Kitt: Stargazer Alien Mail Order Brides #4 (Intergalactic Dating Agency) Read online

  The night was crisp and refreshing. Cicadas called from the trees and a fine mist drifted over the lake.

  And somewhere below in the senior ladies staff cabin, Honey McCarthy was crying her stupid eyes out because she was about to lose her job.

  All was right with the world and Wade was happy to be alive.

  As he got closer to the big screened party room, he heard a lot of squealing and exclamations.

  He paused and squinted at the scene through the screens.

  At first he was sure his eyes were lying to him.

  But he blinked and nothing had changed.

  Honey was there. She was dancing with one of the wait staff - one of those three new weirdoes. They were all big and good-looking, but in a fruity romance-book-cover way that made Wade suspicious.

  The guy had his hands all over her, lifting her, spinning her around.

  An admiring crowd had formed around them.

  And Honey was laughing, her eyes shining. She looked beautiful even though sweat was making her hair cling to her forehead.

  So that’s how it’s going to be.

  Wade had dumped her and she had jumped right into the arms of the first weirdo to come across her path.

  It was time to take things to the next level.

  Chapter 20

  Honey’s night passed in a blur.

  One moment the staff commons cabin was full of laughter and music. And the next everyone seemed to be leaving. Only the vague tired feeling in her legs hinted that she had danced the entire night away.

  Kitt took her hand and they followed the others down the path, back toward their own cabins.

  “Honey,” Addy panted, jogging back to her with Nikki in tow, “we’re going to the diner out in the village. You want to come?”

  “No, thanks,” Honey replied. “I’ve got to get some sleep.”

  “Suit yourself,” Addy shrugged. “Kitt, your brothers are coming, you want in?”

  “No, thank you,” Kitt said politely.

  “Don’t stay back on my account,” Honey protested.

  “I have seen much today,” Kitt replied. “I have much to think about.”

  The other two women dashed off again.

  Kitt squeezed Honey’s hand.

  “I will walk you to your lodging,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she replied.

  They turned off toward the senior ladies staff cabin as the others continued down the main path.

  Suddenly Honey felt the weight of being alone with Kitt, really alone with him.

  The night air was soft and still. Below them she could still hear the quiet laughter of the rest of their party, fading away.

  Kitt’s big presence felt larger than ever before.

  The silence between them only heightened her other senses. She swore she could feel his heart beat through his hand, smell the fresh scent of the shampoo in his hair.

  At last they reached her cabin.

  “May I accompany you inside?” His voice broke the silence.

  She nodded and let them in.

  The cabin was usually full of the sounds of the three women laughing and sharing the details of their days. It seemed strange, like a new place tonight, empty and dark, yet somehow filled with possibility.

  “Don’t turn it on,” Kitt whispered.

  Honey was confused at first, but she realized her hand was on the light switch. She pulled it away.

  “Look,” he said.

  Below the cabin, the lake spread out, sparkling under the moon, with the island reflected in its surface.

  “Is this similar to your home?” Honey tried to imagine what it would be like to visit a distant planet, to make it her home forever.

  He shook his head.

  “Aerie is different,” he said. “The terrain is dry and rocky. And the stars are closer.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  “I did at first,” he said. “It was a peaceful life. There was a natural order of things.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m not sure I want there to be a natural order,” he replied. “I’m beginning to see the beauty in chaos.”

  Honey laughed.

  “That wasn’t supposed to be funny,” he said.

  “Consider it another serving of chaos, then,” she said. “I like you, Kitt.”

  “I like you too, Honey,” he said. “You are easy to talk to.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, and she was glad the lights were off because she could feel herself blushing. It was simple praise but Honey rarely got compliments that weren’t about her looks, or her dancing.

  “Will you dance with me?” he asked.

  “Here?”

  “Yes.” She could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. “Here.”

  “But… there’s no music,” she protested.

  “We don’t need it,” he said.

  Suddenly, she was in his arms again.

  And he was right - they didn’t need the music, his body automatically swayed to the motion of hers, as if they were dancing to the rhythm of the Earth spinning or the planets aligning.

  “Honey,” he whispered, “I will dance with you. Here and anywhere else you wish. I don’t care about my new job. I belong to you and to this new world.”

  She smiled. He was so sweet. And so new to this place.

  It was easy to make a big declaration to the first person you ever danced with, and another thing to stake your life on it.

  Though Kitt was clearly all man, Honey would have to remember that he was more like an adolescent in terms of his world view.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she whispered back to him. “Just dance with me now.”

  He swung her in closer and lowered her nearly to the floor, then stretched her back upward slowly, so that their faces were an inch apart.

  Is he going to kiss me?

  She nearly swooned with the anticipation, but he spun her around instead and pulled her arms high over her head, trailing his fingers down her rib cage to grasp her hips and swing her even closer.

  This time she closed the gap herself, going up on her tiptoes to brush his lips with hers.

  His hands tightened on her hips and he caught her mouth with his to kiss her a second time, slowly, carefully.

