Part 2 (1/2)

Isnt that a bit extreme?

A male does what he can to attain notice. And even better if it involves violence.

Grandma would have loved you, was her odd muttered reply.

He chose to ignore it. He had more pressing needs. Given time is of essence, lest his compet.i.tion appear and attempt to steal the XiiX from under him, I will send my surface pod to my s.h.i.+p to fetch the tracking device.

Arent you just like a man to forget to pack the crucial things? she muttered.

And wasnt she just like a woman to know how to say just the right thing to take a male down a peg?

He frowned, sternly, an expression that had sent more than one lesser being scurrying to do his bidding, eager to please him. By all the moons circling the ocean world in the seventy-first quadrant, that very look had seen him gifted with riches, fathers offering up their daughters, some beings even flung themselves from parapets, overcome by fear.

The human barbarian, though?

She ignored him and moved through an archway into another room.

Being a magnanimous male, he allowed it. It wasnt her fault her feeble barbarian mind couldnt handle his greatness and sought relief by removing herself from his presence in an effort to compose herself.

Tapping into the control unit at his wrist, he programmed his capsule to return to his s.h.i.+p currently in orbit around the Earths moon. It was positioned out of sight, hovering under a cloak of invisibility on the dark side of the satellite where human detection units were blind.

Since it would take a while for his pod to fetch the detection unit and return, he went looking for the feisty human who seemed to think she was in charge of the situation.

Time to disabuse her of that notion. And maybe get started on more pleasurable things while he waited.

Chapter Three.

If a man is too good looking to be true, then hes probably a ma.s.s murderer. So keep him away from the kitchen knives. ” Grandmas philosophy on handsome men.

Jilly left the kitchen for more than one reason. The first to give herself some distance from the purple invader. Secondly, because she really needed some distance from the alien male in her house.

Okay, so the reasons were the same. Who could blame her?

Just look at him.

Distracting. s.e.xy. Obviously dangerous. Possibly deranged.

This Vile individual definitely didnt conform to any preconceived notion shed ever held about what life out there might entail.

For one thing, he was much more human than she liked. Oh, sure he sported purple skin, black lips, and freaky pointed teeth, but the rest of him?

Good grief, the rest of him was straight out of some male stripper fantasy. The snug coveralls he wore did little to hide his excellent musculature. Broad shoulders, tapered waist, corded thighs, bulging arms he was the epitome of male fitness with a face to die for, if you were into purple alien dudes who seemed to think women were useless creatures in need of a man to protect them.

Grandma would have shot him for that foolishness alone.

Thing was, Jilly didnt want to shoot him. On the contrary, shed obviously gone too long between boyfriends because, silly her, she wanted to run her hands over the broad planes of his chest and invite him to show her his supposedly impressive package.

Crazy. As crazy as him showing up at her farm looking for some so-called priceless artifact.

What could it be?

Jilly knew every item in this house. Shed grown up here after her ditz of a mother dumped her more than twenty-seven years ago.

Raising a kid wasnt on her mothers to-do list. It clashed with the drugs and partying that came from being a music groupie. Thankfully, Jilly had her grandma to take up the slack.

Jilly never wanted for anything growing up. Grandma and Grandpa gave her everything she ever needed”a home, an education, clothing, affection, a sense of pride in herself, a quirky philosophy on life, and an ability to face any situation.

Even alien ones.

Grandma had also willed the farm, the house, and all its contents to her only granddaughter stating that her other cousins, all boys, could suck it up and get a job.

So when Grandma succ.u.mbed to that pesky cold at the age of eighty-three, Jilly inherited it all. Apparently more than she knew.

What on Earth could this XiiX thing be?

Was it a rock? Some kind of statue? Jewelry? She didnt have much of that.

As she wandered from the kitchen back to the living room”which Vile had vacated”she stared out the window at the still softly falling snow. She noted the s.p.a.ce coffin no longer sat in front of her porch. Had Vile left with it?

A s.h.i.+ver down her spine warned her someone entered the room, an electric tingle of her senses, which let her know her purple guest had stuck around.

And he wasnt one to respect personal boundaries.

He pressed in against her back, a large, menacing, yet arousing presence, that made her heart flutter and her nipples tighten.

Do you mind? she said a tad breathlessly.

Mind what?

She couldnt help but tense as her entire body woke, aware of Vile in a way shed never before experienced. Youre standing too close.

And?

And its rude. But, most of all, arousing.

Manners are for the weak, he stated, inching closer.

She fought not to gasp as his body brushed against hers. Says who?

Says the handbook on mercenary rules that all my kind follow.

His race had a book on behaving badly? On Earth, its considered disrespectful to ignore someones personal s.p.a.ce.

Excellent.

Excuse me?