Tyler lay back on the bed in total shock. Zak Prince, the golden boy of the big screen, had just very thoroughly kissed her.

Not the best move he had ever made in his life, Zak rebuked himself. First and foremost Tyler was a reporter—and reporters, in his experience, were after only one thing: a story.

Something he had just given her in spades!

Somehow, and he wasn’t quite sure how, he was going to have to take a step backwards—no, several steps backwards. He groaned inwardly as he remembered the softness of Tyler’s breasts beneath that little tee shirt. She had felt so good, her skin like velvet to the touch, her lips soft and responsive beneath his.

But of course she had been responsive, he acknowledged with self-disgust. Claiming that he had seduced her during this week’s interview would be the icing on the cake as far as any female reporter was concerned!

THE PRINCE BROTHERS

Enter the glamorous world of these gorgeous men…

Enter the glamorous world of the movies when you read

about the love lives of the celebrity Prince brothers, owners of the prestigious company PrinceMovies.

Each brother is super-successful in his field:

Arrogant, forceful and determined, the oldest, Nik, is a movie director.

Enjoy his story in

PRINCE’S PASSION

October 2005

A former bad boy, Zak is now a world-famous actor,

known for being a charming rogue.

Meet him in

PRINCE’S PLEASURE

November 2005

And the youngest, Rik, is a screenwriter who’s more reserved than his brothers, but very charming.

You can read about his life in

PRINCE’S LOVE-CHILD

January 2006

Prince’s Pleasure
Carole Mortimer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

‘WHY was I under the impression you were a man?’ Zak’s mouth tightened as he stared at the woman standing outside his hotel suite.

Her brows rose over eyes so deep a brown they were like smooth melted chocolate. ‘I have no idea, why were you?’ she retorted.

He scowled, knowing exactly who was responsible for his erroneous impression. ‘My brother Nik had something to do with it, I suspect!’

‘Do I look like a man?’ the woman teased.

In a word—no!

But, then, Zak hadn’t known what she was going to look like, had he? He had simply been informed by Nik that he had agreed, on Zak’s behalf, for a reporter named Tyler Wood to spend a week with him doing an exclusive interview. Nik, with his usual arrogance, had forgotten to mention that the reporter was young, beautiful, and female!

‘Not in the least,’ Zak allowed dryly, not knowing who he was angrier with, his brother, or this beautiful woman. ‘Nik also forgot to mention that you’re American.’ He frowned, knowing he was going to find it much harder to keep a fellow countrywoman at a distance than he would have the typical English male hack he had been expecting.

Tyler Wood shrugged. ‘Obviously your brother is a man of few words.’

Obviously.

And Zak hated being wrong-footed, damn it!

Despite the fact that Tyler Wood was dressed in green combat trousers, and a fitted black tee shirt, her short dark hair moussed into the spiky asexual style that was the fashion at the moment, there was no way she could be mistaken for anything other than female. Those mesmerizing long-lashed dark eyes apart, she had beautiful gamine features, with a small, snub nose and full, pouting lips, and her petite five foot two frame was definitely that of a woman, the trousers resting low on curvaceous hips, her breasts full—and obviously braless!—beneath the clinging material of her tee shirt.

‘What’s an American doing working for an English newspaper?’ Zak was curious, knowing there were more than enough newspapers and journals in America to keep a reporter busy, without going to the trouble of crossing the Atlantic.

Tyler Wood stared at him for several minutes before answering rather casually, ‘The same as an American actor in England, I suspect—working. Do you think I might come in?’ she added pointedly.

Zak was aware that he couldn’t keep her standing outside in the hotel corridor all morning, but he was still acclimatizing himself to the fact that the reporter who was to follow him around for a week was a gorgeous American woman.

He hadn’t exactly been overjoyed when Nik had told him of the agreed interview, although he had accepted the reasons for it when his brother had explained to him that it had been done to protect Nik’s new wife Jinx from the barrage of publicity that had been about to break over her unsuspecting head.

Tyler Wood had been the initial reporter to leak the story, but after several conversations with Nik she had agreed to back off for a while in exchange for a week of interviewing Zak, an actor rarely out of the headlines, anyway.

But Zak had been expecting a man, and had thought the two of them could just spend a week together on the town. The reporter could then write up his interview, and everyone would go away happy. Discovering that Tyler Wood was a woman certainly put an end to that idea.

He drew in an impatient breath. ‘I suppose you had better come in,’ he allowed ungraciously as he opened the door wider for her to enter.

She reached to just under his chin, he discovered as she moved past him into the hotel suite, her almost elusive perfume that of some fresh-smelling flower.

She turned to smile bewitchingly at him, looking at him from under those ridiculously long, dark lashes.

Zak realized he was annoyed—annoyed because although he had always had a healthy relationship with the media, it had always been a relationship he had kept based on his own terms, and he had certainly never found one of their number attractive before. How the hell was he supposed to spend a week in this woman’s company and keep her at arm’s length at the same time?

She tilted her head to one side, looking at him speculatively now. ‘I have to say, I always got the impression you were more—laid-back and charming than this…’

Zak was fully aware that that was the side of him he chose to present to the media. A side he was going to find increasingly difficult to present to Tyler Wood if he had to spend too much time in her company. Which, it appeared, he did…

He attempted to heal the slight breach he’d created. ‘It’s nine o’clock in the morning, I didn’t get to bed until four o’clock; exactly how laid-back and charming do you want me to be?’

She gave a husky laugh. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Prince. I didn’t mean to imply that you were being less than gracious.’

Zak eyed her with suspicious blue eyes, knowing that, besides being less than charming, he looked less than his best, too. The party last night had been pretty wild, and he had probably drunk a little too much champagne too. He had literally only crawled out of bed five minutes before she had knocked on the door of his hotel suite.

Consequently he had quickly pulled on the black trousers and white silk shirt he had worn to go out the night before, running a hand briefly through the tousled blondness of his overlong hair, having no time at all to shave. Never one for exactly looking well dressed at the best of time, Zak still knew there was studied casualness and just plain scruffy—and he knew exactly which category he fitted into this morning!

‘I am being less than gracious,’ he apologized. ‘Perhaps it’s age? I used to be able to party all night and still be fresh and ready to work on the set by six o’clock the next morning. None of this is for the record,’ he added quickly as she reached into one of the cavernous pockets in her trouser legs and brought out a notebook and pencil.

‘Oh.’ Those brown eyes darkened with disappointment before she placed the notebook back in the pocket to give him a considering look. ‘Exactly how old are you?’

‘Thirty-six. How old are you?’ he came back.

‘Twenty-six,’ she answered without hesitation.

He nodded, having already guessed she was aged in her mid-twenties. ‘And can you still party all night and then go to work in the morning?’

Once again she gave that husky laugh. ‘I never could!’

Zak shrugged. ‘Then perhaps there’s hope for me yet.’

