At the same time as Xander knew they couldn’t continue to live together for the next week without one or both of them saying at least something about last night. Acknowledging that it had happened, at least. Not to do so would be juvenile. And their actions last night had been anything but that.
‘I’m just going back to the kitchen to have a chat with Mummy, okay, Daisy?’ he told the little girl lightly as he raised the volume on the television.
‘Okay.’ Daisy nodded distractedly, her attention already focused on the animated film on the screen.
Xander closed the door softly behind him as he stepped out into the hallway, drawing in a deep breath once he was outside; he wasn’t in the least looking forward to the next few minutes’ conversation with Samantha. Or what the outcome of that conversation would mean for the two of them.
Any thoughts of that conversation fled his head the moment he walked back into the kitchen and saw how deathly pale Samantha’s face was as she stood as still as a statue, the telephone receiver about to fall from her limp fingers.
‘Samantha?’ Xander quickly crossed to where she stood to look down searchingly into that pale face as he took that receiver from her and placed it back on the wall, frowning darkly as he saw the pain in those dark amethyst eyes as Samantha stared off into the distance. ‘Samantha?’
The way she now looked up at him so blankly, as if she not only didn’t see him, but was having trouble even remembering who he was, wasn’t in the least reassuring.
Xander lightly clasped the tops of her arms as a way of gaining her attention. ‘Samantha!’
‘Security just called from Reception downstairs.’ She spoke flatly, not an ounce of emotion in her voice as she continued to look up at him blankly.
‘And?’ he prompted tensely as Samantha didn’t add anything to that statement.
She blinked, seeming to come out of her stupor slightly as she finally focused on him. ‘Malcolm is downstairs.’
‘He is?’
She nodded. ‘And apparently he told Security that he has no intention of leaving until he’s spoken to one or both of us.’
Xander had known this confrontation was inevitable, had deliberately designed this situation so that Howard would make him the target rather than Samantha and Daisy.
He just hadn’t expected it to be this morning, and before he’d even had a chance to talk to Samantha about last night.
CHAPTER TEN
MAYBE IF HE hadn’t been so caught up, so blinded by his desire for Samantha and the need he felt to protect her, he would have realised that the bombastic Malcolm Howard was arrogant enough to come to his apartment. Everything Xander had learnt about the other man this past week had indicated he was someone who didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings, least of all Samantha’s.
‘I thought you said that your lawyer would contact Malcolm and arrange for him to visit his offices?’
Xander winced at the complete lack of accusation in Samantha’s tone. At the lack of any emotion in her voice at all. ‘He was going to do that on Monday morning.’ He grimaced. ‘Obviously I underestimated the speed of Howard’s powers of deduction.’
She smiled without humour. ‘Don’t feel bad about that; a lot of people have underestimated Malcolm’s intelligence,’ she said flatly.