I Married An Alien by Emma Daniels, Ethan Somerville Page B

the lounge, one ankle crossed over his knee, both brawny arms draped along the back of the seat. God, he looked magnificent. So much muscle and power writhed beneath that flawless tanned skin. If he wanted to, he really could break my neck with those strong hands. He had said he’d bested five guys in a fight. Riling him any further probably wasn’t a good idea. But what did I know about the young woman whose body I wore? Pity little. What would Jordan unearth once he fired up the tablet? That Anita was a serial killer? I hardly thought so.
    Swallowing, I held both items out to him, Dropping one arm he patted the seat beside him, which I took and perched on the very edge of. Jordan frowned at my action, but took the tablet from my hands. He shook his head at the passport.
    “ Don’t you need a password?” I asked as his brow furrowed in concentration and his big fingers brushed over the device, activating different windows of information.
    “ I used to help design things like this,” he muttered under his breath. “I don’t need a… what did you call it? Password? That’s a rather old-fashioned expression.”
    “ Well, that’s what we call it in my time.”
    Jordan glanced up briefly with narrowed eyes, before returning his attention to the tablet. Of course he still didn’t believe me. “Besides, this is a public network.” He tapped the device with a long dexterous index finger. “If you want to communicate privately I’m certain there are a whole host of other devices at your disposal on Earth. That’s why we do such rigorous luggage and body searches at the spaceports.”
    I shuddered, recalling the rather undignified patting down I’d received on arrival. Even my ears and the inside of my mouth had been closely examined. Luckily the official had been a fellow female Human. The officials had used detecting wands to search for hidden devices, fortunately eliminating the need for that most humiliating of procedures, the full cavity search.
    I watched Jordan studying the device, a frown steadily deepening on his patrician brow. After what he’d said about designing the tablets, I realized he was more than just a pretty face. Last night, when he’d been at the mercy of his body, I’d wrongly assumed he was just some lusty Neanderthal with only one thing on his mind. He was obviously more intelligent than I had given him credit for, probably even smarter than I was. So why couldn’t I get him to believe the truth of what had happened to me?
    “ Well, well, well, Miss DeBugh,” Jordan snorted, his tone growing hard. “Your father is a Liberal minister in the Senate, and you were engaged to be married to Oliver Rembrandt, son of Ian Rembrandt, pioneer of Rembrandt Industries, the biggest damn Hytana refinery in the southern hemisphere! Judging by this, I wouldn’t hazard a guess your father tried very hard to get you out of your tour of duty.”
    “ What?” I sidled closer, but Jordan held the tablet further away from me so I still couldn’t see anything on it.
    “ I think you just might have started a God-damned diplomatic incident, Anita DeBurgh,” Jordan declared grimly. I stared at him in shock. Not only did he look angry, but a sliver of fear flashed in his eyes. Slowly, disbelievingly, he shook his head.
    “ Wh – what do you mean?” I asked in a small tight voice.
    “ In coming here, you’ve turned your back on what was probably the biggest oil cartel merger in Australia’s history. Your father just announced an increase in oil production by sending Earthlings to open up new farms in the northern districts of Terron-Tentonia… But of course you already know all this.” He raked his fingers through his long bangs in frustration. “Oh yes, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be tied down to the likes of Rembrandt,” he continued, more to himself than me. “He’s a nasty piece of work, and I would hazard a guess his son is just as mean…” He looked at me. “But Hell,