Tempting Zander Read online

  And I’ve just been hoist on my own petard, Kate acknowledged self-derisively as the two of them followed the sales assistant to one of the private fitting rooms.

  A large, carpeted fitting room that had a plush-looking couch and an armchair as well as the usual bench seat along one wall, along with a mirror and several hooks for Kate to hang her own clothes on. A spacious, open room that provided absolutely no privacy. Except for the lock on the door, which Zander quickly dealt with by turning the dead bolt.

  He then made himself comfortable on the couch before resting the ankle of one foot on his other knee. His gaze remained challenging as Kate made no attempt to remove any of her clothes. “Well?”

  “I… No.” There was no way she was stripping in front of him.

  He crossed his arms over that broad expanse of shirt-and-jacket-covered chest. “Seems to me you’ve been having a little fun at my expense these last few minutes, and now it’s my turn.”

  It was true, she had been. Mainly because she was still annoyed with him for doubting her in regard to Joey.

  Was she going to give Zander the satisfaction of seeing her back down now? After all, he had already seen her naked. Had touched all of her, intimately. Besides, modesty was something else Kate had learned to do without these past five years. At any one time, her dressing room could be filled with Bernie, one or two members of her backing band, the hairdresser, costume designer, and anyone else who felt the need to speak to her before she went on stage.

  “Fine,” she dismissed with outward calm, hopefully revealing none of her inner arousal as she hung the panty and bra sets on a hook so she could undress.

  Zander sat and watched Kate sit to take off her T-shirt and boots before standing up to unfasten and then shimmy those tight-fitting jeans down to her thighs. A shimmy that caused her bared breasts to jiggle enticingly before she sat on the bench seat behind her, her breasts tilting away from her body as she leaned forward to remove the jeans completely.

  Kate had very neatly turned the tables on him. Again.

  While Zander might sit unmoving, the same couldn’t be said for his cock, which had a definite will of its own and had sprung up and was fully engorged within seconds of Kate removing her T-shirt. All he could hope was that his bent leg with his ankle resting on the other knee would prevent her from seeing that huge bulge in the front of his trousers.

  Holy shit!

  Zander’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as Kate stood up and revealed she wore only a navy blue thong, which did little to hide her golden pubic curls. It fit snugly between the cheeks of her ass as she turned her back on him to take the red panty and bra set off the hanger.

  Her tousled hair was loose about her bare shoulders, stopping short just above those rose-colored nipples. Her body was both lean and sexy. Zander had seen her eat copious amounts of food just hours before a show, and then she would be hungry again afterward, having burned off all those calories during the performance.

  Except last night.

  It wasn’t food she’d been hungry for last night.

  “So what do you think?”

  Zander could only stare at Kate as she stood in front of him, hands on her hips as she modeled the red bra and panties set.

  The cups of the lace bra just covered her nipples, but revealed the top of the darker areolas surrounding them. The thong was… It was…

  Barely there, is what it is.

  Zander didn’t think he was alone in finding a woman sexier when she was covered in a scrap of lace rather than stark naked. Or in being both tempted and aroused by those enticing glimpses of the delicious bounty beneath the lace.

  He could see the golden curls on Kate’s mound through the V-shaped piece of red lace before the material narrowed to nestle between the rose-colored lips between her thighs and then up between the—

  “What the…” Zander’s words became strangled in his throat as Kate pushed his ankle from resting on his other knee before placing her hands on his shoulders as she straddled his thighs. He was instantly overwhelmed by the aroma of her arousal. “What the hell are you doing?” he finally managed to croak the words out, fingers digging into Kate’s hips as he attempted to hold her at bay.

  A seductive smile curved her lips. “You weren’t saying anything, so I thought you needed a closer look.”

  Closer put those lace-covered breasts on a level with Zander’s face. If Kate attempted to elevate her arms any higher, they were surely going to— “Jesus, Kate…!” he burst out as she did exactly that and her breasts spilled completely over the top of the red lace, nipples pouting temptingly just inches from his now salivating mouth.

