Page 47 of Deeper

Of course he did. He wouldn’t have invited me to stay for the weekend if he hadn’t. But he liked me a lot, so much he wanted to be serious with me. Zander Khalil wanted me for more than just a weekend fling.

“I’ve never done this before,” I let out softly, feeling shy as I looked up at him. “I’ve done things with you I’ve never done with anyone else in bed and out of it.”

“And I don’t want you to leave here doing those things with anyone else either,” Zander confessed. “I want you to be mine, and I would be yours.”

“But why?” He dated actresses; what did he want with a retail clerk who lived in a shitty apartment in Hemingway Park?

Zander came closer to where he was standing over me. “Because I like you and I want this with you. This, what we have, is art. Abstract art, where it doesn’t follow the rules, where it doesn’t make sense, but you can’t stop looking at it, you can’t turn away.”

This poetic motherfucker. “And you like me?”

He crooked his finger and stroked my cheek. “It’s not every day a girl slaps me.”

I managed to laugh. Yeah, that was quite a start to…whatever this was that he wanted to build from.

“And you like me,” I came to realize.

“Yes,” Zander didn’t deny. “I like you, Bianka.”

It should’ve been all too easy to jump into a relationship with him, but I couldn’t ignore all the glaring realities beyond his liking me.

“You’re a celebrity,” I said.

“And I’d much rather be home putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle than at some red-carpet event. I’m not into that. I couldn’t care less about being a ‘star.’?”

It couldn’t be that simple or easy for him. “What about Ishani?”

Zander blinked, taking a step back. “Careful.”

It was a known fact that Ishani Chopra was sensitive territory for Zander, but still I had a right to armor up and ask all the big things now. “Hate to go there, but I don’t want to jump in blindly and turn around and see you on TV with the next.”

Zander backed off, pocketing his hands as his shoulders sagged. “I met Jolene at the American Music Awards where she was presenting. I took one look at her and couldn’t take my eyes off her. Did I get her number? Yes. Did we start seeing each other soon after? Yes.It was new and it was exciting, and I got caught up.

“I fucked up with Ishani. I broke her heart and betrayed her deeply. I don’t like talking about it. Being with Jo came with cameras. She’s famous. I’m famous. It’s a part of the reason I stay low now. The…exposureof it all, it’s knackerin’.”

It was completely messed up. No woman deserved the public humiliation of finding out their man was moving on with someone else before even letting her know. There was no excuse for what Zander had done. “That poor girl.”

Zander’s eyes shot to mine. “Yes, Ishani deserved better. It’s not something to just brush off. I fucked up.”

I hugged myself, so uncertain. An ugly voice in my head was telling me to run, that no matter how fine he was, and how good he fucked, it wasn’t worth the risk. “I…I don’t know.”

Zander scratched at his head. “It was an awful thing, what I did to Ishani. With Jo, I never cheated on her. I learned from my mistake, Bianka.”

I hung my head in my hands. “My best friend is obsessed with you.”

“But I metyou.”

He was pleading with me to give this a try and my heart was so desperate I wanted to, too. “Zander.”

He squatted down before me, peering up at me earnestly. “I’ve got a lot to figure out tomorrow, but I know what I want here and now. I don’t care about your past, I just care about your future, and if I can be in it.”

My lips trembled and my heart jumped to my throat. To be wanted—wasn’t that what everyone craved at the end of the day? Against all logic, I came to Zander’s home and fell for him too. I was wholly attracted to him, completely curious about him, and shamefully eager to get into his music now.

“I want you, too,” I admitted, unable to look him in the eye.

There was no coming back from this.

Zander came and leaned over me, his lips pressing to mine softly. “Thank you.”

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