Holiday Abduction (Alien Abduction Book 6) (3 page)

“No.”

She squirmed, to no avail against his greater strength, which, given her brows drew together, vexed her. “This isn’t funny. Let me go at once.”

“Are you making demands?”

“What if I said please?”

How sweet her lips looked when they curved in a questioning plea. But they’d look better wrapped around a certain aroused part of his anatomy—only once he’d accomplished his quest. “I will release my grip and give you my word you will come to no harm if you tell me how to find the XiiX stone.” Forget his earlier lie that claimed he visited for cultural education. Time to get his mission back on track so he could then indulge in pleasure.

“The what?”

“The XiiX? Don’t play the innocent. According to the energy signatures my ship picked up, it is located somewhere within your abode.”

Again, she wrinkled her nose, and he found himself fighting an urge to lean in a little closer and taste her lips.

“You’re looking for some alien artifact?”

“Not just any artifact, the XiiX. It’s been lost for millennia but recent discoveries of some ancient scrolls on a dead planet have allowed me to trace its movement to your world.”

“And you think it’s here, on my farm?”

“I don’t think. I know it is. Lead me to it,” he commanded…but she didn’t obey.

“Sorry, Vile. I can’t help you.”

“You will if you wish to remain unharmed,” he growled, tightening his grip.

How lovely she felt in his grasp. Curvy, warm, and her scent? He could fetch a fortune for it if he could bottle it. Then again, that would mean sharing it, and Vhyl wasn’t into that.

“You can stop with the threats. I would give it to you if I knew what the hell you were talking about. What’s it look like?”

Good question. All the ancient texts spoke about the XiiX, but none ever displayed any images. All he knew was it was made of Arcanius, one of the rarest metals in the known universe, which was how he was able to pinpoint the location in the first place. The energy signature was quite distinctive if you could calibrate the computers well enough to detect it. He’d killed the technician who’d programmed his.

“An actual description might prove difficult.” As difficult as staying focused on his task rather than getting distracted by the scent of her. Her delicate aroma surrounded him in a sensual perfume that clouded his senses.

“Let me get this straight, you’re looking for a treasure but you don’t even know what it looks like?” She laughed, the act shaking the frame he still held hugged to his chest.

Given her closeness seemed to be affecting the blood flow to his brain and impairing his mental capacity, he let her loose and moved away. “Don’t mock me, female.”

“I’m not, just remarking on the impossibility of your request. If you don’t know what we’re looking for, then how can I give it to you?”

Blasted female. Like his sister, she used logic as her weapon. “I have a device that will ease the task by reading the molecular buildup and energy signature of the items in your home.”

“Well then, why didn’t you say so? What are you waiting for to use it? Let’s find this thing and get you on your way.”

“Are you so eager for me to leave?” The concept that she wanted to rid herself quickly of him didn’t sit well. Most females begged him to stay. He had more than one reputation in the universe, and the other made him a prize among the opposite gender.

“No offense, but I’ve got more important things to worry about than your stupid treasure.”

“I highly doubt that. I’ve come to the conclusion that the universe does revolve around me and has for some time. It’s what happens to those who accomplish great things.”

“I’m surprised your ego fits through the door.”

“If it didn’t, I’d blow it up,” was his reply. He smiled at her taken-aback expression.

“Isn’t 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 competition appear and attempt to steal the XiiX from under him, “I will send my surface pod to my ship to fetch the tracking device.”

“Aren’t you just like a man to forget to pack the crucial things?” she muttered.

And wasn’t 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 wasn’t her fault her feeble barbarian mind couldn’t 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 ship currently in orbit around the Earth’s 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.

“If a man is too good looking to be true, then he’s probably a mass murderer. So keep him away from the kitchen knives.” – Grandma’s 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. Sexy. Obviously dangerous. Possibly deranged.

This Vile individual definitely didn’t conform to any preconceived notion she’d 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 didn’t want to shoot him. On the contrary, she’d 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. She’d grown up here after her ditz of a mother dumped her more than twenty-seven years ago.

