Tempting Zander

by Carole Mortimer

  Kate chuckled. “What if you’re seasick?”

  “I’m not.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know, okay.”

  Kate studied him for several minutes. “You were in the military for a while, weren’t you? The long hair is deceiving, but I can still see it in the way you walk and carry yourself.”

  “I was in the military for a while,” he confirmed evenly. “And no, I’m not going to talk about it,” he added before she could ask her next question.

  Her smile was rueful. “You’re starting to know me rather too well.”

  Zander was well aware of that. “How’s your bottom?”

  “Still waiting for you to kiss it better,” she came back instantly.

  Provocative little… “Kate, I—”

  “I know what you’re doing, Zander, and I’m not going to allow you to push me away, maybe even cause another argument between us by reminding me you actually spanked my bottom earlier.” She placed her hand on his arm once he’d parked the car at the back entrance of tonight’s venue, away from the crowd she had spotted lining the street at the front. It was noticeable that Zander didn’t react violently to her touch this time. “Let’s continue our truce for a few more hours at least, hmm?”

  Zander wanted more than a few hours of her time. Wanted more of her. So far, they had both given each other oral satisfaction, and now Zander ached to be inside her. To feel the heat of her pussy contracting and squeezing about his cock as he thrust in and out of her. To take Kate again and again in every position they could think of until neither of them could take any more and collapsed from exhaustion with his cock still buried inside her.

  “Did you like it?”

  “Sorry?” Kate gave Zander a puzzled glance.

  He turned to face her, keeping one hand on the steering wheel and his other arm along the back of her seat. “Did you like being spanked?”

  She liked hearing the sensual gruffness in his voice more.

  Having Zander put her over his knee and spank her should have infuriated her. Instead, her nipples had hardened to tingling peaks, and between her thighs had become hot and wet. She’d had to change out of the red thong after Zander left her bedroom, her juices having soaked into the lacy material all over again and making it uncomfortable to wear.

  She swallowed. “Yes, I liked it.”

  “Fuck…”

  “Well, you asked.” Kate chuckled at his reaction. “I’d like it even more if next time you followed through and made love to me fully.”

  His hand tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles showed white. “We’re on dangerous ground here, Kate.”

  Her gaze met his unflinchingly. “That doesn’t seem to have stopped either of us so far.”

  Zander was no longer sure he could stop this now even if he still wanted to. Which the throbbing of his engorged cock whenever he was with Kate told him he didn’t.

  His hand shifted from the seat behind her, and he ran caressing fingers down the hollows of her cheeks. “I’m not the settling-down type.”

  She gave an exasperated sigh. “Haven’t I just finished telling you my lifestyle doesn’t allow for that either?”

  Yes, she had, but she had also said she hungered for those things she’d talked about. Maybe wanted a husband and kids of her own. Only that there was no room in her life for them right now. Zander lived a nomadic lifestyle, occupied a converted warehouse when he was in England. When he was in England… Which wasn’t that often.

  How would a relationship between the two of them even work once Kate’s world tour was over in two months and Zander was no longer a part of her security detail? Would they spend a night together whenever they both happened to be in the same place at the same time?

  Zander’s jealous response to Joey Taylor earlier today, to just the thought of the other man sharing Kate with a third person, told him he wasn’t the sort of man who could maintain that type of distant relationship. He doubted he could maintain a relationship at all.

  The most he’d ever had in his life in the past had been one-night stands. Love ’em and leave ’em. He didn’t do dates and late-night phone calls, and remembering to send flowers on a woman’s birthday and anniversary days that meant something to her but meant fuck all to him.

  He didn’t do relationships.

  When Kate was talking to Taylor earlier, she had confirmed what Zander thought: She didn’t do one-night stands.

  They were different in so many ways, even if none of those differences stopped them from wanting each other.

  Possibly because they were also alike in other ways.

  Kate had grown up without parents. So had Zander, from the age of fifteen.

