to him. That he was in her thrall.
He knelt and began to kiss his way up from her ankles toward her inner thighs.
His whiskers tickled her sensitive skin and she giggled.
But when he reached the apex of her thighs her laughter was forgotten.
His breath was so warm against her tender opening.
She paused, feeling herself surge with need, swelling and pouting for his touch.
“Lie back, my love,” he said.
She obeyed immediately, eager for his touch.
She felt his warm hands, spreading her open until the cool air of the room met the moisture inside her.
“Oh, Honey,” he sighed.