An Impossible Attraction

by Elsa Winckler

  She swallowed. “I can’t talk now, Hannah, I’ve decided to leave for Mahé earlier. We’re about to take off.”

  “Dale told me. I’ll also be in Mahé tonight, I got an earlier flight.”

  Zoe sighed. “Fine, see you later.”

  When the plane finally took off, Zoe relaxed and berated herself. She’d been worried Dale would follow her but realized now how ridiculous she’d been to think that. To him, she was just another conquest.

  Before she’d forced herself out of bed this morning, she’d stared at him for long minutes. She’d wanted to stay so desperately, but she knew what would happen. He was going to scuttle away as soon as he could without looking her in the eye and she didn’t want to see that. Why would he want to stay? He was a Cavallo, for crying out loud; there was no way Dale would’ve wanted to repeat the previous night. He’d had his way with her. Now she’d be out of his system.

  And what about her? Well, if she was quite honest, she’d been hoping for the same thing. But unfortunately she was now afraid one night with Dale Cavallo was never going to be enough. She was very much afraid there was no easy way to get him out of her system.

  She tried to inhale, but her body felt too small all of a sudden. Being with him had been a magically, intensely beautiful experience, one she would never forget.

  But she lived in the real world and what she was feeling, what she’d experienced last night, couldn’t be real. She was just another woman in a long line of women he’d had. There was no way he’d be interested in repeating the experience. She closed her eyes and didn’t bother to brush away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. If he were, he would have been at the airport.

  *

  David broke the silence in the office.

  “So, what’s wrong with the two of you?” he asked and pointed towards Dale and Darryn. “I thought you had a hot double date, but you’ve both been snarling and barking at everyone since early this morning. What happened?”

  “Mind your own damn business,” Darryn growled.

  Before Dale could say anything, the door to their office flew open and Caitlin stormed in.

  “You and you,” she said very quietly, pointing at Dale and Darryn. “What have you done to my sisters?”

  Don appeared behind her, his eyes blazing.

  “What did you do to upset my wife?” he barked.

  “What are you talking about?” Darryn asked, his face closed.

  “Zoe left for Mahé this morning early and Hannah is also on a flight heading for the Seychelles. A week before they were supposed to go. The only reason could be the two of you. So, I repeat, what have you done to them?”

  “I—” Dale began, but Darryn interrupted.

  “Dale and I had dates with two other women,” he said mildly. “So the erratic behavior of your sisters is not our doing.”

  Caitlin stared at Darryn, her eyes mere slits.

  She turned to Dale. “Do you have anything to add?”

  “No, ma’am,” he said. This was clearly not the time to tell her he’d ended up in bed with her sister.

  Caitlin pointed a finger at both of them. “The last time Hannah was in Mahé, she ended up in the hospital. We still don’t know what really happened, but I know she was scared of something. If anything happens to my sisters, and I mean anything, I’m holding the two of you responsible,” she hissed, and turning on her heels, left the office.

  “Well?” Don said. “Anything?”

  Dale got up and grabbed his laptop. He was not going to get any work done in this chaos.

  “I’ll be working at home,” he said and left before Don could say another word. Dale had had enough of inquisitive, meddlesome brothers for one day.

  But Caitlin’s words left him restless and, yes, worried. He’d forgotten about the incident where Hannah had been hurt. All he remembered was his brothers’ crazy behavior. At the time, he hadn’t really paid much attention to what had really happened to Hannah. It was news to him that she’d been scared.

  Hit and run? Yeah, that was what was said, anyway. Someone had nearly run her over, but the car had raced away quickly and was never found. He wondered whether there had been a proper inquiry into the incident.

  He would phone the hotel tonight and make sure the sisters would be escorted if they ventured out. It wasn’t necessary for him to fly out to Mahé. Zoe knew what to look for in the hotels. His secretary had told him she’d arranged everything, but would she be all right?

