Page 3 of Alien Mine

Tiny clapped her chubby hands together. “Melex.”

“Waffles, Tiny,” Kelly said, “not melex. C’mon. I know you can say it.”

“Melex,” Tiny insisted.

Kelly clucked her tongue. “She ain’t never gonna learn to talk right.”

“And you have?”

“I’m better’n she is,” Kelly retorted, then huffed. “Oh, fine. I know that look, Mama. I’ll get the goats penned up so we can havemelexfor breakfast.”

Rachel pressed her lips into a hard line, containing her laughter, and turned back to the man. She’d been right. He was a big man, easily over six feet tall and heavily muscled underneath a brand spanking new black t-shirt and stiff jeans. She ignored the attraction fluttering low in her gut and pressed her fingers against his throat, searching for a pulse. It beat hard and steady under her fingertips, so she gently probed his scalp through the short strands of his soft, silky hair. No knots or cuts, thank goodness, but why else would he be unconscious?

She eased away from him and rubbed her hands over her bare thighs, scrubbing off the tingling warmth left behind after touching him. Last thing she needed was another man around. Hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time, and the hard way to boot?

But still, he was so big and firm, and his features looked likethey’d been carefully sculpted under the loving hand of a skilled artist. He had high cheekbones and hollow cheeks, a sturdy jaw, but not a domineering one, and a little dimple in his square chin. His skin gleamed under the moon’s silvery light and had been like velvet under her fingers, it was so smooth and rich. If he had an imperfection, it was his nose. It was a little too flat and wide for his features, but not so much it detracted from his striking looks.

She cocked her head and considered him. He wasn’t local, that was for sure. A man who looked like that was gossiped and tittered over, and not one word had reached her ear about him. So he was a stranger and he might be dangerous, though his size aside, he didn’t really look like he’d harm a fly. His clothes were too crisp, his skin too soft, like he hadn’t had much of a chance to wear either them or himself in good.

Rachel eyed the fancy watch strapped to his right wrist. It was a good three inches wide and had some kind of blacked-out flexible screen on the top. The rest of it was made out of flat black metal. Everything about it sat up and holleredexpensive.

Kelly bounced to a stop beside her, Tiny in tow. “Is he dead?”

“Alive and kicking,” Rachel said. “You get the goats rounded up?”

“Yes’m.”

“Get your sister inside, then, and get cleaned up, the both of you. I’ll be in as soon as our fence crasher wakes up.”

Kelly’s delicate mouth pursed into a bow, but she went inside. Tiny hopped along behind her, one finger in her mouth, her head twisted around as far as it would go toward the man lying in their pasture.

When Rachel turned around, the man’s eyes were open. They were darkly beautiful, framed by thickly curled lashes, and fixed on her. She rested a hand over her fluttering heart. Lordy, he was fine. “Are you ok, sir?”

He blinked, glanced at the sky, then rested that intense gaze on her again. “Rachel Athena Hunter Olvera.”

His baritone voice was like his skin, rich and smooth under aguttural accent. Her stomach clenched tight on another wave of attraction, and she dutifully swallowed it down. It wouldn’t do to let a stranger get the better of her, especially when that stranger might be hurt. “I’m Rachel Hunter.”

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Rachel.” He sat up with no effort at all and gripped her wrist in one, strong hand. “I am Dyuvad ab Mhij. I have come to inquire about your room for rent.”

“My room.”

“Yes, Lady Rachel. You will show it to me now.”

She nodded slowly. Oh, lordy. This man, with his silky hair and fabulously toned body and a watch that cost more than her house, wanted to rent the shabby mother-in-law room attached to her kitchen? “Um, I need references and the first and last month’s rent and…”

Oh, who was she kidding? She’d had that thing up for rent for a good year and the only folks that had inquired were a couple of jobless kids fresh out of high school.

Rachel stood, brushed the wet grass off her knees, and inched away from him. If this guy could explain how he’d landed on her fence and was willing to hand over cash, the room was his.

And if he couldn’t? So be it. She and the girls had plodded along well enough before Dyuvad had landed on their fence, and they’d plod along just as well when he was gone.

Chapter Two

Dyuvad gingerly prodded his ribs through his new clothing, courtesy of his mysterious benefactor among the ‘paths. In the days following the ‘path’s initial contact, Dyuvad had followed its instructions precisely, from meeting Benar and picking up the resources allocated to his protection duty, to navigating his ship along the exact route given him from Tersi through the frontier into Origin Space.

He’d planted his ship on the cusp of the dark side of the planet’s moon while his ship’s AI studied news vids bounced off Earth’s surface by orbiting satellites. The autolearner programs created from those information feeds had integrated knowledge of the planet’s major languages and cultures into his mind, so deeply they could never be retrieved except through memory. As soon as he’d recovered from the autolearner’s integration process, Dyuvad had readied his supplies and initiated a jump.

Everything had gone as planned except his kraden landing on the girl’s planet.

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