Midnight Alpha

by Carole Mortimer

  “I’m beginning to wish that I was!” he glowered. “Now if you will excuse me, I am going to bed. Turn off the lights in here when you go back upstairs.”

  Gaia waited until he reached the open doorway before speaking again. “What’s it called?”

  “What is what called?” He frowned impatiently as he turned to face her.

  “The music you were playing, what’s it called?”

  His eyes narrowed. “What makes you think it has a title?”

  She laughed softly. “You’re a very precise and ordered man, of course it has a title!”

  Gregori wasn’t feeling either of those things at this moment.

  Gaia looked…disheveled, as if she had just gotten out of bed. Which she had, of course. Her hair was tousled, face bare of make-up, the short robe and nightshirt she wore revealing the length of her bare legs and clearly outlining the curvy body beneath. The naked body beneath.

  And despite what he’d said—mocked—earlier, picking Gaia up in his arms and carrying her off to his bed before making love to her for hours was precisely what Gregori wanted to do right now.

  Something Gaia was going to become aware of too if she happened to glance down at the front of his trousers.

  He was sure this constant state of arousal couldn’t be normal. Maybe when he was a teenager, but not in a grown man of thirty-six. The solution was the same, of course, either a fifteen-minute cold shower or the use of his right hand. Neither of which held much appeal.

  “‘Midnight’,” he bit out tersely. “The music is called ‘Midnight’.”

  “Just ‘Midnight’?”

  He sighed his impatience. “Just ‘Midnight’.”

  “Okay.”

  “Just okay?” he taunted.

  “Yes.”

  Gregori didn’t quite trust this uncharacteristic acceptance from Gaia. She questioned, pushed and poked at everything. She never just accepted.

  And he had spent quite long enough already tonight trying to understand or work out what Gaia was or wasn’t doing. “I’m going to bed,” he sighed wearily. “I advise that you do the same, because the motion sensors are going to come on in the rest of the house the moment I close my bedroom door.”

  “Then don’t close your bedroom door.”

  Gregori’s eyes narrowed on her searchingly, looking for some hidden meaning in her expression.

  Was he mistaken, or had she just invited herself to his bedroom?

  Mistaken or otherwise, it wasn’t an invitation he could accept.

  It had taken every ounce of willpower he possessed not to follow his instincts and make love to her in the car earlier, and if he gave in to his desire for her now then he might as well not have put himself through that earlier agony.

  And it had been agony, every nerve, muscle and sinew in his body wanting to possess, to take, only to be told no.

  He had spent the next four hours at Utopia making everyone pay for that self-denial with the cold edge of his tongue.

  He couldn’t give in to that desire now, needed to keep all of his senses alert for the danger that still threatened. If Nikolai didn’t track Ivan Orlov down soon then Gregori would fly to Las Vegas himself and rip the city apart until he found the other man. Usually a patient, controlled man, Gregori had reached his saturation point, and he knew he wouldn’t—couldn’t—remain in control for too much longer.

  “I don’t think so,” he dismissed hardly. “Goodnight, Miss Miller.” He left the room without giving her the chance to speak again.

  “I said no,” Gregori repeated firmly as he sat behind his desk at Utopia three evenings later. “Absolutely not.” He directed his scowl of displeasure to the group before him. Gaia and Nikolai stood closest, their expressions frustrated in response to his words, and Lijah Smith sat a few feet away, slouched in a chair with his booted feet on Gregori’s desk.

  There was no way he would allow the plan the three of them had just proposed to him.

  Which meant that Gaia had been spending far too much time with the other two men.

  Admittedly, it was under his instruction that Nikolai and Lijah had been taking turns personally guarding Gaia, but he hadn’t intended for the three of them to form some sort of alliance. He certainly hadn’t meant for them to team up with this unacceptable plan.

  A plan in which Gaia would go down alone amongst the staff and members of Utopia, offering herself up as bait. The idea was for Nikolai and Lijah to follow her progress closely on the security monitors in Gregori’s office, and if there was a wrong move made by anyone, or she was approached by someone who looked suspicious, they would step in before any harm was done.

