The Alpha Male

Chapter 2

Roth watched Alexa from across the aisle, unnoticed, as she sketched something in that little notebook of hers. A small crease of concentration was visible on her forehead, as she shaded and smudged, here and there. He wondered what she was drawing.

He leaned back in his seat, letting his thoughts wander. He had moved seats after she had started to get agitated whenever she glanced over at him. If only for her peace of mind, he had decided to leave her to her solitude.

She wasn't a bad kid. A little annoying, trying to get a rise out of him all the time. A little quirky, and not just because of her blue hair. He felt sorry for her. After all, her father had just croaked it and she and her brother were being head hunted internationally.

Speaking of heads, he really had to do something about her hair. The bright shade of cobalt blue did nothing to make her blend in. Her make up…well, heavy eyeliner and mascara as well as a vivid shade of purple lipstick, wasn't discreet. And let's just say her clothes made her fit in more with punk rockers and guys that would stick safety pins through their noses, than the people at the place they were going.

He wondered how her father had allowed her dress her up like that. Strappy leather mini-skirt, a revealing slashed tee with visible red bra, was what he assumed to be apart of her normal décor. Most fathers' would send their daughter to a nunnery if she dressed like that. And mob fathers' were more prudish than others, funnily enough.

'Do not shame the family…' and all that, you know.

Her provocative clothing and style did nothing for him. Not that they were supposed to since she was just a kid. But damn! Her legs were longer than a seaman's need on shore leave.

He had to shake his head at himself. Here he was, a twenty-six year old man, panting after a little girl. Well, not panting, more like appreciating. And she wasn't exactly a little girl. But the facts were still the same. He was either developing pedophile tendencies. Or he needed to get laid. He hoped it was the latter.

A calculating smile came to his face as the image of the little flight attendant's flirtatious look came to his mind. He glanced across the aisle and found Alexa staring at him thoughtfully.

Okay, maybe when the kid's not awake.

She continued to stare at him thoughtfully, her head cocked to one side. He decided to call it her look of 'cute contemplation'. She looked down and added a few deft strokes to her little drawing.

She was drawing him?

Roth smirked to himself. Maybe she doesn't hate me as much as she acts like she does.

He decided to have a little fun. He was bored, so sue him, plus he hadn't been in the best mood for the past week. Having been assigned to guard Alexa hadn't been a big deal, but since Seth was being more of a pain than usual, he was becoming more irate and in need for some amusement. After all, it would be fun to make her blush.

He stood up and sauntered across aisle to the row behind her, casually leaning over to rest his elbows on the headrest of the seat. He bent down to put his head close to hers, close enough that if he turned his head, his lips would brush against her jaw. He let his breath fan against her hair, making it caress her cheek. He heard the faint sound of her breath catching.

"Hey."

She turned slowly, almost like she was in slow motion, to face him, distancing herself at the same time. Roth noticed her gulp.

"So, what are you drawing?" he asked nonchalantly.

Alexa bit her lip, smothering something that seemed like amusement. There was a twinkle in her eye that he didn't understand.

"Would you like to see it?" she asked in an innocent tone, for some reason, he just didn't trust.

She ripped out the page she'd been drawing on, handing it to him. Roth took it with alacrity. Looking down at the page he thought, so much for her not hating me.

Drawn on the paper was an amazing likeness of him, plus horns, tail, trident and all. At least he now knew what she thought of him. The Devil aka Roth Pierce, was written neatly under the image. He had a lascivious expression, haughty eyes, with a lusty twist to his lips, bare-chested down to a loincloth, she had a sketchy outline of his muscular thighs that she'd started defining before he'd interrupted her, it looked like the mirror image of his body, although she'd never seen him with his shirt off, and his pants down. Certainly not what he'd expected.

He kept his face carefully blank. "So, do you spend a lot of time imagining me naked?" he asked, knowing that she had shown him the picture to tell him what she thought of him. Probably to offend him. Unfortunately she'd missed a crucial part of what the picture showed.

Alexa glared at him, snatching the page back, turning around to ignore him.

He couldn't help smirking. She was just too darn funny!

Tapping the top of her head induced a fierce growl, as she swiveled around to glare at him again.

"What?" she snapped.

He shrugged as if it weren't important. "Just wanted to compliment you on your talent."

Her eyes widened with shock and her jaw slackened.

"Especially," he continued, "since you have one very vivid imagination. Tell me, is that how you imagined I look, or have you taken a peek when I haven't noticed?"
Alexa's cheeks reddened.

Mission accomplished.

He turned without ado, to swagger up the aisle to the cockpit, with maybe a short pit stop at the galley on the way back, to have a little chat to the blonde with the pair of great assets.

He heard the tearing of paper and had only a minor concern that it had been the drawing of him, still continuing on his way.

Passing the galley, he gave a wink to the blonde and her redheaded friend, the sound of girlish giggles following him until he shut the cockpit door.

"Don't set them off again, Roth," Greg groaned, glancing back at him. "I have to put up with them on the flight back to Heathrow unless someone pushes them out of the plane. They may be bombshells, but their heads are as empty as a keg at a frat party."

Roth raised an eyebrow.

"It's true. Why do you think the agency hired them? They think that you are some millionaire and that the girl is your little sister. They think you are sending her to a finishing school. That's why she acts like she hates your guts. So they say," the pilot rolled his eyes, and then set the plane on autopilot, unbuckling himself from his seat.

