“Noah and I have been patrolling the hallway all evening. Neither of us saw anyone enter or leave the Cooks’ suite.” Ian was as dark haired as the rest of the Knight family, but where their eyes were all shades of green, Ian’s were so deep a brown, they appeared a fathomless black.
Zander glanced down the hallway, his height making it easy for his gaze to be caught and held by Kate’s as she still cradled the sobbing Sophie in her arms. Despite the fact the two women were clearly friends—they often went shopping together or out for lunch—Kate was obviously uncomfortable with this outpouring of emotions.
Because she’d never had a close emotional relationship in her life. Never had a family, or a permanent lover with whom she could share her emotions and feel she belonged.
Where the hell did those thoughts come from?
Kate Stewart had to be one of the wealthiest and most beautiful women in the world. There was no reason for her to ever be alone.
And yet she was.
Night after night spent alone in her bed.
Zander had seen some of the men who sent her flowers before a concert and then came back to her dressing room to say hi afterward. Millionaires. Billionaires. Movie stars. TV personalities. Models. Politicians. Businessmen. All sophisticated and handsome men, and almost groveling on their knees for the chance to take her out to dinner. Kate turned them all down.
If she was alone, then it was through choice, Zander told himself firmly.
And earlier tonight, she hit on me, said she likes me.
So she likes a bit of rough occasionally. Doesn’t mean I’m up for playing that game.
Zander had no illusions about the way he looked. He was over six and a half feet of toned muscle and shoulder-length messy blond hair. While his face wasn’t ugly, it wasn’t handsome either. And he did have tattoos. Lots of them. Tribal, mostly. Over his back and the tops of his arms. The suits he wore to work ensured none of those tattoos were ever visible, as they were when he wore the more comfortable leathers or tight tees, faded jeans, and biker boots he favored when he wasn’t working.
One of those “costumes” Kate wore on stage probably cost more than his whole wardrobe.
He deliberately turned so that he was now facing Ian and not Kate. “Why is Mrs. Cook so convinced otherwise?”
Ian shrugged. “Maybe she fell asleep and dreamed it happened?”
“You’re totally convinced it didn’t? Have you gone through her suite? Checked the kids’ bedrooms?”
The other man scowled. “I hadn’t even had time to call you, once she came out of the suite crying and making accusations and hotel security came running—”
“Do it now,” Zander bit out. “Take Noah and the other two men with you. I’m going to want a full report from you later.”
“Understood.” Ian nodded.
“I’m going to talk to Jeff Saunders now.” He’d met the head of hotel security when he’d arrived earlier. The other man was used to having politicians, heads of state, and other celebrities staying in this prestigious hotel, along with their personal bodyguards. He was also ex-US military, so the two men spoke the same language.
Jeff was as insistent as Ian that surveillance in the hallways and elevators had shown no one entering or leaving the Cooks’ suite during the course of the evening, further adding to the puzzle. Zander also checked in with the men standing watch outside Joey Taylor’s apartment. The American hadn’t left his apartment all evening. Not that it exonerated the other man; Joey Taylor wasn’t the type who would get his own hands dirty. He would hire someone else to do it.
It didn’t help that Bernie Cook arrived back at the hotel a few minutes later, which set his wife off all over again.
Kate was looking even more exhausted by the time she’d handed Sophie off to her husband.
Not just exhausted but alone again, Zander recognized as Kate stepped away from the other couple. Alone in a crowd. Zander knew that phrase, and it often applied to him, but he still found it difficult to believe it could ever be applied to the famous Kate Stewart.
But there she was, not just alone but looking slightly lost too. He—
“We found some slight scratches on the door into the suite in the other corridor, which could have been made by someone using a credit card to jimmy the lock.” Ian arrived back at his side, his expression grim. “I said could. There’s absolutely no proof that happened tonight.”
Zander sighed. “Damn.”
