Midnight Alpha (5 page)

“Earlier.” He nodded abruptly, jaw tight. “I am afraid that Nikolai…misunderstood the situation, and behaved accordingly.”

What on earth did Nikolai have to do with—

Ah. Her brow cleared as the penny finally dropped. “You’re referring to the sexual harassment in the workplace?”

Those dark eyes narrowed. “It was not sexual harassment—”

“No?” Gaia grimaced. “Well whatever it was, it’s really none of my business if you and Mr. Volkov like to play tag in the bedroom.”

“Tag?” he repeated harshly.

“Tag.” She nodded. “One woman, two men,” she explained derisively.

Gregori knew exactly what it was. Just as he was aware he was guilty of her accusation: he had done a lot of things in the past he wasn’t particularly proud of, and bedding numerous women, singly or in pairs, was just one of them.

But that just made these past months of not being interested in bedding any woman all the more surprising.

Until tonight with Gaia Miller.

For some reason he’d had a completely visceral reaction to her from the moment he saw her bottom wiggling out from beneath his desk. Everything about her. The way she looked, the way she smelled, the way she walked, and especially the way she talked. No woman had ever spoken to him in quite the way Gaia Miller did. As if she didn’t care who he was, how powerful he might be; she was going to talk to him in the same open way she did everyone else. He liked it. In the same way he liked her.

And he didn’t want to.

Partly because he didn’t have time for a relationship. But involvement with Gaia Miller also made him uneasy on a completely different level.

He had read her employee file, and been told what Nikolai had managed to find out about her so far. He knew she was only twenty-four, and her lack of guile gave the impression she had no knowledge of the rules of being involved with a man like him. Gregori would take a woman out to dinner to see and be seen once a week, buy her expensive gifts of clothes and jewelry, always with a guarantee of sexual satisfaction. A fair and open exchange of their time.

This young woman didn’t give the impression she had any of the sophistication necessary to accept such a businesslike relationship.

Besides which, the information in her file alone now gave him even more reason to question why she was working at Utopia at all.

Gaia watched Gregori Markovic surreptitiously across the desk from beneath her lashes as he seemed momentarily lost in thought, but her eyes widened as he pulled a folder from the ‘in’ tray and placed it on the desk directly in front of him.

A folder with her name on the front of it.

A folder that looked much thicker than needed for just the form she had filled in when she applied for a job here.

Oh shit!

Her heart started beating double time, her thoughts racing as she slowly straightened to look across and into those cold and merciless dark eyes, her throat going dry as Gregori looked straight back at her. Not speaking. Not moving so much as a muscle.

As power games went it was very effective. And although Gaia didn’t want to respond to it, she couldn’t help herself as she began to fidget and shift restlessly, her gaze sliding away from his, only to move back again as that silence lengthened into complete awkwardness.

What was Gregori thinking?

What the hell was in that folder besides her application form?

More to the point, did Russian crime bosses go in for the concrete shoes method of elimination that had once been so popular?

And wouldn’t that be ironic after her comments tonight about the shoes she was forced to wear while working here.

The silence stretched on, with Gaia becoming tenser by the second as she waited for Gregori to say something. Anything would be better than this—this mental torture.

Just when she thought she couldn’t stand the waiting anymore, when she was about to break and confess all, Gregori drew in a deep breath, nostrils flaring, those dark eyes becoming even more piercing. “Just exactly why are you working here, Miss Miller?”

Oh God.

How did he know? How had he discovered the truth? She and Angela may have had the same father, but Angela had been legitimate and Gaia hadn’t, and as such their surnames were different, and there was absolutely no similarity in the way they looked either. Angela had been tall, slender and blond—

“Miss Miller?”

Gaia felt as if her heart really was going to beat right out of her chest, dark spots appearing in front of her eyes as Gregori opened the folder to look down at the first page.

At what? What the hell was written in that file that had caused him to question her reason for working at Utopia?

She glanced at the door behind her, wondering what her chances were of escaping from the room and the nightclub before running screaming into the night.

Nil, came the flat, immediate answer.

She had no chance; knew she wouldn’t even get as far as the hallway if she were to attempt it. Had no doubts that beneath that perfectly tailored suit there was a body of steel. It was there in the smooth and measured way Gregori moved: light on his feet and ready to pounce, like the predator he undoubtedly was.

And even if she did make it as far as the hallway, there was no way she would manage to get out of the nightclub, not with Nikolai still prowling about downstairs.

Gaia decided to opt for ignorance instead of any attempt at escape. “I’m not sure what it is you’re asking?”

Her eyes widened and she pressed against the back of the chair when, instead of answering her, Gregori stood up abruptly. He picked up her folder and moved to stand in front of her, leaning back against the desk. Only inches separated them now.

His aim was no doubt to intimidate—as if she wasn’t intimidated enough already—but his close proximity also succeeded in making Gaia completely aware of the heat emanating from his tightly leashed body. She could also smell the heady combination of all that hot masculinity and the lemon and sandalwood aftershave. Although the dark stubble on his arrogantly squared jaw seemed to indicate it was some time since he had last shaved. Sexy and enticing stubble that made Gaia’s fingers itch to touch and caress it.

If it
should
somehow transpire that Gregori was the man Angela had been in love with, then Gaia could certainly understand the fascination.

She tossed the length of her hair back over her shoulder as she looked up at him. “Much as I would like to continue to sit here having this conversation with you, it really has been a very long night, and my shift was over…” she glanced down at the heavy watch on her wrist, “half an hour ago.” She stood up. “Now if you don’t mind, I really would like to go—”

“Sit down, Miss Miller.”

