‘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 by Malcolm’s claim. How dared he, after the way he had treated Daisy? How dared he? ‘Get your hands off me now or I will call security.’
Malcolm regarded her through narrowed lids, that gleam of sexual admiration still glittering in his eyes as he slowly released her. ‘How about I ditch my date for the evening and the two of us take a room here for the night instead?’
Sam drew in a harsh breath even as she gave another shiver of revulsion, wanting nothing more at that moment than to slap the man she had once been married to. ‘Goodbye, Malcolm,’ she said coldly instead, having just dared a glance across the reception area and seen that Xander was getting awkwardly to his feet, his tiredness making that more laborious than it might otherwise have been, while the darkness of his gaze was fixed steadily on where she and Malcolm stood in obviously heated conversation.
The last thing Sam wanted was for Xander to come over here and realise that she was talking to her ex-husband. An ex-husband he might possibly know too.
Bad enough that Sam and Malcolm had met again at all, but she knew Xander well enough to know he was the sort of man who would demand answers from her regarding the man who had spoken to her. That he would want details of the acquaintance. All of them.
They were details Sam didn’t want to give him.
Mainly because she was too ashamed. Of how much, and for how long she had tried to make her marriage to Malcolm work, and the sacrifices she had made trying to achieve that.
Looking at Malcolm now, she was able to see beyond that surface charm and handsomeness that had once dazzled her into believing she was in love with him, as much as he claimed to be in love with her, and could now clearly recognise Malcolm’s coldness, as well as his cruelty.