“If someone did get in, then they didn’t come up in the elevator,” Ian assured him.
And the penthouse was on the fiftieth floor of the hotel, he doubted they had walked up all those stairs either. “How about the service elevator in that corridor?”
“Could be. There are no security cameras in there.” Ian frowned. “But surely we would have heard it if someone arrived that way.”
“Maybe,” Zander acknowledged distractedly. Sophie Cook didn’t come across to him as being the hysterical type. “I suggest we clear the hallway by getting the Cooks back into their suite, and then you and Noah stand guard in each of the hallways. I’ll talk to the Cooks and persuade them to let Paul and Karl stand guard inside their suite.”
“And Miss Stewart?”
Zander glanced down the hallway to where Kate was now leaning back against the wall, the pallor of her face hauntingly beautiful. “I’ll guard Miss Stewart tonight.”
“Alone?”
“As the rest of you are all occupied doing other things, yes.”
Ian’s brows rose. “Sure that’s a good idea?”
Zander gave him a sharp glance. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Calm down, buddy,” Ian drawled. “Anyone can see how tired you are. Besides, we’ve all seen the way you look at her.”
His mouth thinned. “I—”
“And the way she looks at you,” the other man added softly.
Zander stilled. “How does she look at me?”
Ian grinned. “As if she wants to climb your body like a tree, lick you all over, and then mount you.”
Zander’s frown turned to a dark scowl. “Fuck off!”
Ian shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Not that I blame you.” He glanced at Kate too. “She is one stunningly beautiful woman, and sexy as hell.”
“Keep your mind on the job of protecting the Cooks,” Zander growled.
“Yes, sir.” Ian gave him a facetious salute.
“I mean it, Ian,” he warned. “No one gets hurt or killed on my watch. Especially a woman or child.”
The other man sobered. “Mine either.”
Zander regretted snapping at Ian, if not the reason for it. The two men had served in the army together and been friends a long time. They certainly weren’t going to fall out over a woman.
Even one as “stunningly beautiful” and “sexy as hell” as Kate Stewart.
It took Zander over half an hour to get the hallway cleared, settle the Cooks down in their suite for the night with Paul and Karl standing guard inside, listen to the report from Ian and Noah, and then get the rest of his men in place.
He’d also had a low but somewhat heated conversation with Bernie Cook once the other man had his wife settled in their suite; the other man was naturally upset that his wife and family now seemed to be at risk too.
Kate had disappeared into her suite at the same time the Cooks went into theirs. She was probably in bed and fast asleep by now, Zander acknowledged ruefully. Which was exactly where he wanted to be. Preferably beside her. Inside her. But that wasn’t going to happen, so he’d settle for the going to bed and sleeping.
“Join me in a glass of brandy?”
It took a few seconds for Zander’s narrowed gaze to adjust and then search the dark of the suite’s sitting room. He finally made out Kate’s outline where she sat in a chair near the window, the moonlight glinting off the glass she held up invitingly. “No, thanks.” A couple of sips of brandy and he would probably fall asleep standing on his feet. “
Why aren’t you in bed?”
“I was waiting for you.”
Zander drew his breath in sharply as Kate’s words conjured all sorts of images in his mind. Kate naked. Kate lying on her back in bed. Kate’s legs apart, and between her thighs open and welcoming. Kate’s breathy groans as he settled between those thighs and kissed and licked her pussy before plunging his cock deep inside her. Thrusting into her over and over again until they both disintegrated into mindless, explosive pleasure.
“Maybe I should call off the rest of the tour before someone gets hurt?” Kate’s voice sounded flat, emotionless.
Zander shut down those erotic images and dragged his thoughts back to the reality of here and now. Was Kate in shock? Maybe a little. A threat to a defenseless child was apt to do that to you. “Wouldn’t canceling the rest of the tour cause an even bigger headache?”
“Maybe. But Maggie could have been hurt tonight. Because of me.”
