Prince's Pleasure

‘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?