Warrior Alpha (Alpha 6)

by Carole Mortimer

  And she really didn’t need to think about that now. To imagine that hard and naked body as the rivulets of water cascaded over every delicious inch of him.

  The thoughts came anyway. Came? They flooded Daisy’s head like an avalanche.

  Nikolai’s wet hair slicked back from his face. The spray of the water beating down on his shoulders and chest. Would he have hair on his chest? Of course he would. A slightly darker blond in color, she would guess, and shaped like a vee at his nipples down the firmness of his abs and down to his groin. Would his cock have been erect? And if it was, would Nikolai have taken himself in hand to gently pump that hardness, the pumping becoming faster, firmer, as his pleasure grew and he—

  Oh God.

  Daisy had given herself a serious talking-to earlier today. Reminded herself she was a professional. That she didn’t become personally involved with any of Grayson Security’s clients. An emotional distance Lijah had warned her, when she first began working for the company, would be vital to her own survival in a job as tough as theirs was. Involvement not only meant they couldn’t protect their client properly, but it also put them personally at risk, both physically and emotionally.

  None of that pep talk had mattered a damn the moment Nikolai stepped out of his apartment building and her heart had missed several beats just seeing him again.

  Maybe she did need to step away from this situation. There were two other female operatives working for Grayson Security who would be free to take on this assignment in a couple of days. Just in time to accompany Nikolai to New York.

  The thought of either of those women pretending to be Nikolai’s lover made Daisy’s stomach churn and her chest ache.

  On top of which, she had fought damned hard to prove her worth in a profession dominated by men. It would seem as if she couldn’t do that job if she now asked to be excused from Nikolai Volkov’s security detail.

  “Last night?” she answered Nikolai calmly as they walked down the hallway together, Daisy easily keeping pace with his longer strides. The club didn’t open to its members until nine o’clock, only a few employees in as yet. Compared to last night, the club seemed eerily quiet.

  He quirked a blond brow. “Rick said you excused yourself and left about two o’clock, immediately after your associate arrived with your bag of clothes and took over protection detail for the rest of the night.”

  “Ah, did you miss me—Nikolai?” she all but squeaked as she suddenly found herself pushed into what seemed to be the ladies’ powder room.

  The dimmer lighting in here made it difficult to see anything but Nikolai as he pressed her up against the wall. Her hands were held captive above her head by one of his as he molded the hard length of his body against her softer curves, the expression on his face bordering on feral.

  She certainly hadn’t seen this coming.

  Daisy blinked up at him, afraid to speak or attempt to move, as she saw the dangerous glitter of his eyes and the almost savage expression on his face.

  “Don’t ever play that game with me,” he advised coldly. “I guarantee you’ll lose.”

  Daisy believed him. She might have gotten the better of this man early yesterday morning in the darkened alley, and purely by the element of surprise, but one glance at the grimness of Nikolai’s expression now was enough to tell her he wouldn’t allow her to surprise him again. In any way, shape, or form.

  She had played a dangerous game with a wolf last night, and now he was letting her know that if he chose to play again in future, he would be the one making the rules.

  She moistened the dryness of her lips before answering him. “You more than made your point last night.” Her tone was deliberately even.

  He arched blond brows. “That point being?”

  “That I have a job to do, and in future, I assure you I will do that job to the best of my ability. No more games, Nikolai,” she added softly. “From either of us.”

  Nikolai stared down at her wordlessly for several long frustrating seconds, barely holding back a groan as his gaze flickered down and remained on the fullness of her lips. Lips he had yet to kiss. His hands had been all over her the night before, inside her, and yet he hadn’t tasted her lips yet.

  Yet?

  He wasn’t going to taste any part of this woman. She was out of bounds. Off-limits. A virgin.

  And if Daisy thought he had been playing with her last night, in order to prove a point, then perhaps it was better if he left it that way. She certainly didn’t need to know how out of control he had been when he made love to her. Made love to her? He had been brutal last night, knew he would have taken Daisy right then and there on the balcony, and to hell with who might see them together, if he hadn’t thought she was a virgin.

  Nikolai released her hands abruptly to step away from her and run his hand through the thickness of his hair. Which was when he noticed their surroundings and realized exactly where he had brought her.

  Virgin or not, this woman was seriously messing with his head.

  Seriously.

  He gave a self-disgusted snort. “What are you going to do with yourself tonight while I’m working?”

  She straightened the black jacket of her trouser suit after checking her gun was still in place in the waistband at the back of her tailored trousers. “I go where you go.”

  He raised mocking brows. “Does that mean you’ve decided to move in with me tonight?”

  She frowned. “Move in with you?”

  He bared his teeth in a hard smile. “Isn’t that the plan? We hook up—which we did publicly last night. I’m apparently so besotted with you that you immediately move into my apartment with me and then accompany me to New York in two days?”

  It was the plan, Daisy acknowledged. She just hadn’t thought Nikolai would keep to it after last night.

  Nor had she needed Nikolai’s scathing tone to tell her he would never become besotted with any woman. Least of all her.

  The events of last night were enough to make her give an inner groan of despair just thinking of sleeping in Nikolai’s apartment with him. Even if they slept in separate bedrooms— They would definitely be in separate bedrooms, she corrected herself firmly.