  His control broke with an agonized groan, his hands tightening on her hips as he leaned forward those few inches and suckled one of those hard little nipples into his mouth.

  Kate’s spine arched instinctively, pushing her nipple even deeper into Zander’s hot, pleasure-giving mouth. But she allowed herself only a few minutes to enjoy that ecstasy before moving back slightly, her nipple parting from his mouth with a loud pop.

  He looked at her with passion-dazed eyes. “I hadn’t had enough of that.”

  Neither had Kate. Not nearly enough. But she was conscious of the fact last night had been about her and that Zander hadn’t taken his own release. As she was now aware of the hard and throbbing length of Zander’s cock pressing against the lips of her pussy.

  She wriggled back on his thighs until she could move down to the carpeted floor on her knees and between his parted legs, her gaze holding his surprised one as she unfastened and unzipped his trousers, revealing he wore black boxers.

  She didn’t speak as she stroked the hard, thick length of Zander’s cock through the cotton material, causing him to draw his breath in sharply. He gave another low, aching groan as she pulled that material down and his cock sprang free, the bulbous tip a deep red and glistening with slick pre-cum. Kate couldn’t stop herself from leaning forward, tongue stroking as she tasted him, the heady aroma of his male musk invading her senses.

  He tasted both salty and sweet, with a hint of that delectable musk. Delicious. Addictive.

  “Kate—”

  “Let me.” Her voice was soft and husky as she wrapped both her hands around that steel encased in velvet and took the whole of that bulbous top into her mouth.

  Zander’s mind went completely blank, all his focus, thought, and senses concentrated on how good the inferno of Kate’s mouth felt as she sucked his cock to the back of her throat. Licking, tasting, her tongue penetrating the sensitive slit at the tip as she lifted up before plunging down again.

  Her mouth was tight and silky soft in sharp contrast to the rough rasp of her tongue. It was torture. Pure heavenly torture.

  Zander knew wasn’t going to last, not when he had been poised on the edge of this release since the two of them made love last night. “Kate—”

  “Uh-uh.” Her eyes flashed a warning as she refused to be moved as his hands on her shoulders would have pulled her up and away from him. Her refusal caused the back of her throat to vibrate and Zander’s balls to tighten and throb.

  The last of Zander’s resistance crumbled into dust, his hands moving to thread through her hair, holding her more firmly in place as he slid farther down the chair, his gaze glued to her jiggling breasts as he began to thrust into her mouth in earnest. He felt as if he was being driven quietly out of his mind by that engulfing heat and the wet slurping of Kate’s mouth as he thrust his cock in and out.

  “Suck me harder. Deeper,” he instructed fiercely, feeling that familiar tingle at the base of his spine as she took him to the back of her throat and then relaxed her gag reflex to take him deeper still. “Yes, take it all!”

  His release was immediate, an inferno of hot cum that coursed along the length of his cock before releasing like a torrent of burning lava into Kate’s mouth as she continued to suck and swallow until he had given her every last drop.

  She licked her glistening lips a
fter she released him and sat back on her heels, her eyes a dark and sultry gray.

  Zander lay slumped in the chair, his chest rapidly rising and falling, feeling too dazed to move. Too spent to be able to raise the energy to even straighten his clothing. He drew in a deep breath. “That was…”

  “It was.” Kate looked at Zander beneath lowered lashes. His face was flushed, eyes half-closed, his breathing ragged, and his cock still exposed and semi-erect.

  The two of them had been playing a silly game for most of the afternoon, Kate baiting Zander, Zander refusing to respond to her challenge. Until she held up those lace panty and bra sets and saw the way his pupils dilated, and she had known he wasn’t as indifferent to her as he would like to be.

