“You’ll excuse me?” he said to Summerset.
As Summerset left the room, she set down the wine with the slightest tremor in her hand. “I feel absolutely dreadful about this. I just…Roarke, I’ve been out of town for the last two days, only just got back. But I heard-and saw. I tried to contact you before I left, as soon as I…But-”
“I’ve been busy.”
“Avoiding me,” she said with those tears in her voice. “I wasn’t sure you’d see me at all. Damn paparazzi. They should all be hanged.”
“Even they have to make a living.”
“But to imply something so completely innocent was…was something illicit. We should sue them. But, of course, that only makes it worse. I know, I know.” She lifted a hand, waved it distractedly. “I can’t imagine how upset you are. And your wife. Is she very angry?”
He angled his head. “What do you suppose?”
“In her place, I’d be furious! They made it look as if we were…We were only saying good-bye. You and I know, Roarke, we were only saying good-bye.”
“We do yes, and we were.”
“Perhaps if I tried to explain to her. Is she here? I could try-”
“You’d already know she isn’t here.”
Magdelana closed her swimming eyes. Regroup, he thought. Reconfigure.
“All right, yes. I admit it. I wanted to speak to you alone first, so I called downtown. They said she was in the field, so I came right over. God, I’m such a coward.” She touched her fingers to her lips. “But if it would help, even a little, I’d try to explain to her.”
“I think not. She’s perfectly aware of the circumstances.”
“Oh. Good. Good. What a relief.”
“Perfectly aware that you set it up, that you staged it, and paid the camera to get the vid out.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. That’s…Roarke.” She said his name with a soupçon of injured feeling, just the right addition to shock. “How could you possibly think I’d do something like that? I understand you’re angry and upset-so am I-but to accuse me of deliberately trying to hurt you and your wife. For what purpose?”
It was hardly a wonder they’d done so well, professionally speaking, in the months they’d worked together. She was brilliant. “I’d say the amusement would be quite enough for you.”
“That’s a despicable thing to say to me.” She picked up the wine again. “Absolutely despicable.”
“Do you think I can’t track down the camera, that I can’t bribe well enough to learn all the details? You underestimate me, Maggie.”
She carried her wine to the window, stood with her back to him. “No. No,” she said quietly. “I could never underestimate you. Maybe I wanted you to know. Knew you would, in the end. It’s you who underestimate me, Roarke, my feelings for you. My regret.” And looked over her shoulder. “My desire. I admit it. I’m not proud of what I did, but I won’t be ashamed either. I did what I thought I needed to do. I’d have done anything to get you back. Nothing else matters to me. Only being with you again.”
He waited a beat. “Bollocks.”
“How can you mock my feelings?” She threw the wine down, shattering the glass. “How dare you when I stand here, stripped bare?”
“I’m not mocking them, I’m clearly saying you haven’t any feelings. You never did, for me or for anyone but yourself.” He let out a half-laugh. “Took me longer to get to that than it should have.”
Then even that half-laugh was gone, and he was ice. “You came here, to New York, to test the waters. I have a great deal more than I once had, and you hoped for a piece of it. She saw through you, you know. The first look.”
Magdelana tossed her head, strode toward him. “And from the first look at you again, I saw she had you under her thumb. How that made me laugh! The rich and powerful Roarke, tamed and trained by a skinny cop with no style or beauty.”
“Odd. From where I’m standing, she has more style, more beauty, and-Christ knows-more class than you can ever claim.”
He didn’t so much as flinch when she slapped him. “You won’t want to do that again,” he said, softly enough to have her lower her hand.
“Roarke-”
“It’s you who wanted to put a leash on me, Maggie, who thought she could just by snapping fingers. And when I didn’t go to heel you did what you could to cause trouble for me and my marriage, to hurt my wife.”
“So what if I did? It’s just a game. You used to have a sense of humor, but apparently she’s whipped that out of you, too.”
“You’ll never understand her, or me. You’ll never understand what we have. More pity for you, you’ll never have it. You’re not capable. So here’s how this plays now. Listen carefully: You’ll never step foot in my home again, or in any of my other properties or businesses-which includes every hotel, transportation system, shop, restaurant, and so forth that I own or have majority interest in. There are quite a number of them.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. You can’t block me from-”
“I can,” he corrected, so coolly her color ebbed. “I will. You’re going to leave New York, and in fact, the country, within three hours.”
“You can’t control the whole damn country,” she shot back.
“Actually, I’d give that a good try, if only to watch you sweat. But, I don’t need to. If you’re not gone, well gone, within those three hours beginning…” He checked his wrist unit. “…now, Interpol and Global will receive some very interesting and very detailed information on you.”
This time, she went dead white. “You’d betray me that way?”
“Again, listen carefully. I’d crush you like a bug for causing my wife one single moment of pain. Believe it. Fear it.”
“If you tried anything like that, I’d take you down with me.”
This time he smiled. “You could try. I’m so much more than you, you’d never pull it off. And Maggie, you’d find the accommodations in prison very limiting, and not at all to your taste.”
He saw her lips tremble before she managed to firm them. He saw her absorb the shock of the truth. The she shrugged, carelessly. “I don’t need you. I never did.” She strolled away, circling the room. “I only thought we might have some fun together, but obviously you don’t know how to play anymore.”
“The clock’s ticking,” he warned her.
She whirled around. “I prefer Europe any way. New York bores me. You bore me.”
She saw the flash of headlights strike the window glass, and changed tack instantly. “Oh, what the hell.” She let out a robust laugh. “You found me out, shut me down. No point in whining about it. Time to cut my losses and move on. Plenty of fish to fry.”
She looked at him, smiled. “I’ll never understand how you could possibly want her and not me.”
“No, you’ll never understand it.”
She stepped forward as if to pick up the fur she’d tossed over a chair. Smoothly, she turned to hand it to him. And with perfect timing, flung herself into his arms.
The sable fell as he took her shoulders to shove her back.
Eve stepped to the doorway to see Magdelana with her arms locked around Roarke’s neck, his hands on her bare shoulders-one of the ivory straps sliding to her elbow.
“Son of a bitch,” she said.
On cue, Magdelana spun around, her face full of passion and shock. “Oh, God. Oh…it’s not what it looks like.”
“Bet.” Eve strode in.
Actually, Roarke thought, it was more of a swagger. He had a moment to admire it, before Eve rammed her fist in his face.
“Fuck me.” His head snapped back, and he tasted blood.
Magdelana cried out, but even the deaf would have caught the suppressed laughter in the sound. “Roarke! Oh, my God, you’rebleeding. Please, let me just-”
“Don’t look now,” Eve said cheerfully. “But he’s not the only one.” She decked Magdelana with a straight-armed jab. “Bitch,” Eve added as Magdelana’s eyes rolled back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor.