been so aroused, so lost in the enjoyment of her, Darius knew he could have gone on tasting her all night. Her breasts. Between her thighs. Every damn inch of her, from her head to her elegant toes.
So much so that he had almost made love to Miranda in a public conference room in one of his own hotels.
It was so far from his usual measured self-control that it was no wonder he now felt distracted.
‘Hey, big bro!’
Darius blinked before a scowl settled between his eyes, and he focused on Xander with effort as his brother strolled down the hotel corridor towards them in the direction of the ballroom, obviously having finally decided to make an appearance at their mother’s charity ball.
Darius’s hand tightened instinctively on Miranda’s elbow as he spoke to his brother. ‘I should warn you, your tardiness has put you in Mother’s bad books.’
Xander gave an unconcerned shrug as he grinned. ‘She’ll forgive me.’ The darkness of his gaze turned interestedly towards Miranda as she stood silently at Darius’s side.
It was an interest Darius was aware of taking exception to as he once again placed a proprietorial arm about Miranda’s waist and anchored her to his side. Instantly causing Xander to eye him curiously.
‘I have no doubts that Mother would forgive you if you admitted to having committed murder!’ he dismissed dryly.
It was impossible for Andy not to compare the two brothers.
Darius was so dark and forbidding, Xander more a golden Viking god. An urbane and very handsome Viking god, to be sure, in his black dinner suit, his golden hair long enough to brush over the collar of his jacket.
It was because she had been watching the two of them so closely that Andy had seen the way in which Xander’s eyes now darkened, the pupils almost obliterating the deep brown of the irises as his smile became fixed rather than humorous.
‘Let’s hope it never comes to that,’ Xander muttered as he avoided meeting his brother’s gaze by turning his attention back to Andy, his expression instantly becoming flirtatious. ‘An introduction would be nice, Darius?’ he encouraged warmly.
‘Miranda Jacobs, my brother Xander,’ Darius bit out economically.
‘Your twin brother,’ Andy acknowledged lightly, deliberately stepping away from Darius’s encircling arm about her waist as she shook hands with Xander.
Xander shot Darius an amused glance as he continued to hold her hand in his. ‘Obviously I’m the handsome twin.’
‘Oh, obviously!’ She chuckled ruefully, finding Xander’s flirtation and lazy charm much easier to deal with than the intensity of his brother’s more mercurial moods.
Just as talking to Xander was also a welcome distraction from dwelling too much on thoughts of the heat of passion that had flared up so fiercely between herself and Darius just a short time ago.
‘You can let go of her hand now, Xander.’ Darius’s voice was dark with his displeasure.
Because of his brother’s flirtatious comment and the hold Xander had kept on Andy’s hand?
She simply didn’t know Darius well enough to be able to answer that question.
‘Possessive, much?’ His brother obviously felt no such uncertainty.
‘Not in the least,’ Darius dismissed harshly; he had never felt possessive over a woman in his life, least of all when it came to his own brother.
But then what explanation was there for his earlier sharpness towards Miranda, when he had thought she was far too interested in when or if Xander was going to be here too this evening?
As he was also far from pleased at watching Xander flirt with Miranda now?
Or the fact that he now wanted to slap Xander’s hand away as it continued to hold Miranda’s?
Whatever those feelings were, Darius wasn’t comfortable with them. He didn’t do possessive, any more than he did relationships.
He desired Miranda, wanted to make love to her, even more so after their lovemaking just now, but that was all this was. He had no doubts that once he’d had her in his bed his interest would wane, as it had with every other woman he had known.
‘You really should go and make your apologies to Mother now,’ Darius told his brother abruptly.
‘Thank heavens for Charles, hmm?’ Xander grimaced. ‘I do believe he could calm Mother down no matter what.’
‘He loves her.’ Darius nodded.
Xander’s eyes glittered darkly. ‘She deserves nothing less after being married to our bastard of a father for fourteen years.’
‘Xander?’ Darius was inwardly reeling even as he looked at his brother searchingly; none of them ever talked publicly—or privately either, come to that—of the brute of a man who had fathered the two of them and died when they were both thirteen. That Xander was doing so now, and in front of someone he had only just been introduced to, told Darius that something was very, very wrong with his brother.
Darius had been a little preoccupied, thinking of Miranda this past week, but he could see now that he should have been paying more attention to his twin. Xander had been playing hard the last few months, and he looked slightly pale tonight beneath the tan he had acquired in the Bahamas last month, and there was a reckless glitter in the dark depths of his eyes. Enough for Darius to be very concerned.
He gave a pained frown. ‘Did you bring someone with you tonight, Xander?’
‘I’m stag,’ his brother dismissed as he glanced about them impatiently. ‘Which means I’m stuck with whatever woman Mother has decided it would be appropriate for me to sit beside at dinner!’ His restlessness was barely contained.
‘Maybe we could shift the seating around?’
‘Don’t bother on my account,’ Xander bit out dismissively. ‘I don’t intend staying long, anyway. I’ll look forward to seeing you again before I leave, though, Miranda,’ he told her huskily, giving Darius one last rueful glance before striding off in the direction of the ballroom. And their mother.
Andy felt decidedly uncomfortable, once she and Darius were left alone together in the hallway, knowing by Darius’s frown that he was disturbed by his brother’s taciturn—and uncharacteristic?—behaviour.
From what Andy had read Xander was the relaxed, laid-back Sterne twin. The charmer. The playboy.
This evening Xander was anything but relaxed, the tension rolling off him in waves as he spoke of his mother’s happy second marriage after her years of being married to their father.
Andy knew, from reading about Darius and Xander on the Internet, that Lomax Sterne had been the youngest son of a wealthy family, and that he had married Catherine Foster thirty-four years ago; their twin sons were born the following year. His death had been announced just thirteen years later, at the age of forty-two, after a fall down the stairs of the family’s London home.
There