‘Perhaps there is,’ she agreed. ‘Mr Prince—’

‘Zak,’ he corrected tersely. ‘Mr Prince sounds like my brother Nik,’ he explained.

And there could only ever be one Nik: arrogant, determined, forceful, a man totally confident of his own worth. Also now a happily married man, Zak acknowledged affectionately.

‘I was just wondering, Mr—Zak,’ she corrected huskily at his pointed look, ‘if perhaps you feel you have been pressured into this interview by your brother and myself?’

‘Feel as if I have?’ he echoed incredulously. ‘There’s no feel about it, Miss—’

‘Tyler,’ she suggested with gentle mockery.

‘Tyler.’ He nodded impatiently. ‘I was pressured into this interview by you and Nik. What’s the interview for, anyway? Which publication?’ he enlarged as she looked at him blankly. ‘I’m pretty sure that the newspaper which carried your last article about Nik and Jinx isn’t interested in this sort of exclusive interview.’

Was it his imagination, or did those huge brown eyes suddenly no longer quite meet his? Although he wouldn’t be in the least surprised if she felt embarrassed about working for the newspaper that had plastered that story of Nik and Jinx all over its front page; a scandal-mongering tabloid was probably too kind a description of that particular rag!

Tyler gave him another one of those blindingly bright smiles. ‘You’re right, Mr Pr—Zak,’ she corrected herself. ‘But The Daily Informer does have a Sunday newspaper, with a glossy magazine supplement.’

‘And you intend this interview to be published in that supplement?’

She turned to look out of the window at the London skyline. ‘This is rather a magnificent view, isn’t it?’

‘Magnificent,’ Zak agreed dryly. ‘Tyler, I have the distinct feeling that you—’ He broke off as the second knock of the morning sounded on his suite door.

‘That will be my photographer,’ Tyler Wood turned to reassure him as he scowled in the direction of the door.

‘No,’ Zak said firmly.

‘Oh, but I think it might be,’ she said, after glancing at the heavy watch that adorned the slenderness of her left wrist. ‘I asked Perry to meet me here at nine-fifteen—’

‘I wasn’t disagreeing with your guess as to who might be on the other side of that door,’ Zak elaborated. ‘Merely stating that your agreement with my brother didn’t include having a photographer trailing around with me for a week and shoving a camera into my face every minute of the day.’ At least, it had damn well better not have included one!

Those deep brown eyes widened protestingly. ‘But I’ll need photographs to go with the article—’

‘And you can have them,’ he said. ‘At the end of the week. At my convenience.’

Tyler looked as if she would like to argue that particular condition, but one look at his face must have convinced her she would be wasting her time. ‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll just go and tell Perry, and then we can continue—’

‘I’m actually going back to bed, Tyler,’ Zak cut in, ‘but if you would like to, I have no objection to you joining me there so that we can “continue”…?’ He eyed her challengingly, still far from happy at having been pressured into this situation in the first place, and even less happy about it now that he had met the woman who was to be his shadow for a week.

If it weren’t for the fact that he loved and respected his older brother, and if he didn’t think so highly of Nik’s wife, then Zak would have quite simply told Tyler what she could do with this ‘exclusive interview’!

In fact, it might still come to that!

Tyler looked at him narrowly. ‘I have a feeling you’re enjoying playing with me, Zak,’ she said finally.

‘Under other circumstances, I’m sure that I would,’ he taunted, rewarded by the sudden flush to her cheeks. ‘But today? Right now? With a photographer standing on the other side of the door?’ He shook his head. ‘All I want at this moment is to go back to bed. Alone,’ he added with finality.

‘Of course,’ she agreed lightly, walking over to the door with long, determined strides. ‘Perhaps we can meet up again later this afternoon? Without the photographer.’

‘Perhaps we can,’ Zak conceded. ‘Be sure to telephone first, though, hmm?’ he added mockingly. ‘I would hate to shock your delicate sensibilities by having you find me here with someone.’ He raised dark blond brows.

Tyler Wood paused with her hand on the door handle. ‘My sensibilities really aren’t all that delicate, Zak. In fact, it was a pleasant surprise to find you here alone this morning.’

‘Touché.’ Zak nodded an appreciative acknowledgement of her sharp comeback.

She paused before opening the door. ‘Tell me, when you worked with John Devaro last year—’

‘Not another John Devaro fan!’ he groaned before answering her. ‘Yes, he really is as good-looking as he appears on screen. Yes, he really is a very funny guy. Yes—’

‘I was actually only going to ask you if you felt in the least threatened by the fact that his name appeared above yours on the credits,’ Tyler interrupted dryly.

Zak was taken aback at the unexpectedness of the attack—for attack it certainly was. ‘The two of us talked it over and decided we would go alphabetically.’

‘Oh.’ She nodded. ‘See you later, then!’ A slight smile curved her lips as she let herself out of the hotel suite.

Perhaps there was more to Tyler Wood, after all, than a pair of melting chocolate-brown eyes and a stunning smile? Maybe he had underestimated the fact that she was a woman, an American one at that, trying to make it in a country that wasn’t her own, in a profession that was often dominated by men.

And what if he had underestimated her? As he saw it, he had two choices where she was concerned. Considering the way she seemed to get his hackles up without even trying, he could carry on being this obnoxious and uncooperative, or he could give in to the attraction he felt towards her and try charming her into his bed. He was damned if he didn’t, and damned if he did!

Not much of a choice, really.

CHAPTER TWO

‘ARROGANT bastard!’ Perry scowled as the two of them made their way across the large hotel reception area to the huge revolving door that led out onto the street.

Tyler couldn’t exactly blame him for being disgruntled at Zak’s decision not to have a photographer following him around all week; the two of them had worked together on and off for six months now, and nothing like this had ever happened to them before.

Posing the question, had Zak realized there was more to this interview than at first appeared?

‘Don’t worry about it,’ she assured Perry as they stepped out into the warming sunshine. ‘I’m sure you’ll be able to manage without his cooperation; you always have in the past.’

‘And I’m sure I will this time,’ Perry acknowledged with satisfaction. ‘Although I would much rather have spent the time openly with the two of you rather than creeping around in the background.’

Tyler was well aware that for most of the last six months Perry had wanted to make their relationship into something more intimate, which she had so far resisted.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Perry, and he was certainly a good-looking guy with his overlong dark hair and warm blue eyes, she just didn’t feel that way about him and considered him more like a brother than anything else. Much to his chagrin.

But she couldn’t in all honesty become involved with someone, especially a friend like Perry, without telling him everything about herself—and that she had no intention of doing. No one was to know who or what she was; as far as anyone in England was concerned she was just Tyler Wood, rookie reporter, and that was the way she wanted it to stay.

‘Although I should watch yourself with Zak Prince this week, if I were you,’ Perry added teasingly. ‘From what I’ve heard the man can’t be alone with a woman for five minutes without trying to seduce her into his bed!’

