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“That’s it?” he asked in a low-pitched grumble. “You’re gonna sleep in your shirt and bra?”
“I’m very comfortable,” she lied, laying her head down on a feather pillow that felt like heaven.
“Right. Whatever.” He blew out a breath, rolled to one side and warned, “Don’t try to leave the room, Deb. I’m a light sleeper.”
“I remember,” she said softly into the silvery darkness. Whether he heard her or not, she couldn’t be sure. And a moment or two later, she didn’t care. She fell into sleep like a rock dropping into a well.
Three
Debbie sighed in her sleep, rolled onto her side and cuddled into the warm, hard body beside her. Her head nestled in the curve of a strong shoulder, she kept her eyes closed despite the wash of light she sensed beyond her eyelids.
Morning, and she wasn’t ready to get up and go to work. Her mind drifted, focused and drifted again. She was just so comfortable she didn’t want to think about moving just yet. She’d much rather—
“Comfy?”
She knew that voice.
Her eyes flew open even as she practically flew back and away from Gabe’s warm, naked body. Amusement colored his features but something deeper flashed in his eyes. Hunger. She recognized it because it was sputtering into dancing flames inside her own body.
“What were you doing?” she demanded, shoving one hand through her hair while she scooted back to the edge of the mattress.
“Sleeping. What were you doing?” One corner of his mouth quirked into a half smile that tugged at Debbie’s insides just as it once had.
God, ten years and he could still make her quiver with a look. What was it about him that she’d never found in anyone else? And how was she going to stay close to him without getting close to him?
What a mess.
“Nothing,” she muttered thickly. “I wasn’t doing anything I was just—nothing.” She slipped out of bed, grabbed up the shorts she’d taken off the night before and tugged them up over her white lace panties. She didn’t feel safe until she had those shorts zipped and buttoned.
For heaven’s sake, she’d been practically laying on top of the man. All cuddled in like she belonged in his arms. He’d felt strong and warm and…safe. But hey, a person couldn’t be held responsible for what they did in their sleep, could they?
He propped himself up on one elbow and the thick white duvet fell down his body to puddle just at his hips. Debbie closed her eyes tight and prayed he wouldn’t move any more. She just wasn’t up to another peek at a naked Gabe.
He grinned then, as if he knew just what she was thinking.
“If you’re interested in a little morning wake-up, all you have to do is say so.”
“I’m not interested, but thanks for the generous offer,” she quipped, and hoped to heaven her voice didn’t sound as shaky as it felt. “That—” she waved one hand at him “—didn’t mean anything and you don’t have to look so pleased with yourself.” She swung her hair back from her face and tried to look a lot more self-controlled than she felt at the moment. “I was sleeping. Didn’t realize that was you next to me and—”
“Ah.” He interrupted her again and threw back the duvet in one easy motion.
Debbie swallowed hard, but refused to close her eyes. She wasn’t going to let him know that his nudity bothered her.
Man, he looked really good.
“So what you’re saying,” he continued as he stood and stretched lazily, “is that in your sleep, you’ll snuggle up to whatever warm body’s available?”
“Yes.” She frowned, distracted by the play of golden sunlight over his bronzed, rippled chest and abdomen and his hard and ready—don’t look. “No. That’s not what I—” She blew out a breath, forced herself to keep her gaze locked with his. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Is that wrong?” He grinned at her.
Debbie crossed her arms over her chest and tapped the toe of one foot against the gleaming hardwood floor. “Yes. All of this is wrong.”
Staring at her, he reminded her, “You were the one cozying up to me, Deb. Wasn’t the other way around.”
“I’m not talking about that,” she snapped, then sighed heavily. “Do you mind getting dressed?”
“Am I making you nervous?”
She smirked at him. Not for all the money in the world would she admit to him that he wasn’t making her nervous at all—he was making her very…needy. “No. It’s just not easy holding a conversation with a naked man.”
One eyebrow lifted. “We don’t have to have a conversation…” “Oh, yes we do.” Fine. If he wouldn’t get dressed, she’d turn around. No point in making herself crazy by trying to avoid staring at all of that tanned, muscled skin. No tan lines, either. God. Did he sunbathe naked, too? Oo-oh. She closed her eyes and muffled a groan at the mental image rising up in her brain.
To cool herself off, to try to gather up the tattered threads of rational thought, she started talking again. “Last night, I agreed to come here because I didn’t want to stay in the jail.”
“So?”
“So…” Debbie stared at the painting on the pale blue wall opposite her. A beach scene at sunset, with deep, rich colors streaming across a canvas sky and drizzling onto ocean waves whipped by an unseen wind. “So how long do I have to stay here?”
She heard him moving around the room behind her and only hoped that getting dressed was part of his game plan.
“That depends.”
“On?”
“On how long it takes for you to be cleared of suspicion.”
“Oh, come on, Gabe.”
When he didn’t answer, she whirled around, saw that he’d pulled on those silky pajama bottoms, and blew out a grateful breath. Then she followed him as he walked out onto the tiled terrace off the bedroom.
The shining red tiles felt cold beneath her bare feet, but the sun was already climbing in a cloudless blue sky. In the distance, the ocean stretched out in front of the resort and flashes of colored sails on swift-moving boats caught her eye. Directly below them and to the left was a golf course, so deep and rich a green it almost hurt to look at it, and on the right, stone paths wound through carefully tended shrubs and flowers, leading to the pool area and the beach beyond.