  Oh, why the hell was he still thinking about Zoe?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zoe stood in the foyer of the hotel. She was waiting for Hannah. They’d managed to have a quick breakfast together this morning. Her sister had promised to show Zoe the nightlife on Mahé tonight, and she couldn’t wait to get out of her room. All that she’d been thinking about since she’d arrived had of course been Dale. And what had happened between them the last time she was in this hotel.

  Zoe rolled her shoulders to try and relax. Why she was so tense, she had no idea. The flight from Cape Town the previous day hadn’t been that long, about seven hours. And because she’d been flying business class, it was actually a very pleasant experience. Normally, she’d be crammed up in economy class with the rest of the working world, but apparently the Cavallos did things differently.

  Before she left, she’d also phoned to ask for a digital copy of the plans of the hotel. Dale’s secretary was out, but the person who answered the phone promised to find out where it was and would email it. She really needed it to get a complete picture of the hotel. According to the contract Dale had signed with Susan, her firm would be responsible for everything—from planning the interior decorating, to getting suppliers, right up to furnishing the hotel. How he figured she’d be able to do that without the plans, she had no idea.

  She wanted to use the time she was here to finalize her proposal. The sooner she could start working on her own, the sooner she could finish and could go on with her life. The one where Dale Cavallo wasn’t getting her hormones into a tizzy every other second.

  Part of the day she’d been resting and the other part she spent looking over the hotel. The setting was, of course, stunning. From the top stories she could see a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the ocean.

  And although she’d never willingly admit it to Dale, the interior was just perfect for a hotel on an exotic island.

  Classy. That was the one word that described all the hotels she’d seen so far. There was nothing ostentatious, in-your-face, about the interiors of the different hotels, but the understated elegance invited, tempted, enticed, excited. As she had come to expect, neutral colours were used, and the big comfortable couches were covered in different hues and different textures of the same colour. Dale obviously knew what he was doing. Which raised the question again—why had he insisted that she become involved?

  At least she was really enjoying this trip. It was giving her a chance to get the much-needed distance from Dale, and she could look at his hotels without his constant hovering.

  This morning she’d been taken to Praslin, the other big island that was part of the Seychelles and had visited the Cavallo hotel there. The ten kilometre by nearly four kilometre island was beautiful, and she’d spent about two hours touring the whole place.

  It was easy to see why the Cavallos had decided to build another hotel there—Praslin seemed to provide a base for excursions to the neighbouring islands, some of which were important sanctuaries nurturing rare species of endemic flora and fauna.

  And she’d fallen in love with the island’s pristine beaches, especially the one called Anse Lazio, which was on the northwestern side. It was apparently rated as one of the ten top beaches worldwide.

  She could see herself spending long, lazy days simply lying on that beach, and spending long, lazy nights making love to… No, damn it, she was not going to go there.

  “Hi.”

  She heard Hannah’s voice and turned around gratefully. She didn�
�t want to spend another minute thinking of what-ifs with Dale.

  She and Hannah burst out laughing. They were wearing very similar outfits, something that happened often. Tonight, they were both wearing grey pants with blue tops.

  “We’ve done it again.” Zoe beamed. “I’m so glad to see a familiar face.” She hugged her sister. “So, where to?”

  Hannah grabbed her elbow and pulled her towards the big doors of the hotel. “I thought we could walk, it’s such a lovely evening and—” Hannah stopped suddenly, her way was blocked by one of the hotel staff.

  The big man bowed in their direction. “Ms. Sutherland, Ms. Sutherland. We are here to escort you—”

  “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.” Hannah smiled. “We are going to the little place just around the corner.”

  He didn’t budge. “That’s fine. But we’ll escort you.”

  “Look, it’s not that we don’t appreciate it, but—”

  “We have no choice,” he said. “Mr. Darryn Cavallo insists and—” he began to explain, but Hannah inhaled sharply and held up her hand.

  “It’s fine. We’ll eat here.”

  She turned and walked towards the restaurant in the hotel. Irritated, Zoe followed her.