Tyler grimaced. ‘Going on his mood this morning, I don’t think he can succeed too often!’

She knew that wasn’t true, though…Of the three Prince brothers Zak was the good-natured charmer. The oldest, Nik, had remained arrogantly aloof from involvement until his recent marriage. The younger brother, Rik, was the more reserved of the three, keeping himself to himself most of the time.

But obviously nine o’clock on a Monday morning, after what had obviously been a full weekend, was a time when Zak was all out of charm!

It had been Nik Prince, before disappearing on his honeymoon yesterday, who had been the one to set up this morning’s meeting for nine o’clock…

Had it been deliberate? That would have been a little unkind on Nik’s part—to both Tyler and Zak. But, then, kindness wasn’t an emotion very often attributed to the legendary Nik Prince!

He had done it on purpose, Tyler realized with dismay. It wasn’t an auspicious beginning to a week spent in Zak Prince’s company.

* * *

‘Tell me,’ she asked later that evening once she had finally managed to meet up with Zak Prince again in the hotel lounge; he had still been sleeping when she had rung him at four o’clock. ‘I know what I’d done to anger your brother enough to arrange such an early meeting that it was guaranteed to annoy you, but what did you do?’ She quirked dark brows over mischievous brown eyes.

‘Very astute of you, Tyler.’ Zak Prince smiled, much more relaxed this evening as he lounged back in one of the capacious armchairs, wearing ragged denims and a loose black tee shirt. ‘With Nik—’ he shrugged ‘—who knows? Although I actually think it was his idea of a joke.’

‘Ha ha.’ Tyler grimaced.

‘Yeah.’ Zak grinned.

Tyler could see exactly why this man had won three Oscars. His smile was charismatic, almost mesmerizing when taken into account with the rest of his looks: overlong hair the colour of ripe corn, eyes the blue of a perfect summer sky, his features rugged, as if hewn from stone.

Whoa! Tyler brought herself up short. She was here to find a new angle on Zak Prince for her story, not fall under his spell herself.

Because she was sure there was more to this man than the charismatic charmer he was usually portrayed as. There had been rumours, of course, of involvements with married women, and even the possibility that the success of the Prince brothers’ movie company owed much to connections with the shady underworld—which was patently absurd! But there were always rumours about anyone successful; Tyler wanted to get to the truth.

‘Anyway—’ she straightened briskly ‘—I apologize for any misunderstanding this morning and I suggest we move on.’

‘Move on to where exactly?’ he teased.

Tyler frowned, knowing she hadn’t quite phrased that correctly somehow. ‘Background stuff this evening, I thought,’ she ploughed on. ‘Where you were born, family, what you’re working on at the moment, things like that.’

‘Look, Tyler, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job—’

‘But you’re going to anyway?’ she guessed.

He shrugged broad shoulders, seeming completely impervious to the female attention his presence was engendering. Most of the other women in the lounge were unable to take their eyes off him, not quite with their tongues hanging out, but pretty close, Tyler noted disparagingly.

‘Most people already know the background stuff,’ he dismissed, pausing to smile up at the waitress as she brought over the two mineral waters they had ordered.

He was right, of course; the three Prince brothers and their younger sister were the children of the legendary Damien Prince, an actor who had held the public in thrall for over thirty years, before his premature death over twenty years ago.

During the brothers’ youth, Zak had always been the bad boy of the family, in and out of trouble during most of his teens, dropping out of school to take up acting like his father, and then finally finding his niche and settling down to being the charming rogue that he was now known for worldwide.

But all three Prince brothers, the principals in the movie company PrinceMovies, were as successful in their own individual fields, Nik as movie director, Rik as screenwriter.

‘You’re right.’ Tyler nodded, accepting that he was just stating a fact rather than being arrogant. ‘I can probably look all that up.’ She settled back in her armchair. ‘So what do you have planned for this week?’

‘Planned?’ He took a sip of his mineral water.

She had seen Zak being interviewed, had watched several recordings of him on one of the leading chat shows. She knew that he wasn’t usually this much hard work, that he normally responded easily and smoothly to questions put to him, his charm always in evidence.

But it wasn’t this evening—again.

Did he know something? Did he suspect that this interview wasn’t quite as straightforward as she wanted it to appear?

‘The reason why you’re here in England.’ She smiled, determined not to let him know she was bothered by his lack of cooperation. ‘After all, you’re usually based in the States, so—’

‘My older brother was married at the weekend, Tyler; isn’t that reason enough for me to be here?’

She felt embarrassed colour warm her cheeks. ‘Of course,’ she acknowledged evenly. ‘I just wondered at the reason for your still being here.’

‘You did?’ he murmured incredulously.

She shrugged. ‘I doubt anticipation of this interview was enough to keep you here!’

‘You doubt correctly,’ he said. ‘The première of Gunslinger is showing on Saturday; I think I’m expected to be there!’

She had done it again, Tyler recognized with an inner groan. Of course the English première of Zak’s most recent movie was taking place this coming Saturday. She had known that. She had just forgotten it.

Because she was too anxious to get to the real story? Probably. Well, she wouldn’t make that mistake again. She needed an exclusive—something new to the market, a different angle, a story no one had written before. And she was convinced that this interview with Zak could give her the exclusive she was after.

‘I’m sorry, Zak,’ she apologized. ‘I—’

‘Tyler—’ he sat forward in his chair, his expression almost pitying ‘—might I suggest, in an effort not to waste any more of my time, that you go away and do a little more research before we continue with this?’

She deserved the rebuke, she knew she did, but that didn’t alter the fact that he didn’t need to have made it. The legendary Prince charm! Huh, so far she had seen little evidence of it!

Which only convinced her all the more that this man was hiding something, that there was more of a story behind Zak Prince than anyone had ever discovered. But she would discover it!

She straightened. ‘That won’t be necessary, Mr Prince,’ she told him tartly. ‘I’m aware of the première at the weekend, I was simply enquiring as to whether or not you are working on something else in England at the moment?’ She met his mocking gaze unblinkingly.

* * *

She had guts, he would give her that. Guts, and a little anger too at the moment, if that glint in those chocolate-brown eyes was anything to go by.

Not surprising, really. He wasn’t exactly giving her an easy time of it this evening. But then it wasn’t in his job description to make life easy for reporters. The fact that he normally did didn’t mean that he had to do so in the case of Tyler Wood.

He had no idea why she should be so different, and yet something about her made his hackles rise, his normally relaxed approach to the media deteriorating to this barbed exchange of barely concealed animosity.

He shrugged. ‘I’m meeting with a director for lunch tomorrow to discuss the start of filming next week—no, you cannot be present at the meeting,’ he added as he saw her eyes light up in anticipation.

