The first halfway decent guy to come along in eons...and he's from another planet. Private Investigator Brooke Weaver hopes she can slip into her Oregon hometown, find her client's missing teenage daughter, and be on her way again before anyone notices. Not likely. Within forty-eight hours she encounters her ex-fiance, the three dirty cops she testified against, and a drop-dead gorgeous FBI agent hunting a gigantic, mutated spider. He's the hottest thing with muscles she's seen in a long time, but he keeps making strange references like "your planet," and "my home-world." To make matters worse, he expects her to lead him into the sewers to find his escaped creature. Brooke doesn't want any part of giant insects from South America or secret agents or very dark, haunted sewer tunnels. Most of all, she wants no part of her dying hometown and the ghosts she left buried here. But a sexy hunk in a clingy shirt, she might consider a small part of. By saving her world, he saves her life. Interplanetary Alliance Lieutenant Jager Tolon is hunting the vicious Black Tetra, a parasitic man-eater that crashed to earth in an unmanned pod after escaping the ship it annihilated. Jager pursues the creature into an empty building and is about to kill it when a meddling woman warrior shoots it with a crude earth weapon, sending the creature fleeing. But not only is the earth woman strong and courageous, she is the most beautiful female he's ever seen, and he can't stay mad at her long. Forbidden to marry or even dally while on leave, he does not yearn for what he cannot have, but Brooke stirs a need in him so primal he's powerless to resist. She's free to love and marry as she chooses, yet has not. Dare he hope she had been waiting for someone better? During their brief time together, Jager allows himself to imagine Brooke as his own, even as he knows they can never be. Dubbed "The Lost Finder," Private Investigator Brooke Weaver makes her living finding the missing: kidnapped children, runaway teens, and adults who've hit rock-bottom. Having lost her first client to a drug dealer's bullet, she's vowed never again to bring home a family's loved one in a body bag. Unfortunately her latest case has put her up against elements she's never dreamed possible; a mutated spider from outer space who wants to eat the teenager Brooke has been hired to find, and a drop-dead gorgeous interstellar bounty hunter who tells her she only has 24 hours remaining before the missing girl becomes "hatchling" food. Pamela Fryer is a Golden Heart Award winner, an Eppie Award nominee, and the recipient of a Top Pick review from Romantic Times."