Tempting Zander Read online

  But she was easily recognizable as superstar Kate Stewart, which meant they would probably have to run the gauntlet of a couple of dozen hopeful fans once they got out of the car and before they could step into the quiet elegance of the hotel, when all Zander wanted to do was fall facedown on his bed and sleep for twenty-four—

  “Do you have tattoos?”

  “What?” Zander gave her a sharp glance before realizing what he’d done and quickly turning his attention back to the road that was as busy now as it was during the day. New York really was the city that never slept.

  He checked the driving mirror to make sure the second car with three of his men inside was still behind them. It was one car back, which was close enough.

  “I asked if you have any tattoos.”

  “What the hell business is it of yours if I do or I don’t?”

  “You do,” she said knowingly. “If you didn’t, you would have said so immediately. So what and where are they?”

  “Mind your own fucking business.”

  “Really, Mr. Buchanan, are you supposed to talk to clients that way?” she taunted.

  “When they’re spoiled little brats, yes.”

  Kate agreed about the little. How could she appear anything else next to the monolith that was Zander Buchanan? But only he brought out the brattish side of her. In fact, Bernie was always accusing her of taking life too seriously.

  She was aware that having been abandoned as a baby and growing up in an orphanage, followed by several years of struggling just to get by, was at the root of that. She may be superrich now, but she still remembered what it was like to be alone and poor. To move into one room in a rat-infested house at the age of sixteen because it was all she could afford. To work as a barista during the day so she could go out and sing in poorly paying pubs and clubs every evening. All in the hope of one day becoming a success.

  Well, she’d done that and discovered, despite the money and all the fans and having people around her day and night, where it really mattered, deep inside, she was still alone. Bernie’s wife, Sophie, was the closest thing she had to a friend. “Are you married or living with someone?”

  Zander scowled darkly. “What’s with the personal questions all of a sudden?”

  It wasn’t sudden at all; these were the questions Kate had been longing to ask him for months. But whether by accident or design—Zander’s design—this was the first opportunity she’d had to ask them. The first time the two of them had been truly alone together.

  From the time Kate got up in the morning until she went to bed at night, she was surrounded by people. Bernie. Her publicity guy. Her hair stylist. Her costume designer. Her backing band. Her permanent bodyguards. Zander’s extra team of bodyguards for the past four months. Sophie and the two Cook children.

  The only time she was physically alone was at night in her London apartment or a hotel suite, if she happened to be on tour. With Zander and his men sleeping in the other five bedrooms in her suite, even that hadn’t been true of the past four months.

  Not that she was complaining about the fame and fortune, because she wasn’t. She had worked damned hard to get where she was, and she continued to work hard. The success was payback for the years of struggle.

  It just didn’t give her any time or space for a private life.

  If she so much as spoke to a man, it was on the front page of every newspaper the following day, along with speculation as to whether or not he would become “Mr. Stewart.”

  “You’ll have plenty of time for a private life once this is over, sweetheart,” Bernie always said when she bemoaned the fact that yet another relationship had bitten the dust because of that speculation and lack of privacy.

  She hadn’t been out on a single date these past four months. Joey Taylor had soured her in that regard, in more ways than one. Aware of how intimidating her career and wealth could be to some men, Joey had seemed perfect as the only son of Silas Taylor, a New York billionaire businessman.

  Only problem was, Joey believed any woman who had his attention should be damned grateful for it. That attitude grew very old very quickly. His threats to harm her since Kate broke off the relationship—as far as Joey was concerned, he ended a relationship, not the woman—had been a salutary lesson to her to choose very carefully in future if or when she became involved with another man.

  Besides, going to a nightclub or restaurant with a date had become a nightmare. Even if they weren’t mobbed inside, there would be a crowd of people waiting outside for her when she left. Social media could be a bitch when messages could be sent all round the world within minutes, alerting fans to her location at any time, day or night.

  Again, she wasn’t complaining. It would just have been nice to have a little of that time to call her own. To build a relationship. To maybe get married one day and have kids of her own.

  “Poor little rich girl,” Bernie had teased her more than once. The bastard. It was as well she loved him like the older brother she’d never had; otherwise, the two of them would have parted ways long ago.

  Bernie pushed her to be better. To be stronger. To literally be all that she could be.

  He also went back to his lovely wife and two small children every night.

  Kate wanted that. She didn’t just want it, she hungered for someone to love, and to love her, and family of her own.

  As she physically hungered for Zander Buchanan since the moment she first met him.

  But not if he was already seriously involved with someone else. Or, worse, married. Asking one of the other men from Knight Security personal questions about their team leader wasn’t something she felt comfortable doing, when it was more likely than not Zander would hear of her interest. He didn’t wear a ring on his left hand. Which was no guarantee he was single, because a lot of married men didn’t wear rings. Or those in committed relationships. And Kate had no intention of attempting to seduce a man already in a serious relationship.

  Because if she was going to get anywhere with Zander, then it was obvious she was going to have to make the first move.

  There were hundreds of men out there, maybe thousands, who would jump at the chance to be with Kate Stewart, but the man she wanted wasn’t interested.