  They lived alone.

  They both traveled all over the world, wherever their work took them.

  They—

  “You could always leave Knight Security and become permanent head of my security detail.”

  Zander frowned. “Live on the money you paid me, you mean?”

  “It wouldn’t be like that.”

  “It would be exactly like that— See we’re arguing about it already,” he mused ruefully as he sat back. “Time for you to go inside and get ready to do your thing,” he announced decisively before getting out of the car to come round and open her door for her. He waited until his two men had climbed out of the car parked behind them and taken up their positions, facing out to watch for any signs of danger, before allowing Kate to get out of the car.

  Kate was aware Zander had cut her dead over her suggestion he become her permanent head of security. She also knew the question of who paid him was only part of the reason, and that fear also played a large part in Zander’s rejection of any sort of permanence in his life. His parents had died suddenly. His grandparents were now both dead too. The closest thing he had to family was the men he worked with. Work that took him all over the world.

  Well, Kate was scared too. Of what Zander made her feel. Of what those feelings made her long for.

  But not scared enough she was willing to give up on the fragile connection they already had.

  “Kate?”

  She smiled up at Zander as she got out of the car before straightening. She kept her eyes open and saw his eyes widen with surprise as she stood on tiptoe and kissed him firmly on the lips. His two men were facing outward and couldn’t see the exchange; she wouldn’t deliberately embarrass him in front of the men he worked with. “My bottom is still waiting for you to kiss it better,” she reminded him huskily.

  Zander felt the warmth in his cheeks and realized Kate had actually made him blush. Something he hadn’t done since he was a gangly schoolkid and had a crush on his music teacher. “I may have to warm it up again before kissing it better,” he warned.

  Kate gave him a dazzling smile. “As long as we’re both naked when you do…”

  “You’re a fucking menace,” he growled.

  She chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Zander had a feeling he had very soundly lost that round.

  And for once, he didn’t care. Just the thought of having Kate lying over his naked thighs, her bare bottom in the air ready for him to spank, was enough to keep him hard all the way through her concert. Watching her as she cavorted and jumped around the stage during some of her livelier songs, dressed in one of those skimpy stage costumes and those fuck-me high-heeled shoes, certainly didn’t help with Zander’s already painful erection.

  “The four new men arrived while we were out, and I need to go and fill them in on the situation,” he informed Kate once she was safely returned to her hotel suite after yet another successful concert. She hadn’t hung around after the concert as she usually did, chatting and laughing with her backing band before showering and changing, but instead came straight back to the hotel after her encore.

  “I’m going to take a shower, and you’re coming back to my bedroom after talking to them.”

  “Kate—”

  “
It wasn’t a question, Zander,” she derided. “I’m not going anywhere. You aren’t going anywhere. So let’s both see where this takes us.”

  The problem with doing that was Zander believed it would take them both into a situation that was unresolvable. Into feelings that were equally as unresolvable.

  Her expression was rueful. “You know, Zander, I don’t think I’ve ever had to persuade a man into sharing my bed before you.”

  He closed his eyes briefly before looking at her. As usual, her sensual beauty went straight to his cock. “You don’t have to persuade me either,” he groaned. “I just don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”

  “I’m a big girl and can take care of myself.”

  He knew that, knew it was something she’d been doing for the whole of her life. But she had enough going on in her life right now with the problem of Joey Taylor without adding to them. “And if—when, I ultimately walk away?”

  “Then you walk away.” She shrugged, not missing the fact that he had used the word if first. “Stop making everything so complicated, Zander.” She placed her hand on his arm. “I’ll be waiting in my bedroom for you, naked, when you’ve finished talking to your men.”

  Zander breathed in sharply. “You’re making it very difficult for me to say no.”

  She grinned. “Probably because I have no intention of allowing you to say no.”

  “Okay,” he conceded. “There’s something I need to talk to you about anyway, so I’ll come back once I’ve brought the new men up to speed.”

