His gaze sharpened on Samantha as he once again took in the pallor of her cheeks, and those dark shadows in her unusual amethyst-coloured eyes.
He recalled the sense he’d had earlier that she was lying to him...
‘The man at the hotel...’ he spoke softly now ‘...he was your ex-husband, wasn’t he?’ It was a statement rather than a question. Because Xander didn’t need to ask the question when he already knew, instinctively, that he had guessed correctly.
The man who had accosted Samantha at the hotel, and taken such a painful grip of her arm, causing her face to pale as he spoke to her so intensely, was Samantha’s ex-husband, and Daisy’s father.
Sam turned on the sofa to look at Xander, intending to deny the statement, only to think better of it as she saw the implacability of his expression, and the challenge in the darkness of his eyes. As if he expected her to deny it, and was silently warning her against even trying.
She drew in a deep and ragged breath before answering him.
‘Yes,’ she sighed. ‘Yes, he was,’ she repeated, her shoulders slumping as she sank back against the sofa, head resting back as she closed her eyes. ‘It was— I— It was such a shock because I haven’t set eyes on him for almost three years.’
‘Until tonight.’
‘Until tonight.’ She nodded.
‘It didn’t look as if it was a joyful reunion ?’
Sam didn’t open her eyes. ‘Not exactly the highlight of my day, no.’
‘Well of course not—that was coming into the church earlier and seeing how handsome I looked in my morning suit!’
Sam opened one eye as she turned her head to look at Xander seated beside her, receiving a cheeky smile for her effort. ‘Your modesty is just overwhelming!’ she drawled as she closed her eye again.
It didn’t help that Xander had looked gorgeous in his morning suit. Or that Sam’s heart had given a lurch as she had gazed down the aisle on her arrival at the church, and seen him sitting at the front, looking as handsome and golden as that Norse god he so resembled.
The Sterne twins had made such a contrast as they’d stood up together at the sound of the Wedding March playing to announce Andy’s arrival outside the church, Darius so dark and compelling, Xander all mesmerising light.
‘Isn’t it?’ Xander teased lightly, relieved to see the smile now curving the fullness of Samantha’s lips, even if it was being forced for his benefit.
Full and delectable lips that Xander had wanted to kiss since the moment he saw her in that red dress as she walked into the church earlier today.
His thoughts drifted back to the hotel earlier, and what he had been able to see of the man he now knew to be Samantha’s ex-husband. He had been tall in an expensively tailored dark suit, his face strong in profile, dark hair peppered with silver at the temples. He must have been some years older than Samantha.
But what did it matter what he looked like or how old he was, when Samantha claimed the man had been out of the picture, out of her life, for the past three years?
And out of Daisy’s, too?
Xander turned on the sofa, his thigh now gently touching the length of hers. ‘How does Daisy visit her father if you haven’t seen your ex-husband for three years?’