‘Don’t even attempt to lie to me about this,’ he advised softly. ‘I assure you that you won’t like me when I’m angry,’ he added as he felt that red tide threatening to overwhelm and control him.
Samantha’s eyes were wide, her throat moving convulsively as she swallowed. As clear evidence that she also saw and recognised that anger? That it frightened her?
Well, damn it, it frightened Xander too!
It was exactly what he had been running away from facing these past few weeks. The reason he had begun to avoid other people. The reason he had distanced himself from his family. And hadn’t taken a woman to his bed. The very reason he had been so against Samantha and Daisy coming to live here with him in the first place.
Xander released Samantha abruptly before stepping away from her. ‘Who hurt you, Samantha?’ His gaze sharpened as a thought suddenly occurred to him. ‘It was him, wasn’t it? Your ex-husband,’ he stated flatly. ‘You saw him again this morning when you took Daisy to school. Did you arrange to meet him?’
‘No! Absolutely not. Never,’ Sam instantly denied the accusation, giving a shudder of distaste at the mere suggestion she would deliberately spend time with Malcolm ever again.
Except it was what she was thinking of doing now, wasn’t it? By giving in to Malcolm’s demands?
She dropped down onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar. Before her knees buckled beneath her and she fell down.
‘Samantha?’
‘Just give me a minute or two.’ She waved a hand dismissively in front of her face, head bent as she breathed in deeply.
‘Do you still love him?’
Sam’s gaze flew incredulously to the grimness of Xander’s face. ‘I absolutely do not!’
‘Obviously.’ Xander winced as he both heard and saw her obvious vehemence to the idea. ‘So why would you—?’ He paused, breathing softly. ‘You were obviously upset after seeing him again on Saturday evening. He physically hurt you this morning, as well as upset you again. You’re almost in tears now just talking about him.’ He studied Sam intently. ‘What hold does he have over you that you don’t just tell him to go to—? Daisy.’ Xander’s brow cleared as realisation dawned. ‘The bastard is threatening Daisy in some way.’
That red tide of anger rose even further at the thought of Samantha’s ex-husband daring to threaten Daisey’s happiness. In any way.
Bad enough that Samantha’s ex-husband had physically hurt her today, the man deserved to be horse-whipped for that alone, but the thought that he might also have threatened Daisy in some way was totally unacceptable.
Xander came to a decision.
‘Samantha.’
‘Yes?’ She raised her head to look up at him uncertainly.
‘Samantha, I—’ Xander drew in a deep breath, knowing he was about to take a huge leap of faith, but also knowing that he had no choice if he was to persuade Samantha into trusting him again.
He never talked about his abusive childhood to anyone, but if he wanted Samantha to talk to him now then he knew he had to tell her what had happened to him. That he now had to trust her, to confide in her, if he wanted her to trust and confide in him.
And he did want that. He wanted more than anything for Samantha to trust him.
He drew in a deep and ragged breath. ‘Samantha, until I was twelve years old I lived with a father who enjoyed beating the hell out of me.’
She blinked, and then blinked again, as if she were having difficulty taking in what Xander had just told her. As no doubt she was. His childhood hardly fitted in with that charming billionaire playboy image the media were so fond of portraying.
An image that hid the vulnerability beneath.
A vulnerability Xander found himself surprisingly willing to share with Samantha.
‘Darius, too?’ she finally asked huskily.
A nerve pulsed in Xander’s jaw. ‘No, just me.’
Samantha moistened the dryness of her lips with the tip of her pink tongue. ‘What happened when you were twelve?’
Xander’s jaw tightened. ‘My father died.’
Malcolm had been emotionally cruel, deliberately so, but he had never been physically violent, either towards herself or Daisy. Until today, Sam reminded herself with a frown. Today Malcolm had felt absolutely no compunction about hurting her. In fact, she thought he had rather enjoyed it.
She swallowed. ‘How?’
