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The Taming of Xander Sterne(29)

By: Carole Mortimer


                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—’