Midnight Alpha

by Carole Mortimer

  “How badly do you want it, Gaia? Tell me!” he rasped sharply when she didn’t answer.

  “Very badly,” Gaia gasped as Gregori’s fingers stroked harder along her swollen labia before pinching her clit. “As badly—wickedly—as you want it to be. Oh please!” She arched up again, still wanting more.

  Gregori looked down into those pleading golden eyes as he felt Gaia’s juices flowing over his stroking fingers, watching her face as he thrust two fingers deep inside her. He relished her breathy groans as he deliberately found and stroked that knot of muscles deep inside her.

  “How does that feel, Gaia? Tell me, describe your pleasure to me.” He gave her nipple another pinch.

  “It’s heat,” she gasped. “Aching heat. So good. So good…” she groaned as he rubbed her clit with his thumb.

  “And this?” He thrust inside her with one finger now, using her juices on the other to stroke along the dampness of her bottom, pressing, testing for entry. “Do you like this, Gaia?” He pressed harder, almost penetrating. “Do you?”

  “Yes,” she hissed as he penetrated further.

  “Would you let me take you here, Gaia?” he breathed against her ear. “Would you let me put my cock inside you here?”

  “I don’t know… I… Yes!” she groaned, throat arching as he thrust in further still.

  “Has anyone else ever—”

  “No!” she gasped. “Never.”

  “Describe how it feels to me. Tell me—”

  “As you said, pleasure and pain,” she gasped. “It burns, but it’s oh-so-pleasurable too.”

  “My cock would feel better, though, hmm?” he pressed. “Filling you up, stretching you until you couldn’t be stretched any further.”

  “Yes… Oh God, yes!” Her eyes closed as her head fell weakly back against the seat.

  Gregori wanted that too.

  Wanted to feast between Gaia’s thighs, have her suck his cock in the way that gave him such delicious pleasure, and then he would thrust inside her, time and time again, anywhere she would take him. And she would take him everywhere, her responses now leaving him in no doubts that she would welcome his complete possession.

  The problem with possessing Gaia was that Gregori knew he would also be possessed in return, and this woman had already taken too much of him, owned too much of him.

  “Please, Gregori…” she encouraged achingly.

  “No.”

  “No?” her eyelids fluttered open and she looked up at him dazedly as his thrusts and the stroking abruptly ceased.

  “No.” he repeated with deliberate coldness as he removed his hand and sat back on his own side of the car. “Unless of course you like to perform in front of an audience?” He took a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket and began to wipe her juices from his fingers. “In which case I believe I would prefer that you suck my cock. I’m sure that Lijah would enjoy imagining himself in my place—”

  “Stop it!” she gasped. “Why are you doing this?” She gave a shake of her head.

  He shrugged. “Because it appears I can.”

  “Go to hell!” Gaia choked as she hastily straightened her clothes, totally humiliated by the coldness of Gregori’s tone and the things he was saying to her even as she inwardly cringed at the intimacies she had just allowed. Allowed? She had been begging for it. “You bastard!” she choked as she blinked back tears of humiliation.

  But what had she expected?

  She had as good as admitted that she’d initially thought he could be responsible for Angela’s death. He now knew that she had lied and deceived him from the beginning, and she’d still seriously expected him to want to make love to her again?

  Idiot.

  He had been playing with her just now, proving once again that he was the stronger of the two of them—as if she didn’t already know that—and that he could bend and shape her, arouse her, do whatever the hell he wanted with her anytime he damn well felt like it.

  Whatever she may feel for him, Gregori didn’t feel the same way about her, and she would do well to remember that in future.

  In the future?

  There was no future for her with Gregori.

  Above all, she needed to get away from him. As far away as she could possibly get, before he completely destroyed her.

  She sat stiffly on her side of the car. “Would you instruct Mr. Smith to drive me to my apartment, please?”

  Gregori gave a humorless smile. “I’m sure we both know that isn’t going to happen.”

  “I-want-to-go-to-my-apartment!” her voice was low but determined.

  “You’re an intelligent woman, Miss Miller,” he drawled, “as such you know that your actions mean it is not safe for you to return there yet.”

  “My actions?” Gaia wasn’t going to be responsible for ‘her actions’ if he called her Miss Miller one more time in that condescending tone! “It was one of your enemies that shot at me,” she reminded disgustedly.

  His mouth thinned. “That matter is being dealt with.”

  “Really?” Gaia taunted. “By ‘dealt with’ do you mean eliminated?”

  “Only as a last resort,” Gregori rasped dismissively.

  “How reassuring!” She eyed him scathingly, relieved to have something to focus her anger on. Humiliation didn’t even begin to cover how she felt right now.

  “Do not pass judgment on things you do not understand,” he dismissed.

  “Then help me understand.” She turned to look at him. “You told me Orlov believes that you killed his son, but not why he believes that?”

  “I cannot discuss that with you.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  Gregori’s nostrils flared. “Won’t.”

  “As I thought.” Gaia felt a perverse satisfaction in his discomfort. It seemed only fair after the way he just humiliated her.

