Shadow Alpha

by Carole Mortimer

  Which was a good time to change the subject. “Are you ready to speak to Gregori now?”

  Some of the glow left Kat’s eyes. “I would like to talk to Gregori, of course I would. But first…” She chewed her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Dair’s eyes narrowed at this visible sign of increased tension. “Yes?”

  Kat gave a shake of her head. “Can you…hold off telling Gregori all of the details about my…my stay at the clinic, until you and I have had a chance to talk?”

  “We can talk before putting the call through to him—”

  “I’d rather put Gregori’s mind at ease first.”

  “At which time I’m guessing you don’t intend telling him anything that happened to you,” Dair guessed impatiently. “The fact that Sergei had you locked away. The unnecessary medication. The being strapped to your chair. The complete lack of fucking privacy.” His voice had grown harder and harder with anger at each statement of fact.

  “I don’t think too much of that went on at the clinic!”

  “Kat…!”

  She gave a heavy sigh. “You don’t have any sisters, do you, Dair.”

  He stood up restlessly. “If I did you can be sure I would never have let them marry an animal like Sergei Orlov!”

  Kat winced. “That had nothing to do with Gregori. You have to understand, Dair,” she looked up at him pleadingly. “My father was, above all things, the head of the Markovic family. His actions were always made for the good of all the family, rather than the individual—”

  “Including his own daughter?”

  “Yes.” She sighed. “An alliance, through marriage, between the Markovic and the Orlov families, benefitted everyone concerned.”

  “Except you.” A nerve pulsed in Dair’s tightly clenched jaw. “You were just the sacrificial lamb.”

  “Yes,” Kat could now barely speak past the dryness in her throat.

  Dair paused beside her chair to reach out and cup his hand beneath her chin, lifting her face up so that he could look at her directly. The happiness no longer shone in those dark eyes, and Kat’s skin was so pale it was almost translucent.

  He gave a shake of his head. “In the five years you were married to Sergei, did you even have one moment of happiness with him?”

  She visibly flinched at the question. “With him? No,” she answered without hesitation. “Because of him? Oh yes. I wanted my baby very much, Dair.” Tears now glistened on those glossy black lashes.

  “Even with Sergei as its father?” Dair didn’t want to hurt Kat, even with his words, but he simply didn’t seem able to stop himself. Just the thought of that animal laying one finger on Kat was enough to make him feel like hitting something. And Sergei had obviously laid more than a finger on her.

  “Even then.” Kat nodded, those tears now making silver tracks down her cheeks.

  There was no way, absolutely no fucking way that Dair wanted to keep the truth from Gregori Markovic concerning the way Kat had been treated these past two months. He could delay telling him, if that’s what Kat wanted for now, but eventually he was going to make sure Gregori knew exactly what his little sister had suffered through.

  “What’s going on, Kat?” he demanded harshly. “What part of this puzzle am I missing?”

  Her gaze avoided meeting his, despite the fact that he was still holding her chin firmly in his hand. “I need to speak to Gregori. I—perhaps you shouldn’t talk to him just now, if you have a problem with not telling him everything?”

  Dair glared down at her. “The Orlovs were supposed to be looking after you, cherishing you, and instead—damn it, Kat!” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

  “Please, Dair.” She looked up at him appealingly.

  Damn those liquid dark eyes! “And just what am I supposed to be doing that prevents me from talking to Gregori? We’re on a jet plane, Kat, not out on a fucking shopping trip!”

  She flinched at his impatience. “I could tell him you’re busy in the cockpit with Lijah?”

  Dair hated the tremor of uncertainty he could hear in Kat’s voice. Hated anything that took away the glow of happiness that had been in her eyes just minutes ago. Which, in this case, happened to be him.

  But he had never liked puzzles when he was a kid, and he hated them even more as an adult. And Katya ‘Kat’ Markovic Orlov was nothing but a puzzle to him.

