“Pack your bags,” Kane commanded without even a smile as a greeting. She jumped at his abrupt command, and for a moment his arctic gray eyes collided with hers. She felt a chill of dread pass over her body. His mouth was a tight, grim line that was neither a smile nor a frown. The grooves across his forehead seemed deeper tonight, as if he, too, had been wrestling with a troublesome and weighty decision.

“Do what?” she asked incredulously. Surprise and indignation registered in the startled expression that crossed her face. She was still sitting on the couch with her legs curled up and tucked underneath her. She almost dropped her teacup at his abrasive command.

Kane ignored her question. Preoccupied, he paced distractedly in front of the couch, his fists balled deeply in the pockets of his jeans. As he passed in front of her, Erin couldn’t help but notice that his jeans, slung low in the waist, strained against his thighs and buttocks with each of his long strides. As he paced she was reminded of a caged animal, and she could almost visualize his tightly controlled muscles rippling beneath the fabric of his clothing. Forcefully she pulled her attention away from his virile male anatomy and tried to read the expression on his face.

“Didn’t you hear me?” he growled, and stopped his absent pacing. “I asked you to go and pack.”

“No, you didn’t,” she corrected, her eyes locking with his. “You ordered me to pack without so much as a greeting or explanation!”

Anger snapped in his eyes, but his reply was strangely soothing. The rage that was burning quietly within him was controlled. “You’re right,” he expelled in a long breath, “and I’m sorry. I…I’m a little distracted this evening,” he offered as an apology.

“I noticed!” she retorted, and then seeing the worried creases that pulled his thick dark brows together in concern, she amended her hot retort. “I guess it’s my turn to apologize,” she admitted wearily. “I didn’t mean to snap. I’ve been a little distracted myself.”

“Oh?”

“Nothing to be concerned about,” she averred with a wan smile, and wondered why she didn’t have the strength of character to lay her cards on the table and confront him with her unanswered questions about their relationship and the future. Instead she chose to sidestep the issue. “Now.” She smiled feebly, luminous lilac eyes looking pleadingly up at him. “What’s been bothering you?”

“Oh, God, Erin,” he moaned and let his forehead drop to his hand in a gesture of total defeat. He raked long tense fingers through the wheat-colored highlights of his burnished hair. How could he explain that he was only a hairbreadth away from confirming his suspicions about her? Could she imagine how close he was coming to finding all of the pieces of the puzzle that would tie her into the embezzling scandal? Although everything was still circumstantial, it was stacking together so neatly that it was actually beginning to scare Kane. Although no more money had been taken from the bank, the most damning piece of evidence that he had found so far—a discrepancy in the securities cart key registration—proved as well as anything that Erin had been lying to him. How long did she expect the charade to work? How could he help her and get her out of this mess? What could he do? It would all be so much easier if he just didn’t give a damn!