  He certainly seemed plenty interested when I pressed up against him earlier and rubbed against that impressively aroused cock.

  No matter how much his mouth might say no, his body couldn’t lie, and Zander’s cock had definitely been rock hard earlier. For her. But that was still no confirmation he wasn’t involved in a committed relationship. A man’s physical response to a woman was impossible to hide, but that didn’t mean he was going to follow through on it.

  She shrugged before answering. “Just wondered if you’d had time for a booty call while you were away.”

  His scowl deepened. “You are fucking unbelievable.”

  “Was that a yes or a no?”

  “It was a ‘mind your own fucking business’! Again.”

  She sighed wearily. “Why do you always have to be so damned grouchy all the time?”

  “Me?” His brows rose to his hairline. “You’re the one who’s asking questions about things that don’t concern you. My private life is one of the things that doesn’t concern you.”

  She moistened her lips. “It could.”

  His scowl deepened. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Could you stop behaving like a bad-tempered grizzly for just five minutes and answer the question?” Kate snapped.

  “Why?”

  She glared at him. “Because I like you, damn it.”

  Kate Stewart liked him?

  That was the first Zander knew of it.

  As far as he was aware, the only reason the two of them talked at all was to bitch at each other.

  And had she really called him a bad-tempered grizzly?

  Maybe he was, he mused self-derisively. His parents had both died when he was in his mid-teens, after which he’d gone to live with
his maternal grandparents. They had done their best, and it certainly couldn’t have been easy caring for the resentful teenager he’d been after losing his parents. Zander had withdrawn into himself, become something of a loner. Several years in the army, and now working in personal security, suited that aloneness. Clients rarely even acknowledged a bodyguard, let alone expected him to engage in conversation with them.

  Except Kate Stewart, apparently.

  Because she likes me.

  Or maybe this was a little like Stockholm Syndrome? Kate had to have realized by now that he and his men would keep her safe, so maybe she was turning her gratitude from that into something it wasn’t?

  To his knowledge, she hadn’t shared her bed with a man for the past four months. That would be a little difficult to hide when he and his men always shared her hotel suite. She certainly hadn’t stayed out overnight during all those months either. Perhaps she had reached her limit and was feeling particularly horny after all the adrenaline pumping through her system from the concert and thought he would be a convenient fuck?

  Zander was too attracted to her, and currently too raw from lack of sleep, to be anyone’s convenient fuck. Even Kate Stewart’s. The way he was feeling at the moment, he would drill Kate’s delectable ass into the mattress for hours before sleeping the sleep of the dead. He might even manage to roll off her before he did that.

  “I’m not involved with anyone or married. Nor do I intend to be,” he added pointedly.

  “Why not?”

  “For the love of…!” Zander broke off his impatient reply as he realized they had arrived back at the hotel. Thank God. He really wasn’t up to answering any more of Kate’s probing questions tonight.

  As expected, there were about fifty people standing outside in expectation of Kate’s return from the concert. Zander waited until his men had gotten out of the car behind, and moved the crowd back a safe distance from the entrance, before getting out of the car and coming round to open Kate’s door for her. All the time he did so, his narrowed gaze roamed the crowd and their surroundings for any sign of trouble.

  As Joey Taylor was based in New York, they were all on high alert, the danger possibly greater here than it had been in Asia and the Far East. Zander had two of his men watching Taylor twenty-four seven, knew the other man was currently holed up in his New York penthouse apartment. So far he hadn’t tried to contact Kate or see her, but the less Kate was out in public and vulnerable, the better Zander liked it.

  “Kate?” he prompted as he realized she hadn’t made any attempt to get out of the car. Her feet were up on the seat, her face buried against her bent knees. “Kate?” Zander went down on his haunches beside the open door, the tinted windows preventing anyone from seeing inside the car.

  Kate raised her head, and Zander could now see her eyes were huge and sunken, with dark circles beneath them. Her face had gone deathly pale.

  What the fuck—!

  Chapter 2

  Zander frowned his concern. “Are you feeling ill?”

  Her smile lacked genuine warmth, and her gaze avoided meeting his. “Just tired.” She turned with the obvious intention of getting out of the car. “If you could move out of my way…?”

  Zander glanced across at the crowd of people waiting for her, then back to the pallor of her face. He mentally berated himself for not noticing her exhaustion sooner than this.

  Because he had been too absorbed in his own weariness, as well as concentrating on keeping Kate at arm’s length. “I can always take you in via the underground car park.”

  “That wouldn’t be very fair to them.” She nodded in the direction of the increasingly restless fans.

  “Fuck fair,” he growled. Like that grouchy grizzly she’d accused him of being? Probably. But this time, it was in defense of her rather than at her. “You’re too tired to take any more of this nonsense tonight.” And she had another two months of this grueling schedule before the tour was over.

  Kate’s smile became rueful. “That nonsense happens to be my life.”

  She knew it was stupid of her to have allowed Zander’s rejection of her a few minutes ago to affect her so deeply. She’d been alone her whole life. Had accepted long ago it was what it was. She wasn’t about to start indulging in self-pity now.

