and that Xander had only responded so strongly to that situation because of their own family history of having an abusive father. That it didn’t mean Xander would ever feel that angry again.
But what if Darius was wrong? And what if Samantha had sensed that rage inside him?
Xander gave a jolt of surprise as Daisy smiled up at him shyly as she slipped her warm little hand into his much larger one. ‘I’ll stay here and look after Xander for you, Mummy.’
Xander was so bemused by having that little hand resting so trustingly in his that it took him a second or two to register exactly what Daisy had said. Causing him to grimace, when he looked up to find himself the focus of the laughing eyes of Daisy’s mother.
Great; not only was his blasted leg aching like the devil, because he had been on it for most of the day and had stubbornly refused to use his crutches, but now he was the focus of Daisy’s sympathy and the butt of Samantha’s amusement.
Still, there was some compensation to remaining here with Daisy, Xander decided as the two of them sat down in two of the armchairs in the marble reception area, and so allowing him to watch the sexy sway of Samantha’s hips and bottom as she walked over to the lift that would take her down to the car parked in the underground car park, which he had insisted she use to drive herself and Daisy to the wedding earlier.
For all that she was only a little over five feet tall, Samantha’s slender legs looked long and silky above the three-inch-heeled shoes she was wearing today.
Causing Xander to muse as to how it would feel to have those silky legs wrapped about his waist...
What the...?
While Xander had been sitting there imagining how he would make love to Samantha, another man had approached her and was now holding tightly to her arm as he talked to her.
A man, Xander noted grimly as Samantha turned briefly to shoot a worried glance in his own and Daisy’s direction, who had caused her face to pale.
Xander instantly felt that rising tide of anger he had hoped never to feel again. And for the same reason: the sight of a man roughly manhandling a woman.
The man’s fingers painfully gripped the top of one of Samantha’s arms as he talked to her in a lowered and intense tone.
* * *
‘Take your hand off me, Malcolm!’ Sam snapped agitatedly as she stared up into the face of the man she had once been married to but had hoped never to set eyes on again after the divorce.
It was a handsome face still, dominated by glittering blue eyes, the darkness of Malcolm’s hair, at the age of forty-one, showing only a distinguished sprinkling of grey at his temples, his perfectly tailored suit emphasising the width of his shoulders, and narrow waist and hips.
What were the chances, the probability, that Malcolm would be at the London Midas Hotel on the very same evening that Sam happened to be here for Andy and Darius’s wedding reception?
What were the chances, with Sam’s change in circumstances after their separation and divorce, that she would ever have been inside the exclusive Midas hotel at all, let alone on the same evening as her ex?
Unless...
Was it possible that Malcolm could be one of the evening guests invited to Andy and Darius’s wedding?
Sam had mentioned her brief marriage and divorce to Andy, of course, but only in passing, and in relation to how that might affect Daisy. She certainly hadn’t told her friend the name of the man she had once been briefly married to.
Sam knew the newly married couple had invited fifty or so guests for the evening part of the wedding reception, most of them parents of the children to whom Andy taught ballet, or business acquaintances of Darius’s.
Was it possible that Malcolm was one of the latter?
It was more than possible, Sam acknowledged with an inward groan, wondering why it had never occurred to her before that Malcolm and Darius might know each other. Malcolm was a successful businessman, just as Darius and Xander were, and—
Did that mean that Xander knew Malcolm too?
‘I asked what you’re doing here, Sam,’ Malcolm rasped harshly, her request that he release her obviously having had absolutely no effect, as his fingers continued to bite painfully into the top of her arm.
Her eyes flashed. ‘And I told you that it’s absolutely none of your business what I do any more.’ She glanced behind him to where a beautiful blonde stood waiting for him.
‘And aren’t you being a little rude just leaving your date standing over there alone while you verbally abuse your ex-wife?’
‘I don’t give a damn whether it’s rude or not.’
‘Well, I do!’ Sam snapped, her days of being intimidated by this man—visibly, at least—long over. Inwardly it was a different matter. Inwardly Malcolm still made her quake, but mainly with revulsion, she now realised with a frown. ‘Take your hand off me, Malcolm, or I’ll call someone over from hotel security and have them make you do it,’ she warned coldly.
His face twisted viciously. ‘Why, you little—’
‘Now, Malcolm!’ She met his furious gaze unflinchingly.
She wondered how she could ever have been married to this man. How she could ever have tried so hard to make that marriage work after Daisy was born. How she could ever have thought she loved him.
Oh, there was no doubting that Malcolm was still an attractive man, but Sam could now see and recognise the edge of cruelty to his mouth, and the cold calculation of those blue eyes that looked down at her so possessively.
‘I think I like you like this, Sam.’ Malcolm’s gaze swept over her in blatant insolence. ‘You look absolutely amazing in that red dress. Even better out of it, if my memory serves me correctly!’
Sam gave a shudder of revulsion as she recognised the flash of desire as Malcolm blatantly undressed her with his eyes.
‘Lucky for me that I haven’t forgotten a single thing about you!’ she dismissed scornfully. ‘Most especially how much I despise you!’
Malcolm’s face flushed with fury. ‘What have you done with your precious daughter this evening while you’re out enjoying yourself?’
It took every effort of will on Sam’s part not to glance across the hotel reception to where Daisy sat beside Xander. The last thing she wanted was for Malcolm to realise that Daisy was here too, and possibly make even more of a scene in one of Xander’s prestigious hotels.
Daisy hadn’t so much as asked about her father once since the separation and divorce, and Sam doubted her daughter would even recognise him if she did see him. She hoped and prayed Daisy wouldn’t recognise him.
She raised her chin. ‘Again, Malcolm, that’s absolutely none of your business.’
‘She’s my daughter too.’
‘Daisy was never your daughter!’ Sam hissed, her eyes flashing darkly as she felt absolutely incensed
