Prince's Pleasure

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

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.