A light that instantly went out as her gaze narrowed angrily. ‘My agreement with your brother was that I would be allowed complete access to you for a week—’ She broke off as he raised a sardonic eyebrow. ‘Not that sort of access, Mr Prince,’ she snapped.

‘I usually make my own choices when it comes to that sort of access,’ he gibed. ‘And your agreement was with my brother, not me.’ His voice had hardened. ‘So there will be no inclusion in my meeting tomorrow.’

She opened her mouth as if to argue the point, and then closed it again to stare across at him in total frustration.

Zak gave her a considering look. ‘Tell me again what sort of magazine this interview is for, Miss Wood?’

‘The usual sort of Sunday supplement,’ she answered abruptly.

Was it his imagination, or had those brown eyes become slightly guarded again? ‘The “usual” sort,’ he repeated softly, once again having the feeling that Tyler Wood was acting evasively. And she wasn’t very good at it.

Her chin rose challengingly. ‘I thought I was the one conducting the interview, Zak, not the other way round!’

‘I’m just curious to know a little more about the woman I’m expected to take around with me all week. After all,’ he added as she would have spoken, ‘most people are going to assume that you’re the latest woman in my life.’

‘The latest in a very long—’ She grimaced her dismay as she realized what she had just said. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that—’

‘It’s the truth…?’ he jeered.

‘No! I mean—well, yes, it is the truth. But I still shouldn’t have said it.’

‘No, you shouldn’t,’ Zak acknowledged dryly. ‘But it’s probably the most honest thing you’ve said all evening!’

Her eyes widened. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Granted.’

Her mouth firmed. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mr Prince. Are you implying I’ve been dishonest with you?’

Were her hands trembling slightly? He couldn’t be sure as she hastily clasped those hands together. ‘You aren’t the only one with connections, Tyler,’ he added, sure now that she had definitely gone paler. ‘And this afternoon I made a few phone calls in order to check up on you.’

The colour did drain completely from her cheeks now. ‘Oh, yes?’ she said airily. ‘And what did you learn?’

Zak looked at her with narrowed eyes, more convinced than ever that she was hiding something. ‘Not a lot, as it happens. The press, it seems, can be pretty close-mouthed when it comes to one of their own. However, I did learn that you’re considered a good reporter, if a little inclined to get too emotionally involved.’ He paused before making his next statement. ‘Also, that you had a blazing row with your editor a couple of weeks ago, which apparently culminated with him threatening to fire you…’

Her eyes were huge brown pools of melted chocolate as she met his gaze unflinchingly. ‘Well, he doesn’t seem to have carried out that threat, does he? Because I’m still employed,’ she retorted.

‘Apparently not,’ he conceded, his mouth tightening. ‘Out of interest, what did the two of you argue about?’

Tyler shook her head. ‘I really don’t think that is any of your business.’

He shrugged. ‘I just wondered if it might have had anything to do with the little agreement you came to with my brother?’

‘Of course not,’ she snapped. ‘Now if we could stop talking about me and concentrate on you…?’ she said pointedly.

He sat forward. ‘I’ll keep asking until I find out the truth about you, Tyler,’ he warned.

Tyler closed her notebook with a decisive snap before secreting it away in one of those many pockets on her combat trousers. ‘Until today, I really believed all the things written and said about you in the media: that you’re charming, not in the least difficult to work with, affable even!’ She gave a disbelieving snort of derision. ‘When in fact you’re really exceptionally rude, extremely difficult to work with, and not even the tiniest bit affable!’

Zak reached across the tabletop and easily clasped her arm as she would have stood up, his fingers like steel bands. ‘Is that what you intend writing in your article?’ Despite the fact that he had set out to be as unpleasant as possible, he wasn’t used to people disliking him, and found that he didn’t particularly like the experience.

He also discovered that he liked the feel of Tyler’s skin against his fingers. It was soft and silky to the touch, making him wonder if the rest of her body felt as sensuous and warm.

‘Relax, Tyler,’ he told her gently. ‘We haven’t finished talking yet.’

She looked across at him coolly. ‘Do you want me to hang around just so that you can insult me some more?’

His mouth twisted into a smile. ‘I’m all out of insults at the moment—but if you give me a few minutes…! Besides, we’re drawing attention to ourselves.’ He looked pointedly around the lounge to where quite a lot of people, several men included now, were openly staring at them.

‘You’re the one drawing attention to us,’ she corrected him tautly, at the same time sitting back abruptly, releasing her arm from his grasp as she did so.

Zak watched as she ran the fingers of her other hand over the spot where he had held her. Both of her hands were completely bare of rings, and were long and slender, with delicately tapered fingers. He found himself wondering what it would feel like to have those fingers moving caressingly over his bare chest and back. And other parts of his body…

‘We were discussing the argument you had with your editor,’ he reminded her, angry with himself for having those thoughts about Tyler; she was a reporter, for goodness’ sake!

She shook her head, her spiky hair gleaming almost auburn in the overhead lighting. ‘You may have been, I don’t believe I was.’ She met his gaze boldly over the rim of her glass as she took a sip of the mineral water.

Zak suppressed his feelings of irritation with difficulty, finding that this woman pressed buttons in him that he normally kept well away from the public eye—and he didn’t mean physical ones! Although God knew she was attractive enough…

‘What shall we talk about, then?’ he mocked. ‘The fact that you and the handsome photographer Perry Morgan are apparently inseparable? Or shall we—? Going somewhere, Tyler?’ he asked as she put her glass down on the table with obvious force before moving to stand up.

Except she didn’t quite make it, all the colour draining from her face before she collapsed back into the chair, her eyes closed, her breathing shallow.

‘What the hell?’ Zak had been propelled forward as she fell, moving down on his haunches beside her chair now. ‘Tyler!’ He shook her shoulder slightly. ‘Tyler, speak to me, damn it!’ he ground out forcefully.

She seemed to find the strength to open one eye and glare at him. ‘Go away,’ she muttered weakly.

He ignored that, and straightened before bending down and easily sweeping her up into his arms.

She weighed next to nothing, he discovered as he began to stride purposefully across the lounge with her still in his arms, totally immune to the avid stares the two of them were receiving, his expression one of grim determination.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Tyler gasped, both eyes open now as she began to struggle in his arms.

‘I would have thought that was obvious!’ Zak didn’t even glance down at her as he stepped into the waiting lift.

‘It is, but—where are you taking me?’ She was struggling even harder to sit up in his arms.

‘My hotel suite,’ he informed her. ‘And stop struggling like that; you’ll only end up hurting yourself,’ he said as his arms tightened about her. He had no idea what was wrong with her yet, and until he did she wasn’t going anywhere!

‘You’re definitely making an exhibition of us now,’ Tyler protested as the two people waiting to get into the lift stared at them in shocked surprise as Zak stepped out with her still cradled in his arms.

