Chapter One #3
Dazed, Hannah stared at the door. Surely Darryn wouldn’t believe the idiot? She pressed her ear to the door again, waiting for Darryn to say something, but the only sound was footsteps walking away.
How would Stephen know about her tattoo?
Of course. She and the other models had been talking about their secret tattoos just the other day and Stephen had to have been listening around the corner like he usually did.
She flung open the door, ready to run after Darryn, but the next minute Stephen pushed her back into the room.
“You piece of trash,” he hissed. “You think I’m not good enough for you, but you spend time—”
Hannah didn’t wait for him to finish. She aimed a kick at his groin, and while he was doubling up and cursing, she shoved him out of her room, locking the door behind her.
Her hands still shaking, she took out her phone. This had to stop today. Stephen White should have been fired long ago.
While the phone rang, she swallowed back the sob that was threatening to break loose. Her heart was breaking. The man she’d spent the last few days with, the man she’d lost her heart to within the span of seventy two hours, couldn’t leave the room quickly enough this morning.
After the wonderful time they’d had over the past three days, Darryn had simply gotten up and walked out. The pain just below her heart was unexpected and so fierce she nearly doubled up.
Disillusioned and tired, she sank down on the bed, waiting for her agent to answer the phone.
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 stepped out 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 later that 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.