  Gregori considered the idea to be reckless at best and dangerous at worst, when there was no guarantee that Nikolai or Lijah would reach Gaia’s side in time to prevent her from coming to harm.

  It was also a plan Gregori was almost certain was Gaia’s: it bore all the hallmarks of her previous reckless behavior.

  That she had somehow persuaded Nikolai and Lijah into backing this latest madness only made Gregori even angrier. “Your job is to protect Miss Miller,” he included both men in his censorious frown. “Not collaborate in something that would deliberately put her in danger.”

  “I won’t be in any danger—”

  “You have no way of knowing that,” Gregori silenced Gaia harshly. “I’ve allowed you to accompany me to Utopia the past two nights, against my better judgment I might add, and that is an end to your involvement in all of this.”

  ‘All of this’ still unfortunately consisted of the elusive Ivan Orlov, who had possibly gone completely rogue by invading Gregori’s territory seeking vengeance for the death of his son. Along with the continued steady influx of drugs into Utopia, despite Nikolai and Lijah’s joint effort to try and prevent it. Whoever was doing this was being very clever about it. So far the two security men had managed to ascertain that the drugs weren’t actually being sold inside the club, only contact being made with the supplier while the drugs were distributed elsewhere, which explained why Nikolai had been having such a problem for so long.

  “You’ve only allowed me to ‘accompany you to Utopia’, as you so graciously put it,” Gaia answered him dryly, “because the first night you left me sitting alone in your house twiddling my thumbs I set off the alarm five times trying to get out!” she reminded challengingly.

  Yes, she had—deliberately—and Gregori’s first instinct had been to put her over his knee and spank her. Hard. Except he had known exactly what that would lead to. And that it would be no punishment at all when they would both enjoy it too much.

  “The answer is still no.” Gregori stood up restlessly.

  “Nikolai?” Gaia looked at him appealingly. “Lijah?” She encouraged the other man.

  Nikolai gave a sigh. “Gregori, Gaia’s old enough to—”

  “No.”

  “I agree with Nikolai, Gaia’s a big girl, Markovic, and we’re running out of options here—”

  “I said no.” The coldness of Gregori’s stare was enough to silence both men. “And since when did the three of you become so damned familiar with each other it has now become ‘Nikolai this’, and ‘Lijah that’ and ‘Gaia’ to both of you?” He included them all in the rake of his chilling gaze.

  Gaia gave a snort. “Only you insist on continuing to call me Miss Miller.”

  Yes, he did. Originally it had been in an effort to maintain the formalities between the two of them, now it had simply become a form of self-defense.

  This woman was now living in his house with him, ate dinner with him every evening, and accompanied him to Utopia every night. He needed some way of keeping her at a distance, if only verbally.

  “Besides which,” Gaia continued stubbornly. “If I can call you Gregori then I can certainly call the two of them Nikolai and Lijah.”

  His eyes narrowed. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, you are who you are,” Gaia made a sweeping gesture in his d
irection. “And the three of us are just your minions.” She had spent far more time with the other two men these past few days than she had with Gregori. As such there was no way she was going to insist on them calling her Miss Miller any more than she intended on being formal with the two of them.

  “Speak for yourself,” Lijah glanced at her teasingly, those indigo-colored eyes gleaming with amusement from beneath his Stetson.

  “Same here,” Nikolai drawled dryly.

  “You will both—”

  “We’re getting away from the point here, Gregori,” Gaia interrupted him impatiently. “Nikolai and Lijah have made some progress, admittedly, but putting an end to this isn’t happening anywhere near quickly enough for my liking.” She was tired of living in a house with a man who, for the main part, ignored her existence.

  Oh she knew exactly why Gregori had retreated back behind his icy walls of formality, had expected it. That night, when she discovered him playing the piano so beautifully—that music still haunted her in her dreams—she had seen even more deeply into the man Gregori really was. Sensitive. Emotional. For him to behave any other way towards her after that night would have been an admission of those emotions.