  Even so, waking up in the morning knowing he was in the same apartment, maybe even having breakfast or lunch with him, sounded too…intimate for her liking. For her self-control, if she were honest. Pep talk be damned; this man pushed every single one of her panty-melting buttons without even trying. When Nikolai tried, as he had last night, it was even worse. Or better. Depending on your point of view.

  Her own point of view should be a completely professional one.

  Should be.

  Wasn’t.

  Daisy gave a weary sigh. “Let’s just take this one day at a time, hmm? There’s still plenty of time for me to move into your apartment.”

  “A couple of days, that’s all.”

  “Plenty of time,” she repeated firmly.

  “Hoping someone will kill me before then?” Nikolai taunted.

  She scowled. “That wasn’t even remotely funny.”

  He sobered. “It wasn’t meant to be.”

  “Good,” she snapped. “Because it wasn’t.”

  Nikolai shrugged as he opened the door for her to leave before following her out into the hallway. “You have to admit—” He broke off at the sound of a gunshot and then the doorframe beside his head exploded in a shower of splinters.

  Chapter 5

  “Down, Nikolai! I said get down, damn it!” Daisy repeated fiercely as she pulled out her gun at the same time as she pulled him down into a crouched position beside her in the recess of the doorway, making them both a smaller target before she turned to see if she could catch sight of the shooter down the end of the shadowed hallway.

  Nikolai instantly moved in front of her, which was when she noticed he’d also pulled out a gun.

  “Nikolai—”

  He fired off a shot. “Get back into the ladies’ room—”


  “You get back into the ladies’ room—”

  “We can argue semantics another time.” He turned to glare at her. “Right now, just do as you’re fucking well told!” He turned his attention back down the length of the hallway before firing off another shot.

  The protectee protecting the protector might almost have been amusing, if not for the fact someone was actually trying to kill Nikolai.

  If.

  As things stood—or crouched, in their present position—Daisy didn’t find any of this situation in the least amusing. “I was hired to protect you,” she hissed tensely, aware she had been so distracted by this man when they left the ladies’ powder room, she had failed to do her job. It wouldn’t happen again.

  “Fuck that.” Nikolai didn’t even glance at her this time, those coldly lethal silver-gray eyes remaining fixed down the hallway.

  “You—” She broke off as a volley of bullets peppered the doorframe and wall around them.

  Nikolai fired off another couple of shots, and the returning volley came to an abrupt halt. By which time, Daisy’s ears were ringing.

  “Did you get him?” she finally managed to whisper into the eerie silence.

  The whole incident had taken only a matter of seconds, but even so, Daisy felt sure that some of the other employees, who had also arrived early for a night working at Utopia, must have heard the loud exchange of bullets. The last thing she wanted was for one of them to get curious about the sudden silence and then be hurt when they came to see what was going on. Or worse.

  “Winged him, I think. Bastard kept himself mostly hidden.” Anger burned coldly through Nikolai as he continued to keep his narrowed gaze, and his gun, turned in the direction of the shadowed hallway.

  Someone—one of Petrov’s men, no doubt—had not only come into the sanctity of his workplace in order to kill him, but they hadn’t cared if they killed Daisy in the crossfire. Because they thought she was his girlfriend or because they knew she was his bodyguard? Somehow, Nikolai didn’t think the shooter particularly cared who she was, as long as they succeeded in killing him. She would just be collateral damage. And that was fucking unforgiveable. Taking him out was one thing; killing an innocent bystander was something else totally.

  “We need to move.” Daisy touched his arm to gain his attention. “If he’s playing possum, then we’re still too much of a target out here in the hallway.”

  “You’re staying put until I know for certain he’s either down or gone—”

  “Whilst I appreciate your concern—”

  “Appreciate what the hell you want, you still aren’t going anywhere.” The shooter had been quiet for so long now, Nikolai was pretty sure he’d gone, but until he knew for certain, he wasn’t letting Daisy out of his sight. “You stay here, I’m going down the hallway to check.”

  “I don’t think you understand—”

  “What I understand is that someone just tried to kill us both.” He turned on her fiercely. “I intend to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

  “That’s what I’m paid to do!”

  “And tonight you’ve more than earned your wage. Now stay out of the way and let me deal with this.” Nikolai didn’t wait to hear any more protests from Daisy as he straightened, hugging the shadows of the wall as he began to make his way slowly down the hallway.

  Daisy didn’t know whether she wanted to hit Nikolai over the head with something or just tie him up so that he couldn’t stop her from doing her job. Either way, she wanted Nikolai immobilized.

  Safe.

  And that was certainly a thought for another time.

  Right now, her priority was to protect a client of Grayson Security.

  A client who happened to be a pigheaded, macho, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch—

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Nikolai hissed furiously as Daisy caught up with him and then moved past him.

  “Protecting you,” she answered distractedly, eyes fixed on the gloom at the end of the hallway where the shooter had last fired from.

  “If— When we get out of here,” Nikolai rasped, “I am going to take great delight in warming your backside to such a degree you won’t be able to bear wearing even that scrap of black lace against your smarting skin, let alone sit down for the next few days!”

