Tempting Zander Read online

  Joey gave an appreciative grin. “All muscle and no brain.”

  “Something like that,” she said noncommittally. “So can we just deal with this once and for all, and then both move on? I’m not interested in reviving our relationship.” Even calling it that was a kindness on her part. “I would appreciate it if you would accept that. Certainly you need to stop the creepy behavior.” She frowned. “You frightened the hell out of Bernie’s wife last night.” Sophie had still been in an agitated state when Kate visited her earlier before going shopping.

  “Sophie?” Joey looked puzzled. “I saw Mr. Muscle over there last night, but I didn’t see Sophie.”

  Kate sighed, her adrenaline high starting to recede, leaving her feeling weary and slightly nauseated. “But she saw you, and it’s upset her deeply. Please don’t do anything like that again. I leave New York the day after tomorrow. Don’t try to see me again, or anyone connected to me, before I go.”

  He reached out and grasped her wrist to prevent her from sliding across the seat and standing up. “Back off, buddy, or I’ll break her goddamn wrist,” he warned Zander harshly as he immediately stepped forward, Ian one pace behind him.

  Zander barely managed to resist the urge to shove the other man’s teeth down the back of his throat. But that restraint would last only as long as Taylor still had hold of Kate. Because all bets were off once Taylor released her.

  Kate also deserved to have her ass spanked for confronting Taylor this way. Zander might be misreading the situation, or maybe attaching too much importance to the insulting remark Kate had overheard him make to Ian earlier—a remark she had just turned back on him very effectively—but Zander had a feeling her reckless behavior now was a direct result of that.

  He could have bitten his own tongue off once he realized Kate had overheard him talking to Ian, hadn’t needed the other man’s eye roll to know he had seriously fucked things up with her. That he had made the remark purely out of self-defense rather than sincerity was no excuse whatsoever for insulting Kate at the very least, and hurting her at the worst.

  Kate might like to give the impression of being self-confident and self-possessed, but Zander had come to know some of the woman beneath that veneer over the past few months, especially these last twenty-four hours. He now realized Kate employed those two things, along with the aggressive attitude, to hide her inner feelings of vulnerability.

  A perfectly understandable vulnerability. Kate had no family, had been alone all her life. Her fame had only increased that distance and her ability to form intimate relationships. The only people she saw on a daily basis were people who were paid to be there. Including him.

  Trying to fill that void in her life was probably also the reason Kate ended up dating dickheads like Joey Taylor.

  And why she had allowed Zander to get close to her these past two days?

  “Take your hand off her.” Zander gave the signal for Ian to back down as he spoke to Taylor evenly and slowly in an effort not to draw any more attention to them than there was already. Several people in the bar had obviously recognized Kate and were now eyeing them curiously. “Allow Kate to leave. Then you and I can have a little chat and settle this like men.” His hands were already clenched into fists in anticipation. He really needed to hit something right now, and Joey Taylor would do as well as anyone or anything else.

  Joey sneered. “I don’t personally settle things with employees. That’s what I have them for.” He nodded at the two men who’d been sitting at the next table but who had risen menacingly to their feet the moment Zander had approached their employer.

  Zander had already pegged the two men as Taylor muscle, having recognized them as being two of the bodyguards from the club last night. “I could take them both with one arm tied behind my back,” he assured, noticing several of Jeff Saunders’s men now entering the bar, probably alerted to the possibility of an incident by the bar staff. An incident Zander needed to avoid, for Kate’s sake. “Take your bimbos and bodyguards and leave, and I’ll take a raincheck on our chat. As of now, there will also be a ban in place preventing you from entering any part of the hotel until after Kate has left.”

  Kate gave a gasp as Joey’s fingers tightened and twisted her wrist painfully before he released her to lean against the back of the booth. His expression was one of insolence as Kate was finally able to rise to her feet. “Take his advice, Joey, and stay away from me” was her parting shot as she turned and walked out of the bar, her head held high.