  She had no choice but to accept his coldness and indifference, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been trying to think of ways to end this torment, for both of them.

  As for her ‘familiarity’ with Nikolai and Lijah: she’d needed to be able to have a normal conversation with someone.

  “I want to get back to my life, Gregori,” she reasoned wearily. “To be able to move back to my apartment, to go where I want and be with whom I want. As much as I know you want me out of your house and your life,” she added derisively.

  Gregori felt a jolt of—of what? Surprise? Shock? At the thought of Gaia no longer being in the house when he left late in the morning or when he returned in the evenings for dinner? He had, he realized, become far too accustomed to having her there.

  Well he would just have to become unaccustomed. And the sooner the better.

  But not, absolutely not, as was now being proposed, at the price of Gaia deliberately placing herself in danger.

  “What I want or don’t want is of no relevance,” he answered her coolly. “Once we find Ivan—”

  “If you find him,” Gaia cut in pointedly. “I’m starting to wonder if the man even exists.”

  “Oh he exists,” Gregori assured grimly. “You have already been shot once under his instruction.” The graze on Gaia’s cheek no longer needed a dressing, and was healing nicely, but even so it would probably leave a slight scar.

  As a reminder—if Gaia should need one—of the brief time she spent with Gregori Markovic.

  “And enough people have already been hurt by the sale of drugs,” he continued determinedly, “that the mere idea of you deliberately attempting to draw out the person responsible, by making yourself a sitting target with no guarantee it will even work, is pure madness. Unless you have a death wish?” he challenged hardly as Gaia would have protested. “Is that what this is about? Do you want to end up dead like your sister?”

  “Gregori—”

  “Markovic—”

  “You both know I’m right.” Gregori’s glare silenced the two men’s protests. He didn’t care what it took, coldness or cruelty: he was not going to allow Gaia to put herself in danger. She could hate him all she liked, as long as she remained safe. “This…person involved in the drug infiltration may have killed once to protect his secret, and if that should be the case then I don’t believe he will hesitate to do so again if he feels he is being trapped into a corner.”

  Gaia accepted that Gregori had a point. She was just so frustrated with the limbo she was expected to live in at the moment. Bad enough that her life had been put on hold, but wanting him as she still did made it sheer torture to live in Gregori’s house with him, day after day, night after night.

  But for Gregori to now suggest that she wanted to end up dead like her sister was beyond cruel. She just wanted justice for her sister’s death—was that too much to ask?

  As far as Gregori was concerned, yes.

  She also knew there was no way that Nikolai or Lijah would go against his decision. If she had learned nothing else these past few days it was that whatever Gregori Markovic dictated, essentially became law.

  Which didn’t mean she couldn’t try and do something about this on her own—

  “The two of you will continue to guard Miss Miller. Closely,” he now told the two men firmly, as if he had guessed Gaia’s intentions. “And you,” he turned to Gaia, “will do exactly as you are told!” He didn’t wait for her reply as he turned abruptly on his heel and left the office.

  “Arrogant bastard!” Gaia’s eyes stung with unshed tears as she watched Gregori stride out of the room.

  “He is,” Nikolai nodded unconcernedly. “He’s also the best friend a man could ever have. The most loyal son—”

  “The most loving and protective brother,” Lijah put in mildly.

  “A far better and fairer leader of the Markovic family than his father ever was,” Nikolai continued. “I’m guessing also the best lover?” He quirked a mocking brow at Gaia.

  Who immediately felt the rush of heated color in her cheeks as the two men now looked at her speculatively.

  “I see that he is,” Nikolai nodded.

  “Stop embarrassing me,” she muttered self-consciously.

  He shrugged. “I didn’t say any of those things to embarrass you.”

  “Then what is your point?” she prompted impatiently.