  Which was no excuse for hurting her. What the hell did it matter whether or not he spoke to Gregori now or later, when there was going to be a bloody war once he had? The important thing for now was that Kat was safe, and for the moment that was all Gregori needed to know.

  “Okay, you win, for now.” He nodded tersely as he released her before straightening. “I’ll leave you to make your call.” He handed her his cell phone. “As you suggested, I’ll be up in the cockpit with Lijah. Let me know when you’ve finished talking to Gregori.”

  He needed some time away from Kat, anyway, to consider the way he had responded to the kisses she had given him when they first boarded the plane…

  Because the adrenaline after a battle was no longer pumping through his veins—and Dair still wanted to fuck her.

  Chapter 5

  “An island in the Caribbean?” Kat repeated doubtfully after Dair returned and told her where they were going.

  “A private island in the Caribbean,” Dair confirmed as he resumed his seat, legs splayed in relaxation.

  “Does it have a name?”

  “It does, yes.” He pointedly didn’t offer to tell her that name. “I can tell you it’s owned by a subsidiary company of Wynter Enterprises,” he offered instead. “Which in turn is owned by Lucien Wynter.”

  Kat’s eyes widened; she—and most of the western world—had heard of the reclusive billionaire Lucien Wynter. “Is he a friend of yours?”

  “Surprised, huh?” Dair smiled.

  A genuine, heart-stopping smile that caused Kat’s breath to catch in her throat.

  “You know him too, Kat,” he chuckled. “But as my cousin Lucien Montgomery.”

  She frowned. “He disappeared the same time you did…”

  His jaw tightened. “We didn’t disappear, Kat, we just decided we’d had enough of that life.”

  “Where did you go?” she prompted curiously.

  “Here and there,” Dair answered evasively. “We split up after a couple of months.” The couple of months Dair had needed to recover from two gunshot wounds, one to his temple, one to his back. “I, as you’ve already guessed,” he gave a mocking inclination of his head, “went into the military, and Lucien went to New York.”

  “Lucien has been in New York this whole time?”

  Dair shook his head. “The two of you probably only overlapped for about six months; he returned to London four and a half years ago now, which is when I took over as head of his security.” That particular move had been a case of mutual self-preservation.

  The Montgomery family had almost as many enemies as the Orlov family, and Dair was still a part of that family whether he liked it or not, and London was not the safest place for Lucien or him, even if it was the place they called home.

  “So you’re in security now?” Kat gave a nod, as if that explained how Dair had rescued her today.

  Dair wasn’t just ‘in security’, he was at the cutting edge of it. His years in the military had also ensured he was a sniper. Among other things.

  He gave a dismissive shrug. “Soon after Lucien moved to New York he changed his name and discovered he had a natural aptitude for playing the stock market.” An aptitude that had resulted in Dair investing his own money, which allowed him to set up his security company when he quit the army. Now he was almost as rich as his billionaire cousin. He certainly didn’t need to work anymore, but he had never found anything that fascinated him as much as his work did now, and at thirty-three he was too damned young to retire anyway.

  He liked what he did. Rescuing little sisters from places like Harmony View Clinic was the
least of it; Dair had been personally involved in successfully resolving two kidnappings and an assassination attempt during the past year alone. Well, successful for the victims, not so much for the people who had carried out those kidnappings and the attempted assassination.

  Rescuing Kat certainly ranked up there as being one of the more enjoyable of his missions.

  Dair could still feel the softness of her lips against his from when she had kissed him. Knew that the time Kat had spent in the bathroom had changed nothing; he still wanted to fuck her. Not just once, but many times. Over and over again, until they were both too exhausted to walk let alone talk.

  Kat felt self-conscious under the steadiness of Dair’s enigmatic gaze, had absolutely no idea what he was thinking about as he looked at her so intently.

  He certainly couldn’t have been thinking the same thing as she was, which was that the longer she spent with Dair the more she wanted him. She knew instinctively there would be nothing vanilla about Dair’s lovemaking; it would be down and dirty, and toe-curlingly, deliciously wicked.

