Читать книгу Modern Romance March 2015 Collection 1 - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 15

CHAPTER SIX

SAM HAD LEFT Daisy’s door slightly ajar and a night light on, as she always did, and she quickly pushed the door fully open now before running across the room to where her daughter was sitting up in bed. Daisy’s eyes were wide, the tears streaming down her feverishly flushed face as she continued to scream.

‘I’m here, Daisy.’ Sam sat on the side of the bed to take her daughter into her arms. ‘It’s okay, darling,’ she soothed as her daughter struggled to be set free. ‘It’s Mummy, darling. It’s Mummy, Daisy,’ she repeated firmly as she stroked her daughter’s hair back from her flushed face.

Daisy stopped struggling but still trembled as she now looked up uncertainly. ‘Mummy?’

Sam smiled at her reassuringly. ‘You had a bad dream, darling. Just a dream,’ she soothed as Daisy, calmer now, snuggled against her for comfort.

At the same time Sam’s thoughts were inwardly racing. Had Daisy recognised Malcolm at the hotel earlier, after all? Either consciously, or subconsciously? And was that the reason for her daughter’s nightmare?

It was like one of those night terrors that Daisy had suffered from as a very young child, but she hadn’t had a single one in the past three years. Not since they’d left Malcolm.

‘Is she okay?’

Sam turned sharply to look at Xander as he quietly entered the bedroom, an anxious frown on her face as she wondered how Daisy would react to the presence of a man in her bedroom so soon after her nightmare.

‘Xander!’ Daisy pulled out of Sam’s arms before launching herself off the bed towards him.

Giving Sam a very definitive answer to that question.

Xander only just managed to open his arms in time to the little girl. As it was, he had to drop his walking stick on the floor, swaying precariously for several seconds as his injured leg threatened to collapse beneath him. Daisy might only be a lightweight, but her sudden weightfirm grasp on his leg caused a jolt of pain from Xander’s thigh down to his knee.

Xander glanced at Samantha, noting the pallor of her cheeks, and the tears glistening in her shadowed eyes, her expression dazed, lost, as she sat on Daisy’s bed looking at them both. Had there been something more sinister to Daisy’s nightmare than that the little girl had simply had an over-stimulating day?

Daisy gave a yawn as she nestled against him and he slowly led her back to the bed.

Within seconds of her lying down, it seemed, the little girl had fallen back to sleep, as if the nightmare had never occurred or woken her up screaming. Chances were—Xander hoped—that Daisy wouldn’t even remember she’d had the nightmare in the morning.

Her mother looked far less composed, Xander noted. Samantha’s expression was still one of devastation, her face drawn and pale, shadows having deepened in those beautiful eyes.

‘Let’s go and finish our brandy,’ Xander encouraged, wincing slightly as he straightened from picking his cane up from the bedroom floor.

‘Maybe I should stay here for a while, just in case?’ Samantha looked worriedly at her sleeping daughter.

‘We’ll hear her if she calls out again.’ Xander held his hand out to Samantha as encouragement for her to stand up and leave the bedroom with him. It was the most he could manage, his leg now a painful and throbbing ache. ‘Come on, Samantha,’ he encouraged gruffly, knowing he badly needed to sit down.

Sam looked up at him blankly, too disturbed still by Daisy’s nightmare to be able to respond.

Nightmares had been a regular occurrence when Daisy was much younger, and at the time Sam hadn’t equated them with the tension of living with Malcolm. She had only realised that significance when they had abruptly stopped once she and Daisy had moved out of Malcolm’s house and begun living on their own.

Until tonight.

It was too much of a coincidence, surely, that this should have happened after seeing Malcolm at the hotel earlier?

Admittedly Daisy had given no indication at the time that she had recognised her father, but maybe it hadn’t been a conscious recognition but a subliminal one? The mind often played strange tricks on people, so maybe Daisy had recognised Malcolm without even being aware that she had?

‘Samantha?’ Xander asked again gently.

She blinked, focusing on him with effort. ‘Sorry.’ She grimaced, giving herself a mental shake as she stood up. ‘That was...unexpected,’ she murmured as she followed him from the bedroom, leaving the door wide open this time, the better to be able to hear Daisy if she should call out again.

‘Just over-excitement, do you think?’ Xander wondered, replenishing their brandy glasses once they had returned to the sitting room, before handing one to Samantha. ‘You’ll feel better if you drink some more of that,’ he encouraged gruffly. ‘Slowly this time.’

Sam obediently took the glass from him, still worried about Daisy’s nightmare, and not in the mood to argue with Xander over a glass of brandy. ‘It was a different sort of day for her, with lots of unusual, if exciting, stimuli,’ she answered him woodenly.

‘But?’ Xander observed her closely as he moved to sink down onto the sofa.

Because he really did think he was now in danger of falling down.

And wouldn’t that look just wonderful, very manly, if he were to keel over and collapse at Samantha’s bare feet?

His leg was giving him hell, after he had been on it for so many hours already today, and it hadn’t helped when Daisy had launched herself at him just now when he hadn’t been expecting it.