  “Why would Darryn have us escorted?” she asked. “And why are we listening to someone who isn’t even here?”

  “Oh, who knows why Darryn Cavallo does anything,” Hannah muttered as they entered the restaurant. “Let’s eat here. The food is best on the island anyway, and the night is young.”

  “Table for two,” she asked at the counter. She gave their name and the maître d’ smiled broadly. “Of course, you are to be our guests anytime you want to eat here.”

  Hannah was about to erupt and Zoe grabbed her hand.

  “Please follow me,” the maître d’ said and led them to a table overlooking the sea.

  “Thank you,” Zoe said. “This is lovely.”

  Hannah sat down, clearly angry. “The bloody man,” she hissed the minute the maître d’ left. “He’s always rude when I’m around, but ever since the car accident last year, he’s forever keeping tabs on me. It’s driving me insane!”

  “Really?” Zoe asked. “I didn’t know that. Why…”

  Hannah grabbed a menu. “Like I said, I don’t know.”

  “Well, it’s nice that they want to pay for dinner,” Zoe said soothingly. “After all, we are family.”

  “It’s okay for you. You’re working for them. But I pay my own way while I’m here. At least until the shoot begins. Then obviously the client will pay.

  “But my staying here doesn’t have anything to do with Darryn. He makes me so mad. Ever since the accident—” she began but shook her head.

  “What really happened?” Zoe asked. “We’ve never talked about it. I was in London at the time and only heard that you were in hospital after the fact.”

  “It’s nothing. Darryn made such a huge thing out of it, but I was fine.”

  “Do you think that’s the reason why he wants us to be escorted around?”

  Hannah sighed. “Darryn and I—” She shrugged and smiled. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Let’s pretend our evening has just started.”

  Zoe looked at Hannah a moment longer. There was something her sister was not telling her. Hannah had always been the more private one and didn’t share as easily as she and Caitlin did. If something was wrong though, or if something bothered her enough, she’d talk about it in her own time.

  “Fine by me. Let’s start with a nice bottle of bubbly, agreed?” She smiled and signaled for a waiter.

  Hannah nodded and her eyes twinkled. “And if they want to pay for our meal, let them pay. We can’t help it if we have expensive tastes, can we?” she said and ordered one of the more expensive bottles of champagne on the menu.

  “Hannah, no.” Zoe giggled. “We can’t.”

  “Oh, yes. We can,” Hannah said. “That will hopefully teach him not to have us followed around and not to insist on paying for everything.”

  “It’s just a pity that we can’t go out in the evenings. I’d have loved to see more of the island at night.” Zoe sighed.

  “Who says we can’t go out?” Hannah asked and lifted an eyebrow. “Told you the night is young. We’ll have a meal, wait until no one is looking and then go out to enjoy the nightlife.” She smiled. “There’s a bar in this same Beau Vallon part of Mahé and it’s open tonight. Just give the protectors Darryn has appointed a chance to relax.” She glanced in the direction of the two security guards. “We say good night, tell them we’re having an early night and when their backs are turned, we slip out.”

  Zoe giggled. “You think it can work? Won’t they be at the front doors?”

  Hannah grinned. “There are other doors. For instance, if you go through the kitchen …”

  “Sounds as if you’ve done it before?”

  Hannah sobered. “I always make sure about all the exits.” She didn’t elaborate but immediately changed the subject.

  Something was going on in Hannah’s life that she didn’t want to talk about. From past experience, Zoe knew it wouldn’t help to keep asking Hannah. When she was ready, she’d tell them what was bothering her.

  *

  “You’re sure you’re not twins?” the one guy asked for the umpteenth time.

  Zoe laughed and shook her head. “No, we’re sisters.”

  She and Hannah had managed to give the security guards the slip by pretending to go back to their rooms. But they stopped the lift on the second floor, took the stairs down and slipped out through the kitchen from where they walked to the nearby bar.