  She couldn’t exactly blame Zander for taking it a step further by accompanying her into the changing room. But she hadn’t had to take it a step further still by straddling his thighs, wearing only the skimpy red underwear. Or deliberately making her breasts spill out over the top of the half-cup bra just so she could watch him squirm.

  Last night had been reckless, but there might be no going back from what had happened between the two of them just now. And she still didn’t want Zander to leave her security detail. Hated the very thought of it.

  Which means I have to stop sexually harassing the poor man just to get a reaction, any reaction, out of him.

  Kate forced a bright smile to her lips as she stood and stepped away from him. “So now we’re even, and you got yours.”

  “I got mine?” he repeated harshly.

  She nodded. “I wouldn’t want you to think I’m a cock-tease as well as a brat.” She walked away to begin dressing, keeping the red underwear on. There was no way she was going to undress in front of Zander for a second time today. She would feel altogether too vulnerable if she did that. Besides, the lace was soaking wet from her arousal.

  Zander scowled as he pushed his semi-hard cock back inside his boxers and refastened his trousers. Kate had given him that mind-blowing climax as payback for the one he had given her last night?

  What the fuck…

  His jaw tightened. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

  Kate waited until Zander had unlocked the door and then closed it quietly behind him again before she relaxed the tension in her shoulders.

  She would not cry.

  There was nothing to cry about.

  She was a grown woman of twenty-five, could indulge in oral sex with a man if she felt like it.

  And then she’d been offhand and insulting to the same man, as if it had meant nothing to her.

  So much so Zander had left the room.

  It didn’t matter that her words had been a self-defense mechanism, a way of preventing Zander from knowing how much she had enjoyed giving him pleasure. And so that he shouldn’t guess how aroused she was, her body once again humming with a need for release in response to his.

  “Harder? Deeper?” Ian drawled when Zander joined him outside the dressing room. “Take it all?”

  “Shut up,” Zander growled at the knowledge Ian and the red-faced sales assistant, Melody, who was avoiding his gaze as she tried to look busy behind the counter and failed miserably, had obviously been able to hear every grunt and fucking groan he’d made while Kate pleasured him with her mouth.

  He still wasn’t sure what had happened just now. Well…he knew what had happened, but he had no excuse for having allowed it to happen. They were in the middle of a fucking department store, for God’s sake.

  Ian grinned unrepentantly. “Did you know you’re walking a little…stiffly?”

  “Fuck off.”

  The other man chuckled. “Shouldn’t you be a little bit more relaxed than you are after…well, after?”

  “You breathe one word about this to anyone else, and you’ll be on the first flight back to England minus your balls,” Zander warned.

  Ian sobered. “I’m not the kiss-and-tell type, about others or myself. Besides, what you have going with Kate is your business.”

  “I don’t have anything going with her.”

  The other man shrugged. “I’m not the one you should be worrying about finding out.”

  He gave a pained grimace. “Gabriel?”

  “Gabriel.”

  “We’ve all broken that rule about not getting involved with a client. Hell, he intends marrying his ex-client.”

  Ian arched a brow. “Thinking of making it a double wedding?”

  Zander snorted. “Men like me don’t marry a woman like Kate Stewart. We say ‘thank you very much for the quick fuck,’ and then we move on.”

  “I’m ready to leave now, Mr. Buchanan, if you are?”

  Ian held his hands up in surrender as Zander shot him a baleful glare at the sound of Kate’s voice behind him. “I didn’t know she was there either.”

  Zander slowly turned to face Kate, knowing she had to have heard what he said about her. The stony expression on her face and the cold disgust in her eyes confirmed she had.

  Chapter 6

  “What the hell is he doing here?”

  Kate had felt numb since paying for her lingerie and leaving the department store. The drive back to the hotel in the limousine had been made in complete silence. But the harsh tone of Zander’s voice now made her turn and follow his narrow-eyed gaze.

  Joey.

  Sitting in a booth in the hotel bar, accompanied by two women, a brunette and a redhead. No doubt the same two women who had spent the night with him at his apartment.

