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Objecting, Kaylie reached for the small bundle. “Don’t I get to read it?”
Martin waved off her request. “Don’t worry about it. The secretary will respond.”
“No way. I always read—”
“You don’t have time,” Martin said, obviously irritated. “You’ve got a plane to catch in three days and—”
“And it’s mine,” Kaylie said, hoping not to sound too petulant. But she wasn’t going to let this new guy think he could boss her around. She’d agreed to the bodyguard but that was all. To Zane, she said, “If there’s something else you want to know about me, just ask.”
He arched one dark brow, and a smile tugged at the corners of Flannery’s lips, though he tried to keep his expression grave as he slapped the stack of envelopes into her hand. “When you’re done with them, I’d like to see them again.”
Martin was fit to be tied. “We don’t have time—”
“It’s cool,” Kaylie assured him, and Martin rolled his eyes.
“Women,” Martin muttered under his breath, but Kaylie, cheeks burning, jaw tight, refused to rise to the bait. She just wanted this bodyguard to understand that she wouldn’t be treated like a little kid. As for Martin’s bad mood, he’d get over it.
From that point on, Zane was all business. He was with her constantly, but never obtrusively, and she began to relax around him. He helped her with her studies and t
aught her card games and even ran through her lines with her. Once in a while he’d show her a different side to him—a side that proved he did have a sense of humor. While going over her lines, he’d ad-lib, all very seriously, and she’d foul up her lines and they’d both end up laughing. Once in a while she’d catch him looking at her intensely, his eyes darkening, and she’d feel a tightening in her stomach, a warmth that seeped through her whole body.
When they were together, she felt secure. Even when they went out at night, he was cool and calm, almost relaxed. But at the slightest hint of danger, if any fan got too close and he sensed her unease, every muscle would flex and his eyes would glint with warning.
Being so close to him, closer than she was to any other male, she began to rely on him and fantasize about him. He was as handsome as any of her costars and seemed much more virile and worldly. He didn’t party, nor try to impress the stars. He was just there—steady as a rock—with his sexy smile that turned her insides to jelly. They spent month after month together.
In Australia, after grueling hours on the set, he’d swim with her in the ocean, and walk with her as the warm sand squished between her toes. He never touched her, though she’d caught his gaze drifting over her body as the wind teased the hem of her dress or the drops of saltwater dried on her skin.
Once, she caught him staring at the dusky hollow between her breasts. She couldn’t breathe for a second. Instinctively she placed her hand over the halter of her swimsuit and his gaze moved, but not before she saw the flame in his eyes. Without a word, he tossed her a beach towel and kept his distance from her for the rest of the day.
It wasn’t until the next year, after the success of Someone to Love, when they were filming in Victoria, British Columbia, that their relationship changed. Her parents had stayed with her on the set for two weeks, then flown back to California.
Kaylie, feeling restless, paced in her room. From her window, she spied the storm clouds gathering to the west, reflecting her own mood as they shifted in dark patterns on the water. She opened the window, feeling a stiff breeze, smelling the heavy scent of rain. There was electricity in the air, currents as charged as her emotions, and she couldn’t think of anything but Zane and what it would be like to kiss him.
She told herself she was crazy, that her mother would tell her she was in the throes of puppy love, that her feelings for Zane were nothing more than a schoolgirl crush.
Nonetheless, she was wild for him.
For the first time in her life she had sexual fantasies, and they always involved Zane. Sometimes she blushed just looking at him.
After filming, she and Zane decided to walk back to the hotel. The wind picked up and the clouds overhead opened. Huge raindrops peppered the ground, forming puddles. “Come on,” Zane said, turning up his collar and grabbing her hand as he dashed across a street. “We’ll catch a cab.”
Laughing, she followed, raindrops catching in her hair and running down her cheeks. They hurried past other pedestrians fumbling with umbrellas, carriages pulled by huge horses and double-decker buses rumbling through the slick streets. But each cab that passed was full.
As a final cab roared past, Zane muttered an oath. Then, tugging at her hand, he said, “I think this is a shortcut.” He pulled her through a park. They ran down gravel paths, their shoes crunching, their breath fogging in the air.
Kaylie’s legs began to ache. “Hey, slow down,” she said, gasping from his quick pace.
He slid her a disbelieving glance. “Out of shape?” he mocked, but tugged on her arm and pulled her beneath the leafy cover of a willow tree. The smell of damp earth and ferns filled the air. Magenta azaleas and pale lavender rhododendrons splashed color through the mist that seemed to rise from the loamy soil.
Zane threw his arm across her shoulders and wiped a drop from the tip of her nose. “I guess even I can’t protect you from Mother Nature,” he said with a crooked grin. His dark hair fell across his eyes, and raindrops glistened, jewel-like, in the blackened strands.
His gaze touched hers, and in one breathless instant Kaylie knew he was going to kiss her. The arm around her shoulders tightened, his fingers wound in her hair, and, as she tilted her head back, his lips found hers in a kiss that was gentle and fierce.
She responded, opening her mouth to the tender insistence of his tongue. He moved closer to her, his suede jacket smelling of leather and rain, his aftershave tingling her nostrils.
She moaned his name and strained against him—intimately.
Zane stiffened as if he’d been hit by an electric current. Quickly he stepped backward until the heel of his boot scraped against the scarred trunk of the willow. “Damn.” Running a shaking hand over his wet forehead, he stared past her, over her shoulder, to a point in the distance. “I can’t let this… This just can’t happen,” he said raggedly, passion in his eyes as he attempted to fixate on anything but her.