“I don’t—”

“I said sit down, Miss Miller!”

Gaia sat. Not because she wanted to or because he had ordered her to, but because she had to, her knees having turned to the consistency of jelly at the intimidating command in Gregori’s voice.

Those concrete shoes were looking more and more like a possibility to Gaia.

Chapter 4

“You wrote on your application that you have a degree in journalism and publishing.” Gregori watched Gaia closely for her reaction to his statement.

A reaction he wasn’t expecting.

Confusion and then relief.

As if she had been expecting him to say something else entirely.

Confirming his suspicion that there was more to Gaia Miller’s employment here than appeared on paper?

Just not his most recent suspicion, after reading of her qualifications in her file, that she might be looking to write an expose story on him.

Then was it possible she was somehow connected to Ivan Orlov?

Gregori found that hard to believe. He just couldn’t equate this young Englishwoman with the man who had become his biggest enemy, especially when Gregori knew for a fact that Ivan had only ever stepped foot in England twice. Once five years ago, and again seven months ago when the older man attended the funeral of Gregori’s father.

Besides which, the other man was old school, and would come for him armed with a gun rather than waste time attempting to entice him into the arms of a beautiful woman.

So if this young woman wasn’t intending to write an expose on him, or working for Ivan, exactly what was Gaia Miller hiding and why?

Whatever it was, it didn’t stop Gregori from appreciating the view he had of the lushness of her breasts as he towered over her. Breasts he still wanted to cup and caress, to watch as his hands stroked her nipples to hard peaks before he pulled on them, milked them, and listened to her groans of pleasure.

God, he needed to get laid. Badly. Except he already knew that not just any beautiful woman would do. Because he wanted this one. Which, under the circumstances, was fucking inconvenient.

“Yes?” She gazed up at him quizzically with those golden eyes.

Gregori closed the folder with a snap, his mouth twisting in a humorless smile as Gaia Miller gave a start at the loud noise in the otherwise silent room.

Truth was he didn’t need to look at her file to know what was in it. He knew her age and her education from her employment application, but Nikolai had also learned that her mother was dead and her father recorded as ‘unknown’ on her birth certificate.

And it turned out they
were
short-staffed at Utopia, and not just because of the flu that seemed to have struck down most of the cleaning staff. They had also lost one of the hostesses a couple of months ago, and two of the bar staff had left in the last few month as well.

Gaia Miller’s references from her summer job as an employee in a coffee shop were excellent. Those references also said she was hardworking, diligent, trustworthy, and had no absences due to sickness. Which explained why Claude had employed her.

It was unfortunate that Gregori now ached to put that ‘diligence’ to use by pressing her up against a wall and fucking her brains out.

This constant hard-on he had in her company was not only unacceptable, it was also going to become extremely annoying if he didn’t do something about it.

He pushed abruptly away from the front of the desk to move back and sit behind it, giving a hard smile as he heard Gaia give an audible sigh of relief. Revealing that she was just as physically aware of him?

“It really is late, Mr. Markovic—or early, depending on your point of view,” she added. “And I’m sure you must have had a reason for bringing me up here?”

There was a purpose to everything that Gregori did and said. Everything. A man in his position had no room in his life for error. Which made the need he felt to fuck Gaia Miller a monumental mistake, on so many levels.

His mouth thinned. “I’ll be sure to tell Claude to add an extra hour in your wages this week.”

“I would appreciate a taxi home more,” she came back instantly.

No doubt as another reference to her sore feet. He really would have to look into this complaint with Claude, and do something about it if all the other female bar staff were as unhappy with their footwear as this one.

“Very well,” he nodded. “And as we still have another thirty minutes left of that extra hour, perhaps you would like to tell me why a woman with a degree in journalism and publishing is serving drinks in a casino?”

Gaia looked at him incredulously.
That
was this man’s problem with her working here?

She gave a shake of her head. “Have you looked at the world of journalism and publishing recently? No, of course you haven’t—it doesn’t affect you because you don’t own any newspapers or publishing houses.” She felt her cheeks warm a little as Gregori raised questioning brows at her knowledge of his business holdings. “Both are shrinking,” she continued determinedly. “Almost daily. Because of the advances in technology mainly.”

“Then perhaps you should have chosen a different career?”

Her cheeks flushed. “Most of that technology wasn’t there when I began my degree five years ago. I came out of university to find that there were no jobs in publishing. That will tell you,” she nodded to the folder he had placed back on the desk top, “that I’ve worked several internships with publishing houses this past year, with no prospect of a full-time job at the end of them. My last job was as a waitress in a coffee shop—”

“At which you excelled apparently.” He nodded. “It also states that your employer was sorry to let you go, which tells me it was your decision to leave,” he bit out hardly. “Which again brings me back to the question of why you gave up that job to work in a bar with unsociable hours?”

“Money. I earn almost twice as much here as I did in the coffee shop. It’s explained as easily as that.” Gaia gave him a frowning glance, noting there was no lessening of the coldness in his eyes. “What do you think I’m doing here?”

“You would know that better than I.”

Gaia didn’t appreciate his cat-and-mouse game. “Perhaps you think I’m here to write some sort of expose story on the infamous Gregori Markovic? That’s exactly what you thought!” she realized as his narrowed gaze grew even colder. “I’m not stupid, Mr. Markovic,” she snorted. “You may not own any newspapers or publishing houses, but you’re certainly powerful enough to prevent any of them from printing a story you don’t like.”