He was the photographer, she the model and on a sunny beach on Mahé, she stole his heart. But Darryn isn't ready for the powerful feelings Hannah elicits, so when another photographer implies he's also slept with Hannah, Darryn uses it as the perfect excuse to walk away.
But when they meet again, he can't ignore his instincts—Hannah is in danger. Lies and threats make targets of them both, and faced with a situation of pure terror, Darryn is forced to realize he'll do anything to protect her. And to keep her with him, always...
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“Well, damn it, Hannah is
incapable of two-timing anyone. She doesn’t have a devious bone in her body!
And you should know that!” Caitlin scolded. “She will kill me if I tell you
this, but she funds a charity for war orphans! That’s the kind of person she
is!”
Stunned, Darryn stared at her. He
hadn’t known that about Hannah. Come to think of it, he didn’t know anything
about her life apart from the fact she was a model.
Caitlin stood up as well, glaring
at him. She wiped her wet cheeks, her eyes shooting darts in his direction.
“You could easily have found out anything about Hannah’s life—every detail is
on the Internet. But you jumped to conclusions and probably never even bothered
to ask her side of the story.”
“He knew about her tattoo!”
Darryn shouted.
Caitlin eyes became slits. It was
obvious she knew what he was talking about. “And of course the only way he
could know about it was if he saw it?” she said, not even trying to hide the
sarcasm in her voice.
“Well, yes! I thought…what we had
was special. Damn it, I fell for her. Big time!”
Don snickered. “I knew it!” he
said slapping his knee.
Caitlin stared at Darryn for long
minutes, and then the ghost of a smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “So
that’s what happened. Typical. You freaked out. When you realized how you felt
about her, you freaked out and jumped at the chance to believe the drivel this
Stephen told you. That way you didn’t have to deal with your feelings; you could
just walk away feeling all righteous and indignant—typical Cavallo move by the
way. Am I right?” she asked crossing her arms.
“Hey—I saw the light eventually,”
Don complained with a smile. “And so did David and Dale. It’s just this poor
sod here who doesn’t know what hit him.”
Darryn started pacing. “But the
tattoo—” he began again.
Caitlin grabbed his arm, bringing
him to a standstill “I don’t know how he knew about it, but I can assure you,
he didn’t see it.” She dropped her hand and faced Don again. “I don’t have time
to try to convince your brother of something he should have known to be untrue,
I have to get to Hannah. I should have listened to my gut a long time ago. And
what it’s been telling me is that something is very, very wrong.”
“I’ll go,” Darryn said. “I can go
immediately, whatever I need to do I can do from anywhere. You are a
family—it’s going to take time to get everyone ready, but I can leave right
now. Come when you’re ready. I have a Euro visa, and I can pack quickly.”
“She doesn’t want to see you,”
Caitlin said.
“Well, that’s too damn bad,
because I’m going to see her. I want to know…I need to know she’s safe,” he
ended fiercely.
Caitlin walked up to him, one
finger in the air. “If you do or say anything to upset her, I’ll put both our
mothers onto you,” she threatened.
“I can’t promise you I won’t
upset her,” he said. “But I can promise you I’ll do my best to get to the
bottom of this.”
I
have been reading love stories for as long as I can remember and when I ‘met’
the classic authors like Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry James The Brontë
sisters, etc. during my studies, I was hooked for life.
I
married my college boyfriend and soul mate and after 39 years, 3 beautiful children
and 3 grandchildren, he still makes me weak in the knees. We are fortunate to
live in the picturesque little seaside village of Betty's Bay, South Africa
with the ocean a block away and a beautiful mountain right behind us. And
although life so far has not always been an easy ride, it has always been an
exciting and interesting one!
I
like the heroines in my stories to be beautiful, feisty, independent and
headstrong. And the heroes must be
strong but possess a generous amount of sensitivity. They are of course, also
gorgeous! My stories typically
incorporate the family background of the characters to better understand where
they come from and who they are when we meet them in the story.
Twitter @elsawinckler
Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteWhich of your characters do you feel more connected to? why?
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