Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) Read online

  It appeared Jonas Grayfeather was Gabriel’s compromise.

  She handed Jonas back his cell phone. “Gabriel vouched for you.”

  “Kind of him.”

  Lily’s lips twitched with humor at his sarcasm. It was unusual to find anyone strong enough to stand up to her arrogant eldest brother, but she had a feeling Jonas Grayfeather was the exception. “He says I can trust you.”

  “Yes.”

  She sighed deeply. “So what happens now?”

  “You show me the rest of the letters. The ones you didn’t show to Gabriel.”

  Her humor faded, and she felt the color leech from her cheeks. “How did you know…?”

  He shrugged those broad shoulders. “Educated guess.”

  “Educated?”

  “This isn’t the first stalker I’ve dealt with. This one jumped too quickly from ‘adoring the ground your beautiful feet walk on’ to blood dripping off rose petals.” His mouth twisted with distaste. “Besides which, none of the letters you gave Gabriel were still in their envelopes, so no postmarks either to tell me the date they were sent. Gabriel’s emotional investment will have prevented him from picking up on that.”

  Lily swallowed down the nausea. Not only had this man memorized some of the wording of those letters, but he was also astute enough to have realized they hadn’t stopped where she’d led her brothers to believe they had.

  “I couldn’t let Gabriel read the most recent letters.” If she had, her brother could have torn London apart looking for the man who sent them. Then he would have torn the man apart. Which meant the letters and roses would stop, but Gabriel would be charged with murder. If, of course, anyone ever found the body…

  “I imagine not.”

  Jonas Grayfeather really did understand, Lily realized. He might rival Gabriel for being a man of few words, but he nevertheless filled Lily with a sense of…safety. As if nothing bad would happen to her—could happen to her, when she was with him.

  Maybe she would forgive Gabriel for his interference this time…

  “Hmm.” Jonas put down the last of the letters, none of his inner disquiet—and disgust—visible in his expression. “I’m not even sure some of those things are anatomically possible.”

  “No,” Lily answered quietly.

  Jonas had driven her back to her apartment, after standing outside in the hallway while she changed out of her costume into her own clothes. Which were pretty similar to her stage costume: an overlarge green sweater and figure-hugging jeans, the heels on her boots adding another three inches to her height. She’d also taken off the heavy stage makeup and done something with her hair, pulled it back and up and secured it on her crown in a cluster of untidy curls.

  She looked fucking amazing.

  With an emphasis on the fucking.

  Her bone structure was incredible, her skin flawless. As for her mouth—

  “I understand why you didn’t show those to Gabriel.” Jonas ignored the stirring of his body in response to Lily, in favor of concentrating on the last six letters she’d received from her stalker. Letters that had become increasingly sick in content and sexual language, somehow seeming even more so because they were impersonally printed rather than written. The author of them was a serious fuckhead.

  “No doubt you believe I should have done, regardless of how I felt.” Lily glared at him, her eyes glowing that beautiful blue-green. “That it was irresponsible not to do—” Her words came to a faltering halt, eyes widening, as Jonas stood up to his full and towering height.

  “Let’s get one thing clear.” Jonas was deliberately intimidating her with his size and height. If this was going to work, then he didn’t intend having to fight Lily every step of the way. “Firstly, I don’t need anyone second-guessing what I’m going to say, because I learned to speak for myself at two years old—”

  “Humph.” She eyed him scathingly. “You’re just like my brothers. All chest thumping and ‘I’m the man, and I know what’s best for you.’ What’s so funny?” she challenged as Jonas began to smile.

  “You are.” He held up a hand to silence her when she would have spoken again. “Secondly, I never ‘thump my chest.’ Nor do I think, because I’m a man, I know what’s best for you. As a man, I know what I’d like to do with you, but that’s another matter…” He frowned at the fact he had spoken more in the last two minutes than he had in the past two days. “It’s also completely inappropriate, given the circumstances.”

  Jonas had insisted on searching Lily Knight’s apartment when they arrived, to make sure there was no one else in there but the two of them. There wasn’t.

  He did discover she lived alone and the apartment reflected her, classy and elegant, the décor in warm green and yellow tones. Except for the bedroom. The throw on the four-poster bed was royal blue, with an assortment of colored cushions on top, ranging from that deep red to a pale pink. Floaty cream drapes were secured back at each corner of the bed, and matching floor-to-ceiling ones at the two windows. There were also tapestries on the walls of maidens and knights and unicorns and other mythical creatures.

  Jonas had found it hard to tear his gaze away from that four-poster bed. From stopping his mind wandering to thoughts of the two of them there together, completely naked, their bodies glowing with the sweat created by their lovemaking, Lily’s skin a pale gold against the much darker hue of his.

  That was before he’d read those letters from her stalker, of course. The sick things written in them were guaranteed to disgust rather than arouse. It made Jonas wonder if the man desired Lily or hated her. Maybe a little of both, as could happen so easily with a stalker.