  “Fifteen minutes?”

  He nodded. “Probably.”

  Kate hurried through her shower and hair wash, but lingered long enough in the bathroom to pamper herself by applying perfumed body lotion and drying her hair. She was surprised when, half an hour after he’d left her, Zander still hadn’t returned.

  Had he had second thoughts?

  Probably third and fourth ones too, knowing Zander’s wariness where she was concerned. Well, she wasn’t about to let him get away with that. She quickly dressed in a pair of black cotton sweats and a white camisole top she would ordinarily have worn to sleep in but which were perfectly adequate clothing in which to go looking for her cautious lover.

  Ian Knight stood guard when she stepped out into the hallway. “Anything I can help you with, Miss Stewart?”

  “Have you seen Zander?”

  His mouth twitched, as if he’d only just stopped himself from smiling. As he had been present in the store earlier today and heard Zander, Kate thought maybe Ian was entitled to a little humor on her own and his friend’s behalf. “I believe he went to Mrs. Cook’s suite a few minutes ago.”

  Kate’s brow cleared. “Thanks.” She walked confidently down the hallway to Sophie and Bernie’s suite. Zander could delay coming back to her for as long as he liked, but she wasn’t going to accept—

  Kate came to an abrupt halt, frozen, having turned the corner at the end of the hallway just in time to see Sophie launching herself into Zander’s arms.

  “Please don’t tell Bernie,” Sophie pleaded as her arms clung about Zander’s neck. “Let me be the one to speak to him. I promise I’ll tell him the truth. I just… I promise I’ll speak to him, but please let me tell him.”

  “I’ll give you until tomorrow morning,” Zander spoke gruffly. “But no longer than that. This situation can’t go on as it is. Surely you can see that.”

  Sophie nodded. “I can. Of course I can. It’s been so hard to talk to Bernie. He’s going to be so upset. So hurt,” she choked.

  “Either you tell him, or I have to,” Zander grated.

  “I know,” Sophie accepted dully. “I promise I’ll talk to him when he gets back tonight.”

  Kate felt numb. Every part of her seemed to have shut down. Except the part of her brain telling her to run. To escape back to her suite before either Zander or Sophie saw her and realized she had witnessed their… Their what?

  Chapter 8

  “What the hell were you thinking?”

  Kate blinked as Bernie threw a newspaper down onto the table in front of her as she sat huddled in a chair, drinking her first cup of coffee of the morning.

  She gave the newspaper a cursory glance. There were two photographs on the front page, with the headline: WHO IS KATE’S NEW MAN?

  The first photograph had obviously been taken in the store yesterday. It was a little grainy, but it was obviously her and Zander in the lingerie department as the two of them went into the fitting room together. Compliments of sales assistant Melody’s cell phone? Kate couldn’t think of anyone else who could have taken the photo. It certainly wouldn’t have been Ian, and there had been no one else in that department while they were there.

  The second photo was much clearer and had to have been taken with a long lens. It was when Kate had kissed Zander after they arrived at the venue the evening before. There had been no one remotely close to them at that moment, but someone had obviously been watching and waiting.

  “Well?” Bernie demanded at her silence.

  Her shoulders moved in a shrug. “The camera doesn’t lie.”

  “You’re involved with your bodyguard?”

  No, Kate wanted to say but didn’t, your wife is the one who’s involved with my bodyguard.

  Kate had been locked in her bedroom, all the lights off, when Zander finally knocked on the door the night before. She hadn’t answered of course, and after knocking softly once more and still receiving no answer, Zander had left. She hadn’t seen him yet this morning. After a virtually sleepless night and the shedding of a few humiliated tears, right now she didn’t care if she never saw him again.

  It made her ill to think that all the time the two of them had been getting closer, intimate, Zander was already involved in an affair with Sophie, a married woman with two small children. And Sophie had promised to tell Bernie the truth about the two of them last night…

  Kate looked at Bernie searchingly, noting the dark shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep and the tightness about his unsmiling mouth. “They’ve printed worse.” She pushed the newspaper to one side without bothering to read the article accompanying the photographs. She already knew that what the press didn’t know, they would have made up. “How are you?”

