Resident Alien: Department of Homeworld Security, Book 2 Read Online Free

an alien. He thought she was playing along when she danced around the issue rather than calling him out on it. But now—
    That sexy as hell voice of hers pulled him back to the moment as she said, “I come in peace.”

Chapter Four
    Kira couldn’t believe that Brendan stood right in front of her. He was even more beautiful than she’d imagined.
    He stared at her with blue eyes—wide and expressive. The sunlight shimmered on his pale skin. His red hair was short, sticking up in disheveled spikes on top of his head, then settling down to frame his face in a neatly formed beard that covered his jaw and chin. The beard drew her attention to his full lips.
    She had only seen beards on people in the data she screened from Earth’s broadcasts. The genetic engineers seemed to do their best to minimize body and facial hair on Sadirians—except for eyebrows and eyelashes. Well, and the pubis. They generally stayed away from that area.
    She loved Brendan’s beard. She wanted to run her fingers along his jaw and feel its texture.
    The thought shocked her. Why would she want to do something like that?
    Shaking herself, she focused on her immediate problem—the danger they were both in. If the Coalition found her talking to an Earthling, Brendan would get a mind-wipe and she’d end up in prison. If any Tau Ceti survived and managed to track her down, she and Brendan were just plain dead.
    When she had put in Brendan’s coordinates, she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She was still putting her brain back together after the minor miracle she’d pulled off with the station.
    Looking at him now, being so close to him, she couldn’t honestly say that she wouldn’t have come anyway.
    She’d wanted to meet him.
    Now she needed to keep him safe. The only way to do that was to keep the Coalition and the Tau Ceti from finding them. She needed to be off their scans, which meant no tech. Her nanites were already powered down and she planned to keep them that way for now.
    She unlatched the bands at her forearms that held her uniform’s controls, then did the same to the collar that held the segments of her helmet. With that out of the way, she grabbed her uniform’s seal and slid it open down the length of her torso.
    “Whoa,” Brendan said. “Um, Kira?”
    She glanced at him, noting that his eyebrows had hiked way up his forehead. A quick look at their surroundings didn’t reveal any threats. The escape capsule should notify her of predators as well. For the next few minutes, anyway.
    “What is it?”
    He stammered for a few moments, then asked, “What are you doing?”
    “Stripping.” She wiggled out of her uniform till it was around her ankles, then unlatched her boots and stepped out of them.
    “I can see that. I can really, really see that.” He shifted his weight and clasped his hands in front of his body. “But why are you doing it?”
    “Coalition tech shows up like a nova on scans. My uniform and the escape capsule are filled with it.”
    She grabbed the capsule’s med-kit and tossed it to Brendan. He scrambled to catch the small metal case.
    “The med-kit is shielded from scans, plus its tech is inactive.”
    She keyed in the destruct sequence—manually, thank the stars—then programmed new coordinates that would take the capsule deep into the lake before it exploded. She sat on the edge of the capsule and swung her legs over the edge before sliding into the shallow water.
    “Wait!” Brendan dropped the med-kit and rushed forward, water splashing up his jeans.
    Gravity was faster.
    As the water closed around her legs and waist, the cold hit her like a blow. Her knees gave out and she sank deeper before Brendan grabbed her and lifted her from the lake. One arm was under her knees and the other around her back. Her arms settled around his neck without needing her command.
    After a few gasping breaths, she managed to say, “Much…colder…than…expected.”
    “This lake is fed from runoff from the