Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7)

by Carole Mortimer

  “There won’t be a next time,” Diana assured him between gritted teeth.

  Seth’s moods were too mercurial for her even to try to keep track of them. One minute he was mocking. The next teasing. Then businesslike. Then the next he was arousing her with such deep and passionate kisses, they made her toes curl.

  Kisses that were only meant to silence her, she reminded herself.

  She straightened her shoulders. “Okay, let’s do this.” The sooner it was over, the quicker she could get on with her life, Seth could get on with his life, and the two of them need never see each other again.

  Why was that such an unpleasant thought…?

  “Need I remind you that you’re an observer on this mission?” he snapped now.

  “I think you just did—”

  “Would the two of you shut the hell up before I decide to shoot both of you so I can get some peace!” Jonas glared at them, very tall and intimidating as he blended into the surrounding darkness.

  Seth’s mouth quirked in amusement. “Our resident Apache isn’t big on conversation.”

  Diana had noticed that as the three of them prepared and then ate dinner together. Jonas was a man of few words, but the ones he did speak were to the point.

  Which meant he was probably serious about “shooting both of you so I can get some peace.”

  Her mouth twitched, then she began to smile, and then to chuckle. “You only had to ask.”

  “I’ll never understand women,” Seth muttered in utter disgust.

  Diana’s humor disappeared as she gave him a cool glance. “I very much doubt you’ve ever tried.”

  “Save it,” Jonas rasped as Seth opened his mouth to give a pithy comeback.

  Yep, Diana was driving him totally, irrationally insane.

  As Jonas had just witnessed.

  “So what happens now?” Diana prompted once she and Seth had returned to the château.

  Seth knew what he wanted to happen now. What he had been wanting since he kissed Diana earlier.

  The coolness she had been showing toward him in the interim told him it wasn’t going to happen.

  He gave a shrug. “Jonas is staying to watch the pension tonight and he’ll call me if Eduardo comes back. Or vice versa if he should come here.”

  They had drawn a blank at the pension earlier. Apart from an overnight bag sitting on top of the bed, Eduardo’s room had been empty, the uninterested and not particularly clean man on the front desk not in the least helpful either, when he told them he didn’t ask his guests where they were going every time they went out.

  They’d all hung around in the shadows outside the pension for a while, and then Seth and Jonas had decided it was ridiculous for them all to lose a night’s sleep. The two men had flipped a coin for who would take the first watch. Jonas had lost.

  Which meant that Seth and Diana had returned to the château alone.

  And with that knowledge, the desire Seth had felt earlier tonight when he kissed her had reawakened with a vengeance. So much so that he had a raging hard-on that Diana would be able to see if she looked at him closely. Which she didn’t show any signs of doing.

  She grimaced. “I know that part. I was asking about the sleeping arrangements for tonight.”

  What would her answer be if I said I want the two of us to share a bedroom and a bed tonight?

  His already aching cock gave an approving twitch. A painful twitch, considering how tightly it was constricted inside the confines of his jeans. “What would you like them to be?”

  Diana flicked a glance in his direction before quickly looking away again. The color that instantly warmed her cheeks told him she was now well aware of his erection.

  She swallowed before speaking. “I don’t normally do casual sex.”

  As if Seth hadn’t already known that. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with it earlier this evening. Not that I’m complaining,” he assured her as she glanced at him sharply. “And there was nothing casual about it. It was most definitely specific to me.”

  Diana knew she deserved that. That her actions earlier had been the total opposite of what she just said. Of what she was about to say now. “You irritate the hell out of me, you know that, right?”

  “I know that.” He nodded.

  “You’re also arrogant, and a complete pain in the ass. But,” she continued firmly as Seth would have spoken again, “that doesn’t seem to change the way I feel about having sex with you.”

  He quirked one dark brow. “Which is?”

  She wanted it. Wanted him. Badly. And that want was becoming more intense the longer she was with him. Was starting to get in the way of everything else. Including, if their distraction earlier tonight was any indication, the two of them staying alive.

  She gave a frustrated shrug. “Maybe if we have sex, get it out of the way, we can both…move on.”

  “Get it out of the way?” Seth repeated incredulously.

  Diana lifted her chin. “Yes.”

  “Wow.” He grimaced self-derisively. “How to make a man feel wanted in one short sentence.”

  “I’m not even sure we like each other!” she defended.

  “I like you just fine.”

  “Oh.” She was taken aback.

  Seth nodded. “You’re a gutsy lady who, in the past year, has survived what would have emotionally buried a lot of people, man or woman.”

  “That’s… Thank you,” she murmured huskily. “I like you too.”

  “Now that we’ve settled that, can we get to the sex part?”

  Two stunned seconds later, some of Diana’s tension began to leech away as she began to chuckle. “Typical man!”

  He shrugged. “Once the blood rushes from a man’s head to his cock, there isn’t a lot left in the brain for him to think with.”

  And, from the bulge Diana could see at the front of his jeans, the blood had clearly rushed from Seth’s head to his cock.