“This place is amazing.”
He swiveled his head to look at her. A brief smile curved his mouth then disappeared an instant later. “Thanks. I like it.”
She smiled and shifted her gaze to the sweep of green where a couple of early golfers were steering a red-and-white cart down a path. “You used to talk about having a place like this. Remember?”
She flicked a glance at him in time to see his smile fade and a shutter drop over his eyes. “I remember. Look, Deb. I’m not interested in a forced march down memory lane, all right?”
“Yeah, sure.” His instant withdrawal stung a little. But could she blame him?
He pushed off the railing, walked into his bedroom and threw words back over his shoulder like crumbs to a hungry pigeon. “I’ll contact the authorities in Bermuda. See if they’ve got any more information on the jewel thief.”
“Gabe, you know that’s not me. Right?”
He stopped and glanced at her. “Doesn’t matter what I know, Deb. All that matters is what you can prove.”
“How’m I supposed to prove I’m innocent?”
Nodding, he acknowledged, “Good question. You should get to work on that right away.”
“Aren’t you going to help me?”
“I’m letting you stay with me.”
She shot a look at the mile-wide bed and then looked at him again. “Yeah, about that. Is there a guest room—”
He laughed. “Why in the hell would I bother to have a guest room in my suite?” Shaking his head, he waved both arms and reminded her, “I live in a hotel, Deb. All the rooms here are guest rooms.”
Good point. “Okay, let me have my old room then.”
“No can do.” He opened the top drawer of a sleek, polished dresser, pulled out a pair of black boxers, then slammed the drawer closed again. “As long as you’re here, you’re my responsibility. You stay where I can keep an eye on you or you go back to jail. You choose. Right now, I’m gonna grab a shower, then get to work.”
She really hated this. Hated that she was caught up in something she couldn’t control. Hated that she needed Gabe and really hated that he was so getting a charge out of giving her a hard time over it. And she hated knowing that she sort of felt safe with Gabe. She wasn’t nearly as scared as she should be, because Gabe was right here, snarling at her. And looking way too sexy.
But she had no other choice. No way was she going back to jail. So she’d have to find a way to stay with Gabe without giving in to the feelings he could still inspire in her.
Sure.
No problem.
Oh, she was in serious trouble here.
“Fine,” she said on a deep breath. “I’ll stay.”
“Glad that’s settled. Call downstairs. They probably brought your bags from the airport last night.”
“Okay, then what?”
He shrugged. “Take a shower. Get dressed.”
“And then?”
“Hell if I know.”
He turned to walk into the huge bathroom jutting off the master bedroom and stopped when she called, “But what am I supposed to do about all this?”
He sighed and said, “I’ll make some calls later. See what I can find out.”
“Thanks.”
He didn’t answer, just walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Alone again, Debbie looked around the empty room and wondered just how long she was going to be a prisoner in this palace.
* * *
“Jewel thief?” Janine’s voice shrieked over the phone line and Debbie felt better just hearing her friend’s fury. “Is he crazy? You’re no thief.”
Smiling, Debbie leaned back in her chair and took her first easy breath since being stopped at the airfield the day before. It was good to hear someone else’s belief in her. “Thanks.”
“Everybody knows you’re too clumsy to be a jewel thief,” Janine added. “You’d never make a living.”
Debbie scowled at the phone in her hand and muttered, “Thanks again.”
“Well, come on,” Janine said on a laugh now, “you’ve gotta admit, jewel thieves have to be sneaky. You trip over your own feet.”
“Okay,” Debbie said, hoping to cut short Janine’s amusement. “But let’s pretend the authorities don’t know that I’m a clod and figure out how I can prove to them that I’m not this thief they’re looking for.”
The restaurant by the beach was, as with most everything else at Fantasies, done in a red-and-white decor. White tables shone in the sunlight, red carnations sprouted from white vases in the center of every table. The servers wore Hawaiian-print shirts, also in red and white, and the crowd around Debbie was relaxed, celebratory.
As she had been only a few days ago.
That was, until she’d been arrested.
“Oh, God.” Debbie stifled a groan.
“Right, right. But whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
“Wish I knew.”
Janine heaved a sigh that carried all the way from Long Beach to the beachside restaurant on Fantasies. “You say the owner of the resort is helping you?”
“That’s what he says,” Debbie told her, but privately she wondered. Gabe had no reason to be kind to her.
But she’d done what she’d believed she had to do to save both of them from more pain further down the road back then. Did she wish things could have been different? Of course. But that didn’t change a damn thing, did it?
“You don’t think he is?”
“I don’t know.” Debbie grabbed her glass of iced tea, took a long drink to ease the tightness in her throat and kept her gaze focused on the beach, so she didn’t have to look at any of the other people seated in the restaurant. “I really don’t.”
She took a breath and blew it out in a rush. “Janine, it’s Gabe.”
A second passed, then…
“What? Gabe? You mean the owner? Gabe?”
“Yes, yes and yes.”
“Oh, crap.”
“Exactly.” Debbie traced the tip of one finger through the water ring her iced tea had left on the glass tabletop.
“Is he still mad?” Janine asked.
“He says no.”