  And Kat wanted it. Wanted him, and the mindless, overwhelming pleasure he was capable of giving her. Just thinking about having those big, capable hands touching her, stroking her, inside her, was enough to make her nipples peak and tighten; she had found that her panties were damp when she undressed earlier for her shower, and the warm rush of want between her thighs now had just made them even damper—

  “How did your call go with Gregori?”

  Kat felt as if she’d just had a bucket of ice water thrown over her. Not because of her conversation with Gregori—her brother had been too pleased at being able to speak with her at last to press her too deeply for details. Yet.

  But thinking of her brother had certainly given her a reality check, and in that reality there was no way her attraction to Dair was going anywhere. Not even as far as the adjoining bedroom.

  “He obviously trusts you,” she answered Dair’s question cautiously.

  Dair raised a mocking brow. “And you don’t?”

  Kat had found it difficult to trust anyone during the five years she had lived in New York, and with good reason. The Orlovs were feared more than they were liked, and Kat was considered as being a member of that family. Not a situation conducive to forming friendships, let alone trust.

  But she had no reason to distrust Dair, the opposite, in fact. “I trust Gregori’s judgment,” once again her reply was guarded; wanting to have sex with a man didn’t mean that she trusted him.

  Dair gave a humorless smile. “Risking my own life breaking you out of that clinic today wasn’t enough to convince you I’m one of the good guys, hmm?”

  Kat felt a guilty blush warm her cheeks. Dair had put himself in danger when he broke into the clinic and took her out of there. More so than he realized. Just as she knew that if someone hadn’t gotten her out of that clinic soon, then Sergei would have tried using even stronger tactics to make her do what he wanted. And if that had failed…

  Kat gave a shudder; she really didn’t want to think about what might have happened next.

  “I’m very grateful for what you did,” she answered Dair. “I’ve said that I am. I just—I don’t know you. You’re nothing at all like the Dair Grayson I remember.” This Dair, in his black clothing and heavy military style boots and that short haircut, was so overwhelmingly male, and Kat had the feeling he would look just as lethal in a tux. No matter what he wore—or didn’t wear, for that matter—the man Dair was now was over six feet of sex on legs.

  That pale gaze moved over her with sweeping intensity. “You don’t look or act much like the little Katya I remember, either.”

  Kat blushed at the criticism she sensed in his tone. “I was fifteen years old and had a crush on you a mile wide!”

  One brow arched in surprise. “You did?”

  “Oh please!” She eyed him irritably. “Only a blind man could have missed it.”

  Dair hadn’t exactly been blind, just completely caught up in his relationship with Karin McLeer. And Kat had had a crush on him then? Not that he would have been interested, even if he had known about it. At fifteen Kat had been jailbait. But he really hadn’t known, had just thought of Kat as a little puppy that followed him around whenever the two of them met.

  Newsflash, Dair, Kat isn’t fifteen anymore.

  No, she wasn’t, but she was still Sergei Orlov’s estranged wife and the sister of Gregori Markovic.

  Had Gregori known of his little sister’s crush on Dair all those years ago?

  Remembering how close the brother and sister had always been, Dair wouldn’t be in the least surprised if Gregori had known, even if he and Kat had never openly discussed it.

  Was it one of the reasons Gregori had chosen Dair to go and rescue her?

  Again, it wouldn’t surprise Dair to know that it was.

  The question was, why had he?

  Because Gregori Markovic didn’t do anything without a reason.

  “Would you mind if I went through to the bedroom and slept for a while now?”

  Would Dair mind if Kat went through to the bedroom? What he would like would be to go into that bedroom with her, and not with any idea of sleeping. “I thought the two of us were going to talk after you’d spoken to Gregori?” he reminded hardly.

  Kat’s gaze avoided meeting his. “Could it wait until later? Neither of us is going anywhere, and I could really do with a nap right now.”

  She probably could, Dair conceded; Kat’d had a pretty eventful time since being a drugged-out zombie yesterday morning. She was probably also suffering withdrawal symptoms from not taking the medications anymore.

