Author: Bella Andre

Marcus’s hand was already in a fist when Nicola grabbed his arm. “Yes, he is. And I’m afraid I’m late for something. Nice to meet all of you!”

She dragged him away from the group. “Good timing,” she said under her breath as they made a beeline for the elevators. “They were getting a little annoying.”

Annoying? That’s all those buffoons were to her?

Forgetting that they were supposed to be going upstairs separately, he said, “They weren’t just annoying, they were outright dangerous.” He wanted to run his hands over her body, make sure nothing had happened to her. More than that, he wanted to take her someplace safe and make her stay there, out of harm’s way.

“They weren’t dangerous,” she said, dismissing his concerns. “They couldn’t have done anything really bad in the middle of the hotel lobby.”

But Marcus could think of a dozen different things they could have done to her, including ways they could have kept her from crying out for help.

“How could you have gone to that club alone last night? What if a bunch of drunks had cornered you on the street? Or by the bar?”

“Honestly, that kind of stuff doesn’t happen all that often. I usually remember to put on sunglasses and a hat so that people can’t recognize me that easily. Besides,” she added in a super-soft voice, “if I hadn’t gone to the club, I wouldn’t have met you.”

He wanted to make her promise to be more careful in the future, but before he could, a large family got out of the elevator and an earsplitting squeal sounded as soon as the children saw her.

“Oh my God, it’s Nico!”

* * *

The boy and his sister, who couldn’t have been more than seven or eight, threw themselves at her and she caught them as they impulsively hugged her. At the same time, their mother struggled to get a huge, heavy stroller out of the elevator.

Marcus moved quickly to help her before the door closed, and with her arms still around the children, Nicola watched him say something soothing to the harried mother that had her mouth curving up into a smile. That soft spot in Nicola’s chest grew even bigger for this beautiful man she was about to take upstairs to do very naughty things with.

“Mom! We need your camera to take a picture with Nico!”

Just then the baby in the stroller started crying. Considering their mother already looked like she was at the end of a very frayed rope, it was clear that the last thing she needed was to look for her camera.

“I’ve got to deal with your sister,” she told them, already reaching in to unstrap the baby girl.

Nicola had always loved children and her secret hope she’d never shared with anyone was to have a big family of her own. She’d been a heck of a babysitter as a teenager. It was partly why she felt her music translated so well to children. She genuinely liked them, rather than just putting up with them.

She was about to reach out for the little girl when Marcus beat her to the punch. “Would you like me to hold her?” he offered to the mother.

Considering the boy and girl were whining now about how horrible it would be to not have their picture taken with Nico, after assessing Marcus in his professional suit and his obvious trustworthiness, the woman said, “Okay, if you wouldn’t mind, it will just be for a second or two. I’m pretty sure my camera is down under everything.”

Marcus took the tearful little girl, who stopped crying as soon as he lifted her up to his face. “Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

The mother beamed. “I know, she’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

He nodded, never once taking his eyes from the baby’s toothless grin. “What’s your name?” he asked the baby as if she could answer, and she happily replied with a gurgling mountain of spit bubbles.

Without missing a beat, he used her bib to wipe off the spit...and Nicola started falling.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there staring openmouthed at how good Marcus was with the baby—he was now maneuvering her as if she was a mini diapered airplane, even making the noises to go along with it—until the kid’s mother said, “Found the camera.”

Nicola snapped to attention as if from out of a deep fog. The kids were now standing on either side of her, smiling for the camera.

Oh God. She couldn’t possibly be falling for him already. She hardly knew him, didn’t know what he did for a living, or what he did for fun.

But, a contrary little voice in her head told her, don’t you already know everything that matters? That he loves his family and is good with children and has been kinder—and gentler—to you than anyone else ever has? Not to mention the way you go up in flames when he kisses you....

“Say cheese!”

Nicola smiled for the camera, the same smile she’d given thousands of times over during the past few years. But when the woman turned the viewer around and said, “Look at how cute you all are,” she was shocked to realize it wasn’t the same smile at all.

Instead of Nico the pop star smiling back at her, it was Nicola, a woman who’d just been flattened by unexpected emotion, looking utterly bewildered by what had just hit her.

Wanting desperately to reset back to normal again, she turned her complete focus on the kids, asking them their names, what grades they were in, if they had a favorite song. She asked their mother if she could have their email to send special concert tickets over for her show on Saturday night.

Finally, Marcus put the baby back in her stroller and gently strapped her in. The family left, calling goodbye. She waved back at them, glad for the movement to hide how unsteady her hands were.

Marcus pushed the elevator button again and followed her in, his hand on the small of her back, just as it had been the night before when they’d walked out of the club. She was immediately enveloped by his heat, along with that sense of safety she’d felt from the first moment she’d met him in the club.