‘Do I look as if I care?’ he dismissed impatiently as he used the key-card to get into his hotel suite, kicking the door shut behind him to stride over to the sofa and lay her down on it. ‘Don’t move,’ he instructed her before moving over to the mini-bar, all the time keeping one eye on her as he searched through the array of alcoholic drinks there.

Although she didn’t seem to be making too much of an effort to get up now, once again lying back with her eyes closed, her cheeks still deathly pale.

Either she really was ill, or this was some sort of elaborate ploy on her part to keep this interview alive. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a woman had tried something like this on him in order to get into his hotel room, although, he had to admit, it wasn’t usually with an interview in mind!

But if it should turn out that was what Tyler Wood was doing, then she was going to find out exactly how ‘exceptionally rude’ he could be!

CHAPTER THREE

‘WHAT are you doing!’ Tyler gasped, eyes wide as Zak raised her head and tipped some liquid into her mouth. Fiery liquid that burned as it went down her throat. ‘No!’ she protested, desperately trying to push his hand away, and not succeeding as he forced another mouthful of the foul-tasting liquid down her throat. ‘What was that?’ she groaned as he placed her head back on the sofa.

‘Brandy,’ he told her with satisfaction. ‘Guaranteed to—’

‘Make me ill,’ she finished heavily. ‘Even more so on an empty stomach.’ A very empty stomach. In fact, it was because she hadn’t eaten anything, since a hurried slice of toast for breakfast this morning, that she had collapsed in the first place.

She had been dismayed when she had first moved to London at how high the cost of living was here, her reporting job not exactly earning her big bucks. So, in order to survive on those wages, as she had sworn she would when she’d walked out of her sumptuous home in New York with claims to her family that she could make it on her own, she had had to economize on things. Like eating.

Bread, milk and cereals were cheap, as well as being quite nourishing, which was just as well, because it was what Tyler had mainly been living on for the last six months, with the odd hamburger thrown in here and there as a treat.

‘Why do you have an empty stomach?’ Zak probed, shrewdly attacking the relevant part of her statement. ‘It’s nine o’clock at night, so why haven’t you eaten dinner yet?’

Because dinner was a luxury she could rarely afford. Lunch, either, for that matter. Although having eaten either wouldn’t have lessened the effect the brandy was going to have on her any second now.

‘I have an allergy.’ She ignored his questions, trying to sit up. ‘And if you don’t get me to the bathroom in the next ten seconds I’m going to be ill all over this expensive carpet!’

‘An allergy?’ Zak Prince repeated with a dark scowl, making no effort to step forward and help her. ‘What sort of allergy—damn it, Tyler…!’ he rasped in disbelief as she put her head over the side of the sofa and was indeed ill all over the carpet.

As predicted.

It had been the surprise of her life to discover, on entering college, and the round of parties that had followed, that alcohol of any kind caused this reaction in her.

‘What—how—what sort of allergy?’ Zak Prince queried as he came back from the bathroom with a couple of towels, handing one to Tyler and throwing the other one over the mess on the carpet.

‘To alcohol,’ she had time to answer him before she was ill once again.

Not that this could last for too long; there was really nothing in her stomach for her to be ill with except that slice of toast and liquid!

Although it was unpleasant enough while it lasted, Tyler acknowledged half an hour later, equally exhausted and devastated that she had been sick in front of Zak Prince of all people. The fact that he was the one responsible for giving her the alcohol in the first place didn’t lessen that feeling in the slightest!

‘Damn it, you only had a couple of sips of the stuff!’ he protested as he helped her to the bathroom to wash her face and clean her teeth, before easing her back onto the sofa.

‘The amount doesn’t seem to matter,’ she explained. She was already feeling the start of the headache that usually followed one of these bouts. Not that there were any now that she simply avoided drinking alcohol.

Unless it was literally forced down her throat!

Sleep was the best thing for her now, although there wasn’t too much chance of that until she had got herself back to her apartment…

* * *

It was dark when she woke up. Very dark. And very silent. Apart from the sound of steady breathing.

Tyler held her breath.

The sound of breathing continued.

Where was she?

More to the point, who was that breathing beside her?

She sat up with a start, groaning as she felt the pounding pain in her head.

‘Are you okay?’

There was a movement beside her, and Tyler quickly closed her eyes as a light was switched on, its brightness only increasing the pounding in her head. As did the easy recognition of that voice!

‘Tyler?’ Zak repeated with concern.

What was she doing lying in bed beside Zak Prince? How had she got here? More to the point, what was she still doing here?

The last thing she remembered was being violently ill, knowing she had to sleep, and then—nothing.

‘Tyler, open your eyes and talk to me,’ Zak Prince instructed forcefully, at the same time grasping her arms and shaking her slightly.

‘If you don’t stop doing that my head is going to fall off!’ She gently lowered herself back onto the pillow.

Zak instantly stopped shaking her. ‘Sounds like you have a hangover to me.’ He sounded amused. ‘Are you sure you hadn’t been drinking before you met me last night?’

Her eyes shot open as she ignored the pain in her head to glare at him indignantly. ‘I told you, I’m allergic to alcohol! One mouthful and I’m violently ill.’

‘You sure are!’ He grinned, leaning on his elbow to look down at her. ‘In fact, I’ve never seen anyone as ill as you were last night. Before you blacked out, of course,’ he added.

‘I fell asleep,’ she defended, and then winced at the loudness of her own voice. ‘I fell asleep,’ she repeated huskily, suddenly very aware of where they were, and of how close Zak Prince actually was. ‘What time is it?’ She turned her head slightly, having trouble trying to focus on the luminous clock on the bedside table.

The bedside table! She really was lying in bed with Zak. Both of them were fully dressed, she was relieved to see, but it was still a huge double bed the two of them lay in.

Zak peered past her at the clock. ‘A few minutes after eleven o’clock,’ he supplied.

‘Oh, that’s not so bad!’ She sighed her relief. ‘I’ve only been asleep for an hour or so—’

‘A few minutes after eleven o’clock in the morning,’ Zak enlightened her with a teasing smile.

‘It can’t be!’ she protested, half struggling to sit up, and then falling back down again as she realized how close she was to Zak. ‘If it’s morning, then why is it still so dark?’

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘I always stay in this particular suite when I’m in London. If I’m working I never know when I’m going to get to bed and the curtains in here are so thick they cut out all the daylight.’

Tyler stared up at him now, her mouth open, her eyes wide with shock. Eleven o’clock in the morning! Did that mean she had been here all night?

Zak chuckled softly. ‘Well, this isn’t the usual reaction I get from a woman after we’ve spent a night in bed together!’

Tyler felt her face pale even more, her lips feeling slightly numb too. ‘We—we haven’t spent a night in bed together,’ she finally managed to stutter.

‘No?’ He looked pointedly at their surroundings.

There was no denying that they were in a bedroom, nor that the two of them shared the same bed, but they certainly hadn’t—they hadn’t—had they…?