  “Okay,” he shrugged, settling back comfortably in his chair as Kat stood up to leave. “I’ll let you know when we’re about to land.”

  “But not where?”

  “It’s better if you don’t know our exact location.”

  “Who could I tell?” she derided.

  “No one—if you don’t know.”

  Kat lingered beside her chair. “Do I take it you’ll be staying on this island with me?”

  He eyed her mockingly. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  She didn’t even know where to start on that one!

  “Not at all,” she dismissed with a lightness she was far from feeling. “Are there any other people on the island?”

  “Nope.”

  Kat swallowed at the mere idea of being alone with Dair on a Caribbean island. “No staff as caretakers?”

  “Already gone.”

  “What about Lijah?”

  “Wheels down, wheels up again the moment we’re safely on the ground.”

  “And when he gets home he won’t tell anyone where he’s been, for however many days he’s been away?”

  “Not if his life depended upon it,” Dair assured without hesitation.

  “And what if, for some reason, we need to leave the island in a hurry?”

  “Hopefully that isn’t going to happen. I have some people watching Sergei and Ivan—”

  “More of ‘yours’?”

  “As it happens, yes,” he confirmed hardly. “If either one of the Orlovs looks as if they’re even sniffing in our direction, I’ll know about it. If we did need to leave the island,” Dair continued firmly as Kat would have spoken. “Lucien has a speed boat or a helicopter we can use.”

  Kat had no hope of flying a helicopter, but she was sure she could operate the speedboat if she decided she had to make a run for it; she and Sergei had gone to the Florida Keys for their honeymoon, and she had driven a speedboat then.

  If she decided to make a run for it.

  It would be easier, in some ways, for her to just disappear before they went back to England. But England was still home, so maybe she would be better waiting until Dair thought it was safe for them to go back there before attempting to disappear.

  In the meantime, she was going to be completely alone with Dair on this unnamed island for an unspecified time.<
br />
  Long enough to explore all the possibilities…?

  Was it wrong of her to want Dair, to want just a little bit of happiness to call her own? She had married Sergei because it was the right thing to do for her family, she had stayed married to him for the same reason, only to discover it had all been a sham.

  She wasn’t even aware of licking her lips as she wondered what it would be like to break through Dair’s steely control. To rip away all his barriers and reveal the raw and powerful man beneath. A man she was sure would know how to take a woman to the heights of pleasure, and then further still.

  The shiver Kat gave, just at the thought of that, was from anticipation, not fear.

  Damn it, she was well on her way to being infatuated with Dair again.

  Did women of thirty have crushes?

  Maybe as an adult it was called lust rather than a crush?

  If so, she was certainly in lust with Dair!

  Go to bed and get some sleep, Kat, she told herself sternly. She needed to sleep now more than she needed anything else.

  More than Dair, if he decided to join her?

  Well…no, given a choice…

  She looked down at Dair as he slouched in his chair. “You fly a helicopter…?”

  He arched one brow. “Does that surprise you?”

  Nothing surprised her about this man anymore; Dair really was a modern day warrior. He could probably see through metal walls and scale tall buildings unaided as well!

  And he could have her in a heartbeat if he wanted to.

  Half a heartbeat, even.

  A quarter—

  Oh grow up, Kat, she told herself disgustedly. Why would a self-confident and utterly gorgeous man like Dair, who could have any woman he wanted, possibly be interested in a woman he had just rescued from the clinic her husband had put her in because she had supposedly had a nervous breakdown?

  He wouldn’t.

  Except…

  Kat was sure she hadn’t imagined that glitter of interest she had seen in Dair’s eyes earlier when she’d kissed him so impulsively.

  Was that before or after he pushed you away from him, that mocking voice taunted inside her head.

  Fuck off, Kat told that voice irritably before answering Dair. “Not at all,” she dismissed. “You can probably jump from an airplane without a parachute and land on your feet too.”