Chapter Two
The present
“Okay, I’m nearly done. 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…
Staring into her beautiful blue eyes, he could vividly remember every single second he’d spent with her. He still had explicit dreams of their lovemaking, of her long limbs entwined around him, his whole being immersed in her scent.
When he’d walked out of Hannah’s life and away from his job as a fashion photographer, he figured he’d never see her again in the flesh. Her face would be everywhere—she was the new darling of the catwalks, of magazines, after all. Her picture graced covers, posters, even lit up some buildings.
He never meant to buy all the magazines with her on the cover and was amazed by the stack in his bedroom.
And then, in a cruel twist of fate, two of her sisters and one of their best friends were now married to his three brothers!
It was so bizarre. He had still been trying to come to grips with the fact that his big brother Don had fallen for Caitlin, Hannah’s older sister, when Dale started acting all weird and out of sorts, until he put his ring on Zoe, the other sister.
And if that hadn’t been enough, David had found his soul mate in Dana, Caitlin’s best friend.
Uncomfortable, Darryn shifted on his chair.
After all this time, after everything he knew about her, Hannah still managed to get him all hot and bothered.
He still couldn’t believe she’d slept with Stephen White, of all people.
There had been times over the past two years when he’d wondered if the guy had told him that out of spite, but then he remembered the damn tattoo.
There was no way anyone could know about the tiny butterfly without having seen it.
Ever since he’d joined Don and his brothers at the firm, he’d made a conscious effort to date as many women as possible in the hope he’d find at least one who might pique his interest. But to no avail. None of them had been able to even vaguely interest him, let alone make him forget Hannah.
And ever since Don and Caitlin came together, family meetings tended to include the Sutherlands as well, and that meant Hannah was suddenly part of his life.
He still wanted her. Despite knowing she hadn’t been honest when she’d said she never slept with photographers. The fact that she’d jumped into bed with Stephen bloody White wasn’t something he could get his head around. The guy was plain creepy.
He had tried to warn Don and Dale not to trust the Sutherland sisters.
Of course, nobody listened to him, and he had grudgingly come to realize just how wrong he had been about his new sisters-in-law—they were in a league of their own.
And this, of course, led him to wonder whether he’d been correct in his assessment of Hannah.
But how else would the guy know about the tattoo?
He was desperately trying to hang onto his anger and hurt; he kept reminding himself she was not who he’d initially thought, but his body completely ignored all his rational arguments.
Whenever he got close to her, his cave instincts kicked in, and he wanted to protect, to possess, to claim, to kiss. Damn it to hell, what was it with this woman?
The more he saw of Hannah, the more he realized he liked her. She was quiet, listened rather than talked, and really cared about her family, about his family. The only time her smile slipped was when her gaze landed on him.
Watching his brothers was not helping his frustration. They were all blissfully happy.
Sickeningly so. They all obviously adored their wives. And he had started to look forward to the many family gatherings. He liked his new sisters-in-law and had become a huge fan of Brenda, the mother of the three sisters.
Could he have been wrong? Maybe he should do what he should have done two years ago and ask Hannah about the whole thing.
Frowning, he closed the file. That was, if he saw her again. She hadn’t been around over the last few months. She hadn’t even gone to David’s wedding to Dana. And damn it to hell, he missed her!
And the strange accidents that kept happening around her had him on edge. Every single time he heard that Hannah had been in or near an accident, his heart seemed to stop. It scared the living daylights out of him that something might happen to her.
At first he’d thought she was just careless, but he was worried enough to ask security to make sure she didn’t leave the hotel unattended while she was on the island of Mahé in the Seychelles.
And of course, she and Zoe managed to ditch them and slip away.
That was the night Zoe had nearly been trampled by a crowd.
And he then realized there was more to it than what Hannah wanted to reveal.
He’d asked her sisters; they were as worried as he was, but she hadn’t told them anything he didn’t know about.
Shrugging, he opened the file he was supposed to be working on. She was probably being wined and dined by some billionaire.
But half an hour later, he was still staring at the computer screen, not having done a thing.
*
With trembling fingers, Hannah locked the door of her Paris apartment behind her when she got in and, frantically pulling the scarf from around her neck, leaned against the front door for a moment.
The despair she kept pushing away soared to the surface and, for the first time in two years, the tears she’d been battling to keep down spilled over.
It was never going to stop. When Stephen White had threatened he to make her life a living nightmare two years ago, he hadn’t been joking.
What he’d failed to mention at the time was that she would never feel safe again. And, as she had discovered to her horror, neither would people close to her or even colleagues who happened to have a similar build to hers.
Poor, poor Sophie. How was she to know the reason she’d been shoved in front of a car and nearly run over was because she had been mistaken for Hannah?
Hannah and three other models had just finished a shoot and were crossing the road. They were all dressed in jeans, white T-shirts, and bright yellow scarves. Sophie, who had a very similar build to Hannah, had been walking slightly in front of the rest of them.
Hannah had bent down to adjust her shoe when she heard Sophie’s scream and the sound of a car skidding to a stop. She looked up just in time to see Sophie’s yellow scarf falling, falling, falling.
And she immediately knew what had happened. Stephen had to be around and had mistaken Sophie for her. That was why Sophie had been shoved in front of the car. If the driver hadn’t swerved…
Hannah tried to control herself, but a sob escaped, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Inhaling through her nose, she concentrated on her breathing, desperately trying to remember something, anything good.
She missed her sisters, missed her mother, missed her new brothers-in-law, and she missed South Africa. But while Stephen was out to hurt her in any way possible, she’d been staying as far away from them as possible.
She hadn’t even tried to attend Dana’s wedding to David Cavallo. Although Dana was her sister’s Caitlin’s best friend, she had become like a sister to all of them. Stephen would have known about it, and he would have been waiting at the airport as he’d been doing for the past two years.
She still wasn’t sure how he managed to always know where she would be, but she could assume he still had contact with some of the models. It could also be that he still had contact with Darryn Cavallo.
Darryn. Another sob threatened to escape, and she gulped in deep breaths. After all this time, she was still shocked that Darryn had chosen to believe what Stephen had to say about her, even after they had spent the most wonderful, earth-shattering days and nights of passion together.
It had to be the irony of all ironies that two of her sisters were now married to two of his brothers. Suddenly, he was part of her life again.
And even though he obviously still believed Stephen’s lies about her, he kept kissing her. Like the time in the airport on Mahé and while he was dancing with her during her sisters’ weddings. How was she supposed to understand such a man?
Hannah slowly got up and, still shivering, walked to her room. Sleep was nearly impossible nowadays and tonight she would not be able to close her eyes. All she could see was the yellow scarf falling, falling, falling.
She left her phone on the bedside table, pulled off her jeans, and crept under the duvet.
After she realized Stephen was, in fact, stalking her, she’d changed her phone number frequently, but he always had his way of finding out what it was, so she’d stopped changing it, and now she simply never answered calls from an unknown number.
Her eyes closed. In slow motion, the afternoon scene replayed itself in her mind’s eye. It had been such a lovely day and a fun-filled shoot. For a few minutes she’d actually forgotten about Stephen and his threats.
It was time to get security or something. She kept hoping Stephen would find someone else to bother, but she had now finally realized he wasn’t going to stop of his own accord.
Another sob escaped, and she sat up just as her phone started ringing.
It was her sister Caitlin. She probably shouldn’t answer, because Caitlin would immediately know something was wrong.
But if she didn’t pick up, her sister would worry.
Hannah inhaled deeply, put a smile on her face, and answered the phone.