Her eyes were wide with anxiety as she looked up into Zak’s face for some sign of exactly what had happened here last night, but his expression was unreadable as he looked at her beneath mockingly raised brows.

‘You know, Tyler—’ Zak reached up and pushed the short hair back from her brow, his fingers leaving a trail of fire where they touched ‘—I actually consider it extremely insulting that you could imagine I might take advantage of a woman who had just been violently ill all over my hotel suite!’ His blue eyes looked as hard and gleaming as sapphires.

It did sound a little insulting, Tyler realized. In fact, a lot insulting. Although, considering his much-publicized reputation with women—No, she had better not even go there. Not if the now-dangerous glint in his eyes was anything to go by!

‘Although the same certainly can’t be said about twelve hours later!’ he rasped just before his head swooped down and his lips claimed hers.

Tyler melted. Just melted. Her lips softened and clung to his, and her body responded avidly as he half lay across her, her hands moving up to thread her fingers in the silky softness of his corn-coloured hair.

Zak’s mouth gentled, sipping, tasting, tenderly biting, causing first her lips to tingle, before the sensation spread to the rest of her body.

Then she felt as if she had been engulfed in flames as he suddenly deepened the kiss, her mouth opening wider to allow the hot, passionate intrusion of his tongue.

Her breasts, the nipples firm and inviting, pressed against the muscled hardness of his chest, a chest she longed to touch. Her hands thrust eagerly under his tee shirt, first stroking then lightly dragging her nails down—

‘Housekeeping!’ A sharp rap on the door accompanied the bright announcement.

Zak, whose fingers had just started to caress Tyler’s generous, unfettered breasts beneath her top, shot away from her as if he had been stung. ‘Damn, damn, damn!’ he muttered. ‘I forgot to put the “Do Not Disturb” notice on the door last night before we went to bed!’ He was scowling darkly as he swung his long legs off the bed and got up to walk over to the door.

Tyler lay back on the bed in total shock. Zak Prince, the golden boy of the big screen, had just very thoroughly kissed her. She had always wondered what was meant by that phrase, and now she knew. She had just been so ‘thoroughly’ kissed she still tingled all over and her legs felt shaky!

* * *

Not the best move he had ever made in his life, Zak rebuked himself even as he dealt with the cleaning lady standing out in the hallway. First and foremost, Tyler was a reporter, and reporters, in his experience, were after only one thing: a story.

Something he had just given her in spades!

Somehow, and he wasn’t quite sure how, he was going to have to take a step backwards—no, several steps backwards. He groaned inwardly as he remembered the softness of Tyler’s breasts beneath that little tee shirt. She had felt so good, her skin like velvet to the touch, her lips soft and responsive beneath his.

But of course she had been responsive, he acknowledged with self-disgust. Claiming that he had seduced her during this week’s interview would be the icing on the cake as far as any female reporter was concerned!

‘If you’re hoping for a repeat performance I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed!’ he gritted out as he turned from closing the door and found Tyler still luxuriating in the bed. ‘I have that lunch appointment I told you about in—just over an hour,’ he announced after glancing at his watch. ‘But maybe we can pick this up again later?’ he added with a deliberately insulting raise of an eyebrow.

The colour flooded Tyler’s cheeks as she scrambled to sit up, turning away from him as she did so. ‘Where are my shoes?’ she asked as she looked around dazedly.

‘Your boots are in the other room,’ Zak said. He still remembered his amazement the night before, when he had gone to remove her footwear before putting her into bed and found she’d been wearing a pair of yellow desert boots. ‘Tell me, Tyler, do you wear military clothes to make up for your lack of height and stature?’

She stood up abruptly and frowned. ‘And do you take lessons in rudeness along with acting, or does it just come naturally?’

‘I’ve never really thought about it.’ Rudeness wasn’t usually a part of his character; only Tyler Wood, it seemed, brought out that side of his nature. ‘Er—I think maybe you should take a shower or something before you leave,’ he advised as she turned to march determinedly through to the adjoining sitting-room.

‘No, thank you,’ she answered tightly, sitting down to pull on one of her boots, wrinkling her nose delicately because he hadn’t quite managed to erase the smell from the carpet the night before.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Zak dismissed. ‘I’ll call Housekeeping back and get them to shampoo the carpet while I’m out.’

‘You know…’ she paused to glare up at him, obviously not happy at being reminded of her illness the evening before ‘…if you had anything of the gentleman about you then you wouldn’t have slept in the same bed as me last night!’

‘There’s only the one bed,’ Zak protested, leaning against the doorjamb between the two rooms as he watched her, his arms folded across his chest.

‘Then you should have slept on the sofa in here!’ she snapped, pulling her second boot on and tying it so tightly Zak was sure it must be cutting off the blood circulating to her foot.

‘It happens to be my bed,’ he reminded her.

‘Yes, but—I would have been happier if you had left me on the sofa,’ she insisted, standing up.

‘Oh, I couldn’t have done that,’ he assured her mockingly. ‘What if you had been sick again? You might have choked on your own—’

‘Please don’t talk about that any more!’ Tyler practically shrieked, picking up from the table all the articles Zak had emptied from her pockets the night before.

‘I really think you should take advantage of the bathroom facilities before you leave, Tyler,’ Zak reiterated as he once again took in her appearance.

Her eyes flashed as she looked up. ‘I don’t—oh, no!’ she groaned as she caught sight of herself in a mirror, reaching up a hand to her hair as it stood up in the best likeness to an annoyed porcupine Zak had ever seen. ‘You could have told me!’ she growled as she marched past him into the adjoining bathroom.

‘I thought I just did,’ he called out over the sound of water running, grinning unabashedly as she came back from the bathroom, her hair now wet and spiky. ‘Not much of an improvement, really,’ he teased.

‘You—’ Tyler broke off, drawing in a controlling breath before speaking again. ‘I didn’t notice my appearance putting you off a few minutes ago!’

‘No. Well, a woman in your bed is worth two that aren’t,’ he deliberately misquoted.

Her eyes flashed deeply brown. ‘I wouldn’t have thought you were that desperate!’

Zak’s smile widened at her attempts to insult him, easily guessing the reasons behind it—embarrassment, mainly—but having no intention of helping her out. The fact that she didn’t appear in a very good light either should be enough to discourage her from writing about it. Should be…

His mouth firmed as he straightened away from the doorframe. ‘I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know I’m not even the slightest bit desperate,’ he assured her. ‘Now, if you will excuse me, I have to shower and change before my luncheon appointment.’

‘I—of course.’ Tyler looked flustered now. ‘Can we meet up again later today?’

‘Okay,’ he said, wondering now about her personal life. Did she have parents still alive? Did she have siblings? Where had she gone to school? Was there a current man in her life? Those thoughts were immediately followed by the question, why did he want to know?

He had been forced into agreeing to have Tyler Wood in his life for a week, and when that week was over he had no intention of ever setting eyes on her again. So why should he care about the answer to any of those questions?