  Then they were moving again, swaying softly as Honey lost herself in the embrace of her otherworldly lover.

  Chapter 21

  Kitt held Honey carefully as he tasted the sweetness of her lips. She trembled with desire and his own human body responded in a wave of sympathy.

  So this was the agony of sexual desire.

  He had known somehow that his own fumblings in the lab could not be the stuff of Shakespeare and Nabokov. That business had been nothing but the pleasant scratching of an itch.

  But this… this moment had nothing to do with his own wanting.

  It had everything to do with Honey. Honey, soft and needy in his arms. Honey’s lips, so smooth against his, her small hands wrapped around his neck, her body swaying in his thrall.

  He wanted to touch and taste every part of her at once.

  Honey whimpered against his mouth.

  He opened the kiss, tasting her clever tongue.

  She tightened her hands on his shoulders and pinned her body closer to his.

  Kitt shivered at the contact with her soft warmth. His body was so ready to claim hers.

  He slid his hands around to cup her posterior and lift her up off the ground.

  She wrapped her legs around him instantly, locking her heels behind his back and grinding her soft warmth against his rigid length.

  Kitt let his head fall backward, clenching his jaw against the incredible pleasure.

  Honey slowly placed a blazing trail of teasing kisses down his neck, adding fuel to the fire.

  A loud crash shattered the intimacy of the moment.

  Instinctively, he ran with Honey to the corner of the room, shielding her body from the screened front of the cabin with his own.


  He held her there for a few thundering heartbeats, studying the area for signs of an intruder.

  “Wh-what was that?” Honey’s voice was small and frightened.

  “I don’t know,” he told her.

  He held her there in the darkness long enough to calculate the jump speeds for three planetary drop runs, then whispered in her ear. “Honey, wait here. I’m going to check it out.”

  She released him and only then did he realize how hard she had been holding him. She was frightened.

  He took a few steps into the cabin, then allowed time to slow enough to give him a head start on any danger.

  He did not wish to use the electric light, but there was enough moonlight to allow him to see most of the room.

  They were still alone inside. But the door hung askew on its hinges, its screen torn loose.

  And something was sitting in the center of the carpet. It must have been thrown inside. The crash would have been the sound it made breaking the screen door on entry.

  Kitt approached cautiously.

  It was an irregular shape so it could not be a bomb. He knew the Earth was a violent place filled with untempered emotion, but Kitt had never been able to truly fathom how one sentient creature could knowingly hurt another.

  He had hoped that all they read of wars and violence would turn out to be fictions, the false tellings these creatures so adored.

  But the more he saw of the humans, the more he had grown to believe that they were capable of harming their own kind.

  And the more he grew to be a man himself, the more he felt alarmingly capable of harming another man.

  Right now, for example, Kitt would have liked very much to find the person responsible for frightening his mate. This thing that had been launched at them, it was a threat.

  “It’s a rock,” Honey said, from right beside him.

  Kitt nearly jumped out of his shoes.

  He brought himself quickly back into her perception of time.

  “What are you doing?” He could tell his voice was demanding but he didn’t care.

  “The same thing you are,” she replied. “Trying to figure out what made that noise.”

  “But you didn’t know what it was,” he protested. “You walked right up to it.”

  “So did you,” she observed drily.

  Of course, from her point of view, that’s how it must have looked. She didn’t know he had taken his time.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Nikki’s voice cut through the darkness. She sounded worried.

  “Someone threw a rock through the door,” Honey said. “It’s okay. No one’s hurt. What are you guys doing here?”

  “Jeez, we leave you guys alone for ten minutes and you get attacked,” Nikki replied. “Honey’s car wouldn’t start, so we couldn’t go.”

  “Someone threw a rock?” Addy echoed sarcastically.

  They all looked at the offending hunk of mineral.

  Kitt turned it over.

  It was just a rock. There was nothing unusual about it, no note, no string, nothing.

  “Fucking Wade Travers is in big trouble,” Addy said, sliding her phone out of her pocket.

  “What are you doing?” Honey’s voice was worried.

  “I’m calling the police,” Addy said.

  “No,” Honey said, snatching the phone out of her friend’s hands. Kitt was impressed with her speed.

  “What the hell?” Addy gaped at her.

  “Look,” Honey said, “there’s no evidence tying him to this. All we’re going to do is make him angry, right?”

  “You mean you’re just going to let him get away with this?” Addy was incredulous. “This is wrong, Honey. This is criminal. He’s obsessed with you and now he’s threatening you. You could have been hurt.”

  “I’m not hurt,” Honey said. “I’m scared, but I’m not hurt. But please listen to me.”

  Addy sighed, then gestured for her to continue.

  “I think we should lie low,” Honey said. “Pretend it never happened. He’ll get over me. But if we escalate this with police he’ll get angrier. And we can’t have people poking around here. It would put the boys at risk.”

  “You’re worried about paparazzi?” Addy asked.

