Carole Mortimer - Prince's Pleasure

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—’