Midnight Alpha (2 page)

“I haven’t seen Claude yet this evening.” His gaze narrowed. “Where’s your cleaning equipment?”

“Ta dah!” Gaia instantly pulled the yellow duster from the back pocket of her jeans and waved it about. Her story about the cleaning staff being ill was actually true, and she hadn’t minded in the least when Claude asked for volunteers to come in early to help clean. In fact, it had suited her purpose perfectly.

But Claude hadn’t specifically asked her to go into Gregori Markovic’s office.

“And your reason for being under my desk?”

Shit, he would have to go there.

And the answer?

Gaia had been looking under the desk for a hidden compartment, somewhere he might hide…things he didn’t want other people to see, like evidence or records of the sale of illegal drugs that might help her link him to her sister’s death.

She had already searched for a safe in the book-lined wall, the drinks cabinet, and looked behind the framed photographs on the walls—Finn Devlin originals, worth a fortune, and not a little one either—all with no luck. She had also tapped on the two wood-paneled walls to see if either of them sounded hollow. Plus looked behind all twenty of the security monitors on the fourth wall, currently switched off. Again with no success.

She had rapidly come to the conclusion that any records must be kept in a file on Gregori Markovic’s laptop. Even criminals had to keep records of their transactions somewhere, right? But as she had no idea where he kept his laptop that looked to be a dead end.

Checking beneath his desk for a possible hidden compartment had been her last resort, and it could be a costly one if she couldn’t convince the unsmiling Russian to believe her cleaning story.

Gaia gave what she hoped was a dismissive laugh. “I thought I dropped a hairpin under there.” She smoothed back her already tidy hair.

Dark brows rose. “And did you?”

“Apparently not.” Gaia shrugged. “I must have dropped it in one of the other rooms before coming in here.”

“Hmm.” Gregori Markovic stepped further into the office, instantly seeming to take up even more air and space, dwarfing Gaia as well as the room.

Gaia was now having trouble holding her ground. Not surprising when just being near this overwhelming man made her want to bolt out of the room, this club, and maybe out of London altogether.

But she wasn’t going to do it. She had promised herself when Angela died that she would find who was responsible, and if possible bring them to justice.

The police had written off Angela’s death as either a suicide or an accident, when they found a syringe next to Angela’s bed and the heroine in a small pouch in the bedside drawer. Gaia didn’t believe that for a moment. For one thing, she knew Angela never used drugs. For another, her sister loved life, and more importantly, she was madly in love, so she would never have killed herself willingly.

Leading Gaia to the conclusion that someone else must have administered that lethal overdose.

She knew how far-fetched her theory sounded to others, but once the idea came into her head, it simply refused to go away. The police certainly hadn’t believed her, and it hadn’t helped that Gaia couldn’t tell them whom her sister had been in love with, only that it was someone Angela said she met at the Utopia nightclub, where she worked as a hostess. The few times Gaia had asked her sister for the name of her lover, Angela muttered something about rules of ‘fraternization’ and wanting to keep her job.

The police had certainly made it obvious that they weren’t about to go poking about at Utopia on the flimsy information Gaia had been able to give them, and risk ruffling the feathers of a man as powerful as Gregori Markovic.

Angela was Gaia’s older half-sister, the two of them sharing a father, even if he had been married to Angela’s mother when he had a brief affair with Gaia’s mother.

Gaia had never known her father, had only learned who he was after his death six years ago—ironically just four months after her mother died—when, much to the chagrin of Graham Grant’s wife, he left his illegitimate daughter some money in his will.

It hurt at first to know that he had known of Gaia’s existence all along. It hurt more when Lorna Grant made it obvious she had no time for her. But after Angela and Gaia met at the reading of their father’s will, the two young women became firm friends, as well as sisters.

Which was why it was so much harder for Gaia to accept Angela’s death as being a suicide, or even an accidental overdose of drugs. She simply didn’t—wouldn’t—believe it.

Lorna Grant unfortunately wanted nothing to do with what she called Gaia’s ‘conspiracy theory’. In fact, the older woman had gone so far as to accuse Gaia of being the reason her daughter became mixed up with drugs in the first place.

With no help forthcoming from the police or Angela’s mother, Gaia had decided she would have to do any investigating herself, and the only way she could think of to do that was to get herself a job at Utopia.

The last thing she had expected was to find herself face to face with Gregori Markovic during her first few days of working here!

Although having now met him, Gaia could perhaps understand the police’s reluctance to pursue any sort of investigation that might involve this man. Gregori Markovic was without doubt an icy, powerful, scary son of a bitch.

Oh not outwardly. On the surface he was controlled, smooth, very urbane in his designer-label suit and handmade Italian shoes, and with that overlong dark and tousled hair obviously professionally styled.

But there was something about his eyes.

The eyes were the windows to the soul, and this man’s eyes were expressionless, flat, the iris so dark in color it was barely distinguishable from the pupil.

Gaia had no doubts that whatever—whoever—was behind Gregori Markovic’s gaze, it was coldly decisive and ruthlessly lethal.

He brushed past her now, leaving a lingering and delicious smell of lemons and sandalwood in his wake as he moved to sit in the black leather chair behind his desk. “You may continue with your search, Miss Miller.”

Gaia spun quickly around, eyes wide and guilty.

“For your hairpin,” he drawled with a nod towards the space beneath his desk.

Gaia glanced down, only to look away again, her cheeks warming as she realized exactly the level her face would be on, if she went back down on her knees beneath the desk the Russian now sat behind.