  Lily gazed up at Jonas warily. She’d never met anyone like him before. His size was totally overwhelming, but he was also so—so different from anyone else she’d ever met. All that blue-black hair and burnished skin, his face hewn out of rock, and his physique… Well, muscular didn’t even begin to describe how he looked in a black T-shirt stretched tautly across his chest, and faded jeans that hung low on his hips and outlined the strength of his long legs. The black leather coat that reached all the way down to the tops of his black biker boots was intimidating, to say the least.

  Bad boy didn’t even begin to describe this man.

  She had to wonder at Gabriel, suave, sophisticated, and the typical overprotective older brother, for knowing a man like Jonas Grayfeather, let alone hiring him to protect her. “Gabriel trusts you implicitly.” She realized that had to be the only explanation for this man being here.

  “With good reason.”

  “What did you want to do to me?”

  “Sorry?” He frowned his irritation.

  Lily’s training as an actress, and understanding of body language, enabled her to interpret the tapping of Jonas’s right index finger against his thigh. To know he was aware of exactly what she was asking. “A few minutes ago.” She took a step toward him. Two could play at the intimidation game. “You said you knew what you wanted to do with me.” Lily was standing close enough now to run a fingertip lightly over the hard muscles of his chest as she gazed up into his face. “What was it?”

  She felt the muscles in his chest tense. “Don’t play games with me, little girl.” A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’ll lose.”

  Her expression became deliberately sultry. “But maybe by losing, I’ll also win?”

  He scowled darkly. “I don’t play word games.”

  “You don’t skulk, you don’t run, you don’t sneak, and you don’t play word games.” She took another step closer. So close she could feel the warmth of Jonas’s body and breathe in the clean male smell of him completely unadorned by such frivolity as cologne or aftershave. Not that he needed it. He smelled divine, of fresh air and forests and a heady musk that was all his own. “What do you do, Jonas?”

  His chest was barely rising and falling beneath her fingertip, blue eyes a dark navy. “I put naughty littl
e girls over my knee and spank them when they deserve it.”

  Was she supposed to feel this shiver of arousal down the length of her spine, only from thinking of this man putting her over his knee and spanking her bottom with one of those large, capable hands?

  Probably not, given the—

  Given the circumstances.

  And the circumstances were that Jonas was here to protect her from a man who so far hadn’t revealed himself or had the guts to sign those disgusting letters and the card left with the bloody roses.

  Was it any wonder she was taut as a bowstring and as likely to snap? That she was seeking a few minutes, or hours, of pleasurable respite from the fear that had held her in its grip since finding those bloody roses?

  “I don’t believe you,” Lily taunted. “You weren’t thinking about spanking me just now, you were thinking of fu— What the hell are you doing?” she squealed as she suddenly found herself being lifted off the floor by those large hands beneath her bottom, leaving her with no choice but to wrap her legs about Jonas’s waist as she clung to his wide shoulders.

  A position that revealed, in graphic detail, that Jonas was very aroused.

  “Look at me.” His face was only inches above hers when she did as he asked. He wasn’t even breathing hard, despite holding all her weight. “One of your brothers should have washed your mouth out with soap when you were a little girl.” He scowled.

  Her eyes flashed. “They would have had to catch me first, and I was always quicker than they were.”

  “Well you aren’t quicker than me.”

  No, she wasn’t. For such a large man, Jonas moved exceedingly fast. Her body was also very aware of that rigid cock pressing between her parted thighs. Not even the double material of their jeans was enough to prevent her from feeling the hard ridges along that thick length, and for her own body to swell and dampen in response, her nipples becoming ultrasensitive against her bra.

  She had started this, she accepted, had baited the tiger, and the tiger had struck back with startling precision.

  “To finish what you were saying,” he grated, “yes, I was thinking about fucking you. But that’s all I was doing. Thinking about it. I don’t fuck clients.”

  “Technically speaking, I’m not your client, Gabriel is,” she breathed softly. “And I’m pretty sure he isn’t your type,” she added provocatively.

  Jonas was aware of who he was working for, but it was purely a technicality. Lily was the woman he was protecting, and he couldn’t do that if he was constantly thinking about how and when he would fuck her next. Or fearing for his balls if her brothers found out, he acknowledged self-derisively.

  “Technically speaking, don’t you think already have enough complications in your life without thinking of taking me on?” He instantly regretted reminding her of the stalker as he saw the shadows reappear in her eyes.

  Lily was a strange mix of challenge and vulnerability. The former possibly because she hated feeling the latter. She truly was a member of the Knight family.

  And Jonas had complicated the situation when he lifted Lily off her feet so that she had no choice but to wrap her legs about his waist, bringing the heat of her pussy into close contact with the hard length of his cock. He liked having his hands on her ass too. A firm and rounded ass, he now realized he was caressing…

  He moved his hands to untangle her legs from about his waist, before he lowered her abruptly so that she was once again standing in front of him. Her face was flushed, eyes overbright as she gazed up at him between those thick dark lashes.

  Lily was too challenging.

  Too vulnerable.

  Too fucking dangerous.

  Jonas’s mouth thinned. “This obviously isn’t going to work. I’ll ask Gabriel if he minds if I assign someone else—”

  “I mind,” Lily cut in abruptly before giving a shake of her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this much of a bitch. Nor do I come on to complete strangers. This whole situation has me on edge, and—” She broke off at the sound of the doorbell of her apartment ringing.

