Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) (3 page)

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.

Besides, he had almost strangled poor Evan.

“Is it safe to leave me alone with him?” Evan eyed Jonas nervously as Lily got up to go through to the kitchen.

“Is it?” Lily quirked a questioning brow at Jonas.

“For the moment,” he allowed grudgingly.

Lily would like to think he was joking, but she knew by Jonas’s behavior in the hallway that he wasn’t. One wrong move from Evan, and he was likely to find himself pressed up against the wall again, Jonas’s hand once more about his throat. And this time, he might not let go.

“It’s safe,” she told Evan, shooting Jonas a warning glance as she continued into the kitchen to get the glass of water.

Jonas assessed Evan. Mid to late twenties, about six feet tall, slender frame, pretty-boy face, tousled brown hair. “So you’re an actor?”

The guy’s Adam’s apple bobbed nervously up and down before he spoke. “Yes.” He gave an enthusiastic nod. “I also have a boyfriend called Todd,” he added quickly.

Jonas’s eyes narrowed. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Todd goes away on business a lot, and Lily and I occasionally go for coffee after the show when he’s away.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I was concerned earlier when someone said she’d left with you.”

“Why?”

“Well…the letters. Those roses.” Evan shuddered. “I thought you might have been him. The stalker. You aren’t him, are you?” he added as a worried afterthought.

Jonas gave a derisive shake of his head. “I’m a friend of her brother.”

Evan’s eyes lit up with interest. “The big dangerous-looking one, with the incredibly wide shoulders and gorgeous green eyes?”

“That would be all of them. And I’ll take your word for it on the gorgeous green eyes,” he drawled.

“This brother also always wears suits that look as if his tailor loves dressing him.” Evan gave a swooning movement with his eyes to emphasize his point.

“That would be Gabriel.” Although Jonas had a feeling the other Knight brothers looked as good in a suit. “And yes, that’s the right brother.” He wondered how Gabriel would react to this man’s obvious crush. No doubt the same way he reacted to everyone—with complete indifference. Gabriel didn’t have women, or men, in his life, only in his bed, and then only for the time it took to satisfy his sexual itch. “I wouldn’t waste my time in that direction, if I were you.”

“Are you and Gabriel together?”

Jonas almost choked on his own tongue. Him and Gabriel? It would be like putting a tiger and a panther together, and anyone’s guess which one would maul the other to death.

“Yes, are you?” Lily prompted innocently as she arrived back and handed Evan the glass of water.

Jonas narrowed his eyes at her. “Remember that promise I made you earlier?” His mouth twisted as Lily’s cheeks colored with a blush. “Consider it a notice of intent. But you won’t know when to expect it.”

“Lily?” Evan looked between the two of them uncertainly.

“It’s okay, Evan.” Lily turned to give him a reassuring smile. “Jonas is just a big teddy bear, really. Aren’t you?” she taunted.

More like a grizzly—with attitude.

And right now, Jonas’s
attitude
was telling him Lily not only took delight in pressing every one of his buttons, but she succeeded too.

“Time I was going.” Evan had obviously had enough of the tension he sensed between them, placing his empty glass down on a coaster on the coffee table before standing up. “I only wanted to make sure you were okay, baby girl.” He touched Lily’s cheek gently.