  And that was most definitely a thought for another time.

  Although the idea of Nikolai’s hand spanking her bottom was enough to cause a sudden uncomfortable—and arousing?—warmth between her thighs.

  Surely she wouldn’t actually enjoy—

  “I would appreciate it if you would try to discourage her from killing me, Nikolai...?” Gregori Markovic’s voice now spoke dryly from the darkness in front of them. “I heard the shooting, but by the time I got out of my car, the shooter had disappeared,” he added as he stepped out into the hallway, hands held high to show the gun he was holding was aimed up at the ceiling.

  Were all these Russians armed?

  Daisy had a license to carry her own weapon. She had a feeling Gregori and Nikolai didn’t bother with such niceties.

  The speculative expression in Gregori’s gaze told her that he had also heard the last comment Nikolai made to her.

  Color warmed her cheeks as she turned away to return her gun to the waistband of her trousers, at the same time as she avoided glancing directly at either man. “Did you at least get a look at him?” She didn’t intend to acknowledge Gregori’s comment with a reply in regard to her “killing him” by mistake.

  The owner of Utopia gave a vague shake of his head as he first lowered his gun and then returned it to a holster beneath his tailored jacket. “What I did find was a blood trail leading out into the alley at the back of the building. Good shooting, Miss Redmond.”

  She glanced at Nikolai, only to turn quickly away again as she saw how angry he was. The sort of anger that seared like cold ice; his eyes were glacial, the skin taut across his high cheekbones, his mouth a thin uncompromising line. “Mr. Volkov is the good shot, not me,” she finally managed gruffly.

  Gregori gave a hard smile. “I suggest the two of you go and wait upstairs for me in my office, and we’ll continue this conversation there. I just need to talk to the manager and get him to…deal with this before the club opens.” He glanced ruefully at the bullet holes in the walls and doorframe.

  “You still intend opening Utopia tonight?” Daisy frowned.

  He raised dark brows. “But of course.”

  She gave Nikolai another glance beneath lowered lashes, very aware he hadn’t spoken so much as a word since issuing that threat about “spanking her backside.” Because he was still so angry with her, he was incapable of speech?

  He appeared calm enough. Unnaturally so. Scarily so, when she took into account those cold and glittering eyes and the stillness of that powerful body.

  Nor did she think he would be of any use in helping her to persuade Gregori not to open Utopia tonight. She had a feeling that anything she suggested right now Nikolai would veto, just to be bloody-minded. Because he was so angry with her.

  For doing her job, she reminded herself.

  His continued silence as they went up in the lift together and along the hallway to Gregori’s office grated on her already jangling nerves. The fact that he had stood back politely to let her step into the lift first, and that he now did the same when they reached Gregori’s office, in no way lessened his unnatural stillness.

  Daisy sighed. “Look—”

  “I would prefer you not speak to me right now.” He disappeared into what appeared to be an adjoining bathroom.

  He left the door open, so he obviously didn’t want privacy in there. And he had to be kidding about her not speaking. Hadn’t he? He didn’t seem particularly playful, admittedly, but there was no way he could be serious.

  “I was doing my job—”

  “I said you will remain silent.” Nikolai scowled grimly as he came back into the office carrying a towel in his hand.

  “I mos
t certainly will not—”

  “You will if you don’t want Gregori to enter his office and find you draped bare assed over my knee.” Nikolai’s voice was no less forceful for being dangerously soft. “Now sit the fuck down!”

  It was testament to how bemused Daisy was by his behavior that she actually sat.

  He really was serious about that spanking.

  And her reaction to it was so totally wrong.

  Her breasts shouldn’t ache, and her nipples shouldn’t tingle just thinking about it. And she certainly shouldn’t have that flood of juices—

  “Are your panties wet?”

  She gave Nikolai a sharp glance. “What?”

  He returned her gaze mockingly. “I asked if your panties are wet? At the thought of being spanked. Your nipples are certainly aroused by the idea.”

  “They are not—” Daisy broke off after glancing down at her breasts and seeing that her nipples were visibly aroused as they pressed against the soft material of her green blouse. “That’s just the adrenaline. Created by the danger of the shooting.” Her chin tilted defensively.

  “Keep telling yourself that.” He nodded knowingly.

  Was it possible to physically want someone and dislike them at the same time? Because Daisy really, really disliked Nikolai at that moment.

  Because he was right, her nipples were aroused and her panties were wet.

  “What are you going to do with that towel?” she prompted warily as he walked softly toward her.

  He raised one blond brow. “What do you think I’m going to do with it?”

  “I have no idea,” she answered honestly. Strangle her, seemed the logical choice, considering his mood.

  He sighed. “You have blood on your neck.”

  “I do?” She tentatively raised one of her hands.

  “Other side,” Nikolai rasped as he tilted her head to the left to bare the right side of her throat. “I don’t think it’s serious.” He sounded distracted as he gently dabbed at Daisy’s throat with a damp part of the towel. “Probably a shard of wood caught you when the doorframe splintered. It’s just a scratch.” He gazed down at her through narrowed lids. “You’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”