Her wicked game of blackjack had earned her the title. Only a touch of aloofness in her elegant manner hinted at her tragic past. Rhiannan Collins had lost everything - her husband and two children - when a hostage-held plane crashed into her Richmond, Virginia, home.

Now, cruising the Bahamas as hostress on the luxury yacht Seafire, she'd been brought face-to-face with the man she held responsible. Senator Kiel Whellen had been in radio contact with the terrorists when the plane went down. No matter that he'd lost his own fiancee aboard. Rhiannan was determined to hate him. But it was desire that blazed between them from the very first. Navigating a course set for certain danger, he dared her to really live, to feel, to love again, to take the gamble as he played his irresistible ace to her passionate queen of hearts.