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It was time to go back to El Sueño and tell the man who’d sired them that nothing had changed.

He was the same no-good SOB he’d always been, and he was not welcome in their lives.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The flight was short.

“Two hours and a few minutes,” Luca had said. “You can sleep through it.”

That sounded like a fine idea.

Alessandra was exhausted. The past few weeks had taken their toll. Tonight’s awful revelations had added to it.

Sleep, even a couple of hours worth, seemed an excellent plan.

Luca’s plane was luxurious. Leather reclining chairs. Cold drinks. Hot coffee. Sandwiches and chocolates. A pleasant attendant who had met Alessandra many times before.

Still, she couldn’t relax.

Questions whirled through her head.

How badly had Tanner been injured? How was he dealing with not being a STUD anymore? Would he want to see her? According to Chay Olivieri, he did, but maybe he’d only wanted to make sure she’

d returned home safe.

That had been his job, after all. Getting her home safe.

Mostly, though, she kept wondering what she’d say to him.

I sent you a note, but my father made sure it never reached you.

My father told me you’d never tried to contact me.

Easy stuff.

But what about the difficult stuff? Would she be able to keep from flinging herself at him and telling him she loved him?

She’d offered him her heart the last couple of days they’d been together and he’d rejected it. No, she’d never come right out and said she loved him, but every touch, every kiss had surely told him how she felt.

And the brutal thing he’d said to her at the end...

She’d already figured out that it might have been deliberate, to get her on the helicopter and out of harm’s way, but what if she was wrong? What if he’d spoken the awful truth? What if she hadn’t meant to him what he’d meant to her?

What he would always mean to her.

After endlessly going over every possible scenario, she fell into restless sleep, but she woke abruptly less than an hour later.

She looked out the window.

It was dawn. And they were flying over what seemed like a sea of dark green interspersed with occasional dots of blue.

“That’s South Dakota,” the attendant said, leaning over to peer through the window with her. The woman smiled. “We don’t usually take this approach to the airport. You’re getting an extra-special tour. We had to detour a bit to avoid some weather.”

Alessandra nodded. The land below seemed vast and beautiful. Tanner was someplace down there.

Tanner…

“Breakfast?” the attendant asked.