Although physically painful, having Daisy turn to him in that way for reassurance and comfort had surprisingly felt quite nice.

To know that Daisy liked him enough, trusted him enough, to want to turn to him for comfort was a good feeling after Xander’s weeks of uncertainty about himself.

It made him even more determined to be worthy of Daisy’s trust.

Samantha looked as if she was in need of a little comfort too right now.

‘Come and sit beside me,’ he instructed in a voice that brooked no argument. ‘Don’t make me have to stand up again and come get you, Samantha,’ he added with a pained wince.

She looked at him blankly again for several long seconds, almost as if she had forgotten he was there, before moving stiffly across the room to sit down beside him.

Maybe she really had forgotten he was there?

Surely children of all ages had nightmares? A result of a too-active imagination at that age? Xander seemed to remember having them as a child himself. Of course, his had been due to living with his bastard of a father, but—

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?’

Her mouth twisted. ‘She doesn’t.’

Xander frowned. ‘But—’

‘I don’t want to talk about this any more tonight, Xander, okay?’ Samantha snapped as she sat forward with the obvious intention of standing up.

‘No, it’s not okay.’ Xander put his hand on her shoulder to prevent her from standing up. ‘I want to understand, Samantha. I need to understand.’

‘Why?’

‘Because for some unknown reason I care!’

She gave a shake of her head. ‘You don’t even know me.’

‘But I’m trying to.’

Samantha looked at him for several long seconds before giving a shake of her head. ‘No. I—I can’t do this.’ Once again she attempted to stand up.

Unacceptable.

Totally unacceptable.

Samantha might not want to answer his questions right now, but that didn’t change the desire Xander had felt all day to take this woman in his arms and kiss her. And now he wanted to keep on kissing her, until Samantha could think of nothing and no one else but him.

Was that even wise on his part, when the two of them were going to be living here together for the next two weeks?

After all the upsets Samantha had already been through today?

Oh, to hell with what was wise!

Xander needed to kiss Samantha, more than he wanted to breathe, and as much as he wanted to eliminate the sadness from her lips and those deep shadows from her eyes. ‘Let me in, Samantha,’ he groaned achingly as he moved closer to her.

Sam’s eyes widened as Xander’s face began to lower towards hers, the arm draped across the back of the sofa now dropping lightly down onto her shoulders, as she realised he was about to kiss her.

‘Xander—’ Her weak protest was cut short as Xander’s lips claimed hers in a gentle exploratory kiss.

Her heart leapt in her chest at the first touch of those sensually sculpted lips against her own, her hand seeming to move up of its own volition to cup Xander’s slightly bristly cheek as he deepened the kiss, caressing and tasting, his arms moving about her waist as he pulled her body in close against him.

Sam had no resistance to those heated kisses, each more passionate than the last, the desire thrumming hotly through her body as she pressed her breasts against Xander’s chest in an effort to try and ease some of the ache in her sensitive nipples.

Her breath caught in her throat as Xander’s tongue now swept inside the heat of her mouth, with all the assurance of a Viking invader laying claim to his prize.

Xander gave a groan as he pressed Samantha gently back, until she lay beneath him on the sofa, her breasts warm and soft against the hardness of his chest, his legs becoming entangled with hers as they lay together, the evidence of his arousal a throbbing ache between them.

He murmured his pleasure as he felt Samantha’s fingers in his hair as his lips now trailed across the warmth of her cheek and down the column of her throat, teeth nipping lightly on the lobe of her ear, causing her to moan huskily.

His lips moved lower, exploring the shadowed hollows at the base of her silky throat, one of his hands moving beneath her sweater against the heat of her skin. Samantha groaned low in her throat as one of his hands cupped her breast, its fullness filling his palm.

It was Xander’s turn to groan as he felt the turgid heat of her nipple pressing against the material of her bra. He pushed her sweater up and out of the way as his lips trailed down to kiss the bared slopes of her breasts before unfastening her bra. He raised his head so that he could look down at her deliciously bared breasts.

Completely bared breasts that revealed the tattoo of an eagle soaring on the upper slope of her left breast.

‘I knew it,’ Xander groaned achingly even as he lowered his head and his tongue traced the outline of that utterly sexy tattoo.

He immediately realised his mistake in having spoken, as he felt Samantha tense and still beneath him, her fingers tightening briefly in his hair before moving down to his chest as she began to push him away.

‘Please, Xander,’ she groaned when he didn’t move. ‘You have to stop now!’

‘Why do I?’ he murmured distractedly as he continued to gaze down at those perfect breasts, tipped by swollen and aroused nipples. He was too turned on, too lost to the pleasure that was Samantha, to want to stop this just yet.

‘Xander, please!’ Her tone was more urgent now. ‘I don’t— We can’t do this.’ A sob caught in her throat as she pushed against his chest in earnest.

The haze of desire was slow to lift inside Xander’s head, and it took him several seconds to realise that Samantha was pushing against him.

