She shouldn’t be surprised about Darryn’s behavior, though.Despite their romance-writing mother’s best efforts to tell them otherwise, she and her two sisters knew how fickle men were.Their father hadn’t even stayed around, but had left them when they were still in primary school.
At least now she had fresh information for her sister Caitlin’s blog.She’d always felt kind of bad about the way Caitlin posted about all the terrible dates they’d been on, but her experience with Darryn Cavallo was probably one of the worst ‘dates’ she’d ever had with a man.He stayed with her for three days, left, and then believed the first lie he heard about her.If he hadn’t believed the guy, he would have turned back and asked her about it, wouldn’t he?
*
As she steppedout of the elevator, Stephen was on his way to the big front doors of the hotel, suitcase in hand.She lifted her head and turned to walk to the dining room, but he grabbed her arm.
“You think you’re in charge?You think you can get rid of me with one phone call to your agent?Well, I’ve got news for you.You might have gotten rid of me, but I am going to make your life a living nightmare, you hear me?”he hissed.“I—”
Another stopped close by, and several of the other models entered the foyer.
Swearing, Stephen dropped her arm, and with a last furious scowl, walked out of the hotel.
Rattled and upset, Hannah turned and followed the other models into the dining room.As she entered the big room, her heart stopped for a moment.Darryn was on his way out.
He frowned when he saw her, and she waited for him to walk past her, but instead he stopped right in front of her.His demeanor was so different from that of the man with whom she’d spent the last few days, she couldn’t get a word out.
He obviously didn’t have the same problem.“Seriously?Getting Stephen fired because he told me you sleep around?You lied to me!”
Stunned, she inhaled sharply.“I can’t believe you listened to his lies.Not after the time we spent together.I don’t sleep around, and as for getting Stephen fired—”
But Darryn put his fingers on her lips and grimaced.“No more lies, please.I’ve had a good time, let’s leave it at that.”He shook his head.“You took me by surprise.I’ve never…” He frowned and started to turn away.
Hannah grabbed his hand.“Never what?”she asked breathlessly, a faint glimmer of hope looming.Maybe…
He shook off her hand.“Forget it.You are obviously not who I thought you were.”With those words, he turned around and walked away.
“Neither were you,” she got out.He turned back to her and she shrugged.“You left me this morning even before you listened to Stephen’s nonsense.You didn’t have to sneak out, you could have told me you’d had enough.”
“I didn’t—” he began to say, but bit off the words.The next minute he was gone.
*
She heard laterthat morning that Darryn had quit his job to join his brothers in a business venture.He’d left the hotel, the island, her life.
She was numb.Three days ago she’d met this man.She’d given him her body, her soul, and, she realized now, her heart.But he’d walked out this morning without a word of explanation.And then he was quick to believe what Stephen White told him about her.
She wanted to crawl into the nearest hole and cry herself to sleep, but she was flying back to South Africa today.She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and discovered throughout the course of the day that one could actually function quite well with a broken heart.
The one bright spot in her day was that Stephen White was also gone.She heard the other models whispering about it and a few thanked her for getting rid of him.She was not the only one he’d been pestering.
Chapter Two
The present
“Okay, I’m nearlydone.I’ll send the photos in about half an hour,” Darryn said to his brother Don over the phone before he ended the call.
He was working on photos for the new brochures and website for their new hotel close to the Kruger National Park.He’d spent weeks in and around the park to get photographs of the so-called big five—the African lion, the African elephant, the Cape buffalo, the African leopard, and the white and black rhinoceros.
Hunters had coined the phrase “big five” because these animals were so difficult to hunt, and he quickly realized that for his kind of shooting, they also presented a challenge.
They were beautiful creatures, and he could never shoot them with a gun, but with a camera, he could show the world their habitat, portray exactly how magnificent they were.Rhinoceros poaching was a huge problem, and he and his brothers were doing their little bit to try to prevent poachers from getting to these animals, at least, on the land surrounding their hotel.
He turned back to his laptop, and his fingers accidentally touched his keypad.And the next minute a beautiful woman twirling in a tulle skirt filled his screen.Swearing, he stared at her laughing face.
Damn it, he’d inadvertently opened the file with the photos he’d taken of Hannah Sutherland two years ago.
These particular photographs hadn’t been part of the brief that day, so he hadn’t needed to send them on to the client or to Hannah.He also hadn’t needed to keep them on his laptop.He even had a blown-up print of this particular photo.One that he hid behind a cupboard in his bedroom.He should have gotten rid of these photos and of the print a long ago, except…
