Death is Forever

palm.
    Cole whistled softly through his teeth. His eyes focused on Erin with an intensity that was almost tangible. “‘Help you discover,’” Cole repeated. “That means you’re coming with me.”
    She nodded. “The will requires it.”
    “How good are you at taking orders?”
    Windsor’s hard laughter was all the answer anyone needed.
    “Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Cole said. “That’s not good enough, Erin. There will be times and places where I’ll give orders and I’ll give them once because there won’t be time for explanations.”
    “I can live with that.”
    Cole smiled slightly. “Then pack for London.”
    “Why?”
    “It will make ConMin feel better.” Cole didn’t say that it would make Faulkner and the agency feel better, too. “If they think they’re going to co-opt you, they won’t be as eager to reach for more drastic measures.”
    Erin didn’t like it, and it showed, but she said, “All right.”
    “Second order. We’re roommates from now until the mine is discovered or you sell out your interest, whichever comes first.”
    Silence stretched and stretched while Erin measured the big man who was watching her with eyes as hard and beautiful as the diamonds he loved.
    “Do it,” Windsor said to his daughter. “If you’re going to be so stupid as to go through with this, you’ll need someone like Blackburn around.”
    “Suite-mates,” Erin corrected, her voice clipped.
    “Only if the connecting door stays open,” Cole said. “All the time, Erin. Every damned minute.”
    She nodded curtly and without warning flipped Cole the stone. He caught it, his hand moving so quickly it was a blur.
    “Done,” Cole said.
    Faulkner slanted Cole a bleak, furious look. “ Mazel und broche, babe. I hope you step on your cock.”

12
Los Angeles
    Erin sat in the window seat of her new hotel room, watching darkness descend on the Los Angeles basin. She sensed the crowded streets and sidewalks around her like a heavy weight. The hotel suite, with its two bedrooms and comfortable sitting area, was easily twice as big as her other room. She still felt confined.
    She wasn’t used to sharing her living space with another human being, especially one as large and plainly masculine as Cole Blackburn. His presence in the other half of the suite was both a lure and an irritant.
    Abruptly Erin stood up, giving in to her restlessness. She paced the room without seeing the luxurious fabrics with their Jacobean design or the indigo richness of the carpet. Pacing wasn’t enough. She felt like she’d been caged inside buildings forever. What she wanted was the vast, isolated sweep of the arctic. She would settle for the Pacific Ocean’s far horizon.
    When Erin appeared in the open door of Cole’s bedroom, he looked up from the desk, where he’d been working over the maps he’d brought from BlackWing.
    “Could we…?” Erin began, only to have her voice fade.
    The husky contralto of her voice made Cole’s body quicken. She sounded like a woman with a little loving on her mind, yet she was standing in the doorway like she was poised to flee at the first sign of masculine interest. It had been that way from the beginning, conflicting signals that kept him aware of her all the time.
    Not that he needed any help keeping her on his own internal radar. His body had decided after one look that it wanted to get as close as it could to Erin Shane Windsor. If it hadn’t been for her obvious nervousness at having to share a suite with him, he would have sent out some signals of his own. But he didn’t. She wasn’t acting like a woman who wanted a man.
    Yet she was looking at him as though she wanted him.
    “Could we…?” Cole asked.
    “I need to get out. To walk. On the beach. I know it’s dark, I know you’ll tell me it’s not safe, but I have to get out and I’m going to. With or without you.”
    There was no mistaking the staccato urgency in Erin’s voice. For an instant Cole ticked off the possibilities. If he’d been certain that danger was imminent, he would have tied Erin to her bed. But he wasn’t certain. ConMin was a business, not a government or a criminal clan. ConMin would try to co-opt Erin before they tried to kill her.
    And he had to admit that her presence was giving him cabin fever. If he stayed in the hotel room with Erin while she was putting out all those restless signals, he’d have a hell of a time keeping his hands in his pockets. Making a pass at her