  Gregori gave an impatient shake of his head. “It is not my secret to tell.” If Gaia believed he was unaffected by what had happened between them just now, she would be wrong.

  He didn’t want to alienate Gaia. He had to. For her sake as well as his own. Hopefully the threat of Ivan Orlov would soon be over, but there would always be other enemies, other threats to his leadership of the Markovic family.

  Just the thought of falling in love with a woman, any woman, and having to keep that woman permanently safe, to worry and fret about her when she was out of his sight, was enough to make him shudder.

  Dair manages to love Katya and keep her safe, a little voice reminded inside his head, they are even having a baby together.

  Then perhaps Dair was a braver man than he was, because the thought of Gaia being in permanent danger, simply because she was with him, was totally unacceptable to Gregori.

  “This man did something to your sister, didn’t he?”

  Gregori turned sharply to look at her. Gaia did know him, too well it seemed.

  “If he did then I understand why you might have felt the need for…retribution. I feel the same way about the man who killed Angela.” She drew in a ragged breath. “She didn’t take drugs, Gregori, ever, and I want him to suffer, in the way she must have suffered—”

  “You will leave me to deal with that situation —”

  “I don’t think so,” she scorned.

  Gregori’s hands clenched into fists in his frustration with her stubbornness. What was the point of saving her from the danger of being involved with him if she was going to throw herself in front of danger of another sort?

  None at all, that voice taunted again inside his head, so you might just as well take what you can while you can.

  He was not an animal, damn it, no matter what Gaia may now think to the contrary after the way he behaved a few minutes ago.

  He regretted doing that to her; knew he’d behaved as the bastard she accused him of being.

  It was the only way he knew of putting her at arm’s length and keeping her there, even if it meant the possibility of Gaia ever willingly making lov
e with him again was now extremely remote.

  He sighed as he confided reluctantly. “There has been a drug problem in Utopia for some months, and someone working at Utopia is involved—”

  “Not Angela,” she maintained stubbornly.

  “Nikolai has been working hard on this problem today and now believes he has narrowed the possible culprit down to one of five people.”

  He also knew that two out of those five people were Rick Turner and Claude le Coeur, the same two men Gaia had been talking and laughing with earlier tonight…

  “Am I allowed to know who those five people are?”

  His jaw tightened as Gaia once again seemed able to discern his thoughts. “No.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Gaia nodded before glancing out the window as the car came to a stop in front of Gregori’s home. “I hope, for both our sakes, that Nikolai resolves this situation soon.”

  Because she really couldn’t continue to stay in the same house as Gregori for much longer.

  “I’m going back to Utopia for a few hours,” he informed her after walking her to the door and seeing her safely inside.

  Gaia wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say to that. Have fun? Don’t work too hard? Find my sister’s killer? So she said nothing, instead turning on her heel and walking up the stairs to the bedroom that felt even more like a prison than it had the previous night.

  But she was totally aware of Gregori watching her each step of the way, could feel those eyes on her before the front door softly closed behind him as he left.

  Chapter 14

  Music.

  Trapped between that twilight of waking and still sleeping, it was the music, the soft and beautiful notes of a piano playing, that finally pulled Gaia all the way into wakefulness.

  She lay in the darkness for several minutes, slightly disorientated, just listening, being soothed by that music before turning her head to look at the luminous clock on the bedside table. It was five in the morning, which meant she had only been asleep for a couple of hours. She had been too agitated to fall asleep, and had tossed restlessly for several hours after Gregori returned to Utopia.

  He must be home now though, listening to classical music downstairs to relax himself after a long night.

  She didn’t even stop to consider whether or not he would welcome her intruding into his solitude as she threw back the sheets and pulled on her robe before padding barefoot out of the bedroom. At least she had one of her own nightshirts to wear tonight beneath her own knee-length robe. She followed the sound of that music down the stairs; several lamps were once again left on to light her way.

  She liked classical music even if she couldn’t tell one piece from another, let alone name the composer. At the moment, she very much liked whatever composer Gregori was currently listening to.

  The music was haunting, touched something deep inside of her, and she could feel the emotion behind each note. A solitude and loneliness that touched a chord in her own heart.

  Whoever had composed the music was also alone. Gaia could feel it, recognize it, and she ached with that same loneliness.

  And Gregori was sitting downstairs in the darkness listening to it.

  He had hurt her earlier, humiliated her, but she didn’t have it in her to leave him alone with just that haunting music for company.

  The music grew louder as she descended the stairs, that painful melody building to an almost unbearable pitch, so much so that it brought tears to Gaia’s eyes.

  What was Gregori thinking of as he listened to such heartache? Did he feel it too? Did he—

  Gaia drew her breath in sharply as she stood in the doorway of the drawing room and saw that Gregori wasn’t listening to music at all—he was playing it.

  He had thrown off the jacket to his evening suit, removed his tie and unfastened the top two buttons of his shirt; he now sat on the stool in front of the piano Gaia had noticed the night before when she had wondered if anyone actually played it.

  Gregori played it.

  He more than played it. Those long and elegant fingers touched the ivory keys with the same delicacy and surety of touch with which he made love to her. He was making love, fingers caressing the keys, his face stripped of its mask, his emotions raw and visible for all to see.