  The adrenaline high had deserted Kate completely now, leaving her legs feeling like rubber as she crossed the hotel reception area. Her wrist ached from Joey’s manhandling; her other hand was shaking as she pressed the button and waited for the descent of the private elevator up to the penthouse floor. She sensed Zander and Ian standing behind her, but made no effort to speak to them as the three of them stepped into the elevator and Ian used his key card to take them up to the top floor of the hotel.

  But she was totally aware of Zander standing beside her. Of the anger coming off him in waves and directed straight at her.

  Maybe it had been stupid of her to confront Joey that way, but at the time, she’d simply had enough of the arrogant men in her life. All the arrogant men, but especially the one standing beside her right now.

  So maybe she’d wanted to annoy Zander as much, if not more, than she’d wanted to speak to Joey?

  If that had been her intention, then she had certainly succeeded.

  “Go take a break,” Zander instructed Ian once they reached Kate’s suite. “I’ll call you when you’re needed again.” He waited until the other man nodded and deposited Kate’s shopping bags in a chair and left, before turning his attention to her. “You’re coming with me.” He took a firm grasp of her arm and pulled her into her bedroom with him and locked the door. “You and I need to have a talk.”

  Her chin rose, her gaze openly defiant. “What do you want now, Zander? Sorry, but I’m really not in the mood to service you again right now so— What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she demanded as Zander sat on the side of the bed and pulled her facedown over his thighs. “Zander!” she cried in protest as he landed a hard smack on her denim-covered backside.

  “You have the filthiest mouth I’ve ever heard on a woman.” He ignored her screams of indignation as he punctuated each word with another hard smack to that pert bottom. “And if you ever—ever.” He landed an even harder smack for emphasis. “Do something as stupid as confronting Taylor again, it won’t be only your backside that gets punished.”

  “I was angry with you—”

  “I fucking know that!” He held her squirming body in place with one hand over her back and the other over her thighs. “I’m not letting you up until I have your promise, Kate.”

  “Go to hell!” She broke off with an even louder screech as he spanked what must already be a sore bottom.

  His arms pinned her down again. “Your promise, Kate.”

  “You’re a brute, and I hate you!” She spat the words at him, tears glistening in her eyes as she turned to glare at him.

  “I’m not going to stop until I have your promise.” He spoke through gritted teeth this time. He wasn’t immune to those tears, no matter what Kate might think of him.

  “I’m not one of your men you can order or push around—”

  “What you are is too stubborn for your own good,” he muttered disgustedly.

  “Takes one to know one,” she came back scornfully.

  “I have a line, Kate—and today you’ve gone way, way over it.” He could still feel the fear that had consumed him when she had marched into that bar and confronted Taylor.

  “Take your line and go fuck yourself!”

  “Oh, I’d much rather fuck you,” he assured her grimly, flipping her over to begin unfastening her jeans.

  “Zander?”

  His fingers faltered on that fastening as he heard the note of uncertainty that had crept into Kate’s voice and re
alized exactly what he was doing. Not that he would ever take Kate against her will. He wouldn’t need to. Not when it was that sexual tension between the two of them which was causing all the problems. No, if the two of them went to bed together now, he had no doubt it would be by mutual consent. He also knew their lovemaking would be wild and out of control from the anger burning between them.

  He released her and stood so quickly, she rolled back on the bed. “I can’t… This isn’t…” He closed his eyes to stop himself from giving in to the temptation of looking at her sprawled seductively on the bed. “This can’t go on, Kate. I have to call Gabriel and ask him to replace me.”

  “No!” Kate sat up quickly to reach out and grasp his hand as he would have turned and walked away. “No,” she repeated in a calmer voice, gentling her hold on his hand as Zander made no effort to pull away. “I don’t want you to do that, Zander. I know confronting Joey was stupid of me but… You hurt me, and I wanted to hit out at someone.” Her head was lowered as she made the admission. “When I saw Joey, he became the obvious choice.”

