The Taming of Xander Sterne(14)

                ‘All the more reason for us to maintain the formalities between us,’ she countered coolly.

                Xander rarely used this formal dining room, and he hadn’t enjoyed eating dinner on his own in here this evening either. So much so that he was going to instruct Samantha to serve his meals in the kitchen in future. But he couldn’t help notice her discomfort at his mention of needing her help later tonight.

                He wasn’t exactly looking forward to the awkwardness of that experience himself, but for a few seconds Samantha had looked positively horrified at the reminder of it, before she quickly masked the emotion. An emotion that was still evident in the flush in her cheeks, and the trembling hands she had attempted to hide from him by thrusting them quickly behind her back.

                Proving she wasn’t quite as cool and composed as she wished to appear...

                ‘I’m starting to get a crick in my neck from looking up at you,’ he bit out impatiently.

                ‘I’m not tall enough for you to get a crick in your neck.’ She eyed him sceptically.

                She had a point; even with Xander seated at the table their eyes were almost on the same level.

                ‘Look, Samantha, I really am trying to refrain from actually ordering you to sit down,’ he rasped testily.

                ‘Why?’

                ‘Because you obviously took exception to it a few minutes ago,’ he bit out irritably.

                Once again Xander watched the emotions flickering across Samantha’s delicately thin face, seeing reluctance, and then irritation, as good sense obviously won out, and she pulled out the chair opposite him before lowering herself down to perch uncomfortably on its edge.

                She raised her chin. ‘I believe you wanted to discuss the rules for the time Daisy and I are staying here?’

                That had been what Xander wanted to discuss with her, but now it came to it he felt like a complete and utter heel for having even mentioned the subject. It had seemed to upset Samantha earlier, and even more so now, although he had no idea why.

                Admittedly, he hadn’t been in the best of moods after falling over earlier but he had accepted Daisy’s apology, hadn’t he?

                He hadn’t heard so much as a peep out of the little girl for the last three hours or so. In fact, it had been so quiet he wouldn’t even have known there was a child staying in his apartment.

                Which was exactly what he had wished for earlier this evening, wasn’t it?

                His mouth thinned. ‘I’m sure you’ll agree there have to be some rules for the three of us living here together?’

                ‘Which we should perhaps have discussed in more detail before I accepted the job,’ she said with a grimace.

                ‘No doubt,’ he conceded impatiently.

                Samantha nodded stiffly. ‘The first one of those rules is no running in the hallways, I believe?’

                Xander searched that pale face for either sarcasm or humour, but she gazed back at him without emotion. As if Samantha had heard all of this before, in another time and another place.

                ‘My requests are really only a matter of common sense,’ he snapped his irritation. ‘For your own and Daisy’s sake, as much as for my own.’

                ‘Oh?’ Samantha raised one auburn brow.