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 the 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.”

He grinned and the pleased look tugged at her heart a little

“I will see you tomorrow, Honey,” he told her.

Then the screen door was closing and she was alone again.

She stood by the door for a long time. She could see the lake spread out at the bottom of the hill, until it reached the island at its center. The moon and stars reflected in the lake’s inky surface.

A million miles away, other suns burned and planets spun, and beings there might fret or work or celebrate.

Just a few feet away, the warm sleepy bodies of her roommates and the nighttime denizens of the woods filled the air with soft sounds.

She had a roof over her head and a job she loved. She had escaped her mother’s house and she was getting an education too. She had dreams and hopes and fears and there were things about her that Kitt could not even guess about - things he might never understand.

But about one thing, he was just right.

Honey McCarthy was secretly sad to be alone.