  He sat beside her on the bed before raising his hand and gently lifting her chin. “You weren’t meant to overhear the remark I made about you to Ian.”

  She gave him a mocking glance. “I know that.”

  “You weren’t meant to overhear it because I didn’t mean it.” He sighed. “Ian was teasing me about you, about what we did together in the changing room, and I reacted defensively.”

  Her eyes widened. “He knew?”

  Zander nodded. “So did the sales assistant. Apparently, they heard me as I… Well, they heard.” He grimaced.

  “Oh God…” Her cheeks turned a fiery red.

  “I just wanted to shut Ian up before you joined us. Instead, you overheard what I said, and then I couldn’t take it back.” His expression became teasing. “Whereas I was definitely meant to hear the remark you made about me to Taylor,” he acknowledged with wry humor.

  Kate grimaced. “I didn’t mean it either.”

  “You have a vicious temper, you know.”

  She did know. It had got her into trouble many times during her years of growing up in the orphanage. Might even have contributed to no one ever wanting to adopt her.

  “I think maybe your hair should have been red,” Zander mused as he curled a tendril of blonde round his fingers.

  “I could always dye it,” she teased.

  “I like your blonde hair.”

  “Then I won’t dye it.”

  Zander studied her intently. “Did I hurt you just now?”

  Kate grimaced. “I deserved it.”

  “I can’t argue with that… Ah-ah, temper, temper,” he cajoled as the angry color flared in cheeks that were probably now as red as her bottom. “I really don’t want to have to spank you again so soon.”

  She looked at him between thick lashes. “You could always kiss it better first…”

  Zander drew his breath in sharply. “I’m not sure—” He broke off as someone knocked on the bedroom door.

  “Kate?” Bernie called out before turning the door handle. “Are you okay?” he prompted worriedly at finding the door locked. “Sophie thought she heard you screaming.”

  Zander gave a groan. “Oh shit…”

  Kate started to giggle, that giggle turning to a full-blown laugh at the expression of absolute disgust on Zander’s face before he also gave in to the humor of the situation.

  He looked so much younger when he laughed. His eyes became a lighter blue, his teeth very white and even against his tanned complexion, the tension leaving his hard and muscular body.

  Kate wished she could see him like this more often.

  Wished the two of them could spend some time alone getting to know each other.

  Chapter 7

  “You saw a spider in your bedroom,” Sophie repeated doubtfully. The two women were seated together in the sitting room of the Cooks’ hotel suite.

  “Yes,” Kate confirmed as she watched Ben and Maggie unwrapping the presents she had bought for them. “Zander rushed in and saved me.”

  The other woman frowned. “I didn’t know you were afraid of spiders.”

  Because she wasn’t. But it was the best story Kate had been able to come up with for Zander’s presence in her bedroom once she had stopped laughing and unlocked and opened the door to Bernie. She doubted her manager was any more convinced by the story than his wife was, but he had let it slide for the moment.

  “Only when I see one,” she dismissed. “Now open your present,” she encouraged warmly.

  “You really shouldn’t have,” Sophie protested as she unwrapped the gift to reveal a familiar blue jewelry box

  “Of course I should.” Kate gave the other woman’s hand a squeeze. “You have to put up with a lot of sh—stuff,” she substituted ruefully as she gave a glance down at the two children on the floor as they now played with their new toys.

  Sophie took the lid off the box to reveal the silver hoop earrings Kate had chosen for her. “They’re beautiful. Thank you.”

  “Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.” She frowned her concern as she saw the tears in Sophie’s eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ve spoken to Joey, and I know Zander will do everything he can to make sure nothing like last night happens again.”

  The other woman gave a shake of her head. “I—” She broke off as Bernie entered the room.

  “Time you got ready to leave for the venue, Kate,” he announced briskly. “Hey, what do you have there, kids?” He sat on the carpet so the two children could show him their new gifts.