  “Me?” Bernie looked startled. “I’m fine.”

  “Sure?” His tone had sounded a little sharp to her, and he looked far from fine too.

  “I’m not the one who has her face plastered all over the front of the world’s newspapers.”

  Kate shrugged. “But you are the one who told me ‘no publicity is bad publicity.’”

  “This isn’t funny, Kate.” Bernie scowled. “The man is head of your security detail, for goodness’ sake.”

  “Not anymore, I’m not.”

  Kate felt the color leach from her cheeks as she stood abruptly to turn and look at Zander standing in the doorway. He was dressed in one of those formal dark suits, shirt, and tie he always wore to work, but otherwise, he looked worse than she did when she’d looked in the mirror this morning. His eyes were dark, his cheeks pale, and his expression grim.

  He stepped farther into the room and closed the door behind him. “Ian Knight is taking over as head of Kate’s security as of right now,” he bit out, not so much as glancing at Kate as he spoke directly to Bernie. “The four new Knight Security men will take up any slack left by my absence.”

  Kate’s eyes widened. “You aren’t coming to Canada with us tomorrow?”

  He glanced at her, blue eyes blank of any emotion. “I’m officially on two weeks’ leave.”

  “You’ve never mentioned it.”

  He smiled tightly. “That’s because I didn’t know about it until a few minutes ago.”

  “Gabriel Knight made that decision for you?”

  “He…helped.”

  “Why?”

  Zander glanced at the newspaper on the table. “I think you already know why.”

  “But where are you going?” The questi
on was blurted out before Kate could stop herself.

  His mouth twisted. “I don’t believe that to be any of your business.”

  Despite what she now suspected about him and Sophie, and her earlier reluctance to see and be with him again, Kate now felt sick at the thought of Zander disappearing completely from her life. Despite everything, Kate felt safe with him in charge of her security.

  I’ll also miss seeing him.

  Which was pretty stupid of her when last night had shown he was obviously involved with another woman. The wife of the man now standing beside her.

  She glanced at Bernie. If Sophie had told him the truth last night about her affair with Zander, as she had promised she would, then just seeing Zander again couldn’t be easy for Bernie. Perhaps it was for the best if Zander left, after all—

  “Would you give Kate and me a few minutes alone, Mr. Buchanan?” Bernie prompted quietly. “But I don’t want you to leave until the two of us have spoken. There’s… You and I need to talk before you leave.”

  “Of course,” Zander accepted stiffly. “Miss Stewart.” He nodded abruptly before leaving the suite and closing the door behind him.

  For some inexplicable reason, Kate wanted to cry again. She should be furious with Zander for making a fool of her. Should want to scream and shout at him for ruining the marriage of her two best friends. Instead, she wanted to sit down and howl at how much she was going to miss him—

  “Kate, Sophie made up the story about someone being in our suite two nights ago.”

  She looked at Bernie blankly, not sure she had heard him correctly.

  He sighed at her expression of incomprehension. “Sophie has been…ill with postnatal depression since she had Ben almost two years ago. I thought she was over the worst of it, or I never would have brought her on this tour. But her behavior has been becoming more and more erratic the last few weeks.” Bernie grimaced. “She made up that story about the intruder,” he repeated heavily.

  “Why?” Was all Kate could manage to say past the lump that had formed in her throat.

  He paced the room. “This tour is…demanding. I’m gone almost twenty hours a day talking to the press, checking the venue arrangements, overseeing the rehearsals. I’m at the venue until the early hours of the morning on the nights of the concerts. I’ve barely had time for a conversation with Sophie for weeks, and when we have talked, it’s usually ended up in an argument. Sophie is…jealous of the amount of time I spend with you.”