‘Shortly after putting me in the hospital with a broken arm and concussion, my father fell down the stairs in a drunken stupor and broke his neck.’
‘I don’t recall any of this ever being in the newspapers.’
‘It wasn’t,’ he confirmed abruptly. ‘No one outside of my close family has ever known about the abuse.’
Sam was absolutely horrified at the thought of this man’s childhood. ‘Xander.’
‘Samantha, I didn’t tell you this so that your compassionate heart would feel sorry for me.’
‘It doesn’t,’ she assured swiftly, knowing that Xander’s pride was such that he wouldn’t want, or welcome, pity from anyone. That the self-confident man he had become, the caring man he was towards Daisy, the empathy he had just shown her, were clear evidence that he had risen above his abusive childhood.
‘Not even a little bit?’
‘Well, of course a little bit!’ Sam replied exasperatedly, a large part of her wishing that Xander’s father were still alive, so that she could verbally upbraid him for his treatment of his son.
As a way of slaying Xander’s dragon for him in a way that she couldn’t seem to slay her own?
She grimaced. ‘I would have to be completely heartless to remain immune to what you’ve just told me about your childhood,’ she assured him briskly.
If he was honest with himself, Xander was feeling a little off-kilter now that he had actually spoken to Samantha about his father. He really didn’t discuss his private life with people outside his family. Ever. And yet he had just done so with Samantha.
Admittedly it had been as a way of encouraging Samantha to feel that she could confide in him about her ex-husband, that she could trust him, but even so it was something Xander had never imagined sharing with any woman.
And yet...
He had confided in Samantha as a way of letting her know she could trust him with her own secrets, he had never imagined that by doing so he would somehow feel...free. As if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
And his heart.
CHAPTER EIGHT
XANDER GAVE A humourless smile. ‘Maybe you would feel differently about all that and about me, if I were to tell you that for the past few months I’ve been inwardly fighting the possibility that I might actually be like him?’
‘That’s utterly ridiculous,’ Samantha dismissed without hesitation.
Xander’s eyes widened at the absolute certainty in her voice. ‘What makes you say that?’
She smiled confidently. ‘I may not have known you for very long, Xander, but I do know you well enough to be able to see you are totally incapable of hurting a woman or a child. You obviously didn’t want Daisy and I here, and yet you have been incredibly kind to both of us. So much so that Daisy adores you,’ she added firmly even as she stepped forward to place the palm of her hand on Xander’s chest. ‘There’s a good heart in there, Xander Sterne. A kind heart. One that wants to protect, not destroy.’
Xander looked down at her searchingly, breathing shallowly beneath the warm touch of her hand on his chest. ‘Do you really believe that?’ he finally asked.
‘I know it.’ Sam nodded.
Even after only a few days in his company Sam knew that initial fear she’d had, that he might be selfish and controlling like Malcolm, because he was even richer and more powerful than her ex-husband, wasn’t even a possi
bility. Xander was arrogant and self-confident, and grumpy—no surprise given his present situation and the pain he was suffering.
But ultimately he had a good heart, a kind heart; his care and consideration of Daisy these past three days had proved that. As did his concern for her now. Sam had absolutely no doubt that Xander was a man who protected, that he was totally incapable of lashing out physically at a woman or child in temper.
‘We may have our parents’ genes, Xander,’ she said quietly. ‘You have your father’s, as Daisy has her father’s, but I have yet to see any of Malcolm in Daisy. Or any of the father that you have just described to me in you.’ Her eyed narrowed. ‘You had your car accident six weeks ago?’
‘Sorry?’ Xander frowned at her sudden change of subject.
‘You said that you’ve been questioning yourself for the past few months as to whether or not you might be like your father,’ Sam reminded him as she stepped back and allowed her hand to fall back to her side. ‘Did your accident have anything to do with that?’
