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  Kat assumed that she meant the brothers were out doing…whatever it was they did while they were home. She wondered if the tall, slender woman was in any way related to Deep and Lock. She looked a little too young to be their mother but not quite old enough to be an older sister. Maybe she was just a maid?

  “Um, okay,” she said hesitantly, wishing she’d gotten an injection of translation bacteria the way Sophie had before she visited Tranq Prime. “I guess I’ll just—” To her mortification, her stomach growled loudly, interrupting her hesitant speech. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Thoroughly embarrassed, she put a hand over her tummy, only to have it growl again.

  The woman threw back her head and laughed. “Cheela! Noosh. Noosh,” she said, taking Kat by the arm. She pointed at the sink where Kat could now see there were several fruits or vegetables—she couldn’t tell which—laid out. The woman pointed at them and then looked at Kat and raised her eyebrows. It was clear she was asking which one Kat wanted.

  “Uh…” Kat looked over the variety uncertainly. Aside from the twin fruit there was a twisted purple root and a greenish-yellow object with orange dots, about the size of a lemon.

  Neither of the other choices looked really appealing. Kat was about to go for the twin fruit by reflex, when a warm, rich, ripe scent tickled her nose. She lifted her face and sniffed—what was that smell? Whatever it is, it smells amazing! Like a cross between pineapple and raspberry with something salty thrown in. Maybe buttered popcorn? The delicious aroma seemed to be coming from a bowl of triangular fruit about the size of her palm.

  Looking closer, she saw the individual fruits were shaped a little like a strawberry, though they were considerably larger. Each was a tempting golden peach color with just a blush of pink on its smooth skin. They had purple stems at the top that were so pretty they could almost double as flowers. But Kat had never seen flowers that she wanted to eat, and suddenly her mouth was watering to try one of the three-sided fruits.

  “Could I…would you mind if I tried one of those?” she asked, pointing to the bowl which was sitting to one side of the sink.

  The woman looked surprised. “Kala?”

  “Yes.” Kat nodded eagerly. “Kala—I’d like to try some of that. If it tastes half as good as it smells I’ll think I’ve died and gone to heaven.”

  The woman looked doubtful at first but then she shrugged and handed Kat one of the fruits.

  Kat took it by the stem carefully. She had a fleeting thought that she might be about to eat something that was perfectly fine for Twin Moons inhabitants but poison to an Earthling like herself. But when she brought the peachy-pink triangular fruit to her nose and took a deep sniff, all her fears disappeared. Nothing that smelled so good could be bad for you, could it? Still, I’ll go slow, just in case.

  Experimentally she took a tiny nibble from the pointed end of the fruit. A flavor unlike anything else she’d ever had exploded in her mouth. It tasted like it smelled—fresh pineapple, juicy raspberry, and hot buttered popcorn—but there were other, more subtle flavors as well. A hint of hot chocolate, a taste of honeydew melon, and the tiniest bit of smoked cheddar cheese. Really, the fruit had too much going on—the strange and different flavors should have fought with each other. Instead, they blended harmoniously in her mouth in a way that made Kat’s eyes roll back in her head with pleasure.

  In no time she had finished the first fruit—right down to the purple stem—and the woman handed her another.

  “Oh my God, this is amazing,” Kat said around mouthfuls of the juicy, tender flesh. The triangle fruit, as she was beginning to think of it, had a texture like a peach but with little crunchy lumps in it that were chewy and crispy at the same time. She finished the second as well and looked hopefully at the bowl. “Um, I don’t want to make a pig of myself or anything but…”

  Laughing, the woman pushed the entire bowl into her hands. Then she surprised Kat by giving her a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

  “Oh. Uh, okay. Thanks.” Kat was caught off guard by her sudden affection. But the triangle fruit was so good she probably would have put up with much weirder things than a hug and a kiss in order to get a whole bowl of it.

  Still smiling at her, the woman led Kat to a small, sunny alcove in the corner of the kitchen where large, flat pillows were arranged on the floor. She seated Kat on a blue and purple one and then made motions at the bowl of fruit. “Noosh. Noosh.”

  That must mean ‘eat.’ Kat nodded politely. “Yes, noosh. Don’t worry, I will absolutely noosh. Thank you.” She picked up another triangular fruit and took a bite. “Mmm, good!”

  This seemed to satisfy the woman. She smiled at Kat, said a few other things in the Twin Moons language, and went back to washing fruit at the sink.

  Left alone with the bowl of succulent fruit, Kat got busy. She told herself sternly she ought to take it easy—after all, who knew what effects the alien fruit might have on her system? But it had been days since she’d done more than pick at her food and she was ravenous. Before she knew it, she was down to the last two fruit in the bowl and wishing she’d gone slower. She was about to take a bite of the next-to-last-fruit when Deep and Lock came through the door.

  Immediately Kat was flooded with emotions that weren’t hers, and none of them were good.

  “What in the seven hells were you doing this morning?” Deep demanded, striding over to her.

  Kat was immediately on the defensive. “I don’t know what you’re upset about but you can just back off. You two went out and left me here in a strange house, in a strange town, on a strange planet where I don’t even know the language. I had to muddle through on my own.”

  “We’re very sorry, my lady.” Lock, who had been speaking rapidly in Twin Moons dialect with the tall woman, came over to where Kat was still sitting with the mostly empty bowl. “We had to run some errands and we didn’t think you’d be up before we got back.”

  “Oh, she was up, all right. Up and giving the vendors at the market a show,” Deep snarled.

  “What are you talking about?” Tired of craning her neck to look up at him, Kat stood and put a hand on her hip. Of course she still had to look up, just not quite as far.

  “I’m talking about the way you were showing yourself out the window this morning—the entire township is talking about it.” Deep glared at her.

  Kat frowned. “I couldn’t find any clothes when I first got up but I wrapped a sheet around myself. I looked out the window and some people waved at me so I waved back. What’s the big deal?”

  “The ‘big deal’ is that you shouldn’t be showing your body to strangers.” Deep eyed her possessively, making her feel suddenly naked.

  “I wasn’t,” Kat protested, wishing the weird, feathered shirt she’d put on was longer. “I was very careful to keep the sheet wrapped around me the entire time, I swear.”

  Lock cleared his throat. “Apparently, the light shining in the window rendered your sheet, ah, transparent.”

  “What?” Kat felt a heated blush sweep over her. “Are you serious? So all those guys who were waving and smiling at me weren’t just being friendly?”

  “They’d like to be a whole lot more than friendly,” Deep growled. “Do you know how often the average male here on Twin Moons gets to see an elite? Almost never. And to see an elite without her clothing, her lush curves revealed, her—” He stopped abruptly and frowned at the triangle fruit Kat was still clutching in one hand. “What are you eating?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “She gave it to me.” She pointed at the tall woman who had been standing at the sink and watching their conversation with a worried look on her face.

  Lock turned to her. “Mumzell? Chara vena Kat Kala ala noosh?”

  She nodded her head rapidly. “Ja, ja! Shiba ava Kala ala noosh.” Then she hugged Lock and stood on tiptoes to kiss his forehead.

  “What? What is she saying?” Kat demanded.

  Deep frowned. “She’s saying you asked for it. She thinks yo