  For Gaia to see.

  The loneliness she had already discerned. And the solitude. But there was also gentleness, heartache, love. It was as if he poured all of his emotions into the music he was playing—

  “Don’t stop,” she encouraged gruffly as his fingers came to an abrupt halt.

  He looked across to where she stood in the doorway and didn’t speak. Instead he resumed playing, though he turned away, as if he was uncomfortable at being observed.

  The protective ice about Gaia’s heart began to melt away as she continued to watch him. A lock of hair fell over his forehead, making him look younger, the expression on his face one of raw and rapt concentration as he continued to play that hauntingly beautiful music.

  He was a man of such strong contradictions.

  “Come and join me,” he invited huskily as he moved slightly along the piano seat to make room for her to sit beside him.

  She hesitated, not sure she wanted to open herself up for more pain when Gregori rejected or humiliated her again.

  At the same time, she knew she couldn’t not join him.

  She crossed the room on bare feet, but she had enough strength to choose to stand beside him rather than sit down next to him. “I saw that movie,” she murmured huskily as he looked up at her enquiringly. “And beautiful as this piano is, I have no intention of the two of us making love on top of it!”

  Gregori looked at her blankly for several seconds before giving a rueful smile. “I saw that movie too; it brought a whole new meaning to the phrase making beautiful music together!”

  “Ouch.” She pretended to wince. “That was really bad.”

  He shrugged. “What did you expect at five o’clock in the morning?”

  Well she certainly hadn’t expected to be woken by the sound of a piano playing, only to come down the stairs and discover Gregori was the one making the music. “Mozart?” she hazarded a guess.

  “Markovic,” he corrected dryly. “But thank you for the compliment.”

  Gaia’s eyes widened. “You wrote this?”

  He smiled tightly. “I did, yes.”

  To say Gaia was stunned would be putting it mildly. She already knew there were deep, raw emotions behind Gregori’s mask of cold indifference, but this was so much more than that. It was a soul crying out in the darkness.

  It was Gregori.

  The Gregori that no one saw.

  Except Gaia.

  “My father was ashamed of my ability,” he murmured as he seemed to guess some of her thoughts.

  “Then your father was a fool! I’m sorry if that offends you,” she sighed as Gregori’s eyes widened. The fact that he kept on softly playing gave her the courage to go on. “You have a talent, a gift that should never have been allowed to go to waste.”

  “And my father had a kingdom to run and only one son to take over when he died.” Gregori abruptly ceased playing, the room unnaturally quiet as the last chords faded away.

  “I can understand and respect that.” Gaia nodded. “But your father is no longer here, and you are, and you should be allowed to do with your own life whatever you want to do with it.”

  “And what makes you think that I’m not?” Gregori prompted guardedly.

  “Because—” A blush colored her cheeks as she tossed her hair back over her shoulders.

  “Because…”

  “Because you touch and caress the piano keys as if you’re making love to them.” The blush deepened in her cheeks. “You’re still doing it, even though you aren’t playing anymore.” She looked down pointedly to where his fingers still rested on the keys.

  He moved his hands onto his thighs as he realized she was right.

  Buying and instal
ling the piano here after his father died had been Gregori’s one act of rebellion to the onerous responsibilities he now had. A part of himself he hadn’t been able to indulge since he returned from university with his law degree and moved into an apartment on the third floor of this house.

  He had discovered his musical ability while he was at school, but it hadn’t been anything his father was interested in. It didn’t come under the heading of ‘useful’ things for The Markovic to know, let alone nurture.

  Even now, only Katya and Nikolai knew of his ability to play this beautiful instrument.

  And now Gaia.

  Another step through the barrier he had believed was impregnable.

  He firmly closed the lid over the keys and stood up, his smile becoming mocking as he saw Gaia instinctively take a step back. “As we have just decided, this is not a movie, and I’m not about to sweep the heroine up in my arms and carry her off to my bed,” he taunted.

  Gaia gave a rueful grimace. “Pleasant interlude over?”

  “Was it pleasant?” he bit out hardly. “I only noticed that my privacy was invaded.”

  Her grimace turned into a derisive smile. “I bet this shitty attitude usually works too,” she commented conversationally.

  Gregori gave an irritated frown. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “No?” Gaia challenged softly. “Then let me enlighten you. If anyone gets too close to seeing the real you, then you shut them down. By whatever means necessary. In your case, that’s usually with sarcasm or just plain old cold dismissal.”

  “Perhaps that’s because the emotion I feel when people try to get ‘too close’ to me is ‘sarcasm or plain old cold dismissal’?” he bit out impatiently.

  “Maybe,” she conceded. “And maybe you’re just running scared.”

  “You’re obviously overtired and talking nonsense,” he snapped exasperatedly.

  “I don’t think so,” she murmured huskily. “I do it too, you see, Gregori. If you don’t let people in, then they can’t hurt you or let you down. Only problem with that, I’ve discovered, is that you also invariably end up alone.”

  He gave a disgusted snort. “I am never alone.”

  Gaia looked him over with slow consideration. “You’re alone now.”