Xander gave a rueful grimace at her astuteness. ‘Something had been building inside me for weeks before that night, but that night I witnessed a man in the Midas nightclub verbally berating and humiliating the woman he was with. And I wanted to pulverise him into the ground,’ he acknowledged grimly.
‘A perfectly understandable reaction; I would have wanted to pulverise him too,’ Samantha assured vehemently. ‘Did you do it?’
‘No.’ A nerve pulsed in Xander’s tightly clenched jaw. ‘I wanted to, but somehow managed to keep control long enough to pass the problem off to security.’
‘Doesn’t that restraint prove to you that you’re nothing like your father?’ Samantha gave him an encouraging smile. ‘That you never could be?’
Xander continued to look down at her for several long minutes, before drawing in a deep breath. ‘Thank you for that. I appreciate it, after all I’ve just told you.’
He did appreciate Samantha’s confidence, belief, in him. More than he could possibly say. More than he dared think about, when Samantha seemed so determined to keep him at arm’s length, physically, at least. For the moment he would settle for her opening up to him emotionally.
‘I want to help you, if I can, Samantha,’ he encouraged gruffly. ‘You aren’t without powerful friends of your own now,’ he pointed out softly. ‘Andy and Darius. And now me.’
Was Xander her friend?
Sure, he had become fond of Daisy these past four days, but things had been so strained between the two of them since Saturday evening, that Sam had been sure Xander must be counting the days until she left his apartment.
His concern now and the confidences he had shared with her regarding his own childhood, while not exactly making them friends, had certainly broken down the barriers they had both been keeping about their emotions since Saturday evening.
‘What did your ex-husband say to you this morning, Samantha?’ he prompted gently.
She drew in a deep breath. ‘Well, for one thing, he apparently isn’t happy that Daisy and I are staying here in your apartment, even temporarily.’
‘Tough.’ Xander scowled. ‘What else?’
‘He wanted me to have dinner with him this evening.’
Xander stilled as he looked at Samantha.
‘And are you going to accept the invitation?’
‘I already turned him down.’ She gave a humourless smile. ‘And it was more of a threat than an invitation.’
‘What does he want besides dinner?’ Xander rasped harshly. As if he couldn’t guess. As if he didn’t already know what the man wanted!
Samantha was an incredibly beautiful woman, a woman with a warm and loving heart; any man would have to be completely stupid to have ever let her go in the first place.
‘He wants me to become his mistress,’ Samantha confirmed, her gaze no longer able to meet his.
Xander drew in a deep controlling breath, continuing to breathe deeply until he felt capable of talking again. ‘And how does he intend to retaliate if you don’t agree to that?’
The colour drained from Sam’s cheeks. ‘He said he’ll apply to the court for visiting rights with Daisy. Which I can’t allow to happen,’ she continued emotionally. ‘Malcolm never wanted Daisy in the first place. He ignored her very existence when we lived with him, by imposing all sorts of ridiculous rules regarding her behaviour. And he’s had absolutely no interest in seeing her since the two of us parted and divorced.’
A nerve pulsed in Xander’s tightly clenched jaw at the thought of any man—any father!—ignoring his own daughter in that way.
Although it certainly explained why it was Daisy never visited her father and why Samantha didn’t want her to now.
It also explained the way Samantha had bristled with reaction to that list of rules Xander had come out with the evening she and Daisy arrived here.
No way, absolutely no way, was Xander going to allow Samantha’s ex-husband to bully and blackmail her into doing what he wanted. Into forcing her to share his bed.
‘Exactly who is he, Samantha?’ he grated. ‘Well you’ve already told me his name isn’t Smith,’ he rasped as Samantha looked up at him questioningly.
‘Howard.’ She swallowed, her gaze now avoiding meeting his. ‘His name is Malcolm Howard.’
Xander’s eyes narrowed. ‘Of Howard Electronics? That Malcolm Howard?’ He only knew the other man by reputation, mostly to do with business, although he seemed to recall hearing Howard had been married briefly a few years ago. He didn’t remember ever hearing mention of a child from that marriage, though. Obviously that was because Howard had chosen never to tell anyone about the daughter he had no interest in.