“Not because of you,” Zander stated firmly as he stepped farther into the room. “If this was Taylor, and that’s still a big if, then you aren’t responsible for the actions of an egotistical bastard who won’t accept the word no.”
She gave a snort. “I knew Joey was all those things when I agreed to go out with him.”
“Then why do it?”
“He seemed like fun at the time.”
“And now?”
She grimaced. “Not so much.”
Joey had seemed liked fun six months ago. He also wasn’t threatened or intimidated by her career and success.
But that wasn’t the only reason she’d gone out with him for a month. She’d realized this past year or so that success wasn’t anything if there was no one to share it with. She’d needed to fill the void which seemed to be deepening inside her the more successful she became.
The only people Kate shared her life with were Bernie and Sophie, and she and her career already took up enough of the time the married couple should have been spending together or with their children. If Bernie wasn’t her manager, he would have been home in England with his wife and kids this evening, or maybe with another of his clients. One that didn’t have an ex-boyfriend making death threats.
Kate put the glass down on the side table and stood up, too restless to sit still any longer. Too restless to go to bed and seek the sleep she so badly needed. Alone, at least…
She saw Zander tense as she approached him in the darkness. “You should run now if you’re going to,” she warned softly as she came to a halt in front of him.
“I’ve never run from anything in my life,” he scoffed. “I’m not about to start with a woman who’s barely tall enough to reach my shoulders.”
Kate tilted her head mockingly to one side. “You sweet talker, you.”
“Darlin’, I’m the wrong man if it’s sweet talking you want.”
Kate caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she studied the shadowed hollows and hard angles of Zander’s face. He was just so male. The sheer size of him, the aura he gave off of strength and power, not only made her feel totally feminine but also protected and safe.
From everyone but him…
“No, I believe you’re exactly the man I want.” She moved forward until her breasts were barely touching the hardness of Zander’s chest. That brief contact with the heat of his body through his shirt was enough to harden her nipples to sensitive peaks and send desire sizzling through the rest of her body. Between her thighs became uncomfortably hot and swollen against the fitted denim.
“You really don’t want to do this,” he warned gruffly, his arms remaining tense at his sides.
“Oh, I really think I do.”
“Am I another man who seems like fun to you?”
She laughed softly. “Fun is the last thing you are.”
“Thanks!”
“You asked.”
“This is a bad idea.”
“It’s a lousy idea,” Kate agreed.
“Then why do it?”
Her smile lacked humor. “Because if human beings only ever did things that were safe and a good idea, nothing would ever be invented or conquered, and we would never try anything new.”
His eyes glittered down at her. “I’m not a new piece of candy for you to taste to see if you like it.”
“Not candy, but I do want to taste you.” She placed her hands on his shoulders to give her the leverage to stand on tiptoe to first kiss and then slowly lick her tongue along the hardness of his jaw. He tasted of both salt and spice. “Mm, delicious,” she murmured before tasting him again, her lips now roaming over that tightly clenched jaw.
Zander fisted his hands as he fought against his need to crush Kate in his arms and take possession of her mouth. Because once he did, there would be no stopping him. He simply had no reserve of strength left to resist her tonight.
“This will end badly,” he warned with the last of his willpower.
She was holding on to the lapels of his jacket as her lips trailed down the column of his throat, her breath warm against his skin, silky hair brushing against the stubble on his jaw. “But think how good it feels right now.”
Zander had thought of nothing else for days but kissing and touching Kate.
Weeks.
Months.
He wanted to fuck this woman so badly, even his teeth ached from the effort of trying to resist her. Something that was doubly true this evening, when she seemed so intent on breaking through not just one but every barrier he’d put in place to keep her out.
“You know you want to.” Kate rubbed her mound against his erection.
Of course he fucking wanted to. Didn’t mean it was right or even sensible to do anything about it.
“Zander, please…”
Oh fuck.
