“You knew,” she said. “You knew earlier today that the authorities caught that jewel thief in Bermuda.” She stopped, took a breath and accused, “Were you going to tell me?”

Gabe shrugged. “No. I wasn’t. Not yet, anyway.”

“What is wrong with you?” she shouted, and balled up the paper in one fist before throwing it at him. The crushed paper bounced off his chest and onto the floor.

There was more than anger in her eyes. There was hurt and the sting of betrayal. “Because I didn’t want you gone yet.”

“Why?” She whispered the word. “You at least owe me that much. Why?”

“You already know the answer to that.”

“Right,” she said, nodding slowly. “To punish me. So why are you telling me this now? Letting me go now?”

Why did she have to look so damned good? Why was her voice so soft, her eyes so wide and beautiful? Why did he keep remembering how good they used to be together?

And why didn’t he just stick to the subject at hand?

He shrugged, pulled his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms over his chest. “What difference does it make? You want to leave. I want you gone. We finally agree.”

“Why the big change of heart all of a sudden?”

“God, you’re like a pit bull with a bone.”

“And that’s not an answer.”

“You want an answer? Here it is. Game over, that’s all. I’m done with you and I want you gone.”

She actually winced and he felt an answering ache inside him. Just another reason for her to go. He didn’t want to feel for her. Didn’t want to care what she was feeling, thinking.

“So the king has spoken.”

“Basically.”

“Great.” She scraped her hands up and down her arms as if she were suddenly cold. “So you’ve gotten your jollies, kept me prisoner here long enough that my business will probably go belly-up and-”

He jumped on that statement. “You haven’t changed a bit, you know that?” He stopped, looked at her for a long second as a small, niggling doubt took hold in his mind. “Is that why you really came here?”

“What’re you talking about?” Her voice was tight, strained, as if she were desperately trying not to shout.

“You. Your precious business. Your thing with security above all else.” He smiled, but it felt like more of a grimace. “You knew I owned this place when you came here, didn’t you?”

“Oh, sure.” Nodding, she looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “I deliberately set myself up to be held prisoner.”

“Why not?” He was thinking now, one thought after another screaming through his brain, and the more he thought of it, the more it all made a twisted sort of sense. “Your business was in the toilet before you came here, wasn’t it? Hell, that’s why you came here. You were going to use me to save you.”

“I what?”

“Why else?” He asked the question, but didn’t expect an answer. Now that this had occurred to him, it all made a sort of bizarre sense. And, hey, no more twinges of guilt for him. She’d come here with a purpose. He’d just been able to use her before she could use him.

He shoved his hands through his hair, scraping it back from his face before letting them fall to his sides again. “You figured to somehow cash in on our past to save your future.”

“Are you crazy? I didn’t know you were here. I didn’t know my business was going to get into trouble. I didn’t-”

“And I’m supposed to believe you?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Debbie argued. “Have I once asked you for anything except the right to leave?”

He didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to believe that she was telling the truth. It was easier to tell himself that Debbie had tried to run her own scam.

“You’ve been playing me since the beginning.” It made sense. It was logical. And besides, if it were true, then he really did have nothing to feel guilty about.

“You’re not serious about this.”

“Oh, yeah,” he assured her, “I am.”

“Then I’m a bigger idiot than I thought I was.”

The expression on her face was a blend of disappointment, regret and anger. Her eyes shone with unshed tears and he was coward enough to be grateful she was holding them back. He didn’t want to see her cry. He didn’t want to know he’d hurt her. Didn’t want to have to regret another thing about Debbie Harris.

He just wanted his life back.

The way it had been before she’d returned and made him think about what-might-have-beens.

“We’re done, Deb. Let it go.”

“Right. You know what, Gabe?” she said finally, her voice so soft it was almost lost in the howl of the wind slapping at the windows. “I feel sorry for you.”

“Oh, please.”

“I do. You’ve got everything you ever wanted,” she said, waving both hands to encompass the suite, the resort, all of it. “But you can’t see beyond it. You think I’m the one who’s focused on success? It’s you now, Gabe. All you can think about is this place.”

“And that makes me different from you how?”

“Because I wouldn’t use you-and you did use me.” Her bottom lip quivered, but she made a steely effort to firm it. “You lied to me. Made me think I was about to be arrested. Held me against my will. Took me to bed and made me think-” She stopped suddenly and then added again, “You used me.”

He walked toward her and stopped within arm’s reach from her. He closed his hands into fists at his sides to keep from grabbing her, because damn if he didn’t want to be holding her. “We used each other.”

“You keep thinking that,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “But the truth is, all of this was your doing, Gabe. I would never have asked you for anything for my business. See, I discovered something while I was here. I wasn’t going to tell you-God knows it surprised the heck out of me. But now, I want you to know. Want you to know that this time, it’s you walking away.”

Looking into her eyes tore at him, but he told himself that it was all an act. She’d come here to use him, and she was pissed she hadn’t been able to pull it off. “Say what you have to say, then.”

“I love you.”

He choked out a short laugh and felt those three words slam into what used to be his heart with a force that rocked him on his heels. He kept his expression blank, his eyes shuttered, despite the fact that he felt as though he were reeling. “You expect me to believe that.”