He sighed. ‘I’ve been invited to a party later this evening, so you may as well come with me.’

‘If you’re sure I wouldn’t be intruding—’

‘I thought you were already doing that,’ Zak responded with brutal honesty.

Tyler winced. ‘I’m sure there must be someone in your life at the moment—’

‘If there is I can assure you that you aren’t ever going to meet her!’ Zak cut in harshly.

‘If you resent my being here so much, why did you agree—?’ She broke off as he steadily returned her gaze, blond brows raised. ‘You didn’t agree, did you?’ she acknowledged with another wince.

He gave a derisive smile. ‘You already know that I didn’t.’

Tyler grimaced. ‘I thought your initial—lack of cooperation was because I wasn’t the man you thought you had agreed to be interviewed by. But now I realize it’s much more deep-rooted than that.’

‘Much more,’ he confirmed grimly. ‘Although that doesn’t change the fact that the agreement was made, with or without my consent,’ he continued as she frowned. ‘Now, I suggest you come back to the hotel about eight o’clock this evening. That way I can be sure that you have dinner before we go on to the party. God knows what the speculation would be like if you were to faint halfway through the evening!’

Her cheeks coloured furiously. ‘I’m perfectly capable of feeding myself, thank you—’

‘Really?’ Zak was deeply sceptical. ‘I haven’t seen much evidence of that so far!’

Her eyes flashed. ‘I told you, it was the brandy that made me ill; the fact that I hadn’t had dinner yesterday evening had nothing to do with it!’ She glared across at him.

His gaze narrowed on her speculatively, taking in the hollows of her cheeks, the slenderness of her body, her wrists so delicately thin they looked as if they might break if any pressure was exerted on them. In fact, Tyler Wood was altogether too slim.

‘Tyler, I gave you the brandy because you almost fainted, presumably from lack of food. Which brings us back to the fact that you still haven’t told me why you didn’t eat dinner yesterday,’ he probed.

‘There wasn’t time.’ Once again her gaze seemed to be avoiding meeting his.

Zak didn’t buy that explanation; there had been plenty of time for her to eat in between their parting yesterday morning and meeting up again in the evening. Unless she had been expecting him to give her dinner yesterday evening? That would certainly explain why she looked so uncomfortable about the subject…

‘Just be back here, and dressed for an evening out, by eight o’clock this evening, Tyler,’ he ordered. ‘If you’re not, then I will have already left without you,’ he warned as she would have protested.

She bit down on her bottom lip, looking as if she would like to tell him exactly what he could do with both his dinner and his evening out, but at the same time that impulse obviously warring with the consequences of doing so, namely losing the interview.

Maybe it was a little unfair of him to take advantage of her obvious wish to do the interview, but at the moment, impatient with the situation, puzzled by some of her behaviour, and—yes—frustrated as hell from their passionate kiss earlier on, he wasn’t in a mood to be fair!

Worse, he had a distinct feeling this was only the beginning of his feelings of frustration where Tyler Wood was concerned…

CHAPTER FOUR

‘WHERE have you been all night? Or need I ask?’ Perry scowled at Tyler darkly as he got up from where he had been sitting on the staircase to the next floor of her apartment building.

Tyler frowned, slightly out of breath herself after having just staggered up the two flights of stairs to her apartment. She had been ill last night, didn’t feel a hundred per cent now, a fact not enhanced by a journey on the hot and claustrophobic London tube; the last thing she needed at the moment was to be asked about last night. Anything about last night!

‘Perry,’ she greeted lightly, putting the key in the lock to her apartment and opening the door, at once feeling soothed by the untidy comfort of her sitting-room, the furniture old, the sofa sagging slightly, books taking up every conceivable piece of space. But it was her own little world, nonetheless.

A world she would have preferred to retire to alone, after that second run-in with Zak this morning, in order to lick her wounds in private, if for no other reason. Something she knew wouldn’t be possible as, without being invited to do so, Perry followed her inside.

‘Tyler, I asked you a quest—’

‘Perry,’ she cut him off, her look of quiet intensity enough to silence him, for the moment. ‘As you can see, I have just got home,’ she continued softly, ‘so do you think we could possibly delay this conversation until after I’ve at least showered and changed into some clean clothes?’

Not that she really owed Perry an explanation; no matter what he might wish to the contrary, their relationship had only ever been a working one. But it was that working relationship, and the fact that he had also been hauled over the coals a couple of weeks ago, with the threat of dismissal if they didn’t come up with something sensational, pictures included, where Zak Prince was concerned, that made her feel an obligation to him.

‘Fine,’ he accepted tersely. ‘I’ll just sit here and wait for you.’ He dropped down onto the sagging sofa. ‘Tyler, you do know that Zak Prince is—’

‘Not now, Perry,’ she warned—very much at the end of her tether when it came to the subject of Zak Prince. ‘Help yourself to coffee,’ she invited before turning in the direction of her bedroom. ‘I’ll try not to be too long.’

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he assured her.

Tyler breathed a sigh of relief once she reached the relative sanctuary of her bedroom, the first time she had really been able to relax since waking up this morning and finding herself in bed with Zak.

In bed with Zak!

Just the memory of that was enough to make her drop down weakly onto her bed.

It was bad enough that she had woken and found herself in bed with him, but it was what had followed that disturbed her the most: Zak Prince very thoroughly kissing her.

And her kissing him right back…

If the woman from Housekeeping hadn’t interrupted them when she did…!

Then what?

What did she think would have happened? That the two of them would have carried on making love?

Tyler gave a groan of self-loathing. What a stupid, stupid thing for her to have allowed to happen. Zak had made it more than obvious that he had very little respect for her as a reporter as it was. After she’d fallen into his arms like that, he probably had none at all for her as a woman now, either.

‘Tyler?’ A knock on the bedroom door accompanied Perry’s query. ‘Are you all right in there? Only I can’t hear the shower running.’

‘I’m fine,’ she answered sharply, glaring at the closed door. ‘But I could be a while, so why don’t you—?’

‘I’m staying right here, Tyler,’ Perry informed her doggedly.

She got wearily to her feet, still frowning her irritation with Perry’s badgering as she grabbed some fresh clothes and went through to the adjoining shower-room.

Not that she felt too much better half an hour later, freshly showered and dressed in a clean white tee shirt and faded denims, her hair washed and moussed. All surface dressing in an effort to boost her bruised morale, knowing that, after what had happened between them this morning, Zak was going to be more obnoxious that ever when she met up with him this evening.

And she still had a disgruntled Perry sitting in her lounge!

‘Coffee?’ she offered as she came through from the bedroom and saw that he hadn’t made himself a cup after all.

‘No, thanks,’ he refused tersely, standing up. ‘I really wasn’t exaggerating, was I, when I said Zak Prince can’t be alone with a woman for five minutes without trying to seduce her into his bed? Only in your case it doesn’t seem to have taken even five minutes!’ He looked at her scornfully.

