the taking of photographs after the service, and the greeting of guests at the Midas Hotel later.
As Darius’s best man, Xander had his own wedding duties to take care of.
‘Oh, no!’ A breathless Samantha suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway, looking almost as dishevelled as her young daughter, in a robe belted tightly about her slender waist, her red hair a wild tangle about her shoulders, her legs bare. ‘I am so sorry!’ She rushed into the room. ‘I should have been up and getting your breakfast long before this. I must have overslept.’
‘Calm down, Samantha,’ Xander advised abruptly. ‘Daisy and I have been managing just fine on our own, haven’t we?’ He placed Daisy’s plate of buttered—and burnt—toast in front of her on the breakfast bar, once again congratulating himself on having got through the past ten minutes without having a single urge to lose the temper he now feared.
Although he couldn’t say he was sorry that Samantha had put in an appearance.
Sam had never felt so disorientated in her life as when she woke up in a strange bed a few minutes ago, before the reality that she was currently staying in Xander Sterne’s apartment came crashing down on her. A glance at the bedside clock had shown her it was already eight o’clock, way past the time Daisy usually woke her in the morning.
She had leapt out of bed, quickly pulling on and tying her robe over the vest and shorts she wore to sleep in as she hurried next door to Daisy’s bedroom, only to find her daughter’s bed had obviously been slept in but was now empty.
The last thing Sam had expected, after hurrying down the hallway to the kitchen, was to find her daughter sitting at the breakfast bar while Xander made and served her breakfast.
Especially when Sam was being paid—very generously—to make and serve his breakfast!
It didn’t help that his face looked a little pale this morning, and his limp was much more pronounced too as he hobbled about the kitchen.
Because he shouldn’t be standing on his leg for any length of time yet. Because she was being paid to ensure that he didn’t.
She had also promised him that he wouldn’t even know Daisy was in his apartment, and yet here he was, the morning after their arrival, preparing her breakfast!
‘I really am sorry,’ Sam mumbled awkwardly as Xander poured some coffee into a mug before handing it to her.
Today he wore a fitted brown T-shirt and faded blue jeans, his feet bare on the tiled floor.
The latter no doubt because he couldn’t bend down far enough to put on his own socks and shoes and she hadn’t been around to do it for him.
How could she have been so stupid as to oversleep on her very first morning here?
Probably because she had tossed and turned in her bed for most of the night before, unable to sleep because she was so totally aware of that last conversation with Xander. Of the fact that he was lying naked in his own bed just down the hallway!
How did Sam know he was naked?
Because while he was in the shower she had searched through the drawers in his dressing table and the wardrobes for pyjamas, in readiness for when he came out of the shower. Pyjamas that simply weren’t there.
A knowledge that wasn’t in the least conducive to Sam being able to fall asleep once she had climbed into her own bed.
Consequently, it had been the early hours of the morning before she had managed to drift off to sleep, resulting in her oversleeping this morning.
Sam was more than a little surprised by how relaxed Daisy seemed to be in Xander’s company; usually her daughter was extremely shy around men. Big men like him especially.
No doubt yet another result of Malcolm’s complete indifference to his daughter. Malcolm wasn’t as big as Xander, but no doubt he would appear so to a small child. A small child who knew to leave a room if Malcolm came into it.
And yet Daisy seemed perfectly happy in Xander’s company.
‘I have to be at Darius’s apartment by ten-thirty this morning, if you could drive me over there? I’ll shower there before I dress for the wedding.’
‘Of course.’ Sam breathed an inward sigh of relief that he seemed to have tired—for the moment!—of teasing her. And that she didn’t have the ordeal of accompanying him to the shower to get through either this morning.
‘Although quite how helpful I’m going to be as best man is anyone’s guess,’ he added bitterly.
‘I’m sure that, if nothing else, Darius will welcome your moral support today.’ Sam still found Darius a little intimidating, but Andy loved him very much, and surely even a man that arrogantly self-confident must be feeling a little nervous on his wedding day?
‘I won’t be back until late this evening,’ Xander continued dismissively, ‘so it’s up to you what you and Daisy do with the rest of your day.’
Sam gave him a startled look. ‘Er—’
‘As long as you’re back here in time this evening to help me shower—’
‘Mr Sterne.’
‘It shouldn’t be a problem—’
‘Xander!’
‘Sorry?’ He gave an irritated frown.
Sam gave an uncomfortable grimace. ‘Daisy and I are invited to the wedding.’
Well, of course they were, Xander realised.
If Samantha was a good enough friend for Miranda to recommend her for this job, then she was obviously going to invite her to the wedding too...
‘LEAVING ALREADY?’
Sam turned from where she was helping Daisy into her coat, looking across to where Xander stood watching her, the three of them in the gold and black marble entrance hall of the fabulously exclusive London Midas Hotel, where Andy and Darius’s wedding reception was still taking place. ‘It’s almost nine o’clock, and Daisy’s tired.’ She gave a rueful smile as her daughter gave a yawn.
It had been a beautiful wedding; Andy had made a beautiful bride, Darius a handsome and distinguished bridegroom. Xander’s best-man speech at the reception had caused much hilarity as he’d related—as was the custom—some of Darius’s more embarrassing teenage adventures. He had wisely refrained from mentioning any of his twin’s more risqué adult exploits; both the Sterne brothers had been making headlines in the newspapers for the past twelve years regarding those!
After the delicious wedding breakfast there had been dancing, and Andy and Darius had made an absolutely stunning couple as they danced that first dance alone, one so dark and handsome the other very fair and beautiful. The two of them had eyes only for each other as they moved gracefully about the dance floor.
They were joined by Darius’s mother and stepfather for the second
