Renegade Alpha (ALPHA 5) Read online

  “Yes!” Callie rose up in the bed so suddenly and so quickly, Lijah had no time to think about defense, other than putting his arms up as she began to beat him over the head with the same pillow he had just handed back to her.

  He was finally able to grab up the second pillow and retaliate, and the fight continued in earnest. Five minutes later, they were both breathing hard, Callie’s face was flushed and her eyes shining brightly.

  Lijah realized it wasn’t really a question of a battle of the pillows. This was more about letting off emotional as well as physical steam. Callie needed this. Needed to hit something, someone, if only in play. A couple of her hits certainly hadn’t been in the least playful.

  “Let’s call it a draw,” Lijah finally called out.

  “We can call it what you like, but I still won!” Callie deftly landed a blow to the side of his face.

  “Hey, you don’t hit an undefended man.” He reached out to grasp both her wrists as he held her and the pillow away from him.

  “Strange, I was taught that’s exactly the time for a woman to attack,” she came back challengingly.

  Lijah gave an appreciative grin. “Then you have no reason to complain when the man counterattacks.”

  Callie eyed him warily, not altogether sure of that predatory look in those dark blue eyes, and very aware of how he held her wrists prisoner above her head. “Lijah?”

  He quirked a mocking brow even as his head began to move toward hers.

  Callie sank back on the bed the moment Lijah’s lips claimed hers.

  No questioning exploratory kiss, but a full-on parted-lips-and-a-questing-tongue-into-her-mouth kiss—thank God she had thoroughly cleaned her teeth after being ill earlier. Her body immediately went into sexual overdrive as she returned the heat of that kiss, arching her body up into Lijah’s, at the same time as she entwined one of her legs around and over the back of his.

  Maybe this was what she had wanted all along?

  This emotionally charged heat of arousal, blocking out everything and everyone else but Lijah from her mind and her senses.

  She absorbed and returned each deep penetrating kiss, even as the heat coursed through her body—the first warmth she had felt for hours—and blossomed between her thighs in a fierce demand for satisfaction.

  Lijah pulled roughly away to look down at her in the moonlight. “Are you sure you want this?” he growled. “I warn you, I’m too wound up and too tired to be in the least gentle.”

  “I don’t want gentle,” Callie assured him fiercely.

  “It’s going to be hard and fast,” he warned through gritted teeth.

  She nodded. “As hard and fast as you like.”

  He lifted up even farther, the hardness of his cock pressing into her as he raised her T-shirt and exposed her breasts.

  The coolness of the air-conditioning immediately caused her already aroused nipples to pucker and harden.

  Lijah licked and bit down the length of her throat before using his free hand to cup her breast and lift her nipple into the heat of his mouth and suckle. Hard.

  Callie groaned as her body was assaulted with a plethora of sensations: the tight gripping pleasure pain of her aching and heavy breasts, her skin so sensitized, every touch was an agony of arousal, and the burn of molten fire between her thighs as her juices flowed hotly.

  Lijah released her to use his other hand to cup and squeeze her other breast, rolling and pinching the nipple until Callie felt as if she would go mad with the pleasurable torment.

  She arched up into those biting caresses, wanting more, needing more, and craving the hard length of Lijah’s cock buried inside her rather than pressing against her thigh.

  The cold air added to that torment as Lijah’s mouth released and left her nipple exposed. He began to kiss and taste his way down her abdomen, tongue dipping into the sensitive hollow navel before he pushed her legs apart and moved lower still.

  “So fucking wet,” he murmured in satisfaction as he licked up her juices at the same time as two of his fingers entered and then curled up into the slickness of her slit, unerringly finding and stroking that tight bunch of nerve endings inside that instantly sent her careering over the edge of pleasure and into her first climax. “Yes!” He removed his fingers and replaced them with his tongue, greedily licking her juices before sucking her clitoris into his mouth, and those fingers caressed lower still.

