Claimed (Diamond Tycoons 1)

“We’ll go to Ekaori today and then tomorrow I’ll take you to Vine Lake and Snow River.”

She nodded, because that was pretty much what she’d been expecting. Ekaori sourced diamonds for numerous jewel companies, as did Vine Lake. But Snow River sourced exclusively to Bijoux. It was the newest diamond mine in the Northwest Territories—had only been operational since 2012—and was owned and operated by Bijoux Corporation itself. If anything suspicious was going on, that was where she would expect it to come from. So much easier to pull off a con—or a heist—when you were the one in control of the source material.

As they descended, they hit pretty impressive turbulence. She tried not to let it bother her—she’d flown into Kugluktuk to tour the mines numerous times in the past few years and it was always the same. They were only a hundred or so miles from the Arctic Circle, and the weather up there, even in the middle of summer, was always unpredictable.

Marc, she noticed, was making a valiant effort not to notice the turbulence, either. He kept working, one hand scrolling through the touch screen on his laptop while he glared at the screen. But his other hand was clenched around the armrest as if his will alone was the only thing keeping the plane in the air.

It didn’t surprise her that the turbulence made him nervous. He was such a control freak that putting his fate in the hands of someone else had to grate, even at the best of times. Doing it now, as the plane dropped and bucked, had to be awful for him.

Before she could think twice about it—and about all the reasons she was still angry at him—she leaned forward as far as her seat belt would allow and placed her hand over his tense one. Then she squeezed gently.

He was sitting directly across from her, so when his eyes jerked up at the contact, they clashed immediately with her own. She didn’t say anything and neither did he, but she felt him relaxing a little more with each swipe of her thumb across the back of his hand.

“We’ll be down soon,” he said, his voice a little deeper, huskier, than usual. As if she was the one who was nervous.

“I’m not worried.” Which was a big, gigantic lie—she was totally worried. Not about the turbulence or landing safely, but about being here, with Marc. About how her hand was still resting on his and how good it felt to touch him. About the fact that, despite everything he’d done—and everything she’d done—there was a part of her that still wanted him. That would always want him.

The thought stung, had her stomach clenching and nerves skittering up her back. Because the only thing stupider than letting Marc Durand into her bed last night would be letting him back in again tonight. He didn’t trust her, didn’t want her—hell, he wasn’t above blackmailing her when the situation called for it. So why on earth did her body still respond to him? Why on earth did she want to comfort him when he had never done anything to comfort her?

Feeling like an idiot—or worse, a dupe—she started to pull back. But Marc’s other hand covered hers, trapping her fingers. “Please,” he said. “Don’t.”

Again their eyes met, and though she didn’t see nervousness in his gaze any longer—he wasn’t a man who tolerated weakness, in others or himself—she did see something that had her breath catching in her throat. That had her errant nerves turning from ice to a dark and sensual kind of heat.

That should have had her sitting back, getting as far away from him as she possibly could. When things had gone bad with them last time—when she’d begged him not to prosecute her ailing father even knowing the request meant he’d lose so much of what he’d worked for—it had nearly killed her. Not the icy walk in the winter rain after he’d kicked her out, though that had been no fun. No, what had nearly destroyed her had been the knowledge that she had hurt Marc irreparably.

Because of his parents, who had always cared more for money and status than they ever had for him and his brother, Marc tru

sted few people. But he’d trusted her, had believed in her, and in the end she had torn that trust to pieces by picking her jewel thief father over him.

It wasn’t her proudest moment—was, in fact, one that still kept her up some nights. But what else could she have done? Her father was old, frail, dying. How could she have turned on him? How could she have let him spend the last year of his life in prison when he’d dedicated his life to giving her the world? To showing her wondrous places and things and teaching her that money wasn’t important. Adventure was. People were. Yes, he’d turned her into a thief at an early age, but that wasn’t all he’d been. And though she’d rejected that lifestyle when she’d met Marc, that didn’t mean she could reject her father. He’d been a great father and she’d loved him very much.

And so she’d turned on Marc—or, at least, that’s how he saw it. She’d begged him to understand, begged him to love her as she’d loved him, but that hadn’t been possible. Not when all he’d seen was her betrayal.

Outside the plane window, the ground grew closer, lush with greenery as far as the eye could see. The first time she’d flown to Kugluktuk had also been summer, and she’d been astonished at the lack of snow and ice, had figured that this far north the ice would never melt.

But that wasn’t the case. Though the mountains in the distance were still covered with white—and pretty much always were—the land down here was verdant and alive. And would be until the end of August, beginning of September, when temperatures dropped significantly.

Not that it was exactly warm here, even in mid-July, she admitted after the plane had landed and they took the stairs down to the tarmac. The temperature was about fifty—or so her phone said—but the fiercely blowing wind made it feel a lot colder.

She shuddered and pulled her jacket more tightly around herself as she thought longingly of the woolen scarf she’d left on her bed. Since it had been in the high sixties the last time she’d been here in July, she’d figured she wouldn’t need it. Big mistake—and one she probably wouldn’t have made if she hadn’t been so annoyed at Marc while she was packing. After all, it didn’t take a brain surgeon to remember that weather near the Arctic Circle was bound to be unpredictable.

Something warm brushed against her neck and she jolted, glancing behind her.

“Here, take mine,” Marc said as he wrapped a black cashmere scarf around her neck.

“It’s okay. I’m—”

“Freezing. You’re freezing. And since I’m the reason you’re here to begin with, the least I can do is try to keep you warm. Now, come on.” He took her overnight bag from her and, with a hand in the center of her back, guided her toward the waiting helicopter.

She should pull away—she knew she should. After all, she was still furious with him for forcing her to come up here when she was still reeling from the way he’d made love to her and then walked out on her. He’d all but admitted that he’d had sex with her in an effort to get her out of his system. And then he’d blackmailed her into coming here to look at his diamond mines.

She should be telling him to go to hell, should be running as far and fast as she could in the opposite direction. What she shouldn’t be doing is taking his scarf—and melting into his touch.

With that thought firmly in her mind, she pulled away. Started walking faster. And did her best to ignore the way she could still feel the imprint of his hand burning against her back.

The helicopter ride to the first mine was short—and a lot less windy than any she had ever been on before. Of course, that was because Marc had access to the best of everything—including a top-of–the-line helicopter that felt about as luxurious as a limousine.

They came into Ekaori from the north. She saw the huge, circular pit mine from quite a ways out. Her first glimpse of the mines from the air always startled her and today was no different. It looked much more like a whirlpool carved into granite than it did a functioning mine. But the huge opening in the land was because of the surface mining that had been done for years, before the diamonds had been exhausted and they’d been forced to expand underground.