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wrenched his arm free of her hold and strode toward the tent
without answering. Stunned, she pressed her lips together to keep from shouting
that he was a capricious barracuda and she couldn't stand people who blew hot
and cold. Teel watched him drag the gear into the tent. Hurt and angry, she
kicked at the white sand.
    "What are you doing
here?"
    The terse question made Teel
spin around. Two women stood in front of her shedding scuba gear. Realizing
that the voice was Elise's, Teel assumed that the other woman must be Clare.
    "I was snorkeling,"
Teel explained, keeping her voice flat.
    Their unfriendly stares raked
her coldly. "Oh, is that where Chazz disappeared to?" Clare said.
"I don't recall ever meeting a nun with such a good figure, honey. Or do I
call you, Sister?" The two bikini-clad women laughed, then turned to share
the joke with several men behind them.
    Suddenly an arm
snaked around Teel's waist. She stiffened under Chazz's tight fingers, knowing
his touch and sensing his anger. When she looked up at him, she saw that his
anger wasn't directed at her. Red streaks had appeared on his high cheekbones
and his jaw was clenched as tight as a vise.” Darby is arranging for a plane to
pick you up later this afternoon," he told the others. "I suggest you
get back to the Deirdre and get your gear together."
    "But
Chazz," Elise wailed, "we were going to gamble at the casino tonight.
Did you forget? Besides, Clare and I wanted to shop for some clothes, and I
wanted—" "If you don't make the afternoon plane," he
interrupted, "you'll be stranded here. If you don't pack your things,
Darby will fling them overboard. Good-bye."
    Teel felt almost sorry for the
sulking women and the truculent men, but she couldn't help but be glad that she
wouldn't have to see them again.
    When Chazz took her arm and
led her up the beach, Elise called after them, "Fooling around with a nun
is playing with fire, Chazz—even for you." The high- pitched voice had a
nasty ring to it, but when the others laughed and Chazz turned toward them, a
snarl on his face, they fell silent.
    Chazz and Teel
traversed the beach in silence, but she had trouble controlling her breathing.
Elise's rude words had injected a personal note that quivered between them like
a live wire.
    "Would you like to swim
again?" Chazz's voice was harsh.
    "No." Teel tried and
failed to keep her voice steady. "I think I've had enough sun. I'd like to
go back and lie down."
    "Good idea. I'll get
Darby to bring the dinghy."
    "There's no need. I can swim to the
yacht."
    "No!" Chazz roared.
    "Don't shout at me!" Teel burst out, her chin
jutting up. "Then don't talk like a damn fool."
    Teel stamped her foot on the hot sand. "I was trying to
save Darby the trouble."
    "Don't bother. That's his
job."
    She opened and closed her
mouth, struggling to think of something suitably scathing. "I'll be glad
to leave this beach just to get away from you."
    Chazz turned his
back on her, his neck red, his shoulders stiff. He strode over to the cabana,
reached inside for a two-way radio and spoke into it in terse sentences.
    Chazz stayed with Teel, not
speaking, until Darby came ashore, then he mumbled something incoherent and
strode away up the beach.
    Teel was seething, angry with
both herself and Chazz. She blinked back tears. She wasn't crying because he
was a boor, she told herself, but because she was still a little weak from too
much sun. When she was stronger, she was going to tip him over the side of the Deirdre with an anchor chain
around his neck.
    Darby brought the
still-full lunch basket back with them, shaking his head and muttering that the
chef would be angry. He opened his mouth, studied Teel for a long moment and
finally said nothing for the rest of the short trip to the Deirdre.
    Teel went straight to her
cabin and threw herself facedown on the bed. She only meant to rest a minute,
then rise and shower, but her heavy eyelids closed and sleep took her away.

    Teel's first thought as