Greg stood up, having a good stretch, before flopping onto the seat behind his. Roth eased down beside him.

"Alexa? In finishing school? I don't think they'd accept her, let alone her accept being sent to one," Roth chuckled.

Greg grinned along with him. "She sure is feisty. If I were nineteen again, I'd go for her. Even with the blue hair! Unfortunately, I'm twenty-nine and happily affianced."

Roth smirked. "That why you were demoted to chauffer?" he said gesturing to the controls.

"Ha ha," he mocked dryly. "No, I retired from missions, but I didn't want a desk job. Flying is what I'm qualified for. You need someone you can trust on this job, so they sent me. Plus, someone has to watch your back before Cheryl or Charmane sink their French manicured fingernails into you. Or you sink your teeth into them," he added with a raunchy undertone.

"Already considered it. Still considering it in fact. Probably would have tried already if the kid hadn't been awake," he said casually.

Greg snorted.

"How long before we land?"

"Two hours until we lose the airheads at Edinburgh, pick up a 'copter, then half an hour to the drop off site."

Roth sighed. What the heck am I going to do for two more hours? He went through a mental check list. Tease Alexa? Check. Flirt with air hostess (at least one)? Check. Had manly chat with Greg? Check. Amused myself with mindless banter? Hmm…that'd be half a check.

"Have you had any word on her brother's status?" Greg asked, pulling him out of his reverie.

"Still missing. He's doing pretty well for a kid. He's left no tracks that they can find and they don't think that Dom's men have a trace on him either. The only clue to where he might be is Alexa, and she swears she has no idea where he is," he replied in professional mode. "At least we have the advantage of having her in custody. It'll buy us time to gather evidence against the organization. They hope to take out at least a couple big leaguers. But, you know how it goes, the biggest fish always gets away."

Greg nodded agreement. "I'd blame the communists but that wouldn't make sense."

Roth shook his head, rolling his eyes. "What the heck brought up communists?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. They supported Hitler. Isn't that reason enough?"

Roth flicked his forehead. "That was the Nazi's you dumbass. The communists hated Hitler and vice versa. He stood for everything they were against. Russia…"

Greg cut him off. "Alright, Mr. History-Buff, I don't need a flash-back to high school. Nazi's. Communists. Who cares?"

"Obviously not you."

"Too true," he said with a grin. "So do you think the girl's telling the truth?"

"About her brother? I don't know. I'm pretty sure she was sincere, but it's pretty hard to tell under all that eyeliner."

"Ouch. That was harsh. Funny, but still harsh," Greg said with a laugh.

There was a knock on the cabin's door. Both men looked at it for a moment before there was another knock. Roth got up to open it, Greg straightened in his seat.

When Roth opened the door, Alexa breezed in, closing the door behind her, pushing him back with a hand placed upon his chest. For some reason the contact made his breath quicken and his pulse leap.

"What took you? Did I interrupt something?" she asked glancing between Roth and Greg slyly.

Greg held his hands up in a gesture of innocence. Roth just glared.

She made her way to the seats opposite Greg, ignoring Roth. Sitting down, she crossed her legs, making her already short skirt hike up a couple more inches, making the pilot stare dumbly in the process.

Roth could almost hear the thoughts rolling through his head. It went something like: Fiancée…legs…going to get married…argh, does she have red panties on?...girlfriend going to kill…they are red!...Dani won't know…matching bra…

It was pathetic to see a man fall to his knees at the sight of a pair of great legs. Only Roth forgot he was staring at her himself.

"So," she tossed her head, letting her straight cobalt hair fan against her shoulders. "Anyone fly this bird or does it do that by itself?" Both men said nothing, not even acknowledging what she'd said. She raised her eyebrows, her large brown eyes surveying them incredulously.

"Hello…" she waved a hand in front of their faces.

Roth was the first to snap out of his daze. Darn. Hel-lo indeed.

"We're going to have to give you a make over," Roth blurted out suddenly to cover his momentary silence, catching Alexa off guard.
"What's wrong with the way I look?" she asked indignantly.

Greg turned to him with the expression, Yeah, what's wrong with the way she looks? on his face, clearly thinking Roth was crazy.

Roth spared him a stern look, before looking back at Alexa. "Well, if you hadn't noticed, you don't really fit into the crowd, and you definitely won't where we're going."

She pouted but took the opportunity to ask, "Where are we going?"

"You'll find out when we get there."

"You sound just like Uncle Dom used to, before I found out what an a-hole he was."

Heaven forbid.

"Lucky I already knew you were one, at least this time I won't have any misconceptions."

His lips thinned at the insult. "We start with the hair," he said as way of payback.

She gasped in horror. "No!"

Ha, sweet revenge…

A/N – I could have added more (probably should have) but I just wanted to get this out tonight before I went to bed. It'll probably be a couple more weeks before I get Chapter 7 of 'What I Want in a Guy' out. Since I'm back at school again (darn Australia's school holidays!) I'm busy with assessments. But, I'm two months way from being in year 12! Yeah! And the HSC! (doh!) The HSC is the Australian equivalent of America's SAT's (I'm pretty sure they are the SAT's…). Anyways, peace my peoples!

And a big thanks to reviewers! Love ya, as always!

Later

~FrEaK~