  “She’s right,” Nikki said. “If we call the police now, it won’t help. We have no proof. But it will cause a huge uproar, and it could blow the boys’ cover. If we pledge to keep someone with Honey at all times, we can wait for this to blow over. Or at least for an opportunity to get some evidence.”

  “I don’t care about my cover,” Kitt said.

  “This isn’t just about you,” Honey replied. “This is about your brothers, too. And about my friend, Posey, who risked everything to send you here.”

  He opened his mouth and closed it again.

  “Then I will protect you tonight,” he told her earnestly.

  “I’ll take morning,” Nikki said immediately.

  “Good,” Kitt said. “I can still see Violet before my morning shift.”

  Honey got a pinched look on her face.

  “You don’t need to stay, Kitt. Go get some rest.”

  “It is my pleasure to stay,” he assured her.

  “No, no,” she said more forcefully, “I insist. Go get some sleep. We wouldn’t want you to be tired tomorrow morning.”

  He carefully analyzed each of her words. None seemed to contain any ingredient that matched the coldness of her tone.

  But something was not right.

  By the six moons of Thyroos, this place was confusing.

  “We’ll be okay, buddy,” Addy told him, slinging an arm around his shoulder like the coach in one of those movies about unlucky baseball players.

  She was walking him to the door.

  He broke free for a moment and turned to Honey.

  “I will see you at the studio tomorrow,” he told her firmly. “You will teach me to dance for the demonstration.”

  He left briskly, before she could argue.

  But he had already seen the indecision on her face.

  Kitt stepped through the broken door and out into the mist. The trees closed in over his head and he walked on.

  He wouldn’t go back to his own cabin, of course. He would find a quiet spot nearby in which to sit and contemplate all he had learned today, and keep a keen eye out for anyone who wished to frighten Honey and her friends. He certainly would not leave her exposed to danger with no one but her sleeping companions.

  It wasn’t until he found what he was looking for, a large, flat rock, overlooking the lake with its tree-lined island, that he allowed his emotions to flow back into him.

  He closed his eyes and experienced the whole night again: the glory of Honey’s dancing, the comfortable happiness of celebrating the evening’s liberty with the other workers, the ethereal beauty of the night lake, the yawning abyss of his naked desire for Honey, the ecstasy of her kiss, the danger of the hurled rock, the righteous urge to protect his mate, the pain of his abrupt dismissal…

  At first he hoped that replaying the whole arrangement of emotions might help him understand what he had done wrong at the ending.

  But no matter how slowly or quickly he replayed their conversation, he was unable to make heads or tails of his mistake.

  And so Kitt sat quietly and enjoyed the sounds of the night birds, secure in the knowledge that Honey was safe, and confident that he would make amends tomorrow.

  Chapter 22

  Kitt waited until the sun rose pink over the mountain and he saw the one called Addy heading down the hillside to work.

  Satisfied that everyone in the cabin was awake and alert, Kitt waited a few minutes, then headed down after her. He was anxious that Honey not think he was spying on her. She already had one spurned suitor for that purpose. Kitt was protecting her.

  When he reached the pavilion he saw that Violet was already waiting for him, shading her face from the sun with her papers.

  “Hey, Kitt,” she called to him
happily.

  “Hello, Violet,” he said, jogging up the steps of the pavilion.

  She patted the bench next to herself.

  “Take a load off, big guy,” she said. “Did you eat yet?”

  Her word choice was odd, but he plopped down beside her. “I did not eat yet.”

  “Cool,” she said. “I brought you a coffee.”

  She pointed and sure enough there were two paper cups, steam issuing from the tiny openings at the tops.

  “It’s Café con Leche,” she told him with a nod.

  “Oh,” he replied, puzzling over her word choice.

  “I Googled how they drink coffee in Andorra,” she explained. “I had the barista make it especially for you. I thought you might be feeling homesick.”

  “Thank you,” he said, holding the offered cup and taking a small sip.

  It tasted exactly like the hot bean juice they often made in the lab. He had never heard of it possessing any medicinal properties, although several of the lab workers did seem quite reliant on it.

  He remembered not liking the bitter stuff when he had tried it before, but something about this cup seemed warm and nice after a chilly night out. The warmth that spread through his chest reminded him of the feeling that bloomed there when Honey had touched him.

  “It’s perfect,” he declared.

  “Sweet,” Violet nodded.

  “No,” he said. “Not sweet at all, just right.”

  “Um, yeah,” she said, fluffing her hair.

  He had gotten something wrong, but she didn’t seem fussed by it. It must have been a small mistake.

  “Wanna run lines?” she asked.

  “Sure,” he said.

  She grinned and handed him the pages.

  He knew now that running lines did not mean running at all. He would read the male actor’s words and she the female’s.

  Kitt liked the play. It did not have the poetic majesty of the complete works of William Shakespeare, but it had a spark of the same romance.

  “My dear,” Kitt read carefully, “there is so much I must confess.”