  “That while Gregori is being all of those things to all those people, he doesn’t have a whole lot of room for Gregori the man,” Nikolai spoke quietly.

  The man who wrote beautiful, haunting music.

  The man who played that music with the same poignant, inner sadness it had been written with.

  The man who had no laughter or love in his life.

  The same man who subjugated his own needs in favor of everyone else’s.

  Gaia shook her head. “His life is so full of responsibilities already there’s no room left for anything else.”

  “Oh there is,” Lijah nodded. “He just hasn’t found the right balance yet. Correction, he hasn’t had any reason to find the balance yet. Dair found that balance through loving Kat,” he explained at Gaia’s questioning glance. “Dair’s cousin Lucien found it with Nicky. The love of a good woman has been known to redeem even the worst of us,” he assured dryly.

  Gaia gave a snort. “Is that why you and Nikolai are both still single?”

  Lijah shrugged. “I haven’t found my good woman yet.”

  “I thought most men wanted a bad woman?” she teased, more than a little uncomfortable with the intimate turn in conversation.

  “Only in the bedroom,” Nikolai taunted.

  Whatever these two men thought was between her and Gregori, it certainly wasn’t love… Or at least the love wasn’t mutual.

  Gaia didn’t fool herself any longer in regard to what she felt for Gregori.

  She was deeply and irrevocably in love with him.

  Chapter 15

  “I’m on a ten-minute break, feel like some wine and company?”

  Gaia looked up from the book she had been trying to read as she sat alone on the couch in the corner of Gregori’s office.

  The same office where just days ago she had tried to fool Gregori into believing she was under his desk looking for a lost hairpin. What had she been thinking! She hadn’t thought, was the answer to that question. She also hadn’t known Gregori at the time…

  As she had guessed, Nikolai and Lijah had refused to oppose Gregori’s decision, and he hadn’t come back to the office at all after walking out so impatiently earlier.

  Nikolai had disappeared about fifteen minutes ago to check in with his security guards who were strategically placed around the nightclub and casino, and then Lijah had also been called downstairs to help deal with some sort o
f fracas on the dance floor.

  She smiled at Rick as he stood in the doorway holding up a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Have you been sent to babysit?” she prompted as she put the book aside.

  “I wish someone would tell me what the hell is going on,” Rick gave a grimace as he walked over and placed the two glasses on top of Gregori’s desk before pouring the white wine into them. “There seem to be fights breaking out in one part of the club or another almost every week now,” he crossed the room to hand her one of the two glasses. “Gregori is so tense he looks ready to snap. One of my best waitresses is hidden away up here in the boss’s office every night,” he toasted her before taking a sip of the wine. “Nikolai is doing his crouching wolf thing—”

  “I thought it was crouching tiger?” Gaia chuckled before sipping the delicious chilled wine.

  “Whatever,” Rick dismissed. “And as for that guy Lijah…” He gave a grimace as he perched his hip against the edge of Gregori’s desk. “I saw him go through to the nightclub a few minutes ago. That is one dangerous dude I wouldn’t want to meet alone in an alley, day or night.”

  Gaia gave another chuckle—there was a distinctly dangerous edge to Lijah Smith, no matter how laid back he might wish to appear in his ultra-casual clothing.

  “I’m guessing you didn’t get that graze on your cheek from falling down the stairs, either?” Rick eyed her shrewdly.

  Gaia knew that was the story Gregori had chosen to tell both Rick and Claude, as a way of covering the obvious graze on her cheek and the fact that she still hadn’t returned to work. Not very original, but then she doubted Gregori had ever felt the need to offer an explanation for his actions before.

  She gave a dismissive shrug. “This wine is delicious.”

  “Not talking, huh,” Rick accepted good-naturedly.

  “Nothing to tell,” she assured brightly. “Is everyone well and back at work now?”

  “Apart from my best waitress, yes.”

  Gaia gave a mock bow. “I’ll be back next week once…once the doctor has signed me off as fit to work again.” Once Gregori stopped doing his own crouching tiger thing!