The Taming of Xander Sterne(75)

                And there wasn’t a thing he could do or say to stop her.





                                      CHAPTER ELEVEN

                One month later.

                ‘WHEN ARE YOU going to stop brooding and go and claim your woman?’

                Xander hadn’t heard his brother open the door as he leant back in his chair staring sightlessly—broodingly—out of the window of his office at the Midas Enterprises building in London.

                He turned now to glare at Darius as his brother leant casually against the doorframe. ‘I’m far too busy to deal with your warped sense of humour today, Darius!’ he snarled aggressively as he straightened in his chair.

                Darius straightened slowly before crossing the room. ‘I can see that.’ A mocking smile curved his lips as he looked down at Xander’s obviously empty desk. ‘I thought you might like to know I’ve just come back from visiting Miranda at the dance studio.’

                Xander tensed. ‘And why should that interest me?’

                Topaz eyes gleamed with amusement. ‘‘Possibly because I saw Sam too while I was there?’

                Xander felt a painful lurch in his chest; he hadn’t spoken privately to Samantha for four and a half weeks. Not since the day they had routed Howard so completely, and afterwards she’d told him she was leaving him the following morning. She’d then packed her bags and done exactly that.

                He had tried to talk her out of it, of course. But Samantha had been stubbornly determined. She had again thanked him very politely for all his help, and reassured him he really was well enough to take care of himself now. That he didn’t need her any more.

                That he didn’t need her any more?

                Xander wasn’t even sure he had drawn in breath without pain since Samantha left him that Sunday morning. He knew that not a moment went by when he didn’t think about her. When he didn’t want to see her, to just be with her again.

                And he had been absolutely correct about his apartment having all the warmth of a morgue, once Samantha and Daisy were no longer living there with him. He now avoided being there as much as possible.

                Xander’s mouth tightened. ‘Samantha has made her lack of interest in seeing me again very obvious, Darius.’ More than obvious.

                ‘Strange, she always asks how you are whenever I see her at Miranda’s studio,’ his brother told him softly.

                Xander stood up abruptly to cross the room and stand in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, his back to the room as he looked out blindly. ‘She’s just being polite, because she’s grateful that I helped rid her of Howard from her life once and for all.’

                Howard had duly kept his appointment at the lawyer’s office, and neither Xander nor Samantha had needed to be present when the other man signed the contract. Howard had also paid Samantha’s belated divorce settlement, and she and Daisy were now renting a two-bedroom apartment overlooking a park. Samantha had still taken up the part-time job at Andy’s dance studio, and the two women had become even firmer friends, according to his sister-in-law.

                Darius joined Xander by the window. ‘Sam doesn’t look well today, Xander.’

                He turned sharply to look at his brother. ‘What do you mean? What’s wrong with her?’ he demanded, frowning darkly.