Raising a kid wasn’t on her mother’s 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 succumbed 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 didn’t 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 space coffin no longer sat in front of her porch. Had Vile left with it?

A shiver 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 wasn’t 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 couldn’t help but tense as her entire body woke, aware of Vile in a way she’d never before experienced. “You’re standing too close.”

“And?”

“And it’s 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, it’s considered disrespectful to ignore someone’s personal space.”

“Excellent.”

“Excuse me?”

“I would hate to think I was tarnishing my reputation.”

“You want to be known as a disrespecting jerk?”

“I prefer the title rule breaker.”

“Well, break the rules somewhere else. You’re making me uncomfortable.” And hot. Much too hot.

“Uncomfortable or aroused? I think you protest because you enjoy my presence too much. So, no. I won’t move away.”

“Because you like annoying me?”

“No, because I’m enjoying the feel of you against me.”

His surprising claim froze her tongue.

“What? No reply?” He chuckled and leaned in even closer, nudging her hair, sending shivers spiking down her spine.

This had gone on long enough. If he wouldn’t move, then she would.

Or not. He slid an arm around her waist, anchoring her against him. He pushed aside the hair covering her ears, and his lips whispered against the lobe, increasing her awareness of him. “I am beginning to think there is more than one treasure in this house.”

Her breath caught at the unexpected compliment. “I’m not an object.”

“Perhaps not, but you are definitely something of worth. I am always looking to add to my collection.”

“You can’t just take me.”

He laughed, the husky rumble somehow arousing, arousing enough that her sex moistened. Unbidden, her eyes closed, and she relaxed against him, mesmerized and curious about where this was going despite herself.

While a part of her—that sounded remarkably like Grandma—shouted at her to get away, another part basked in the male attention.

What woman didn’t want to feel desirable?

What woman could truly say she didn’t enjoy having such a virile male, one who admitted he came from a wider galaxy, think her attractive?

“Don’t challenge me, female. I have a reputation for taking what I want, and right now, I want…” He trailed off, and she held her breath as she waited for his next words. “To know who the frukx is in those vehicles arriving.”

Her eyes shot open, and she peered outside to see that indeed two large trucks, Suburbans to be exact, black in color with tinted windows, had pulled into her driveway.

“Who did you contact? Why are they here?” His grip went from sensual to tight and unrelenting as he hammered her with suspicious questions.

“I didn’t call anyone. But if I had to guess, those are the feds. Not surprising really. I mean you weren’t exactly subtle about your arrival.”

“They are your planet guardians?”

She shrugged. “More or less.”

“I do not wish to deal with them. The less who know of my presence, the better.”

“Then you might want to hide because I have a feeling they’re going to want to come in.”

“Get rid of them.”

“I intend to try. Trust me, I’m not any keener than you are about dealing with the government. Besides, even if you are a chauvinist with an ego the size of Kansas, you deserve better than getting buried in some government lab for experimentation and dissection.”

“And it is for reasons such as these your planet is still considered so barbarian,” he muttered. “Even though there is little honor in it, or fun, I will conceal myself, but do not think to betray me. It won’t go well if you do.”

With that ominous warning, Vile left her side, and Jilly took a deep breath before going to answer the pounding at her door.

For a moment, she debated fetching her gun, but vetoed it. Last thing she needed was to appear menacing. Best she find out what they wanted—probably a certain alien hiding out in her house—convince them she knew nothing, and send them on their way.

She opened the door and was faced with a trio of men in black suits, but, unlike a certain movie, they didn’t wear sunglasses. Good thing, else, given the time of night, she might have been tempted to sing a certain Corey Hart song.

“Gentlemen, can I help you? Are you lost?”

The craggy fellow in the middle, his hair cut short and graying at the temples, perused her as he said, “Ma’am, I’m Agent Farley, and I’m here on behalf of the Department of Defense. We’ve come to check on a report of an unidentified object landing in this vicinity.”