  The two cameramen had joined them a while ago. Apparently, Hannah knew them well. Both were charming and attentive. Really nice. But, even though she’d really tried, there was absolutely no spark. Only one man could turn her on.

  Smiling, she tilted her head to wink at Hannah because she was sure her sister was thinking the same thing. But Hannah’s head was turned away and she was looking over her shoulder.

  When Hannah looked to the front again, her smile was gone. She jumped up. “Thanks guys, but we have to go,” she said and tried a nervous smile.

  Zoe quickly got to her feet. Something was wrong. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Hannah said but glanced over her shoulder again while she fumbled with her purse. She took out several notes and threw them on the table. “Our share, thanks guys!” She grabbed Zoe’s hand.

  “Hannah, what’s wrong?” Zoe asked, stunned at the transformation in her sister.

  Minutes ago she’d been relaxed, laughing, enjoying the evening. Now she was pale and clearly nervous. Something must have spooked her.

  “We have to get back to the hotel as soon as possible. I’ll explain when we get there.”

  The place was packed, new customers were still entering, and they struggled to keep together as they moved towards the entrance. Someone shoved from behind, and Zoe got separated from Hannah.

  “I’ll wait for you outside,” she called out to Hannah, who just nodded while she kept glancing around her.

  Zoe pushed through the people until she was finally outside on the sidewalk. She looked behind her for Hannah but couldn’t see her sister. She walked backwards, lifting herself on her toes to see where Hannah was.

  Finally she saw Hannah’s face in the crowd and she waved. Hannah, clearly relieved, began moving in her direction. Zoe turned around, looking for a place where she could wait for her sister.

  She bumped into someone and turned to apologize, but before she could complete her movement, there was a hand on her back that gave her a forceful push. Gasping, arms flailing, she was propelled forward and fell on her hands and knees among the milling crowd of people. She tried to get up, but someone pushed her again so that she fell on to her side. Then, from behind her, someone gave her a vicious kick and she cried out.

  For the first time, people noticed what had happened and moved to form a circle aro
und her. Hannah came barging through the circle and knelt next to Zoe, tears running down her cheeks.

  “I’m fine.” Zoe winced and sat up. “I’d just like to know who the idiot was who pushed and kicked me—”

  Hannah inhaled sharply and glanced around them. “Can you stand up? We have to get to the hotel as soon as possible.” She pulled at Zoe to help her up.

  “Out of the way, please,” someone with a loud voice ordered the crowd, and the security guard from the hotel and two others stepped through the line.

  “How did you know where we were?” Hannah asked.

  “Mr. Cavallo told us to make certain you’re safe at all times. We followed you here,” the guy said solemnly. “I saw that you didn’t go to your rooms but left through the kitchen.”

  They helped Zoe up and, flanking both her and her sister, moved quickly towards a vehicle that was parked on the sidewalk.

  As they drove the one block towards the hotel, reaction set in and Zoe started shivering. Her hands and knees were burning from the fall, and she was deeply sore where the kick had landed.

  Hannah folded her arms around her. “I’m so, so sorry. I should have known, but I didn’t expect—It was because you were with me that you were harmed.” She sniffled and held on tightly.

  “Hannah, what on earth are you going on about?” Zoe asked and pulled out of her sister’s arms.

  Hannah wiped her cheeks. “What happened back there? That was no accident, Zoe. You were mistaken for me. I thought I saw him. That’s why you were shoved and kicked. He thought it was me.”

  “He? Who are we talking about? What—” But the car had stopped in front of the hotel and their doors were opened. As Zoe climbed out of the car, someone pushed a wheelchair closer.

  She shook her head. “I’m fine. Really. I can walk—” But they ignored her and helped her into the wheelchair.

  Hannah came closer and picked up Zoe’s hands to inspect them. “Look at your hands,” she whispered and sniffled. “Where else are you hurt?”

  “I was kicked,” Zoe said and touched her back. “Ouch,” she exclaimed as a spasm of pain hit her.