Rogue Alpha (Alpha 7) (12 page)

It was one of the longest speeches Diana had ever heard him make. And it was in praise of a man who was even more arrogant than him and Seth.

“Can I trust you to stay here while I’m sleeping?” Jonas narrowed his eyes on her. “Or will I have to tie you up?”

Diana thought he was joking until she saw the lack of humor in his expression. “That won’t be necessary, thank you,” she answered primly. Really, Jonas was starting to make Seth look almost reasonable.

“If anyone’s going to tie Diana up, then I want the pleasure of being the one to do it.”

Diana turned in time to see a grim-faced Seth letting himself into the house through the back door. How long had he been there? Long enough to hear her call him arrogant? Probably. But then, it wasn’t anything she hadn’t said to his face. Several times.

Which meant there was another reason for the grimness of his expression.

She doubted it was their argument the previous night.

But perhaps for the same reason as their argument last night? Jonas.

But that didn’t explain what he was doing back here when he was supposed to be at the
pension
watching for Eduardo Garcia’s return.

“Trouble?” Jonas had obviously drawn the same conclusion, and no doubt in less time.

“Garcia, or whatever his name is, is dead.”

Diana gave a gasp and raised a hand to her chest, her eyes wide as she stared across the kitchen at Seth. Could he possibly be responsible—

“No, I didn’t kill him,” he bit out as he saw her expression. “Sit down before you fall down,” he instructed her scathingly.

Diana was too shocked to argue as she staggered over to drop down onto one of the kitchen chairs. Because, for a moment, the briefest of moments, she
had
thought he might have been responsible for killing the other man.

“What happened?” Jonas prompted.

Seth turned away from looking at the pallor of Diana’s face and answered the other man. “About a dozen French police arrived in almost as many cars a couple of hours ago, probably called in by the unhelpful guy on the desk. The neighbors started gathering on the street outside. An ambulance arrived. Then a short time later, a body was brought out. I hung around outside long enough to learn that it was Garcia’s body. He’d had his throat cut. Something that was apparently realized after blood started dripping through the ceiling onto the front desk.”

Both men ignored Diana’s second gasp upon hearing how Garcia had died.

“He came back without us knowing.” Jonas sighed.

“We were mainly watching the front of the building. He must have come in the back.” Seth nodded. “I’m guessing the killer came in the same way.”

“The accomplice who searched Diana’s apartment while she was in England?”

“That would be my take on it.”

“Mine too.” Jonas nodded. “The question is why.”

“Our earlier visit to the
pension
would have alerted them to the fact Garcia had been made, so maybe he’d outlived his usefulness?”

“Sounds reasonable—”

“Sounds reasonable?”
Diana echoed tensely. “There’s nothing
reasonable
about…about someone slitting a man’s throat.”

Seth turned to look at her. She was still very pale, turquoise eyes appearing enormous against that pallor.

He had slept badly after their argument last night, too tense and frustrated to be able to relax enough to fall sleep. Not only sexually, but with the whole situation of not knowing what the hell was going on. The death of Garcia today had knocked that tension up several notches.

Diana looked as if she was about to be sick, reminding him all too forcefully that this was the second violent death she’d been close to in only a few months. First her husband, and now Garcia. And Seth was more convinced than ever that the two were connected in some way.

“No, there isn’t,” he acknowledged grimly. “I’m going to leave it a few hours”—he turned to Jonas—“give the police time to do their thing, and then I’ll go back and talk to the owner. See if he feels any more talkative now that someone has been murdered in his hotel.”

“Good plan.” The other man nodded.

“You should probably go and get a few hours’ sleep,” Seth advised. “We may have another long day and night ahead of us.”

“Also a good plan.” Jonas glanced at Diana and then back at Seth. “You going to be okay?”

His jaw tensed. “Fine.”

“I’ll go and crash, then. Wake me if anything else happens.”

“Will do,” Seth answered distractedly, his gaze concentrated on Diana when the other man left the kitchen. It really did look as if it was a toss-up as to whether she was going to cry or be sick.

He would prefer she did neither.

He hated it when a woman cried, and Diana’s tears might undo him altogether. But he doubted she would welcome the humiliation of being sick in front of him either.

He sighed. “Diana—”

“Don’t even attempt to patronize or reason this out with me,” she warned, eyes glittering.

“I wasn’t—”

“Yes, you were.”

“Maybe,” he conceded grudgingly.

Diana was shaking in reaction to the violence of Garcia’s death. This whole thing was getting out of hand.
Out of hand?
It was a nightmare from which she couldn’t seem to wake.

Her kidnapping. Jeremy being shot and killed. Being followed, her hotel room and apartment broken into. Now this man Garcia’s murder.

She studied Seth’s face, noting his grimness in the firm set of his lips and the lines etched beside his eyes and mouth. His
guarded
eyes.

She sighed heavily. “This is all connected, isn’t it?” It was a statement, not a question.

Seth didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
 

“Why? How?”

“If I knew that, maybe we could put a stop to it.”

“What do you think they’re looking for?”

Seth shrugged. “Drugs, maybe.”

Her eyes flashed. “I’ve never been involved in taking drugs—”

“Not you. Your husband, Jeremy.”

“Jeremy wasn’t into taking drugs either—”

“I didn’t say he was taking drugs. The more likely explanation is that he was a courier.”

“That’s ridicu—” Diana broke off her instinctive protest as she realized Jeremy, as a British diplomat, had been in the unique position of being able to do that. Except… “He could never have carried enough drugs out of the country at one time to warrant this sort of attention.”