  A good night’s sleep and she would be as good as new. And no doubt back to being that brat Zander thought she was, rather than trying to tempt him into going to bed with her.

  “I’m fine, Zander,” she assured briskly with her last dregs of energy. “Let’s get this over with, and then we can both get to bed. Separately,” she added dryly as she realized what she’d said. “In our respective bedrooms.”

  His mouth quirked. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

  “Oh, fuck off,” she came back irritably.

  He gave a grin as he straightened and stepped away from the car. “Now there’s the mouthy brat I’ve gotten used to,” he murmured as she stepped out of the vehicle.

  She gave him a sweetly insincere smile. “God forbid you should ever see me as anything else.”

  “There’s little chance of that,” he murmured wryly as he accompanied her across to the front of the hotel to where the group of fans had now started calling and reaching out to her. All of them wanted to touch their idol.

  Whereas Zander daren’t touch Kate. He’d made that mistake earlier and only just stopped himself from pulling her in closer and kissing her as she rubbed herself against his cock, the other people backstage be damned.

  He had felt something shatter inside him at that moment.

  Probably one of those barriers he had built up against this woman the moment he realized what effect she had on him.

  A barrier he needed to quickly rebuild if he was going to maintain a necessary distance.

  He stood slightly apart as a smiling and chatty Kate signed the usual couple of dozen autographs and posed for a couple of selfies, before Zander nodded the indication to his men it was time to call it a night. Despite what she’d said and the act she was putting on now, he knew Kate’s exhaustion was genuine.

  “Why such a lengthy tour?” he prompted on their way up in the elevator together, his men having stayed downstairs to ensure no one followed them. They would take the next elevator up to the penthouse floor of the hotel, where Kate shared a six-bedroom suite with Zander and his men. Bernie Cook and his family occupied the suite next door.

  “Why not?” Kate came back.

  Again she was on the defensive, he acknowledged with a sigh. “I was attempting to make polite conversation.”

  “Why?”

  Zander frowned his frustration. “Why the fuck not?”

  She shrugged. “You weren’t interested in being polite earlier, and to be honest, now that you are, it’s screwing with my head. I think you should go back to being your usual rude and taciturn self.”

  Was he rude and taciturn? Maybe, he conceded. Okay, probably. “It isn’t personal.”

  “Sure feels like it,” she said scornfully.

  “Well, it isn’t,” he snapped. “I’m this way with everyone.”

  “No, you aren’t.”

  No, I’m not, not to this degree. I’m only like this with her.

  He’d never been a big talker, but with Kate, it went a step further, and he just seemed to clam up or growl at her.

  Zander’s irritation deepened at the realization. “My grandparents didn’t encourage talking for the sake of it.”

  It was the first piece of personal information Zander had ever given her, and Kate wasn’t about to let the moment pass. “Your grandparents?”

  “They brought me up after my parents died.”

  “How did they die?”

  “A car crash.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Fifteen.”

  Not only was Kate surprised Zander had answered so many questions all at once, even if those answers were becoming terser and terser, but she also sensed a wealth of pain behin
d those answers. It made her wonder if it was better to have grown up with no parents, as she had, or if it was worse to lose them at fifteen. She instantly decided it had to be worse to lose them at such a vulnerable age. She had never known her parents, and so couldn’t miss something she’d never had. But Zander obviously still mourned the loss of his parents.

  “I’m sorry.” She placed her hand on his forearm.

  He instantly wrenched his arm out of her grasp. “Will you stop touching me!”

  Her frown was pained. “I was empathizing.”

  “Well, don’t.” A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. “My grandparents were good people. They did the best they could with a resentful and rebellious teenager.”

  “I didn’t say— Oh never mind,” she dismissed as the elevator finally stopped at the penthouse floor and the doors opened to allow her to step out into the hallway. “You have to be the most—”

  Zander didn’t get to hear what he was “the most” of, because at that moment, all hell broke loose.

  The hallway outside the elevator seemed to be teeming with people all talking at once, but being taller than most of them, Zander finally managed to make out it was really only eight people: four of his own men, the hotel’s head of security and a couple of his men. And Bernie Cook’s beautiful wife, Sophie.

  “I tell you, there was someone in my daughter’s bedroom,” Sophie was insisting to Jeff Saunders, head of hotel security. Tears flowed down her deathly white cheeks, making her flaming red hair seem redder than ever.

  “Sophie?” Kate pushed her way through the men until she reached the other woman’s side. “Is Maggie okay?”

  “Oh, Kate!” The other woman threw herself into her arms and sobbed all the harder. “None of these men will believe me, but there was definitely someone in Maggie’s room. Where’s Bernie?” She sniffled. “He should be here.”

  Zander nodded for his two men stepping out of the lift to remain there on guard before making his way down the hallway to where he could see Ian Knight. Ian was also ex-military, and cousin of Gabriel and the other three Knight brothers who owned and ran Knight Security. “Report,” Zander prompted economically.