  What the fuck?

  It was after midnight, not exactly the time people usually called round for a chat.

  Unless, of course, this particular visitor had more than conversation in mind…

  Chapter 3

  Lily’s eyes widened in alarm as Jonas instantly went into predator mode, his body fluid and yet totally alert as he pulled a gun from the waistband at the back of his jeans. Not that she hadn’t seen a gun before; her brothers were all licensed to carry a concealed weapon for their work, but this somehow felt…different.

  Maybe it was because she could see by the hard glitter of Jonas’s narrowed eyes as he released the safety catch on the weapon that he wouldn’t hesitate to fire the gun in her defense if it became necessary.

  “Stay here,” he instructed distractedly as he headed toward the door of her apartment, gun raised, ready to fire.

  “Jonas—”

  “Do as you’re fucking told and stay here!” He turned to glare at her as he saw she’d followed him out into the hallway.

  “But—”

  “You know that spanking we talked about?”

  “Yes…”

  “Consider it a promise, not a threat,” he warned before turning to continue to the door.

  Lily stayed where she was, not because Jonas had ordered her to or because she feared the reprisal of that promised spanking, but because watching him like this was…well, it was mesmerizing.

  For such a big man, he was incredibly light on his feet, stealthy, those heavy biker boots not making a sound as he pressed back against the wall and moved the rest of the way to the door before putting his eye to the security peephole.

  What happened next was a blur of movement too fast for Lily to follow.

  She knew Jonas must have unlatched the security chain and opened the door, because he stepped out into the hallway. A snarl and a squeak followed.

  Lily arrived at the open doorway in time to see Jonas holding a man up against the opposite wall by a hand about his throat, the man’s face on a level with Jonas’s as his feet dangled several inches off the floor.

  Panicked brown eyes looked pleadingly across at Lily, the hand about the man’s throat not only causing his face to turn a mottled shade of red, but also preventing him from talking beyond that garbled squeak.

  “Jonas—”

  “Stay the hell out of this, Lily.” Jonas didn’t so much as allow his glittering gaze to waver from the man he held in his grasp. “So, you like to play mind-fuck games with women, do you? Like to send them letters telling them the sick things you want to do to them? Send them roses dripping with blood.” He shook the other man as if he weighed no more than a rag doll. “Answer me, you sick little—”

  “Jonas, he can’t answer you when you’re choking the life out of him.” Lily quickly crossed the hallway to pull ineffectually at the hand Jonas was using to hold his captive off the floor. “He’s a friend, Jonas,” she told him in exasperation, reaching up to try to physically pry his fingers loose now. Again without success. “I’m guessing you didn’t watch the play this evening?”

  “No.” Nights at the theater weren’t exactly Jonas’s thing.

  “If you had, then you would know that this is Evan Butler. He stars in the play with me,” she added when Jonas remained unimpressed.

  Jonas froze for a second or two, and then he released Evan so abruptly, the other man crumpled to a heap in the carpeted hallway, hand raised to his throat. He choked and coughed, attempting to draw breath back into his starved lungs.

  Lily went down onto her haunches beside him. “Are you okay? Oh God, Evan, I am so sorry.” She turned to glare at Jonas. “Shoot first and ask questions later much?”

  A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw as he towered over them. “He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

  “Barely,” she snapped before turning her attention back to the other man.

  Jonas scowled.
What the hell had Lily expected his reaction to be when a man rang her doorbell at almost one o’clock in the morning?

  Come to think of it, what was a male friend doing calling round at this time of night?

  There seemed to be only one answer to that question.

  Gabriel hadn’t mentioned his sister having a boyfriend, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have one. Lily obviously preferred not to confide in any of her brothers regarding her private life, had only done so regarding those letters because the whole situation was becoming so frighteningly intense.

  But if this was Lily’s boyfriend, what the hell had she been doing flirting with him minutes ago?

  Had she been flirting with him?

  It had seemed as if she was at the time, but Jonas was the one who had picked her up and molded her body to his. Who had confirmed he had been thinking about fucking her. Who had caressed and fondled her ass.

  Shit.

  Jonas stowed his gun back in the waistband of his jeans. “I suggest we move this inside your apartment, before any of the neighbors decide to investigate the reason for all the noise.” He made no effort to offer his assistance as Lily helped the other man up onto his feet.

  Jonas closed and locked the apartment door behind him before following them down the hallway into the sitting room, eyes narrowed on Evan’s arm about Lily’s shoulders, hers about his waist.

  Lily didn’t need to look at Jonas to be totally aware of him standing across the room, arms folded in front of the broadness of his chest. He leaned back against the wall watching her through narrowed lids while she helped Evan cross the room and then to sit down on the sofa, before sitting down next to him.

  She shot Jonas an impatient glance. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and instead of just standing there glaring, go and get the man you almost choked to death a glass of water?”

  “I’m not your fucking maid!” he rasped.

  “You’re not my fucking anything.” Lily used the word deliberately, knowing how much it had annoyed Jonas earlier. One rule for him and another for her didn’t cut it as far as she was concerned.