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.

Growing threads of emotion tugged on the tenuous hold he had on his control, threatening to snap it. Marcus knew that he’d better do something, and quick, to get the night back on track.

Back on his track.

He’d always been dominant in the bedroom, enjoying taking care of a woman’s pleasure at least as much as his own. Jill hadn’t liked giving up control to him, though, and during the two years they were together, their sex life had been almost completely vanilla.

He was ready for a different flavor. And based on the heat that had been between them since the very first moment, he had a good feeling that Nicola was, too.