Seth noted that she didn’t continue to deny Jeremy was capable of the act, only that it wasn’t possible. The same conclusion he and Jonas had come to. “Colombia doesn’t only specialize in the export of illegal drugs.”

“What else is there?”

“Emeralds.”

“Emeralds…” she repeated doubtfully.

He nodded. “Colombia has always produced the finest emeralds in the world.” Jonas had done his homework on Colombia during his commercial flight over to Paris. “Unfortunately, the sale of stolen or illegal emeralds is another way of funding the political conflict within Colombia.”

Diana’s eyes had taken on a haunted expression. “And you think Jeremy was involved in transporting these emeralds out of the country?”

“I think it’s a possibility he was going to be if he wasn’t already,” Seth replied cautiously.

“I… But…” She stood, a frown creasing the smoothness of her brow as she began to pace the confines of the kitchen.

Seth watched her in silence, allowing her to digest and reason the idea over in her mind.

She finally stopped pacing. “If these men are still following me…”

He nodded. “Then in all probability, the emeralds were in Jeremy’s possession when he was shot and killed.”

Diana shook her head. “That isn’t possible. I would have found… Oh God…” Her hand moved to tightly grip the back of one of the kitchen chairs.

“What is it?” Seth prompted sharply.

“I didn’t… I couldn’t bear… Everything Jeremy had with him in Colombia was packed into a crate and delivered to England with his body.”

“Yes?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t even bring myself to open it after…after all that had happened. So I… So I…”

“Yes?” Seth prompted again.

Her eyes were wide. “I told you Jeremy doesn’t have any family, and I couldn’t bring the crate to Paris with me, so—so my parents have it stored in their garage in Wales!”

Fuck.

“I need to call them, tell them—”

“Tell them what?” Seth frowned darkly. “That there may or may not be illegal emeralds stored in the crate they have in their garage? It’s been there for the past eight months,” he added as Diana looked at him uncertainly. “No one has thought to look for the emeralds there yet.”

“That’s because they’re too busy thinking I have them.”

“And that’s the way it’s going to stay.” He moved round the table to stand in front of her, his fingers beneath her chin as he lifted her face up and looked into her eyes. “We don’t even know if there are any emeralds,” he reasoned. “First we settle things in Paris, and then we go to your parents’ home in Wales.”

“But—”

The rest of her protest was lost as Seth lowered his head and his mouth claimed hers.

Chapter 9

Diana felt as if she had been waiting for this moment since the two of them parted so badly the night before.

Wanted it to be as if there had been no argument.

No night of fitful sleep.

No one dead from having his throat cut.

Oh God—

As if sensing her panic, Seth deepened the kiss by parting her lips with a masterful stroke of his tongue, his arms about her waist molding her body along the length of his.

Putting every other thought out of her mind but Seth and the pleasure now thrumming through her body.

Her arms moved up over his shoulders, and her fingers became entwined in the silky dark hair at his nape as she returned the heated hunger of his kiss. Wanting this. Wanting Seth so much, every part of her ached with the wanting.

Seth didn’t want to risk ruining the moment with conversation this time—conversation between the two of them had a habit of doing that—his lips still devouring the heady sweetness of Diana’s, and his tongue taking possession of her mouth, as he swung her up in his arms and headed toward the staircase, only one thought filling his head. Being inside this woman, possessing her, making her his—

His?

What the—

No!

Not going to happen this time. Nothing and no one—especially his own panic—was going to prevent the two of them from enjoying each other. He needed this, and so did Diana, and to hell with everything and everyone else. Including what came later.

He continued kissing her as he carried her into the bedroom at the back of the house where he’d slept the night before, kicking the door closed behind them before crossing the room to lay her on the bed and following her down.

They were eager for each other, clothes quickly thrown off and discarded, the two of them naked within seconds.

“Yes!” Seth groaned his satisfaction as he lay between Diana’s parted thighs, his cock nestling against her silken curls as he leaned up on his elbows and his hands framed either side of her face as he gazed down at her. Her hair was tousled, her eyes bright, cheeks flushed, her lips red and swollen from the kisses they had already shared. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“Very succinctly put.” Diana seemed a little shy now they were both naked, her gaze not quite meeting his. “Could we not talk, do you think? Things seem to go wrong when we talk, and I—I—”

“Yes?”

“This time I want to get to the part where you’re inside me, okay?” She sounded defensive.

“You’re right, we shouldn’t talk.” Seth chuckled as he sensed another argument brewing. “I’d much rather kiss you anyway.” He claimed her lips once again, savoring the taste of her for several minutes before he broke the kiss to move lower.

His lips skimmed across her cheek, down her throat, tongue dipping and tasting the delicate hollows at its base, before he moved lower still. His hands cupped and held her breasts. Not too small and not too large, and tipped with delicate pink nipples that deepened in color the longer he gazed his fill of them. As if even her nipples were blushing as further evidence of Diana’s shyness.

How the hell she could still feel shy after the intimacies they had already shared was beyond him. At the same time, that knowledge increased his desire to claim every inch of her with his hands and his mouth. To taste and devour her—

“Seth…?”

He raised his head, the darkness of his gaze meeting her uncertain one. “Never interrupt a man when he’s appreciating perfection.”

“I’m far from perfect.”

“I think you should let me be the judge of that.” He continued to hold her eyes captive with his own as he licked the roughness of his tongue across one nipple, his own pleasure deepening as she drew in a sharp gasp while her back arched, asking for more.