Mills & Boon Modern Romance Collection: February 2015. Кэрол Мортимер
enough for me to be willing to stay around and listen to more scolding about my tardiness.’ Xander grimaced. ‘It was really good to meet you, Miranda,’ he added warmly.
‘You too,’ she barely had time to murmur, before Xander had turned and disappeared onto the crowded dance floor.
Darius released Miranda’s hand, standing up politely as his mother reached their table. ‘What a shame—you just missed Xander,’ he said.
His mother frowned. ‘It wasn’t Xander I wanted to talk to.’
‘No? Well, unfortunately Miranda and I were just leaving.’
Andy shot him a sharp glance. Deservedly so, when just minutes ago Darius had insisted they weren’t leaving until she had danced with him again. Obviously the arrival of his mother had succeeded in changing his plans where Andy’s refusal hadn’t.
‘I really must apologise for not recognising you earlier, Miss Jacobs.’ Catherine Latimer turned to her, her tone warmly charming. ‘I knew you looked familiar, but Charles was the one who realised who you are, and I simply had to come and tell you how much I enjoyed watching you dance in Giselle four...or was it five years ago?’
Darius saw all the colour leech from Miranda’s cheeks before she answered his mother woodenly. ‘It was four and a half years ago.’
‘Of course it was.’ His mother beamed. ‘Such a wonderful talent. So much promise. Such a tragedy about your accident—’
‘Mother—’
‘But you are obviously fully recovered from that now.’ Catherine beamed, completely undaunted by Darius’s attempt to silence her. ‘I’m organising a charity gala performance for next month, and I appreciate that it’s short notice, but I was wondering if you would be willing to give a ten-minute performance? Possibly something from Swan Lake?’
‘Mother!’
‘Darius, do stop interrupting when I’m talking to Ms Jacobs.’
His mother shot him an irritated glance before turning back to smile at Miranda. ‘I can’t tell you what a thrill it would be for everyone if you would agree to perform.’
‘That is quite enough, Mother!’ Darius thundered as Miranda seemed to go even paler, her eyes huge green wells of despair against that pallor. ‘More than enough,’ he added grimly. ‘Miranda will not be dancing at one of your charity galas, next month or at any other time.’
He pulled Miranda effortlessly to her feet to stand beside him, his arm moving about her waist and securing her at his side as she seemed to sway slightly.
‘You’re being very high-handed, Darius.’ Catherine frowned her disapproval. ‘I’m sure that Ms Jacobs is more than capable of answering for herself.’
Not at the moment she wasn’t. In fact, Darius felt sure that if he didn’t get Miranda out of here in the next few minutes she was going to do one of two things. One, be extremely rude to his mother, which Darius had no doubt she would later regret. Or two, she might just faint, which she would also later regret. The last thing Miranda would want was to draw attention to herself. To perhaps be recognised by more people than his mother and stepfather and Tia Bellamy.
Miranda definitely would not want to cause a scene in front of Tia Bellamy.
His mouth tightened. ‘As I said, Miranda and I were just leaving, Mother.’
‘But...’
Darius’s glare finally seemed to have penetrated his mother’s dogged determination as she fell suddenly silent. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow, Mother,’ he promised tightly, not waiting for her to answer this time as he guided Miranda effortlessly through and away from the crowded and noisy ballroom.
Aware as he did so of the shocked expression on her deathly white face and the trembling of her slender body beside his own.
As aware as Darius was that he was the one who had insisted—blackmailed her—into stepping into this vipers’ den this evening.
DARIUS COLLECTED MIRANDA’S wrap from the cloakroom and got the two of them out of the hotel in the minimum of time and with the minimum of effort, making sure the still silent Miranda was comfortably seated in the passenger seat of his car the moment it was brought round to the front entrance of the hotel, before quietly thanking the valet and climbing in behind the wheel of the vehicle and pulling away.
The two of them drove along the busy London streets in silence for some minutes, Miranda obviously still slightly shell-shocked from the conversation with his mother. Darius brooded over the fact that he was responsible for having placed Miranda in that vulnerable position in the first place. Not once but twice.
First with Tia Bellamy.
And then again with his mother.
What the hell had his mother been thinking of, just coming over to Miranda in that way and bluntly asking her to perform for her?
No, damn it, his mother wasn’t to blame for any of what had happened tonight; he was. Miranda hadn’t wanted to go to the charity dinner with him in the first place; Darius had blackmailed her into attending. And his mother’s conversation hadn’t been the start of the disintegration of the evening, either—that encounter with Tia Bellamy had.
‘I’m sorry.’
Andy was so lost in thought that for a moment she wasn’t even aware that Darius had spoken. Her eyes widened in surprise when his words finally registered. Was the arrogant Darius Sterne actually apologising to her? And if so, exactly what was he apologising for?
Although she couldn’t deny, one way or another, the evening had been something of a disaster.
Attending the charity dinner at all had been an ordeal forced upon her by Darius himself.
Being introduced to Darius’s parents had been nerve-racking.
Meeting Tia Bellamy again had been even worse.
The time alone with Darius in that conference room still made Andy blush just to think of it.
The conversation with Xander before dinner had also been a little strange, revealing a more brooding and complex man than any of the press had ever reported seeing.
Catherine Latimer coming over to them just now, and asking Andy if she would consider dancing at the gala concert she was organising for next month, had been a total shock.
But it had been intriguing too, if Andy was being completely honest.
There was no way she would be able to dance professionally ever again; her hip and thigh, although strong enough for everyday activity and a minimum of dancing at her studio, just weren’t capable of taking the rigorous physical demands of a full-time career in ballet. But that didn’t mean Andy couldn’t still dance, it just meant the amount of time she could perform, at any one time, was limited. A five-or ten-minute performance, on behalf of charity, was not only possible but also tempting. Very tempting.
Hence Andy’s distraction now.
Was she seriously considering Catherine Latimer’s invitation?
And she still had no idea precisely what Darius was now apologising for when so much of the evening had been fraught with tension.
To such a degree that Andy now felt hysterical laughter welling up from deep within her. Really, could the evening have been any more of a disaster?
Maybe if Kim had been there too, glowering her disapproval of Darius Sterne on top of everything else that had gone wrong with the evening.
It had been one trauma after another from start to finish. Andy certainly doubted that roller coaster of emotion was what Darius usually expected when