The Taming of Xander Sterne(26)

                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...





                                      CHAPTER FIVE

                ‘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 dance of the evening, a time when Xander should have also stood up with the chief bridesmaid, but obviously couldn’t. Instead Andy’s sister Kim had danced with her husband, Colin.

                Sam had noted that Xander remained at the top table talking to one of the other two bridesmaids.

                As a friend of the bride rather than a relative, Sam and Daisy had been seated at a table towards the back of the huge ballroom, but close enough to be able to watch and enjoy all of the wedding party. She had even been asked to dance by a couple of the single male guests. Invitations she had refused, using the excuse of not wanting to leave Daisy sitting on her own.

                Yes, it had been a beautiful wedding, but it had made for a long day, and at nine o’clock in the evening it really was time for her to take her sleepy daughter back to Xander’s apartment.

                Sam had thought she had said her goodbyes to Andy and Darius without anyone noticing, before slipping quietly out of the ballroom. Obviously she had been wrong.

                She straightened. ‘Darius assured me it would be no problem for you to take a taxi home later.’

                ‘Did he?’ Xander enquired mildly.

                ‘Yes.’ Sam frowned at that mildness. ‘Please don’t let me keep you any longer from enjoying the rest of the wedding reception. I think the bridesmaid might be missing you,’ she dismissed teasingly.

                In all honesty Xander was more than a little tired of the company of the bridesmaid, a young woman who seemed bound and determined on achieving the tradition of one of the bridesmaids going to bed with the best man the night of the wedding. A tradition Xander would normally have been only too happy to satisfy! But not tonight. And the excuse that his broken leg was still healing didn’t seem to have deterred the woman in the slightest from succeeding in her mission!

                Oh, she was attractive enough with her blonde hair, limpid blue eyes and curvaceous figure, and usually Xander wouldn’t have hesitated in taking her up on the obviously blatant offer.

                But instead of responding to that overt flirtation, he had found himself constantly seeking out a head of fiery red curls, both during the wedding ceremony at the church, and later during the reception.