  Kate gave Sophie’s hand another reassuring squeeze before standing. “No rest for the wicked!”

  The other woman grimaced. “Then you and Bernie must have both been very wicked.”

  “Aunty Kate, see what my dolly can do.” Maggie tugged on Kate’s hand to draw her attention to the walking-talking doll Kate had bought for her.

  She knew she had to get ready to leave for tonight’s show but couldn’t resist sitting down on the carpet to play with Maggie for a few minutes. Growing up in the orphanage, she had always wondered if she would ever have a family of her own and children to play with. With her current lifestyle, the idea seemed even more remote now than it had then.

  “Everything okay?” Zander prompted, as Kate seemed more than usually preoccupied as he drove her to the venue for tonight’s show. He had thought things were okay between the two of them now, but Kate’s silence seemed to indicate otherwise.

  There was a situation Zander needed to talk to her about, to get her take on it and how he should deal with it, but he had decided it could wait until after tonight’s concert rather than bothering her with it before she went onstage. Kate’s tension now seemed to confirm he had made the right decision.

  The four more men from Knight Security should have arrived by the time they got back to the hotel later tonight, so hopefully he would be able to find the time to talk to Kate then.

  “Fine.” She made an effort to rouse herself from her reverie as she gave Zander a vacuous smile.

  “Scared of spiders, hmm?”

  Her chuckle was more genuine. “It was the best I could think of on the spur of the moment.”

  “Think Cook was convinced?”

  “Not for a moment.”

  “Me either.” Zander was treading very carefully during this conversation. He didn’t want to spoil the closeness of the laughter they had shared earlier after several hours of tension and misunderstandings. “What?” he prompted as he sensed Kate’s gaze on him.

  “How does your job equate with having a wife and children— The car in front is stopping!” She grabbed hold of the dashboard to steady herself as Zander put his foot hard on the brake.

  Zander gave her a quick glance once he had the car under control again. “Maybe you should give a little warning next time before you ask a man a question like that when he’s driving.”

  “Well, I wasn’t proposing to you, if that’s what you th
ought,” she assured him disgustedly. “My own career is…incompatible with family life. I just wondered how yours measured up.”

  “The same.” Although that wasn’t strictly true…

  Several of Zander’s friends at Knight Security, and the company they had merged with, Grayson Security, had recently married, and successfully. Even Gabriel, a man Zander had thought would never marry, had announced his intention of marrying Angel Sinclair as soon as her divorce was final.

  He shrugged. “Some of my friends seem to manage okay. What brought this on?”

  “I was playing with Maggie and Ben earlier.” She shrugged narrow shoulders. “It was yet another reminder I’m missing out on a lot of things.”

  “The arguments with your spouse over whose turn it is to put out the trash or cook dinner? The questions if you’re a few minutes late for that dinner? The sleepless nights once the kids are born? The twenty-four seven worry over them? Never having a minute’s peace? Those the sort of things, you mean?”

  “You know they aren’t.” She gave his arm a playful punch. “It isn’t always like that. Bernie and Sophie make it work.”

  “They argue,” Zander assured her as he recalled the disagreement between the couple he had walked in on earlier. “They’ll argue even more once Maggie starts school and Sophie can’t travel when you next go on tour.”

  “I’m not going to be touring forever,” Kate dismissed. “I don’t want to be this old female singer still doing the rounds at fifty and hoping some of my fans will still remember me.”

  “So this career is ephemeral, then?”

  “Of course.”

  “What do you intend doing with yourself once it’s over?”

  “I haven’t thought that far ahead… Have you? After all, you can’t be a bodyguard forever either.”

  “I’m going to retire, buy myself a yacht, and sail around the world to wherever, whenever I feel like it.”

  “You can sail a yacht?”

  “Never tried it for longer than an hour or so,” he admitted dryly. “But it sounds like a plan.”