Death is Forever

started walking. She hadn’t fought his order that she never be out of his sight, but she’d made it clear that theirs was now a business relationship. He hadn’t liked it, but he hadn’t tried to change her mind. Pushing her would only drive her further away.
    As they walked the short distance to the station house, the sounds of unfamiliar birds poured from every acacia and gum. Abe’s well and stock tank had created a mecca for wild animals of all kinds, making her job of photography easier. In the two days since she’d been at the station, she’d managed to capture fourteen different varieties of local animal life. She’d also learned a gut-deep appreciation of why predators waited at waterholes in dry country.
    It worked.
    “Which mine are we looking at today?” she asked.
    “Dog Four.”
    “Again?”
    He nodded.
    “Why?” she asked.
    “Because it’s close to another site I want to look at.”
    “Isn’t Dog Four where we saw the goanna?”
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Good. I’m having trouble getting a handle on the best way to shoot one.”
    “With a twelve-gauge.”
    She smiled despite her vow to keep the relationship between them on a purely business basis. It was difficult now for the same reason it had been difficult in the beginning—Cole’s intelligence and quick, deadpan humor were even greater lures for her than any regularity of face or strength of body he had.
    He’s even bright enough not to try to get in bed with me again, she told herself grimly. Or maybe it’s just that sweet, delicate Lai is taking care of his business.
    Yet even as the thought came, Erin knew it wasn’t true. When she and Cole were at the station, he was always near her. They slept in the same room, they ate at the same table, and they flew the land in the same helicopter.
    Maybe it’s not just for my safety. Maybe he’s afraid to be alone with Lai.
    Erin’s mouth turned down. He hadn’t looked afraid when she’d walked into the room and seen his big hand caressing Lai’s neck. He hadn’t looked particularly passionate, either. He’d looked…suspended, patient, curious, coiled.
    Predatory.
    A feeling of unease shivered through Erin. Whatever had happened between Lai and Cole in the past had gone deep. Love, hate, or both tangled together, it didn’t matter. Cole had given Lai more than his body. She’d given him proof that women were what Abe had called them—mistresses of lies.
    Erin stepped from the uncertain shade of the acacia grove into the spinifex. The sun was a steaming, searing shroud wrapping around her. Sweat stood on her skin and gathered in rivulets between her breasts and beneath her arms. Flies came at her in ragged squadrons but didn’t land on her. The combination of insect repellent and sunscreen the Australians used actually worked.
    She only wished they had a repellent for the insufferable Kimberley climate. Already she could feel herself becoming surly, tense, wanting to lash out at anything within reach. She suspected Cole felt the same way, but he disguised it better.
    That, too, irritated her, making her want to pry beneath his self-control.
    “How long does the buildup last?” she asked.
    “Until it rains.”
    She made a disgusted sound.
    Cole slanted a sideways look at her. Her pale skin was already flushed with heat and shiny with sweat. He took off his hat and dropped it over the burning mahogany of her hair.
    “Where’s your hat?” he demanded. “I told you not to—”
    “And I told you I can’t work with a damned hat flopping and flapping in my eyes,” she retorted, cutting across his words. “Besides, I knew we wouldn’t be out in the sun for more than the time it took to walk back to the house.”
    She yanked the hat off and shoved it at Cole. He pushed it over her head again.
    “Wear it,” he said flatly. “Two weeks ago you were sitting on a glacier at the other end of the earth, getting ready for winter. Now you’re sitting on a stove waiting for summer. Your body is still trying to figure out what hit it.”
    “Yours seems to be doing just fine,” she said resentfully.
    “I was in Brazil. Different stove, same temperature, same season. Stop wasting your energy trying to prove you can take the climate as well as I can. You can’t. Give me the bloody camera gear.”
    He didn’t wait for her to agree. He simply stripped the gear from her.
    They finished the walk to the station in silence.
    When they arrived Lai was waiting at the table that