  Callie cried out as she felt the tip of his finger pressing against her before dipping inside, the unfamiliar pleasure pain shooting along the length of her spine, tightening her nipples and instantly sending her into a second climax. Lijah sucked harder on her nubbin even as he pushed into her deeper, and then deeper still, each sensation succeeding in prolonging that climax.

  She felt invaded, claimed, and still she wanted more. More of Lijah. More of this. More of the pleasure pain. More of everything Lijah wanted to give and take from her.

  A second finger joined the first, stretching her before he began to thrust. In and out. In and then out. Each thrust accompanied by a fierce suck on her pulsing clitoris.

  Callie’s breath became an almost desperate sob as she felt the rising onslaught of another fierce climax, arching into those unfamiliar sensations as she rode the next climax to its shuddering end.

  Lijah’s fingers stayed inside her as he moved up onto his knees, his glittering gaze looking down at her as he used his other hand to unfasten and unzip his jeans before pushing them and his boxers down his thighs.

  His cock sprang free, long and thick, the base surrounded by dark curls, the darker bulbous tip gleaming wetly in the moonlight. “Last chance,” Lijah warned harshly as he used that one hand again to reach for his wallet from the back of his jeans and take out a condom.

  Callie’s answer was to widen her legs in invitation, revealing the slick and swollen folds guarding the entrance to her channel as well as Lijah’s fingers still buried inside and stretching her.

  The eroticism of that image was enough to cause the pre-cum to bubble up and dribble down the length of his cock.

  Lijah continued to look at her hotly as his fingers left her and he ripped the packet open with his teeth, throwing it onto the floor before he rolled the condom down his length. He positioned himself and pressed the swollen head of his cock against her slit in silent question.

  Callie arched her hips up, giving a soft gasp as he pushed and she took the swollen tip of him fully inside her.

  Lijah groaned as he felt the hot grip of Callie’s slit close about and claim him, needing no further invitation as he drove into her to the hilt, slowly pulling out before slamming back into her.

  Her hands moved to grasp the bare cheeks of his ass as he began to pump into her harder and faster. So deeply he could feel the opening of her womb pressing against his cock.

  He had meant what he said earlier; he was too tightly wound tonight, and too exhausted, to give her any finesse or quarter as he pounded into her with the remorseless need for his own release.

  “Now, Lijah!” she cried out, even as the heat of her climax tightened and flexed about his cock.

  Lijah took his weight on his elbows. This new position gave him greater purchase to thrust, and he thrust hard, as the tingling sensations at the base of his spine shot the length of his cock, and he felt the hot flow of his cum as it pumped into her endlessly.

  Callie lay awake in the darkness, her arms loosely about Lijah as his full weight rested on top of her, his face buried in her throat as he snored softly.

  Not exactly flattering to have Lijah collapse down onto her, already asleep, immediately after their shared climax!

  But she understood the reason why. He had to be exhausted. God knew when he had last slept. Maybe two, possibly three days ago?

  Days during which he had returned from a mission he couldn’t talk about, managed to grab maybe a couple of hours’ sleep in his office, before Callie had arrived. After which there hadn’t been a single moment for him to rest.


  Their lovemaking had to have used up the very last reserves of his energy.

  Besides, she liked having his heavy weight on top of her as much as she liked having him still buried inside her. A part of her. That physical closeness grounded and warmed her, in a world that had become bleak and cold.

  Much as she fought against it, the shock of her father’s death earlier tonight was slowly becoming a reality.

  He was gone, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

  But, as Lijah had told her earlier, the man who had done this to them was still out there. And if it was the last thing Callie did, she was going to ensure he paid for his crimes. All of them. Including murdering Michael and her father.

  She had every confidence that Lijah would help her in that endeavor. All the men who worked at Grayson Security had been former protégés of her father, and she doubted that any of them, including Dair Grayson, would be willing to allow his death to go unpunished.