His head lifted slowly as he looked at her, those perfect rounded breasts quickly rising and falling as she breathed heavily, her cheeks pale, her kiss-swollen lips parted, and her eyes wide pools of anguish.

Anguish?

Because Xander had kissed and caressed her?

Kisses and caresses she had seemed to enjoy?

Seemed...

Could Xander be wrong about Samantha’s response? Could he have wanted to kiss and touch her so much that he had mistaken her initial lack of protest as encouragement?

Was it possible that it had been so long since he last spent any time with a woman, held a woman in his arms, that he had misread the signals? That he was so physically frustrated he was guilty of kissing the first woman who had seemed willing?

Well, that last bit wasn’t true, at least; the bridesmaid at the wedding had been more than willing to share his bed tonight. Hell, she had been more than willing for them to book into a room at the hotel for the night!

She just hadn’t been the woman that Xander wanted.

Because the woman now lying beneath him was the woman he wanted. Samantha Smith. Mother to Daisy Smith.

And the ex-wife of the man who had upset her earlier at the hotel...

Damn it, of course he had misread the signals!

Samantha hadn’t been inviting him to kiss her just now. He had seen it himself; she had been in need of comfort after being so suddenly, so unexpectedly, confronted by her ex-husband. And then her daughter had woken screaming from a nightmare. A nightmare that had caused Daisy to turn to him for that same comfort.

Xander lifted himself up and away from Samantha before standing up, instantly wincing as the aching pain intensified in his leg. ‘I’m sorry.’ He ran an agitated hand through the heavy thickness of his hair.

The same hair that Samantha had tugged and pulled on a short time ago as she’d returned—when he had thought she’d returned—the heat of his kisses. Hell, maybe she had been trying to push him away even then!

Xander turned away from the guilt he felt just looking at Samantha as she refastened her bra and straightened her sweater before sitting upright on the sofa, her eyes dark and bruised-looking, her lips puffy from their kisses. ‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated abruptly. ‘That really was inappropriate of me.’

Sam knew it had been.

But oh, how she wished she hadn’t needed to stop their kisses but could instead have taken what Xander had so obviously been offering: a night of uncomplicated and passionate sex.

Except it wouldn’t be uncomplicated, not when Xander was the man she wanted to make love with, rather than her ex-husband who was demanding she go to bed with him again. Just thinking about Malcolm’s threats earlier was enough to give her nightmares!

But her problems had nothing to do with Xander. The only reason she was staying in his apartment at all was to take care of him.

This was a job, for goodness’ sake.

A job that certainly didn’t come with the fringe benefit of sleeping with the boss.

Thank goodness Xander had spoken to her and broken the sensual spell she had fallen under, reminding her of where she was. Who she was with!

She was just so aware of his lethal attraction. The desire he had aroused in her that she had thought long dead.

But it wasn’t only that. She was just as drawn to knowing the reasons behind those dark shadows that she occasionally saw lurking in the depths of his eyes. As if he had his own painful memories he had to deal with on a daily basis. Memories Sam wanted to know, and possibly share with him.

Which was utterly ridiculous.

Why on earth would Xander Sterne, billionaire playboy, have any painful memories, let alone want to share them with someone like her?

Admittedly his father had died when Xander was still quite young, which must have been difficult for him, but other than that he had led a charmed life. He was rich as Croesus, was obviously loved by his twin and his mother and stepfather. And, if the bridesmaid from earlier was any example, then women were obviously falling over themselves just to be with him.

So why on earth would he ever feel anything more than a fleeting attraction towards her, let alone a need to share any of his private life with the woman hired to take care of him while his brother was away on his honeymoon?

He wouldn’t, came the unequivocal answer.

Even if there was something to share. Which there so obviously wasn’t.

‘I am sorry, Samantha.’

She didn’t look at Xander as she nodded abruptly. ‘So am I.’

‘What do you have to be sorry about?’

A desire that had shocked her to her core.

Acknowledging Xander’s lethal attraction and acting upon it were two distinctly different things, when Sam hadn’t so much as looked at a man with interest since the end of her marriage to Malcolm. Even without Malcolm’s threats earlier this evening, her ex-husband’s unreasonable behaviour during their marriage should have been a stark lesson to her never to be fooled again by a good-looking face and a charming manner.

Tonight she had definitely returned the hunger of Xander’s kisses. And allowed Xander to touch her more intimately than any other man had but her husband. She’d also been aroused in a way she could never remember being aroused before. Not even at the start of her marriage to Malcolm, the man she had believed herself to be in love with...

And that knowledge now terrified her!

She didn’t want to feel anything for Xander Sterne beyond the necessary concern of a carer for her charge. She didn’t want to like him. Or desire him. She certainly didn’t want to ever be stupid enough to fall in love with him!

‘Go to bed, Samantha,’ Xander bit out harshly as he saw the way her face had now paled. ‘I’ll manage to undress myself this evening and you can help me shower in the morning,’ he assured her dryly as she looked at him questioningly.

Her expression was noticeably one of relief. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Very,’ Xander confirmed as Samantha rushed from the room.

Or a lustful Xander Sterne...