  “Okay.” She licked her lips, a sudden bout of shyness meaning she couldn’t quite meet his gaze. She really had never done anything like this before. “So, I repeat, what happens now? Do we just…go to bed together?”

  “Get it out of the way, you mean?”

  “You’re never going to let me forget I said that, are you?”

  “Never is a long time.”

  And they only had now, Diana accepted. Maybe only here and now, if they apprehended and questioned Eduardo Garcia either tonight or tomorrow. She had no expectations of ever seeing Seth again once this was all over.

  “Yes, we just go to bed,” Seth took pity on Diana’s expression of discomfort. “I’m guessing you haven’t done this a whole lot before?” he prompted as the two of them left the kitchen and he switched on the lights to illuminate the way for them to go up the stairs together.

  She frowned. “No, but you have, so at least one of us knows what they’re doing.”

  He gave her a sideways glance. “Does that bother you?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “It’s been a while, and I’ve been tested since.”

  Her frown became pained. “Do people usually discuss this sort of thing before going to bed together?”

  “If they’re sensible, yes.”

  “I thought it would be more spontaneous. More…”

  “Romantic?”

  “I’m not a starry-eyed teenager, Seth,” she snapped.

  “Has there been anyone for you since your husband?”

  “Apart from you?”

  “Apart from me,” he allowed ruefully.

  “No.”

  “How about during or before your marriage?”

  Diana drew in an impatient breath as she came to a halt in the hallway leading to the bedrooms. “Before is none of your business, and I was only married a few months. Nor did I notice you complaining about my inexperience earlier.”

  He gave a snort. “No man is going to complain when a woman has his cock in her—”

  “Seth!”


  His mouth quirked into a grin as he backed her up against the wall, his body pressing against the length of hers. “You have a very wicked mouth, Diana Moore.” One of his hands moved up to curve about the smooth warmth of her cheek. He pressed the soft pad of his thumb against the pout of her bottom lip. “Very wicked. The best I’ve ever had, in fact,” he murmured as his thumb parted her lips before slipping inside.

  The best he’d ever had?

  Maybe Diana should have been turned off by that. But she wasn’t. As she’d said, she wasn’t a starry-eyed teenager and neither was Seth. She may only have had three lovers in her life, but there would have been dozens of women who had shared Seth’s bed before her, no doubt all of them as fascinated and tempted by his dangerous good looks as she was. Seth didn’t only look dangerous, he was dangerous. To know that she had been his best at something gave Diana back the sexual confidence that had begun to waver during the past few minutes.

  Unless Seth was just saying that to make her feel better?

  She didn’t care if he was. She was the woman here with him now.

  Her gaze held his as her hands curled about his wrist, tongue flicking out and licking along the intrusion of his thumb in her mouth as she gently began to suck.

  Seth’s eyes darkened to black. “A wicked fucking mouth,” he groaned, the long length of his arousal stroking against the curve of her hip.

  Diana’s nipples were hard again, and she could feel the increasing slickness between her thighs, the sexual tension palpable and building second by second as the two of them continued to stare into each other’s eyes.

  “Maybe we should move this to the bedroom?” Seth finally growled, an aroused flush to his cheeks.

  Diana gave his thumb one last, lingering lick from base to tip before slowly releasing him. “Aren’t you glad you’re not Jonas, stuck out there alone in the cold?” she teased.

  Seth tensed as he stepped back, hands clenching at his sides. “And if I was the one out there, would he be standing here instead of me? Or maybe, as you seem to have suddenly discovered your sexual freedom, you would like us to wait until he comes back, and we can make it a threesome?”

  “What did you say?” Diana felt as if she’d had a bucket of ice cold water thrown over her, drowning all desire and arousal in the process.

  “You heard me,” Seth snarled.

  Yes, she had. She couldn’t believe he’d said something so—so… So what? She had come on to him just now, had almost been begging for it. Who could blame him if he now thought Jonas would have suited her needs as easily?

  She could blame him!

  She and Seth might not have known each other very long—discounting that meeting eight months ago—but he certainly knew her well enough to realize she wasn’t promiscuous— Damn it, he was the one who had brought up the subject of her lack of experience only minutes ago.

  How dare he now accuse her of—of— “Oh yes, I heard you.” She barely managed to control her anger. And hurt. It hurt a lot to think this was what Seth thought of her. “It’s been a long and tense day. I believe it’s time we both went to bed. Separately,” she added pointedly.

  “Fine.” He nodded.

  “Fine,” she echoed.

  “Good then.” A nerve pulsed in his clenched jaw.

  Diana gave him one last narrow-eyed glare before turning on her heel and marching down the hallway, opening the first door she came to and going inside, slamming that door behind her.

  Before she suffered the further indignity of bursting into tears in front of Seth.

  Chapter 8

  Seth wondered what the hell just happened as he stood slightly dazed and completely alone in the hallway.

  One minute he’d had no other thought in his head than anticipating a night in bed with Diana, and the next—

  The next he had seen red and reacted like a bloody caveman, because she’d mentioned another man’s name.

  Jonas’s name.