  Two women who might as well not have been there, as Joey ignored them both to instead stare directly at Kate.

  She came to a halt in the middle of marble-floored reception area of the hotel as she stared back at him. He might be tall, blond, and handsome, but nevertheless, just looking at Joey filled her with disgust.

  It had been a long four months, not helped by the underlying threat of not knowing when or if Joey was going to contact her again and renew his threats. The past disastrous twenty-four hours with Zander had only added to Kate’s tension. So much so she wasn’t willing to put up with any more of Joey’s bullshit. Any more of any man’s bullshit. She certainly didn’t believe Joey’s presence in the bar of the hotel where she happened to be staying to be a coincidence.

  “What the hell… Kate, get back here!” she heard Zander call after her as she turned and walked into the bar.

  She ignored him, empowered by pure adrenaline as she went straight to where Joey sat, a woman on either side of him. “Leave,” she instructed those women tightly, her challenging gaze locked with Joey’s mocking one.

  The redhead bristled. “You can’t tell us—”

  “Go powder your noses, ladies,” Joey drawled.

  “But—”

  “Do it!” All humor had left Joey’s voice, his handsome face twisted in anger as he glared at the redhead. “Both of you.” He included the brunette in that glare.

  Kate waited until the two women had left reluctantly, after both had given her a baleful glance, before she slid onto the leather seat opposite Joey in the private booth. A glance told her that Zander and Ian had followed her into the bar and now stood guard only feet away, Ian looking outward, Zander facing her. Quite what they expected Joey to do to her in a public bar, she had no idea.

  She ignored the censorious expression on Zander’s face and the warning glitter of his eyes to turn her attention back to the man seated opposite her. “What do you want, Joey?”

  He raised his brows. “Who says I want anything?”

  Kate sighed. “Then why are you here?”

  “It’s a public bar—”

  “And there are thousands of them in New York, so why choose this one?”

  He ignored her question as his gaze raked over her critically. “You’re looking good, Kate.”

  Then she looked better than she felt!

  Because right now, Kate was pissed with the whole of the male population, Joey for being a pain in the ass, Zander because he totally confuse
d her with his blowing hot and cold toward her. That remark she’d heard him make to Ian after the intimacy they had just shared in the changing room hurt most of all.

  She had absolutely no patience left for Joey’s games. “I’m immune to your flattery, Joey,” she assured him coldly.

  “It isn’t flattery if it’s the truth.” The admiration in his gaze confirmed his sincerity.

  Kate gave a disgusted shake of her head. “It’s been over between us for months, so why can’t you let it go?”

  He leaned forward over the table. “I was going to ask you to marry me when you ended things.”

  “And I would have said no.”

  “Why?” he demanded, leaning back against the wooden booth to study her through narrowed lids. “We were good together.”

  “That’s not the way I remember it.” These past twenty-four hours with Zander had shown her exactly how incompatible she and Joey were. In bed and out of it.

  She had never wanted nor indulged in the same intimacies with Joey as she had already shared with Zander, both last night and earlier. Joey had never excited her in the way merely looking at Zander did.

  And still did. Even after overhearing his disparaging remark about her to Ian.

  It made her pulse beat faster merely thinking of the way she had threaded her fingers into that messy, overlong blond hair earlier. The way she had touched the broad and muscular width of Zander’s shoulders and chest, fingers trailing down the lean length of his body before she took his engorged cock in her mouth. She could still taste him—

  “Are you involved with your bodyguard?”

  Kate turned her attention quickly back to Joey as she realized she had given her interest away by openly staring at a brooding Zander. She forced herself to smile mockingly. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed. “Men like him are like the two bimbos you’re with today, only good for a quick fuck, and you know I’ve never been interested in one of those.” She deliberately used the same words, and spoke loudly enough for Zander to hear her dismissal. She didn’t need to look at him again to know she had scored a direct hit as she heard his sharply indrawn breath.