  That decided in her mind, Callie was at last able to drift off into sleep.

  “I have to go out for a while this morning.”

  Callie looked across the breakfast table at Lijah, the two them sitting together drinking coffee and eating toast.

  She had been alone in her bed when she woke up half an hour ago and realized that Lijah must have woken some time during the night, carefully disengaged his body from hers, and quietly left the bedroom. All without her being aware of it.

  His manner when she entered the kitchen a short time ago had been brisk and businesslike when he poured her some coffee and placed a plate of toast in the middle of the table for them both to help themselves from. All without saying a word.

  If it wasn’t for the unaccustomed soreness between her legs, Callie might have thought she’d imagined their fierce lovemaking the previous night.

  Not that she was complaining about that pleasurable soreness. It was a constant reminder that she could still feel.

  Obviously, Lijah wasn’t a morning person.

  Or was he just feeling as wrong-footed about their lovemaking last night as Callie was?

  Whatever the reason, this was the first time he’d spoken to her this morning.

  “You’ll be perfectly safe here,” he continued gruffly. “Four of Dair’s men arrived during the night. If you need anything, they’ll be outside guarding the perimeter of the grounds.”

  And me, Callie added silently. “Where are you going?” she prompted curiously.

  His gaze was guarded as he looked across at her. “I have a couple of contacts in Washington I need to speak with.”

  Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know you knew anyone here.”

  “I know a lot of people in a lot of places, Callie.”

  No doubt from those private missions he went on. “You can’t talk to them on the phone?”

  His mouth twisted. “No.”

  “Okay.”

  Lijah felt the frown furrowing his brow. Because, once again, Callie had managed to disconcert him. She did that a lot. This time because he had expected an argument from her, a protest at being left alone here, and instead, she had quietly acquiesced.

  He’d been totally disoriented when he woke up in the night and found himself lying on something soft and yielding, and realized that was because he was on top of Callie, jeans around his knees and with his cock still buried inside her. He had carefully withdrawn, catching the condom to prevent it making a mess all over the bed, before moving quietly up to his feet to pull up his jeans and boxers before leaving.

  Definitely not his finest hour!

  By choice, he was a lone wolf, nor did he get involved in relationships lasting longer than a night or two. Because he rarely saw the same woman twice. He could never remember falling asleep on top of a woman before, immediately after fucking her. He didn’t usually sleep with a woman at all.

  Because he had nightmares. Fucking nasty ones. The sort of nasty where there was lots of blood and guts, people screaming, dying. Or where he was holed up in a cupboard or room somewhere, hiding from his father, to avoid the latest beating he wanted to give Lijah. He had never wanted to inflict those nightmares on any woman, so he made sure never to fall sleep with one.

  Not only had he slept dreamlessly with Callie last night, he had slept inside her. After fucking her like a man possessed.

  Again, definitely not his finest hour.

  He had expected to see recrimination in her eyes this morning, and instead there was only a slight wariness. As if Callie wasn’t sure what his reaction was going to be after last night either.

  His reaction?

  Lijah was still feeling too unsettled about sleeping with her afterwards to want to focus too intently on how he felt about the sex before.

  It had been good, he knew that.

  Better than good.

  Looking at Callie now, with her hair dark and silky about her shoulders, face pale as ivory, and looking unknowingly sexy in a fitted sapphire-blue sweater and low-rider jeans, he knew he wanted to do it again. But slower this time, as he savored and enjoyed every inch of her.

  It was a distraction he couldn’t allow to happen.

  Another reason he preferred to go out this morning rather than use his cell phone to contact the people he needed to talk to.

  Some fresh air, and a few hours away from Callie, should put things back into perspective.

  The main thing he had to do was accept that last night had happened because she had needed physical closeness. In the same way a soldier needed sex after a battle in order to know he was still alive, Callie had needed that same reassurance after the death of her father.