  The other man had been his best friend for over five years, the two of them having worked and played together, and often shared the same suite when they were away on assignment. Despite the difference in their appearance and upbringing, Jonas was the closest thing to a brother Seth had.

  If nothing else, he should have known Jonas wouldn’t allow himself to be seduced by the woman he knew Seth had more than a passing interest in.

  If nothing else?

  That was insulting to Diana, implied she would have been willing even if Jonas wasn’t.

  As insulting as he’d been to her when he voiced his suspicions just now.

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  Women came; women went again. He and Jonas had even shared the same woman a couple of times in the past. Not at the same time, but even so…

  If this really was jealousy, then they could keep it. Because Seth wanted no part of it. Or the woman who was causing him to feel this way.

  The sooner Diana Moore was out of his life, the better.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  Diana flicked a glance at Jonas across the kitchen table as they sat eating breakfast together. Well…Jonas was eating a hearty breakfast. She was ignoring the plate of toast on the table and still nursing the cup of coffee she had poured herself when she came into the room a few minutes ago.

  A room absent of Seth, thank goodness.

  Jonas had informed her, with his usual economy of words, that he hadn’t seen anything of Eduardo Garcia the night before, and he and Seth had now changed places. Jonas intending to have something to eat before he grabbed a couple of hours’ sleep.

  Diana had heard Seth pass by the bedroom door the previous night, just a few seconds after she left him. No doubt on his way to sleep in one of the other bedrooms.

  The bedroom she’d “chosen” was as fusty and dusty as the rest of the house, but at least it had a four-poster bed, covered with what looked like a relatively new duvet set and several plump pillows.

  Not that she’d tested its comfort for some time, far too agitated to do anything other than pace the bedroom and mentally berate Seth for being such an insulting and arrogant ass.

  She’d finally climbed beneath the duvet fully dressed and fallen into a fitful sleep, waking again at the sound of every creak and unfamiliar settling of the house. And each time she did, she was resentfully aware that Seth was probably sleeping like a baby down the hallway.

  She kept her expression deliberately bland as she answered Jonas. “Talk about what?”

  He gave a hard grin. “Seth had all the charm of a bear with a sore head this morning.”

  Her chin rose. “And…?”

  “You don’t look any happier than he did.”

  “Your point being?” Two could play this economical word game.

  Jonas leaned back in his chair. “You tell me.”

  She would rather not. It was too humiliating that she knew she had made a fool of herself last night, and then been insulted for her trouble, without sharing that knowledge with Jonas Grayfeather. A friend of the man who had insulted her.

  “Are you really an Apache Indian?” she prompted instead.

  “For the main part, yes.”

  “Did you grow up on a reserv—”

  “Diana.”

  “Yes?” She eyed him warily.

  “Much as I would love to discuss my upbringing with you”—the hardness of his tone implied the opposite—“we were talking about you and Seth.”

  She frowned. “There is no me and Seth.”

  “No?”

  “No,” she assured him.

  He shook his head. “Distraction can get a man killed.”

  “Presumably it can get a woman killed too.” Her reply was saccharine sweet.

  “Diana.”

  “Jonas.” The directness of her gaze openly challenged him. A challenge he silently returned with the rise of one dark eyebrow. “Perhaps we should discuss the arrangements for my going in to work today?” Diana prompted when she couldn’t s
tand that brooding silence any longer.

  He shrugged those broad shoulders. “Nothing to discuss.”

  Her eyes widened. “You and Seth have already discussed it?”

  “No.”

  “No?” A puzzled frown creased her brow.

  “No point, when you aren’t going anywhere today.”

  “I have to go in to work,” Diana protested as she placed her coffee mug on the tabletop. “They only gave me two days off, and I used them to go to England to ask Seth for help.”

  Jonas looked unimpressed. “I need some sleep, Seth is at the pension. It isn’t safe for you to go in to work today.”

  She stood. “Couldn’t you walk me there, see me safely inside, and then come back here and sleep?”

  “No.”

  Her mouth firmed in frustration. “No discussion, just no?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you married?”

  His mouth quirked with wry humor. “No.”

  “I’m not surprised.” She shook her head in exasperation. “It’s usual to discuss things with another adult, not simply tell them what they’re going to do.”

  Jonas looked even more unimpressed. “Not when any other course of action could get them killed.”

  “You know best?”

  “Yes.” He stood up to carry his used plate and cup over to the sink before rinsing them and put them in the drainer. “You came to us, Diana,” he reminded her.

  “And I’m seriously starting to regret it.” She glared. “Is everyone who works at Grayson Security as arrogant as you and Seth?”

  He seemed to give the question serious thought. “Daisy wasn’t arrogant,” he finally drawled.

  “Wasn’t…?”

  “She’s no longer works for Grayson Security.”

  “Maybe she couldn’t stand working with a load of Neanderthals any longer— She isn’t dead, is she?” Diana gave a wince as she realized it was a distinct possibility, given the line of work the other woman had been in.

  “No.” Jonas gave a hard grin. “But if you think Seth and I are arrogant, you should meet her husband, Nikolai. Now that is one arrogant son of a bitch,” he added with obvious admiration.