Tyler felt the colour drain from her cheeks. ‘Perry, you have absolutely no right—’

‘No right!’ he exclaimed, shaking his head in disgust. ‘Tyler, I stood outside the hotel last night for over five hours waiting for one or both of you to come out. Then I tried calling you when I got home. Then again at two o’clock. Then again at six o’clock this morning.’ His mouth twisted derisively. ‘The fact that you were still wearing your clothes from yesterday when you arrived home, and looked as if you had just fallen out of bed—literally!—is more than enough reason for me to have added two and two together and come up with the appropriate answer of four! Wouldn’t you say?’ His eyes glittered with accusation.

Tyler drew in a sharp breath. It was probably as well Perry hadn’t been inside the hotel when Zak had swept her up in his arms and carried her away to his hotel suite! ‘Perry, I think you had better leave before you say anything else you’re going to regret,’ she warned.

He dismissed the warning with a wave of his hand. ‘Is that all you have to say to me? Tyler, I thought the two of us meant something to each other. As friends, if nothing else,’ he added as she would have argued that point.

‘Oh, Perry, of course we’re friends.’ She groaned. ‘But nothing happened between Zak Prince and me last night,’ she told him heavily, knowing that wasn’t quite true of this morning, but having no intention of sharing that humiliation with anyone—including Perry.

‘I hope for your sake that it didn’t,’ he snapped. ‘We’re supposed to be digging up the dirt on Zak Prince—I would hate for you to be part of it!’

That was the choice her editor had given her after Tyler had effectively blown the story on Jinx Nixon; deliver as much scandal on Zak Prince as she could, or else she could look for another job. Having walked out on her home and family six months ago with the brave declaration she was perfectly capable of making it on her own, she had no intention of getting fired from her very first job as a reporter.

Although that didn’t stop her inwardly cringing at the knowledge that this interview with Zak was intended as lurid fodder for the tabloids, rather than the restrained Sunday magazine supplement article that she had told Zak it would be. This type of journalism was not exactly what she had had in mind when she’d made those grand announcements to her family!

‘I was ill last night, and Zak Prince was kind enough—’

‘You were ill?’ Perry moved to her side to look down at her with concern. ‘What happened? Why were you ill? Do you need to see a doctor?’

A head doctor, maybe—for being stupid enough not to have rebuffed Zak this morning when he’d kissed her!

‘No.’ She gave a humourless laugh. ‘I don’t need to see a doctor. I—inadvertently drank some brandy—’

‘Oh, no,’ Perry groaned in sympathy, well aware of her allergy to alcohol. ‘But how on earth—?’

‘It was an accident, okay?’ she told him sharply. ‘I drank it. I was ill. And Zak Prince took care of me. End of story.’ As far as explaining herself to Perry it was, but she had a definite feeling that Zak would have other ideas on the subject!

‘You poor love,’ Perry sympathized. ‘And all I did when you finally managed to stagger home was hurl accusations at you. Will you let me make you some coffee to make up for my boorish behaviour?’

‘Fine,’ she accepted as she dropped down into an armchair, just wanting to forget this awkwardness between them; goodness knew she had made few enough friends since moving to London without alienating Perry too. And she really didn’t need any more confrontation—she was only just starting to feel a little better.

Although, she had to admit, the thought of meeting Zak Prince again at eight o’clock this evening was enough to make her feel ill all over again!

* * *

‘You’re looking good,’ Zak complimented her as he opened the door to his hotel suite at exactly eight o’clock that evening and saw a transformed Tyler standing outside.

She did look good. Very good, in fact. The red dress she wore clung in all the right places as it emphasized pert breasts and the curve of her hips—she was obviously wearing very little clothing underneath the figure-hugging dress. Its above-knee length showed off a long expanse of shapely tanned legs, and the high heels on the matching red shoes she wore added a good three inches to her diminutive height.

His practised eye told him she was wearing more make-up than usual too—those dark lashes surrounding her huge brown eyes looking longer and silkier than ever, a delicate blush emphasizing her cheekbones, and a red gloss on her lips adding to their fullness.

‘Dressed for battle, hmm?’ he guessed.

‘A party, I thought,’ she came back lightly as she walked past him into the suite.

Zak grinned appreciatively as he turned to watch the sway of her hips. He hadn’t been quite sure what to expect when Tyler arrived this evening—the spitfire of their first and second meeting, or the young woman this morning who had seemed confused and not a little upset at their response to each other in bed; he certainly hadn’t been expecting this beautiful siren. She had obviously sat back when she’d got home earlier, regrouped, and this dynamically beautiful woman was the result.

‘You’re looking pretty good yourself,’ she returned the compliment as her gaze travelled slowly up the length of his body.

Zak frowned, finding he was uncomfortable with the way Tyler had looked at him with such feminine assessment as she took in his appearance in the cream silk shirt and brown trousers he wore this evening. As he had looked at her own changed appearance seconds ago in the red dress with complete male assessment…? Hell, yes, but—But nothing. What was good enough for him, her challenging gaze now said, was good enough for her, too.

There was more, much more, it seemed, to Tyler Wood than he had at first given her credit for…

‘Thanks,’ he accepted as casually as he could. ‘I won’t bother to offer you a drink before we leave—we both know where that could lead!’ he taunted, blue eyes challenging her now.

Tyler didn’t even blink at his deliberate reminder of last night and this morning. ‘You mentioned that we would be having dinner before the party…?’

‘O’Malley’s.’ He nodded. ‘If that’s okay with you?’

‘Oh, I think I’ll be able to cope,’ she said dryly.

The restaurant he had chosen was the in-place at the moment, a cross between an Irish pub and a superb English-cuisine restaurant. But, despite what Tyler might think to the contrary, that wasn’t the reason Zak had chosen it. O’Malley’s was more relaxed than the other fashionable London eateries, and Zak didn’t particularly enjoy dining in formal restaurants. From the brief time he had spent in Tyler’s company, he hadn’t thought she would either, but her appearance this evening told him very firmly that she would be comfortable no matter what her surroundings.

‘Good,’ he said as he opened the door for her to leave, still feeling strangely wrong-footed by this stunning woman—something that didn’t happen to him too often, he had to admit.

He caught a faint whiff of her perfume as she moved smoothly past him out into the corridor, a heady mixture of clean flesh and that elusively floral concoction.

Tyler was most definitely not his type, he told himself firmly as he accompanied her to the lift. For one thing he abhorred short hair on a woman—he couldn’t stand that almost as much as the unfeminine combat trousers Tyler had worn yesterday. Worst of all, she was that loathed of all things, a reporter!

Then why, if he disliked all those things about her, had the memory of her this morning, soft and pliant in his arms, her body warm and inviting, been intruding into his thoughts all day?

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