as he studied her through narrowed lids across the dimmed interior of the car.
In his experience, most women would have taken full advantage right now of the fact that he was responsible for blackmailing her into the midst of that sequence of awkward situations, and they would have made sure he paid a price for it too, either in the form of an expensive gift, or some other form of manipulation. Not Miranda. Miranda was laughing.
It was the first time Darius had seen her laugh without restraint. The green of her eyes gleamed with amusement; it brought a flush to her cheeks; her lips curved into the fullness of a relaxed smile. She looked younger and more carefree than he had ever seen her. And incredibly beautiful.
Although Darius wasn’t a hundred per cent sure it was altogether flattering, hearing her class the time the two of them had spent together in the conference room as part of the most awful night of her life.
‘Oh, come on, Darius,’ Andy encouraged as she saw the frown between his eyes. ‘Admit it, it was so awful there’s nothing else to do but laugh.’ She took a tissue from her clutch bag and mopped the dampness from her cheeks.
‘It had its moments of humour,’ he allowed grudgingly.
Andy grinned across at him. ‘It had all of the hallmarks of a disaster movie.’
He eyed her irritably. ‘I don’t consider all of the evening to have been a disaster.’
Andy pretended to give the idea some thought, hoping that in the dimly lit interior of the car Darius couldn’t see the blush in her cheeks that revealed that she knew exactly which part of the evening he was referring to. ‘Well, no,’ she finally conceded. ‘For instance, I very much enjoyed finally meeting your brother.’
Darius scowled. ‘I’m not sure I didn’t prefer you before you discovered your sense of humour.’
The past four years had been a bit grim, Andy acknowledged ruefully, so maybe she had lost her sense of humour along the way too?
If that was the case she had certainly rediscovered it this evening. Necessarily so. It was either laugh or curl up in a ball and feel sorry for herself, and she had no intentions of doing that; her days of self-pity had been over long ago.
‘Oh, that remark had nothing to do with humour, Darius; Xander is extremely handsome, and he was very charming after dinner.’
‘As opposed to...?’
‘Xander is extremely handsome and charming,’ she repeated dryly.
He scowled. ‘Xander was far from in a charming mood when he arrived at the hotel this evening.’
‘Something had obviously upset him, but he got over it.’
‘Meaning?’
Andy shrugged. ‘The mood was unusual rather than the norm.’
‘Unlike some people you could mention?’
She gave him an innocent glance. ‘I repeat, I found him extremely handsome and charming.’
Darius felt his lips twitch as he tried to control the smile threatening and failed utterly. ‘You really are determined to shatter my ego.’ He chuckled.
‘I believe a little humility to be a great leveller,’ she added pertly.
Darius felt his admiration and liking for this woman grow. Miranda was only twenty-three, and she had already been through so much. She had lost both her parents at only eighteen, and then suffered through the worst disappointment of her life, when her career in ballet came to such a tragic and abrupt end just months later.
But Miranda had survived. She was a survivor, carving out another career for herself, and now he also learnt that she could laugh at herself, and him, even in the midst of the type of adversity she had suffered through this evening.
‘Have lunch with me tomorrow?’ he asked without giving himself time to consider the wisdom of the invitation.
He had no doubts that Miranda was slowly but surely burrowing not just beneath his natural reserve, but also past the barrier he had kept about his emotions for so many years. Tonight he had realised that he not only felt desire for Miranda, but also protectiveness. He didn’t want to see Miranda hurt by the actions of others, like Tia Bellamy who’d slighted her deliberately, his mother less so, but she had still upset her nonetheless. And Darius hadn’t liked seeing Miranda unhappy. At all.
The smile slowly fading from her lips and the warmth from her eyes, she looked across at him searchingly, the interior of the car illuminated from the street lamp outside. ‘Why?’ she finally enquired warily.
There was no hesitation in Darius’s laughter this time as he chuckled throatily. ‘Maybe I would just like to take you out to lunch.’
‘But it’s Sunday.’
‘And?’
She shrugged. ‘Sunday is a day to spend with family, eating roast lunch, before lounging around watching an old movie together on TV in the afternoon, stuff like that.’
‘Is that what you’re doing tomorrow?’
‘Well, no,’ she answered slowly. ‘But that’s only because it’s Kim and Colin’s turn to spend the day with Colin’s parents.’
Darius nodded. ‘It all sounds idyllic, but to my knowledge my own mother has never cooked a Sunday roast for her family in her life, nor have we ever all lounged around watching an old movie on the television together on a Sunday afternoon.’
Before her parents died, and when her school and ballet schedule had allowed, Andy had always gone home on a Sunday to spend time with her family. And when she had it had usually involved helping her mother to cook the family meal, before they all overate and then watched a really old film on the television together.
Darius was a billionaire, could buy whatever he wanted, no doubt employed a housekeeper or cook to take care of him—or both!—and he could also eat in the most expensive restaurants all over the world, but he had never enjoyed anything so simple as a Sunday lunch cooked and eaten at home with his family, before spending the day together?
‘I really don’t want to go out to lunch, but if you would care to come round to my apartment at about twelve-thirty tomorrow, then you’ll be in time to join me for lunch. No blackmail involved in the invitation,’ she added dryly.
And then berated herself for having made the invitation at all. Okay, so this evening had been awful enough to be considered funny, but there was no escaping the fact that Darius had also kissed and touched and caressed her, more intimately than any other man had ever done.
Or that by inviting him to her apartment tomorrow, for any reason, she was simply asking for a repeat of the same. Literally inviting a repeat of the same.
‘Your brother-in-law’s job is safe, Miranda,’ Darius answered her abruptly. ‘Turns out he’s the best IT guy Midas Enterprises employs anywhere.’
She eyed him derisively. ‘The invitation to Sunday lunch still stands.’
Darius looked irritated. ‘You aren’t
