Your Planet or Mine? by Susan Grant Read Free Book Online Page B

farm and how they’d reacted to her toenail polish. There was only one way to prove she was higher on the evolutionary ladder than they were, and that was by ignoring her primitive sexual impulses.
    “Hi, again.” She grabbed a container of Phish Food. “Bye,” she said and let the door fall closed.
    Heels clicking on the linoleum, she left the man far behind. Probably she should pick up some milk while she was here. At home, she was all out. She snagged a bunch of ripe bananas on her way past a display and headed for dairy. Her arms were filling up with impulse purchases. She always did this. Soon she’d need a cart.
    She turned up aisle nine. At the end stood the man in interstellar body armor. About-face. She spun on her heel and chose the next aisle over. It had been a horrible day. The last thing she needed was to be stalked by a store model, even one this arrestingly handsome. Or was it arrestingly familiar? Arrestingly something. Whatever it was, it was exactly what she didn’t need right now.
    But halfway to the milk, the muscled Halo2 hunk caught up to her. She didn’t care how arresting he was; if he kept this up he was going to get himself arrested. “Listen, I’m in a hurry. I—”
    “Jana.”
    The way he said her name reverberated to her toes. Her coral-painted toes. The ones the sturgeon liked. The ones that put her into heat over strange armored men in supermarkets. Note to self: never wear coral nail polish again—not out in public, anyway .
    “We met as children,” he said.
    “We did?” She searched her memory and came up with nothing.
    His body armor creaked as he took another step closer. “I never forgot you. It was why I had to come back for you.”
    He sounded so genuine, too. Too bad it was all an act. But when she looked into his eyes, really looked deep and hard, her heart gave a little hitch. Magic.
    No! No magic! Anything but that. She gave her head a hard shake. “Sorry, I have to—”
    “Jana, you must listen. Earth is under threat from space. There is time to prepare, but no time to waste. You must take me to your leader.”
    “Very convincing, but I have to get going. I have to work tomorrow. Early. An appearance with my leader’s wife leads the day, as a matter of fact.” And Jana would bet Mary Ann Schwarzkopf was at home relaxing, not being chased through a grocery store by a guy dressed in interstellar body armor.
    “Please, your world is scheduled for acquisition. I came here to inform you of this news at great risk. A risk I have gladly taken for you, Jana.” Emotion seethed in his eyes. “Come, we must talk—but not here.”
    The more he said, the crazier he sounded—and looked—and she was getting a little scared. Forget the milk. She’d drink her coffee black for breakfast.
    She made a beeline for the front of the store and the safety of the checkout line.
    “What’s the Halo2 promotion for?” she asked the cashier as she swiped her ATM card through the reader.
    The woman shrugged as she bagged the items. “They don’t tell me anything.”
    Jana was about to say that the man was a bit of a stalker, and a little too into the role-playing for his own good, but she’d hate to see him get in trouble if this was something he needed to do for the money.
    Jana worked hard, maybe to the sacrifice of what was commonly known as a life, but she worked out of a passion to serve, not for the money. Fortune had been kind to the Jaspers, and because of that, she felt she owed something back to society. Her circumstances were fortunate, yes, yet she never forgot that others didn’t have it as easy as she did.
    Maybe she was making too big of a deal out of this. Stress had probably magnified the situation. He was a guy in costume, someone she’d met and didn’t remember, and he wanted to flirt. That’s all. On any other night, she’d have probably flirted back.
    Jana grabbed the groceries and walked out into the night air. Fog had covered more of the sky. The