  Speaking of which…

  There had been a brief mention of the death on the local news this morning. Peter’s identity hadn’t been revealed, or the fact that he was British, just that “a body had been found at a house in Georgetown last night” and “the police are investigating.” Pretty innocuous as far as the news went.

  Which hopefully meant that whoever was responsible for Peter’s death had no idea that Callie and Lijah even knew about it. Lijah had no choice but to work on that premise for now.

  In the meantime, he had been up long enough this morning to manage to acquire a pretty accurate itinerary of Senator Stockton’s public engagements for the next few days.

  All he had to do now was put the rest of his plan in motion.

  And completely blow his identity as Lijah Smith in the process.

  Chapter 11

  “Your men brought up a delivery of groceries and two parcels while you were out,” Callie told Lijah the moment he walked back through the door late that afternoon. She’d unpacked and put away the food, but as the parcels had Lijah’s name on them, she hadn’t touched those.

  She’d also met the other four men from Grayson Security. Made a point of it, in fact, by inviting them in for coffee. They accepted the offer two at a time, and she now knew them as Rory and Duncan, who appeared to be brothers, along with Tom and Jonas. All hardened soldiers to a man.

  Callie figured that if these man were putting their lives on the line to protect her, the least she could do was be polite enough to introduce them to the person they were protecting, and at the same time offer them coffee.

  She had also felt lonely rattling about in this huge mansion on her own. It was certainly a beautiful house, as might be expected when it was owned by Lucien Wynter, but it seemed eerily hollow with just her in it.

  Truth was, she missed Lijah.

  Even more so after last night. The sex had been wild and satisfying, but it had felt curiously companionable afterward just having Lijah in bed with her, as a part of her. She hadn’t enjoyed waking up alone.

  Being without him today had felt even worse.

  “Good.” He turned from hanging up his Stetson to give a satisfied glance over to where she had placed the parcels on the kitchen table. “In case you’re wondering, one of the parcels is a tux and accessories for me, the other an evening gown for you.�
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  Her eyes widened. “You chose a gown for me?”

  “Hardly.” He looked irritated. “I told the sales assistant your size and coloring and left the rest to her.”

  Callie’s cheeks warmed as to the reason Lijah would be able to describe her size in detail. This man hadn’t left an inch of her untouched the night before. “Why do I need an evening gown?”

  “So that you can go out with me this evening?” he drawled dryly.

  Callie recoiled at the mere thought of going anywhere. “I can’t, Lijah.”

  “You can. You will,” he told her firmly.

  She swallowed before answering him, knowing Lijah wouldn’t insist on her going out tonight without good reason. “Where are we going?”

  “A musical reception.” He grimaced to show his opinion of the entertainment. “Senator Stockton is going to be there,” he added softly.

  Callie’s knees buckled beneath her so suddenly, she barely had time to grasp on to and then sit down heavily on one of the kitchen chairs. “You expect me—” She cleared the huskiness from her throat before beginning again. “You seriously expect me to be in the same room with that man, after what happened six months ago? After—after last night?”

  She’d already responded so badly to the idea they were going out at all, and to the fact that Senator Stockton would be there, that Lijah decided it was probably better for now if he didn’t tell her exactly where they were going.

  He wasn’t altogether comfortable with this plan himself. He just couldn’t come up with a better one on such short notice. The senator’s itinerary of events for the next few days had revealed that he was leaving the capital in five days and going back to his ranch in Texas for several weeks. Getting to him at his high-security ranch was going to be much harder than here in Washington.

  Nothing else on this earth but finding the man responsible for Peter’s death would have compelled Lijah into resuming the persona he had spent so many years ignoring. A persona he hated almost as much as he hated the parents who had given it to him.

  His jaw tightened. “You said it yourself last night, you need to hear Stockton’s voice when it isn’t distorted on television. You were also the one who had the crazy idea of throwing a party here and inviting him. This is the closest thing I can get to that.”