Gregori had no idea what possessed him to play with Gaia Miller in this way. Not only was she not his type—he preferred tall and slender blondes—but she was also an employee, and one of the rules of employment here was no fraternization between the staff, or any of the staff and members of Utopia. Gregori made a point himself of never stepping over the employer/employee line with members of his staff.

In this particular case, a female member of his staff who obviously had something to hide.

The excuse of cleaning his office may be a true one: it was too easily verified for it not to be. But there was still something decidedly suspicious about Gaia Miller’s behavior.

Even more reason for him to keep his distance.

Except, for the moment, he found he didn’t want to.

Maybe it was that enticing wiggle to her ass that had caught and held his attention. Or her surprisingly curvy figure. Or maybe it was having spent four days with a couple who couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other—Katya and Dair made no secret of the fact that they spent half of the day and most of the night sharing screaming orgasms—but for some reason Gregori had left Venice feeling restless, and with an underlying dissatisfaction for his own solitude.

That solitude was necessary, of course. His position as head of the powerful Markovic family meant he couldn’t afford to have any weaknesses, such as allowing any woman too close to him.

When was the last time he had even fucked?

Before his father died.

Maybe he would talk to Nikolai and arrange for a couple of women to join them here later tonight, and the two men could have a couple of hours of enjoyable fucking, as they had done dozens of times before he took over as The Markovic seven months ago. Maybe then he wouldn’t get a hard-on just from having a curvy woman wriggle her ass at him.

Talking of which…

Gaia Miller, after her initial surprise at the invitation, was currently back down on her hands and knees beneath his desk, supposedly looking for a hairpin.

A glance down between Gregori’s parted thighs showed that her face was on level with his crotch. An aching and rapidly hardening crotch as that golden gaze became locked with his.

What would she do, he wondered, if he were to unzip his trousers, pull out his lengthy cock and tell her to suck?

God, just thinking about having his cock in the heat of that luscious mouth, and watching her head bob up and down, with that thick swathe of auburn hair loose and caressing against his bare abdomen, was enough for the pre-cum to dampen his boxers.

He shifted restlessly in his chair, half tempted to do exactly that—

“Gregori!” The door to the office swung open to reveal his head of security. “I had no idea you were—” Whatever Nikolai had been about to say came to an abrupt halt, a smile curved the hardness of his mouth as he looked down at that curvaceous bottom sticking out from beneath Gregori’s desk.

Chapter 2

OMG. OMG!

Could this situation get any worse, Gaia wondered in a complete panic. Not only had she been caught snooping by the coldly dangerous Gregori Markovic, but now the equally scary Nikolai Volkov was in on the act too.

“Maybe you should have put the lock on your door, Gregori,” Nikolai drawled mockingly. “Although I now see your reason for coming in early this evening. You should have given me a call. It’s been too long since we shared a woman.”

That voice grew closer and closer as the intimidating Russian crossed the room on silent feet. Just how close became obvious when Gaia felt a hand caress the cheeks of her bottom.

She gave an indignant squeak, knowing that hand couldn’t belong to Gregori Markovic because both of his hands were resting on his muscled thighs in front of her. The same went for the rigid hardness and heat now pressing against her bottom.

What the hell—

And what was with the ‘shared a woman’ comment? Did that mean that these two men…

No way!

She may have been caught between a rock—she could clearly see the hardness of Gregori’s arousal now tenting the front of his tailored trousers—and a hard place, what with Nikolai’s arousal pressing between the cheeks of her bottom, but she wasn’t about to become the filling in a Gregori and Nikolai sandwich.

Then why was just the thought of it making her feel so hot and bothered? Causing her nipples to swell and harden, and between her legs to grow damp with her arousal?

And totally overriding the fear that had held her in its grip since Gregori Markovic entered the office so unexpectedly.

“Not this time, Nikolai,” Gregori answered irritably as he pushed his chair back before standing up. “You may as well come out from under there now, Miss Miller,” he added hardly.

Her face was bright red, her eyes snapping darkly with indignation as she emerged from out of his side of the desk before turning to glare at Nikolai.

Gregori couldn’t say he was too happy about the other man’s assumption himself. Gaia Miller didn’t look like the sort of woman who would enjoy being shared; surprisingly, Gregori hadn’t enjoyed seeing Nikolai rubbing himself suggestively against that curvaceous bottom either.

He gave the other man a reproving frown. “Miss Miller was merely looking for a lost hairpin.” God, now he was using that same ridiculous excuse.

And it was utterly ridiculous. He was convinced Gaia Miller had another reason for being here; he just had no idea what it was yet.

Nikolai’s pale brows shot up to his equally pale hairline. “A hairpin?”

“She lost it while she was cleaning my office,” Gregori answered pointedly.

Silver eyes narrowed—the eyes of the wolf that Nikolai’s family was named for—as he assessed the still-bristling Gaia Miller. “You work in the bar of the casino,” he stated evenly. “This is your fourth day working here.”

Gaia had a feeling from the hard and calculating look she saw pass between the two men that it may just be her last day too.

The low rumble of sensuality she had previously heard in Nikolai’s voice had completely disappeared, and the hard angles of his face looked almost cruel as he studied her with those pale, assessing eyes.

She wasn’t just caught between a rock and a hard place—she was in danger of being pulverized by the sheer intimidation of being in the same room as these two men.

She forced a smile onto lips that felt stiff and unresponsive. “Well I still have work to do, and I’m sure that the two of you have things you want to discuss.” Oh that was definitely not the right thing to say, she realized, when she would obviously be the subject under discussion.

She kept her head held high as she carefully stepped around both the desk and Gregori, and then detoured around Nikolai too on her way to the open door—

“Miss Miller…”