Kitt’s heart beat so fast he wondered if his human metabolism could sustain the pace. He had let his mate see his gift. He was not supposed to do that until she had accepted him.

“Kitt,” she whispered, sounding so frightened.

“Hush, my love,” he crooned. “Close your eyes, I’ll take you home.”

He waited until those beautiful dark eyes were closed and rejoiced when she obeyed him.

Then he cradled her sweet form to his chest and allowed the world to slow to his speed. Now when he ran it would seem to her that no time had passed and that they arrived instantaneously.

He bent to retrieve her phone and slipped it into his pocket. Then he jogged leisurely through the trees, careful not to allow her clothing to become tangled in the branches.

He had explored the woods for hours that first day after arriving. Just as the mown area of Maxwell’s was richly populated with people, so was this un-mown area thickly populated with other mammals, and insects too. Squirrels, birds, rabbits, beetles and bugs of every shape imaginable, and even the occasional deer had shown themselves to him when he slowed the world for a thorough exploration.

He knew he shouldn’t slow time and move normally in case someone should see him. When he had done it at the staff party he had been careful to slow things almost to a stop so that his movements would be too fast to be perceived.

But using the gift was irresistible in this wonderful new place.

At last they came out just where he hoped they would, in the trees just outside Honey’s cabin.

He held her in suspended time for just a moment more, wondering if she would come into his arms again voluntarily, after having seen what she had seen.

Then, reluctantly, he spun time forward on its axis, stretching himself back into her perception of reality.

“Open your eyes, Honey,” he compelled her.

She blinked up at him, then looked around.

“Oh my god,” she gasped.

He placed her gently on the ground, missing her warm weight the moment she stepped away.

She spun in place, then turned to him. “How… how did you do this?”

“It’s my gift,” he told her, hoping she wouldn’t be too frightened.

It was important to tell her the truth, though. His heart told him this, though it was in opposition to what he had been told by his brothers and Dr. Bhimani.

“It’s amazing,” she breathed.

He smiled at her encouragingly.

“So are you super fast? Or were you teleporting or something?”

He tried to understand her question. The first part made sense, but the second did not.

“I appear to be very fast,” he said. “But I’m not. I… I can perceive time differently.”

“What do you mean?”

“The world moves more slowly for me than it does for others,” he told her. “I can live at my own pace, but then the rest of the biological world seems to be frozen. Or I can… skip forward and perceive the world with you.”

“What do you mean skip forward?”

“I… I’m not sure,” he said, trying to find the words for the leap of consciousness. “I can’t describe it. Maybe the words for this are in a scientific text? Surely someone else on your planet has done this?”

Honey shook her head slowly.

“No,” she said. “I don’t think the words for that would be found anywhere. I don’t think anyone can do what you just did, Kitt.”

He observed her, wondering which way her surprise would catapult her - toward excitement or revulsion. The expression on her face told him she was on the precipice of great emotion.

“This is foreign to you, Honey,” he said slowly. “So much about me is different. But at the heart we are the same. Dance with me.”

He paused the world, slipped her phone from his pocket, and fingered the responsive skin of its shining surface until the first note of the music sounded. He thrust it into her pocket, took her in his arms, then returned the moment to her speed.

She gasped with surprise, but her body knew what to do.

Without a second thought, they were dancing.

All her fear and his determination were palpable between them and he felt the music hum inside his body as if his blood were pumping to its throbbing beat.

He danced her down the path, and spun her under the canopy of the big tree in front of the cabin.

He could feel the tension in her body fading as he dipped her and pulled her close again.

Then he danced her to the safety of the cabin, lifting her into his arms again to open the door and then placing her on the floor to dance her around the small living room.

They had been in each other’s arms all afternoon, but somehow it was more intimate in the shade of the little cabin.

When the music stopped, they kept dancing. Their pace turned slower, dreamier.

Kitt kept faithfully to her speed. Now was not the time to frighten her with his gift, no matter how he longed to pause the moment and memorize the flutter of her pulse in her throat, the feel of her supple waist against his hand, and the scent of her hair.

He lifted her above his head and lowered her slowly, grazing her belly with his lips on the way down.

She whimpered and he allowed himself to nuzzle her breasts lightly. Her nipples pebbled against her thin shirt and it was all he could do not to rip the shirt off and suckle and bite.

She pressed herself to him when her feet were on the ground.

He felt her belly against his erection. Surely she could feel it too.

Her hands traveled from his shoulders down to his chest.

“Kitt,” she murmured.

“Yes, my angel,” he replied into her hair.

But she said nothing more. It was as if she had only been reassuring herself of him.

This was not good enough.

Kitt released her hips and sank to his knees before her.

“Honey,” he whispered.

“Kitt, what are you doing?”

“Honey McCarthy, I choose you as my mate,” he told her. “Will you accept me?”

The air was still.

Kitt felt as if he had slowed down time again.

Then she was kneeling down with him, kissing him as the tears slipped down her cheeks.

He had chosen her. There was no going back now.

She was kissing him, holding him, crying over him.

But she had not accepted his suit.

She had not said the words. She might never say them, might never be ready.

Kitt could sense the reedy quality of Honey’s self-confidence, disparate from the strength with which she bore her actual life choices.

Honey wasn’t ready yet to admit that she wanted to choose him, no matter how much she actually did.

But he could be patient. He would wait happily, no matter how long it took, as long as he could do it in her orbit.

Then Honey lifted her shirt over her head and he was incapable of further thought.