Samantha drew in a deep breath. ‘You know him?’
Xander shook his head. ‘Not personally. I seem to recall he has a membership to the Midas nightclub.’ A privilege Xander was now going to look into cancelling at the earliest opportunity! ‘Darius knows him far better than I do. Of course, that’s what Howard was doing at the hotel on Saturday; he was one of the evening guests invited to Darius and Miranda’s wedding.’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m pretty sure Darius has no idea what sort of man he is.’ Xander scowled. ‘Did you know he—? No,’ he answered his own question impatiently. ‘You had absolutely no idea your ex-husband was going to be at the wedding too. If you had you would have made sure to leave before he arrived. Or possibly you would not have gone to the wedding at all.’
‘No.’
‘What did he do to you when you were married to him, Samantha?’ Xander pressed softly.
She looked up at him wordlessly for several long seconds, a frown creasing her creamy brow. And then that frown cleared as she glanced down at her bandaged wrist. ‘Emotional cruelty can be just as unpleasant as physical violence.’
He knew that, had watched his father torment and control his mother and brother for years, by physically threatening Xander. Just as Malcolm Howard’s threats now, regarding Daisy, were designed to deliberately torment Samantha, to control her.
To a point that she was actually thinking of giving in to Howard’s demands?
Over Xander’s dead body was that going to happen.
He gave a shake of his head.
‘Malcolm Howard is a very wealthy man, and yet you and Daisy—’ He hesitated, wincing his discomfort as he realised what he had been about to say.
‘And yet Daisy and I live in a one-bedroomed flat and I work at jobs like this one, and the one at Andy’s studio, to make ends meet.’ Samantha obviously felt no such reticence.
‘Yes.’ He frowned darkly.
She gave a rueful grimace. ‘You already know so much, so why shouldn’t you know the rest? Malcolm offered me a deal when I divorced him, a small monthly maintenance payment for Daisy, no alimony
or settlement for me, the return of all the jewellery and gifts he had given me during our marriage, and in exchange he would give me full custody of Daisy.’
‘Full custody of the child he didn’t want in the first place?’ Xander said softly.
‘Yes.’ She smiled shakily.
Xander had never heard of anything so diabolical in his life. It was utterly disgusting. Malcolm Howard was worth millions, and yet he had begrudged his ex-wife even the small amount of money she needed to be able to take care of her daughter?
A diabolical deal he was now threatening to renege on unless Samantha gave in to his demand that she become his mistress.
What sort of man did that to the woman he had once been married to, the same woman who was the mother of his child?
‘Do you trust me, Samantha?’ Xander asked huskily.
‘To do what?’ She eyed him warily.
‘To help you and Daisy?’
To make sure that Howard suffered, in the way he had made Samantha and Daisy suffer, in the past, and now!
Did Sam trust Xander? It had been so long since she had relied on anyone. Since she had trusted anyone enough to rely on them; she had thought she could trust and rely on Malcolm once, and look how well that had turned out!
‘Don’t think about the past for now, Samantha,’ Xander encouraged as he obviously saw, and guessed, the reason for her frown. ‘Just concentrate on whether or not you trust me to find a way that will free you, and Daisy, of your ex-husband’s hold on you once and for all.’
Did she want Xander to do that? Was this the answer, the miracle, she had been praying for earlier?
Did Sam really have any choice but to trust Xander, when her own and Daisy’s future hung so precariously in the balance, once again because of Malcolm’s threats?
She moistened the dryness of her lips before speaking. ‘Why would you even want to help us? It isn’t your problem.’
‘I’m making it so,’ he insisted grimly.
Sam looked at him wonderingly. ‘You really are a sheep in wolf’s clothing, aren’t you?’
The Taming of Xander Sterne Page 10