She widened her eyes. “Really? What was it? A meteor? Plane? Weather balloon?”

Agent Farley frowned. “No. Unidentified as in UFO, ma’am.”

“Aliens?” She added a giggle to her faked incredulous reply. “You can’t be serious. Is this some kind of a joke?”

“No joke, ma’am. Our equipment tracked an object to this location. Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve been here all night, baking cookies. I haven’t seen or heard a thing.”

“Do you mind if we come in and look around?”

“Do you have a warrant?”

“We don’t need one when it comes to the nation’s defense.”

“And how do I know you are who you say you are? I mean, anyone can put on a suit and claim they work for the government.” She held the door only partially ajar as she refused them entry.

As if expecting this, badges were flashed at her, which again didn’t prove anything. Jilly wouldn’t know a real one from a fake one.

“Do you have a phone number I could call? You know, so I can check on you.”

“Ma’am, we are going to request you move away from the door.”

“Or?”

“Please don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be.”

“But I’ve already told you I didn’t see anything. Your computers were wrong. So I don’t see why you need to come in.”

Agent Farley, who seemed to be in charge, addressed his next words to the guys who’d spilled out of the second suburban and approached.

“Take the woman into custody and then search this place.”

“Hold on a second,” she protested as they advanced on her, three men dressed in black combat gear replete with helmets and holstered weapons. Shit was starting to get uncomfortably serious and tense.

“Is there a problem?”

Vile’s sudden question from behind her had her almost groaning. So much for bluffing her way out. Agent Farley would take one peek at his purple face and the jig would end.

Except the guys in front of her didn’t react, but they did halt as Agent Farley said, “Who are you?”

An arm slid around her waist as Vile replied. “Her mate of course. My name is John. John Smith.”

The most banal name in existence, which matched his totally banal human appearance.

Having peeked at Vile when he replied, Jilly had to consciously remind herself to not let her jaw drop as her previously purple, fanged visitor now sported Caucasian skin, normal, flat-edged teeth, and what appeared to be a plain white T-shirt and jeans.

Odd because pressed against him, her hand clearly touched fabric that was not denim-like in texture.

“The file we compiled on the way over made no mention of a boyfriend,” said the government honcho with suspicion.

“I didn’t know big brother was interested in my love life,” she retorted, quickly recovering from her shock and doing her best to play along.

Not that it mattered.

“Grab him too,” Agent Farley ordered.

“I would advise against it,” Vile/John replied in a low voice at odds with the genial expression on his face.

“Now listen here, you are going to let us in so we can search the premises.”

“But we have nothing to hide,” Vile practically purred the words.

“We’ll make our decision on that. Move aside. We need to—”

“Leave and report to your superiors you found nothing suspicious.” Again, the words flowed from Vile in a silky torrent that made her shiver.

“We found nothing suspicious,” the men, all six of them on her porch, repeated in a freaky monotone.

“You investigated the premises, questioned its occupant, and are satisfied she is hiding nothing.”

“Hiding nothing,” they aped.

“Leave now.”

As if possessed of one mind, the men turned on their heels and marched back to their trucks. In moments, they had turned around and all she could spot were their taillights in the distance.

They’d left?

Just like that.

Impossible.

“Holy shit. What the hell did you do to them?”

“I reasoned with them.”

“That was more than reasoning. It’s like you hypnotized them.”

“Perhaps. But it won’t last.” With that ominous announcement, Vile relinquished his grip on her and disappeared into her house.

Gaping at the now empty drive, Jilly took a moment to calm herself.

She tried counting.

Oh my god, the feds were here. But Vile took care of them.

Nails dug into her palms.

He messed with the minds of government agents. That is bad. So bad.

Irritation simmered. Reminding herself that anger accomplished nothing didn’t help, especially since Grandma had raised her. Was it any wonder she couldn’t stem the explosion?