Renegade Alpha (ALPHA 5) by Carole Mortimer

expression was grim. “I discussed the situation with Dair earlier, and he suggested, as Grayson Security’s plane isn’t available, that I ask his cousin if we can borrow his plane.”
    “Dair’s cousin owns his own plane?”
    Lijah nodded. “Lucien Wynter. Heard of him?”
    Everyone had heard of the reclusive billionaire businessman Lucien Wynter. And the rumors connecting him to London’s criminal underworld. “You know some interesting people.” It also answered her question as to how Lijah intended to get his weapons through security. She had no doubt there was a cursory check even for people traveling on private planes, but probably not as much as there would have been on a commercial flight.
    “You have no idea,” Lijah assured her with feeling, and this time he knew it was his gaze that avoided meeting Callie’s curious one as he picked up his fork and began to eat.
    Lucien’s story was his own to tell, and he was far from being the most interesting person in Lijah’s life.
    Not that he thought his family was interesting. It was just different. And not in a good way. His parents were uptight, formal, and appearances were everything to them. Which was maybe why Lijah did the opposite in regard to his own appearance.
    His parents lived in a castle, for fuck’s sake, and opened up the grounds and gardens once a year to “amuse the masses.”
    His father was also a complete and utter bastard, and Lijah, as the only son and heir, couldn’t wait to get away from him once he’d reached eighteen. He’d never looked back. Never intended to either. Ever.
    “Lijah?”
    He could feel the scowl darkening his brow as he looked across at Callie questioningly.
    She gave him a quizzical glance. “You seemed far away for a few minutes there.”
    Not nearly far enough, in Lijah’s opinion. He never thought about his family anymore. As far as he was concerned, they didn’t exist. Not his too-handy-with-his-fists father or his too-weak-to-defend-her-own-son mother. They could rot in hell together for all he cared.
    “I’m not hungry.” He dropped his fork onto his plate and pushed it away. “Not for food, anyway.” He eyed Callie speculatively as he slowly stood.
    Callie had no idea what Lijah had been thinking about the past few minutes, but he’d gone from being his usual economically terse self to a man whose eyes now glittered with a cold intensity.
    An intensity that appeared to be centered on her as he stepped purposefully around the table. Callie swallowed, her gaze on a level with that noticeable bulge at the front of his jeans.
    “Lijah?” She pushed back against the chair as she looked up at him.
    “Say no now, Callie, because I won’t give you a second chance,” he warned gruffly as he grasped hold of her arms and easily pulled her to her feet to stand in front of him.
    The difference in their heights meant she had to tilt her head back in order to look him in the face. She wasn’t in the least reassured by what she saw there. The darkness of his gaze was fixed on her slightly parted lips, and there was a ruddiness to his cheeks, and those chiseled lips were curled into a humorless smile of intent. The muscles in his arms and chest were also tense. As if he was preparing to pounce.
    Callie ran her tongue nervously across her bottom lip, her breath hitching in her throat as that indigo gaze darkened even more as it followed the movement.
    Was it wrong of her to want to feel those sensuous lips against her own? To want that hard and aroused body pressing into her softer curves, if only for a few minutes?
    Was it wrong of her to want another man, this man, when Michael had only been dead for six months?
    Lijah’s eyes narrowed to dark slits. “There’s no room between the two of us for anyone else.”
    Callie flinched at how easily he had been able to read her guilty thoughts.
    She had been well on her way to loving Michael when he died, but she hadn’t yet been in love with him. Whereas in