She pressed the button for the penthouse suite and when the elevator doors closed, he said, “You were great with those kids."

“I love kids,” she admitted to him. “They’re so honest about their feelings.”

“Honesty means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

She thought about Kenny, about how he’d betrayed her trust. “It means everything to me.” Realizing how serious a turn their conversation had taken—and that if she wasn’t careful she’d be crying on his shoulder about how bad it hurt to be lied to, she smiled and said, “I’ve never seen a baby take to anyone so fast.”

He didn’t deflect her compliment, but simply said, “I’ve spent a lot of time with babies over the years.”

She’d wanted to ask him about his family last night in the taxi after speaking with his mother, but she hadn’t let herself because she’d been afraid of building a connection deeper than sex with him. Well, she was already screwed on that front, wasn’t she? How could it possibly hurt much more to drill the screw in a little deeper?

“Lori adores you. I take it the rest of your brothers and sisters do, too?”

“We watch out for each other.”

“It sounds like it’s mostly you watching out for them,” she pointed out.

“Do you have any siblings?”

“Two younger brothers.”

“Let me guess,” he said. “They both drive shiny new cars courtesy of their big sister.”

She had to laugh at the way he’d turned it around on her and pointed out that she did just the same thing with her own family. “I knew I shouldn’t, but I just couldn’t help myself.”

“When Lori and Sophie turned sixteen I threw them one heck of a party at a safari place near Napa.”

“Complete with elephants and zebras?”

“Alligators and pythons, too.”

“No wonder Lori loves you so much,” Nicola teased, but then, before she could stop herself, she added, “Although I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t need to spend a dime on her and she would love you just as much.”

His smile slowly receded at her very personal statement, one that included multiple uses of the word love.

Wow. Way to play it cool.

Not.

Thankfully, the door opened to the penthouse just then and she was able to hide her flaming cheeks from him as they walked to her half of the top floor. She pulled her key card out of her bag and opened the door.

She appreciated it when Marcus didn’t make a big deal out of how nice the room was. It always made her uncomfortable when people all but asked what her net worth was.

The thirty minutes since they’d left the dance studio seemed like hours ago now. She felt awkward and unsure of herself again. “I’m all icky from rehearsal. I should probably go take a shower.”

Marcus shut the door behind her and locked it. When he looked at her, his eyes held none of their earlier laughter from discussing their families.

Now, there was only heat...and so much desire it took her breath away.

“Come here, Nicola.”

She didn’t move a muscle. She couldn’t. “But I should—”

“No showers. Not yet. Not without me."

He paused, let his words register, the promise in them, the vision of actually taking a shower together, of being soaped up and all wet with him, doing crazy things to her insides.

She knew he must be able to read her reaction on her face, but he didn’t say anything else, he simply stood right where he was by the door and waited for her to come to him.

She could do this. Of course she could. Just put one foot in front of the other and as long as her heart didn’t explode from pounding so fast, she’d be fine.

With her legs as shaky as they’d been that very first time she’d stood up in front of a thousand people, she began the slow walk toward Marcus.

Chapter Nine

Marcus was a heartbeat away from picking Nicola up, throwing her on the bed, and taking her. It nearly killed him to hold back, to watch her slowly move across the carpeted floor toward him.

She was nervous, the same way she’d been last night when they’d gotten in the cab. She had such incredible sex appeal—the video rehearsal confirmed that she clearly knew how to use her sexuality to whip her audience into a frenzy—so her nerves didn’t make sense to Marcus. But seconds later, he forgot all about needing things to add up.

Who cared about anything but getting her out of her clothes?

He had to reach for her, had to grab a handful of her sweatshirt in his fist and lean down to take her sinfully seductive mouth with his. She moaned against his mouth and he yanked her sweatshirt up. He pulled back to lift it up and over her head.

Nothing but thin Spandex and curves awaited him.

“My God, you’re beautiful.”

She blinked up at him, her big blue eyes softer now, more aroused than worried. “Thank you.”

Hadn’t she heard a thousand times over by now how beautiful she was? If not from her fans, then from the men she’d shared her bed with? And yet, the way she’d said “Thank you” had been so pure. So honest.

As if he were the first lover who had ever told her she was breathtaking.

Again and again, she surprised him. First, when she’d slept on his lap all night long. And then in the morning, when she’d walked into Smith’s kitchen, her pretty face clean of makeup, looking young and fresh and ridiculously innocent, despite the leather dress she still wore. And just a few minutes ago when she’d been genuinely interested in those kids downstairs who’d wanted her autograph.

The least important surprise of all, he realized now, was the fact that she was a famous pop star.

He had expected to want her. But he hadn’t expected to like her this much. In the wake of breaking up with Jill, he hadn’t expected to feel anything for a woman beyond desire.