start of her marriage to Malcolm, the man she had believed herself to be in love with...
And that knowledge now terrified her!
She didn’t want to feel anything for Xander Sterne beyond the necessary concern of a carer for her charge. She didn’t want to like him. Or desire him. She certainly didn’t want to ever be stupid enough to fall in love with him!
‘Go to bed, Samantha,’ Xander bit out harshly as he saw the way her face had now paled. ‘I’ll manage to undress myself this evening and you can help me shower in the morning,’ he assured her dryly as she looked at him questioningly.
Her expression was noticeably one of relief. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Very,’ Xander confirmed as Samantha rushed from the room.
Or a lustful Xander Sterne...
‘GET IN THE CAR, SAM!’
It was such a pleasant sunny Monday morning that Sam had decided to walk Daisy to school, before leaving her daughter safely in her classroom.
Despite Malcolm’s threats on Saturday night—threats Sam had been trying to forget all weekend—she was completely unprepared, as she left the school grounds, to see Malcolm sitting behind the wheel of the sleek black saloon car, the passenger-seat window lowered so that he could speak to her.
Sam desperately tried to gather her scattered wits together as she glared into the open window at him. She didn’t fool herself for a moment that this was going to be any more pleasant a meeting than the one on Saturday evening had been.
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed to blue chips of ice as she made no move to do as he instructed. ‘Get in the damned car, Sam,’ he repeated harshly. ‘Unless you would prefer I get out of the car and we talk right there on the pavement?’ he added challengingly, as several of the other mothers leaving the school gave them obviously curious looks as they walked past them.
Unsurprisingly, when for the last eight months Sam had always been alone when she delivered and collected Daisy from school.
‘What are you even doing here, Malcolm?’ she demanded as she wrenched the car door open and slid into the passenger seat beside him, knowing she had no other choice if she didn’t want to cause a scene. And for Daisy’s sake, she really didn’t.
Her one defiant gesture was to deliberately slam the car door shut. She knew how it would irritate Malcolm; unlike his behaviour towards his wife and daughter, Malcolm had always been obsessive about the care and treatment of his cars.
Shut in the confines of the vehicle with him, Sam instantly became aware of the spicy—and expensive—aftershave Malcolm had always worn, and which she had only ever associated with him. To a degree that if she had happened to smell it randomly these past three years, on some other man, it had always made her feel slightly nauseous. As it now caused her to swallow down the bile rising in her throat.
Goodness knew the rest of her weekend had been awkward enough, without this.
There had been Malcolm’s horrible threats for her to deal with, and on top of that Sam had been dreading seeing Xander again on Sunday morning after the intimacies of the previous evening.
But she needn’t have worried about the latter, because Xander obviously regretted that lapse as much as she did. The two of them had barely exchanged half a dozen words as she’d helped him in and then out of the shower yesterday morning. Later he had refused her polite invitation for him to join her and Daisy when they went swimming an hour or so after lunch. And he had been secluded in his study working when the two of them returned to the apartment, assuring Sam he would get himself a snack to eat later in the evening if he felt hungry.
If he had done so then Sam had been fast asleep in her bed when it happened.
The only positive thing about yesterday had been that Daisy had seemed completely unaware that she’d had a nightmare the previous night. Nor had there been a repeat of it last night, thank goodness.
Sam looked at Malcolm warily. ‘I wasn’t even aware you knew where Daisy went to school.’
He gave her a satisfied smile. ‘You might be surprised at what I’ve been able to find out about you and Daisy in the past twenty-four hours.’
She gasped. ‘Have you had someone spying on me?’
That smile faded as he now looked at her with icy eyes through narrowed lids. ‘I had no idea I needed to until I saw you at the Midas Hotel on Saturday evening,’ he dismissed harshly.
Sam’s heart sank at the mention of that meeting and Malcolm’s threats to her.
Malcolm’s mouth thinned. ‘I hired a private investigator, and guess what he’s already found out? My ex-wife and my daughter are currently living with Xander Sterne in his apartment.’ His eyes glittered darkly.
Colour warmed Sam’s previously pale cheeks. ‘It’s none of your business where we live, Malcolm.’
‘I’m making it my business, Sam!’ Malcolm reached out to take a painful grip of her wrist. ‘Xander Sterne!’ He gave a disbelieving shake of his head.
She struggled to free herself. ‘Let go of me!’ she ordered when Malcolm’s fingers tightened more painfully.
He gritted his teeth. ‘You obviously have a thing about rich and powerful men,’ he taunted.
‘If you mean that I despise them, then yes I do.’
‘The fact you’re living with Sterne would seem to contradict that statement.’
Sam gave an inward shiver at the cold fury she could now see in Malcolm’s eyes. ‘I am not romantically involved with Mr Sterne.’
‘My information says you are,’ Malcolm rasped. ‘And you’ve dragged my daughter into your little affair,’ he continued purposefully. ‘I think that might be grounds for bringing your fitness as a mother into question.’
‘How dare you?’ Sam rounded on him furiously, breathing hard in her agitation. ‘How dare you even say that to me after— You’re the one who has always refused to acknowledge her existence! The one who sold his daughter in exchange for my not asking for a divorce settlement, which would have enabled me to stay at home and be a full-time mother to Daisy. How dare you now accuse me of being an unfit mother, when you have never been a father to Daisy, even for a minute?’ She glowered at him.
He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Maybe I’ve changed? Maybe I realise it’s time I got to know my daughter better? I’m sure the courts would lend a sympathetic ear if I were to—’
‘No!’ Sam protested fiercely at the threat. ‘I won’t allow it. I won’t allow you anywhere near— We had a deal!’ she accused heatedly. ‘No divorce settlement for me in exchange for full custody of Daisy.’
‘And as I said to you on Saturday evening, there’s absolutely no reason why that can’t continue,’ he came back softly. ‘Once you’ve ditched Sterne and become my mistress, of course.’
Sam