Chapter 3
Kate discovered in the next two minutes that Zander wasn’t kidding when he said he wasn’t a sweet talker. In fact, he didn’t speak at all as he gathered her up in his arms and carried her through to her bedroom before kicking the door closed behind them. A lamp on the bedside table lit his way as he placed her on the bed, the intensity of his gaze never leaving her as he quickly removed his jacket and tie before following her down, half lying across her as his mouth captured hers.
At last, was Kate’s gratified thought.
It was literally her last thought as Zander’s mouth took full possession of hers. Of her.
Kate lost all sense of time and space as sexual energy roared through her, having only been muted earlier rather than disappearing completely.
She buried her hands in the thickness of Zander’s hair and held him closer as their kisses became wilder and more intense. Zander licked and tasted her lips and mouth before biting, devouring. She writhed beneath him as his hands roamed and caressed her everywhere. Her breasts, the curve of her waist, before moving down to cup and press against the apex of her thighs.
It wasn’t enough. Her body was a deep, sensual ache that demanded flesh on flesh. She wanted to feel Zander’s hands and mouth on her. As she wanted to feel and touch him. To see and touch the tattoos she knew he had.
Her hands shook slightly, the buttons sliding out of her grasp, fingers fumbling, as she tried to unfasten his shirt.
Zander continued to kiss her as he ripped the shirt undone before pulling it off completely and discarding it. He pushed Kate’s T-shirt up and bared her breasts before laying the hot weight of his torso on top of her.
Kate’s naked skin seemed to sizzle at first contact with that hot and muscular chest. Her breathing became erratic as Zander broke the kiss to trail his lips across her cheek to her earlobe. She quivered in his arms as she felt the nip of his teeth against that tender flesh before he kissed his way down the length of her throat to where he had bared her breasts.
One of his huge hands moved up to cup and elevate that aroused flesh. “Fucking perfect,” he muttered before his parted lips suckled her nipple and the surrounding areola into his mouth, and he began to lick and lash that engorge
d flesh with the rasp of his tongue.
Heat.
Pleasure.
God, so much pleasure.
Kate arched into that devouring mouth. His hand moved down to unfasten the button on her jeans before slipping beneath the denim and her lace panties to the throbbing ache of her clit.
She could feel her slickness wetting his fingers as they stroked and parted her nether lips, caressing slowly, agonizingly, before taking that wetness higher to where her clit pulsed in the same erratic rhythm as her heart. Those fingers continued to tantalize and tease that aching flesh for long tortuous minutes, circling but never quite touching the hardened nubbin, no matter how much Kate squirmed to get that circling path of pleasure where she wanted it. On her clit, where she needed it.
Kate groaned, low and desperate. “Please, Zander…”
Zander hadn’t meant for this to happen. He had been so determined it wouldn’t. And yet here he was, with one of Kate’s lush nipples in his mouth, his hand down her panties and fingers stroking her moist, gushing pussy.
He attempted to shake off the sexual haze clouding his brain, but was prevented from doing so as one of her hands moved to grasp his wrist, holding it in place as she began to undulate her erect clit against his stroking fingers. She gasped and sobbed her pleasure with each gliding stroke.
To hell with that!
He might have tried to stop this from happening, but as he was now in this up to his fucking neck, he was going to be the one who controlled Kate’s pleasure.
He released her nipple from his mouth and moved back slightly. Kate lay very still under his penetrating gaze, her face flushed, eyes a deep and glowing gray, her lips slightly fuller from the force of their kisses. Her breasts—dear God, her breasts were delicious. They were lusher than they looked beneath that clinging T-shirt, and tipped with rose-pink, aroused nipples. The one on the left was a deeper pink than its twin from where he had sucked and bitten it, the tender flesh around it also showing evidence of scratches caused by the stubble on his chin.
Her gaze was uncertain as she stroked her tongue over red, puffy lips. “Are you going to stop?”
Tempting Zander Page 3