Surrendering to Us Read Online Free PDF

office so I could get a good look. I knew, based on experience, that a lot of them didn’t even belong here and with the Board being more exclusive than ever, most of them didn’t have a prayer.
    Almost all of the candidates were older, and male. Big shock. But there was one that Mrs. Andrews took by that made me do a double take. It wasn’t just that she looked like she was around my age, but her fiery red curls were hard to miss. I’d gained Redhead Radar because of Lucah.
    She sauntered past my office without a glance at me, but Mrs. Andrews gave me a look. I would definitely have to make a trip to her desk later and see what the deal was with this girl.
    I was completely distracted for the next twenty minutes as I waited for her to walk by again. When she did, she was chatting with Mrs. Andrews and laughing. I had to admit, after the second glance, she was lovely, the poised kind of lovely that my mother had. She vanished again and I went back to work.
    Not more than ten minutes later, Mrs. Andrews knocked on the doorframe.
    “I just wanted to see what you thought, and bring you these,” she said, after I nodded at her to come in and close the door. She also had a stack of papers I hoped were résumés that she handed me. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to see them until the choices had been narrowed down, but Mrs. Andrews made exceptions for me.
    “Thank you very much. When do you need them back?” I started thumbing through them, putting aside the ones that I knew immediately were no’s in my book.
    “If you could be done in an hour, no one will know they’re missing.” I gave her a smile and a thumbs up and went back through them. The girl with the red hair, I assumed, belonged to one of the résumés on the bottom. Violet Cooper, twenty-five, former Vice President of a small cable company, MBA from a small college. She’d started out in retail, and had worked her way up. This girl was a fighter. Maybe it had something to do with the red hair. I read her résumé a few more times before I put it with the rest, stuck it in a folder and scurried down to Mrs. Andrews’ desk. I was surprised to find Lucah leaning against it and chatting with her as she threw her head back and laughed.
    “What are you doing on this level, Mr. Blythe?”
    “I was just visiting, Miss Clarke. I had to deliver something to Mr. Clarke, so I thought I would take a moment to stop and say hello to Mrs. Andrews.” Smooth.
    “Well, how sweet of you, Mr. Blythe.” I wanted to kiss him, to close the three-foot space between us, lay one on him and feel his tongue with the plastic barbell in my mouth. Judging by the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing.
    “Is it warm in here?” Mrs. Andrews said, fanning herself. “Maybe it’s just me having a hot flash.” I couldn’t decide if that was a joke, or if she was being serious. Judging from the look on Lucah’s face, he couldn’t either.
    “On that note, I believe I should get back to the underworld where I belong.” He did a bow and headed for the stairs instead of the elevator.
    “Don’t forget your coin to pay the toll,” I called after him. His laugh echoed up from a few stairs down.
    I sighed and leaned on Mrs. Andrews’ desk. She had a smug smile on her face as if she was very pleased with herself.
    “So, on further inspection, what did you think? I was very impressed with that young girl, what was her name?” She started rifling through the papers.
    “Violet,” I said. “Yeah, she did look impressive, but I’m not sure they’re going to go for her. Given that she’s so young and you know how much they adore youth.”
    “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. I wouldn’t mind having some more fresh female blood up here and maybe the two of you could stick together.” That was true. I hadn’t thought of that.
    “I guess we’ll see.” She put the résumés back in her desk and I went back to my office, pondering.
     

     
    Well either Violet