Page 35 of Nothing to Do

“He’s a creative. All creative people are dramatic.”

“Dramatic shouldn’t be traumatic.”

“Maybe we could visit him,” Lark said, ignoring her to address Zane. “He might like that.”

Alessia leaped to her friend’s side. “Yeah!”

“No.” And she couldn’t be any clearer. “Mr. Dyce was just leaving; he wouldn’t want us to be late for dinner.”

“He could join us and—”

“No,” she said, firm when her gaze touched his. “He has his own arrangements to make.” Like for their departure. Ideally, their speedy departure. “Thank you for the apology, Mr. Dyce.”

Alessia leaned in. “You know, if you and him were like—”

“Alessia, go pick a dress.”

Her sister huffed but went to the bed with Lark.

“I’m not done with us,” Zane murmured.

“Get the message. Go home. Have someone let us know when the plane will be departing… please.”

And with that, she went to join her sister, giving him no choice but to go. The man didn’t need her or her sister. Maybe he’d call this one a loss, she was chalking it up to experience. Alessia’s safety was her purpose. For a minute, she’d forgotten that. Never again.

FOURTEEN

“YOU WERE RUDE,” Alessia whispered to her.

They’d made it to their table for dinner. The problem was the two other people at it with them. She wouldn’t cause a scene, but she really was ready for the conversation to change.

“It’s not as simple as that.”

“It is.” Alessia just wouldn’t take the hint. “That guy came to our room for you. Do you have any idea how many people would love to get five minutes of Zane Dyce’s time? How many people would die if he knew their name?”

“Wealth and popularity don’t account for everything,” she said. “Though he is being kind enough to facilitate our early departure.”

“An early…? Why would he do that? Did he ask us to leave? Why would he—”

“Because I asked him. It’s not safe here, Alessia. You shouldn’t be around men like Roman Lowe.”

“Since when were you so judgmental? I don’t want to leave.”

“Leave?” Lark piped up from Alessia’s other side. “Who’s leaving?”

“We are,” she said. “And anyone is welcome to join us.”

“We’re not leaving.” Her sister was adamant. “I’m not leaving anyway; you can go wherever you want.” Servers came over with the food providing a reprieve. Brief though it was. “I’m staying.”

Why didn’t her sister understand she was protecting her? “I came here to look out for you and look what happened.We’re in a confined space with a man willing to exploit the environment. If I tell Mom—”

“Mom wanted me to come. She wants me to live my life.”

“I want you to live your life too, but with options. Here you have no choice but to take crap like what happened last night. We have no escape option here, nowhere to go if things take a nosedive.”

Again.

Alessia picked up her wine. “You can escape if you want, I don’t want.”

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