Savage Alpha (Alpha 8) by Carole Mortimer

ahead. “You have a problem with that?”
    “Not at all.” In fact, the more she thought about it, seeing where and how Jonas lived appealed to her far more than staying with him in a soulless hotel.
    Quite what she had expected that “home” to look like, Lily wasn’t sure.
    Except she hadn’t expected them to drive out of London, leaving the city far behind as Jonas turned the SUV off the major roads, some of these smaller roads even showing evidence of the snowfall from the previous week. The snow in London had melted and completely disappeared by the following morning.
    The roads became narrower and narrower as Jonas drove into a forest for a couple of miles before turning off yet again, this time into even denser woodland and along a rutted track that had snow piled up in several places. They drove in those conditions for about a mile before Jonas turned and parked the SUV in the shelter of a heavy canopy of trees.
    “We walk the rest of the way,” Jonas told her. He turned off the engine and pressed the release button of his seat belt before pushing open his door and stepping out into the pitch darkness outside.
    “Where on earth are we?” Lily had lived in the city all her life, rarely found the time or inclination to go out into the countryside. She hadn’t even realized remote places like this still existed so close to London. It was so dark outside, Jonas was just a darker shape against that blackness, his breath a cold mist, as was her own as she stepped slowly down onto the ground.
    “Larchwood Forest.”
    “Never heard of it.” Not only was it cold and black as pitch out here, with the surrounding trees adding to its sinister air, but the moon and stars appeared far brighter than they ever were over London.
    “Because it’s private woodland.” Jonas was barely discernable as he moved to the back of the vehicle to collect her bag.
    Realizing she was standing alone, surrounded by silence, darkness and trees, Lily hastened to follow him. “If it’s private, then what are we doing here?” Her voice sounded hushed in that silence.
    “I own it. Or rather, my company owns it.”
    “Grayson Security?”
    “JG Enterprises.”
    “You have your own company?”
    “Yes.” Jonas held her bag in his hand as he closed the trunk and turned to face her.
    “You own a forest?”
    “Yes.”
    “A big-ass forest, by the look of it.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Towns and cities make me claustrophobic.”
    As if that dismissal explained everything. And, considering Jonas’s background and where he had grown up, perhaps it did.
    Lily had never been anywhere this remote in her life before, let alone actually expected to stay out here. Did Jonas’s house—cabin?—even have electricity, running water, mains sewage? Oh God, if Jonas expected her to go outside into the woods every time she wanted the bathroom, then one of them was in for a rude awakening. She had a feeling it might be her.
    “I know it’s late, but we still haven’t eaten, so if you don’t want to stay here, say so now and we can drive back to town.” Jonas already regretted bringing her here. He wouldn’t have suggested it at all if Gabriel hadn’t insisted he would leave them both alone if Jonas agreed to stay at a safe house rather than a hotel. Jonas had decided on his own home before he had fully considered the consequences.
    He never brought anyone here, had bought the woodland through a company so that no one could even connect him to it. No one at Grayson Security knew where he lived. He had also kept a vigilant eye on the rearview mirror on the drive here in case one of the Knight brothers decided to follow them. At which time he would have stopped the vehicle and confronted them. Luckily, that hadn’t happened.
    Larchwood was his sanctuary. The place he could go to and know no one would ever find him.
    And yet he hadn’t thought twice about bringing Lily here.
    A woman with whom he couldn’t seem to keep his damned hands