The Redemption of Darius Sterne. Кэрол Мортимер

      She pulled out of his arms the moment the song came to an end. ‘As I said, thank you for inviting us all up here, and for the champagne and the dance.’ She made her voice deliberately light, her smile bright and meaningless. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see that my sister and brother-in-law are waiting for me at the table, no doubt so that we can all leave,’ she added wryly. Kim, at least, was glaring accusingly across the room at Darius.

      He frowned. ‘It’s still early.’

      ‘Maybe for you.’ Andy nodded. ‘Some of us have to get up for work in the morning.’

      ‘Doing what?’

      Her chin rose. ‘I now own my own dance studio, teaching ballet to children. Yes,’ she snapped as she saw his eyebrows rise, ‘a typical example of “those that can’t, teach”! Now, if you’ll excuse me?’

      ‘No!’

      Andy looked up at him uncertainly as she heard vehemence in his tone. ‘No?’

      It was one thing for Darius to have decided he couldn’t take his attraction towards this woman any further than he already had, and quite another for Miranda to decide to walk away from him.

      Damn it, had he really become so arrogant that he couldn’t accept a woman’s lack of interest in him for what it was?

      Hell, yes, he was that arrogant!

      Most especially when he knew that Miranda wasn’t uninterested in him at all.

      The sexual tension between the two of them had been palpable downstairs in the restaurant earlier, and it was even deeper now that they had actually talked, and then danced together.

      ‘Have dinner with me tomorrow night,’ Darius prompted abruptly as he turned to place a restraining hand on her arm before they could reach the table where her sister and brother-in-law were waiting for her.

      ‘I— What—? No!’ Miranda looked totally flustered by the invitation.

      ‘Why on earth not?’ He scowled darkly.

      She gave an impatient shake of her head. ‘As I said, I’m grateful to you for inviting us up to your club, and—and everything else. It’s made my birthday even more special. I just— This— You and me— It isn’t going anywhere.’

      ‘I only invited you out to dinner, Miranda, not to become the mother of my children,’ he pointed out dryly.

      The colour had first drained and then deepened in her cheeks. ‘And when was the last time you invited a woman out to dinner without the expectation of taking her to bed at the end of the evening?’ Her pointed chin rose challengingly as she looked up at him.

      ‘And what makes you so sure that isn’t going to happen?’ he purred.

      Andy wasn’t sure of anything in regard to her undeniable and unexpected attraction to this man; that was the problem!

      It would be too easy to become completely caught up in Darius, in his mesmerising attractiveness, in that arrogance and certainty, only to have all of that crash down about her ears when he realised, when he saw, her physical imperfections.

      Physical imperfections, scars, which she had no doubts would illicit either pity or disgust. And Andy wanted neither of those things from Darius.

      ‘I said no, I won’t have dinner with you tomorrow, Mr Sterne. Or any other time,’ Andy added as she pointedly removed her arm from his grasp. ‘Excuse me.’ She didn’t wait for a response from him this time as she turned and walked away determinedly.

      As she turned and walked away from the man she knew, instinctively, was capable of capturing her heart before just as quickly breaking it.