“Nope, I don’t. Like I said, it surprised me, too, when I realized it. You haven’t exactly been Prince Charming over the last week, in case you hadn’t noticed. You’re irritating, infuriating and downright cranky most of the time. And for some strange reason, I love you anyway, so color me stupid. If you think I’m thrilled by this, you’re way wrong. Especially at this moment,” Debbie said, shaking her head again as she stared up at him. “I don’t expect anything from you, Gabe. I just wanted you to know. Ten years ago, I walked away-and it’s something I’ve always regretted. But today, you’re the one turning your back and I want you to remember that.”

“Fine. I’ll remember.” Damn if he didn’t know that this moment would replay over and over again in his mind for years. But he’d learn to live with it. Because he wasn’t going to take a chance again. Wouldn’t allow himself to love again.

“Now,” he asked, “don’t you have some packing to do?”

“Yeah. I do,” she said. “I’ll pack and leave in the morning.”

“Great.”

“Fine.”

He stared at her and told himself to take a long look because once she’d left the island, he wouldn’t be seeing her again. So he carved her image into his brain. Her sleepy eyes, her lush mouth, her tumbled hair and the thin strap of her tank top dipping off one shoulder.

And the echo of three little words still hung in the air between them like a tattered pennant that neither warring army could claim.

Debbie woke up to a furious storm rattling the windows. The wind shrieked under the penthouse eaves and whistled as it spun around the edges of the building. She stared out the windows openmouthed and watched tall, somehow elegant palm trees bend nearly in two. Their lacy fronds were tattered and torn by the force of the storm and rain lashed at the resort as if heaven had been storing water for decades only to dump it in one fell swoop.

“So,” she murmured. “No leaving today.”

She turned around and looked at the empty suite and wondered, not for the first time, just where Gabe had spent the night. He’d left the suite at the end of their latest blistering argument and she wondered if he’d gone looking for female company.

“Isn’t that a lovely thought?” She tells him she loves him and he heads off to find anyone else. What a fabulous life she was leading. And now, she was in a storm that looked like the one Dorothy and Toto had starred in.

The resort tower almost seemed to sway in the buffeting winds and a chill snaked quickly along Debbie’s spine. This couldn’t be good.

When the phone on the bar rang, she nearly sprinted across the room to grab it. “Hello?”

“You okay?”

“Gabe. Yeah. I’m fine. Where are you?”

“In my office. I stayed here last night.”

Ridiculous to feel the relief that was sweeping through her. But there it was.

“Your flight’s been cancelled,” he added unnecessarily.

She turned around to look out the windows across the room from her and said, “Yeah, I figured that out. What’s going on?”

“Hurricane,” he said. “Was supposed to pass us by, but it looks like its shifting direction.”

Scowling, she said, “You knew I wouldn’t be able to leave, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“That’s why you were so accommodating last night.” She should have known Gabe wouldn’t give in so easily. “You knew the hurricane was coming.”

“What am I, a weatherman, now?” he argued. “For God’s sake, Debbie, believe it or not, you’re not at the top of my list of worries at the moment.”

“What’s going on?” she asked, forgetting about the spurt of anger as she reacted to the concern in his voice.

“I’ve got a hotel full of people to protect. People who want to get off the island almost as much as you do, and nobody’s going anywhere.”

“Can I help?”

There was a long pause, as if he were surprised by the offer. Then he said, “Yeah. You could, actually. The staff is gathering up the guests, taking them into the main club room. It’s the most easily protected. If you could help keep people calm…”

“I’ll go now,” she said, tearing her gaze from the wind-whipped scene outside.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

And all it had taken, she thought, for the two of them to be polite to each other was a natural disaster.

Gabe lifted both hands for quiet and waited while the muttering and shouting slowly died away. He couldn’t blame any of these people for being a little on the hysterical side, but it surely wasn’t helping the situation any. Then he looked out over the crowd of people and started talking. He kept his voice pitched just a bit over normal, knowing that people were more likely to keep quiet in an attempt to hear him.

“I know you’re all anxious and you’d like to leave…”

“The storm isn’t here yet,” a man in the back of the room shouted. “Why can’t the planes leave before it arrives?”

Several others took up that refrain and Gabe was forced to wait again until they all settled down.

“The airfield was closed late last night as the winds began gaining in strength. The planes left while they still could.”

“We’re trapped, you mean?” A woman’s voice carrying the rising edge of hysteria called the question out.

“Not trapped,” Gabe said, smiling widely now, hoping to instill confidence. “Stuck. But at least,” he added, “you’re here at Fantasies, where your comfort is the main concern. We’ve got plenty of supplies. The hotel staff will be setting up cots here in the club and the chefs will keep us all well fed. All we really have to do is settle in and wait it out.”

“For how long?” another man at the side of the room said.

Gabe spotted him and aimed a look right at him. “For as long as it takes. The weather reports still aren’t sure exactly where the hurricane is heading. At the moment, it could keep on course for Fantasies or sheer off.”

“And if it hits here?” a woman demanded, and Gabe sighed.

He searched the faces of the people looking to him for reassurance. These people were his guests. They’d come here to his home, looking for some fun, relaxation and a good time. Now they were being forced to face something none of them wanted to think about. And they were his responsibility. It was up to him to keep them all safe and calm and as happy as possible.

“If it hits,” Gabe said, keeping his voice easy, casual, “then we’ll deal. The resort is as safe a place as you’ll find. And we’re going to make it safer.”