Ultimate Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page A

they always did the job as best it could possibly be done, so her assertion put him on the defensive. “A little harsh, don’t you think, Cassie?”
    She quirked her brow, about as exercised as Lucian ever saw her, no doubt her response to his second use of her hated nickname in as many minutes. But she quickly recovered.
    “Harsh?” Her voice was still easy, though it dripped with Cassandra’s special mix of disbelief and scorn. “No, Lucian. I don’t think it was harsh at all,” she said.
    “Care to explain?” he asked, though he knew she didn’t need an invitation.
    Cassandra leaned back in her executive chair, the movement enough to draw Lucian’s gaze down to the roundness of her luscious breasts. He looked at her face quickly, not daring to risk lingering, let alone giving in to the impulse to look lower, to the curve of her waist or her full hip. He knew danger when he saw it.
    She opened the leather folio that laid on the conference table in front of her, and Lucian watched as she made a show of lifting the sheet of paper that laid on top and reading it.
    “Let’s see,” she said, eyes scanning the sheet, “Silver Industries ran an illegal military operation in a foreign country, violated only God knows how many international laws, and had an employee executed by a foreign government.” She dropped the paper and again met his eyes. “Sounds like a textbook fiasco to me.”
    “Ex-employee. And we didn’t violate any laws. Many laws,” he corrected after she again quirked her brow.
    That wasn’t entirely accurate.
    Lucian could think of at least fifty laws that some part of the Vietnam operation had violated, but he couldn’t let himself get lost in the finer points with Cassandra. It was a losing proposition, and she would press the advantage. She took her role very, very seriously, and would use any whiff of potential wrongdoing by Lucian and his men as a tool against him.
    His brother Damien had chosen well when he had selected Cassandra, though it still pissed Lucian off he’d hired her at all, pissed him off that his family had been forced into the position of having to take on shareholders because it was the only way Silver Industries could survive.
    Cassandra watched him, silently daring him to contradict her. Still, he was reluctant to get into the details with her, so he took a different approach.
    “We did a good thing,” he said, gaze not wavering from hers. “We took down an organization that trafficked in nearly extinct animals. Exposed a dozen corrupt military officials from four different countries. Not to mention that ex-employee was a traitor, one who put the team, not to mention Cruz’s wife’s life, at risk.”
    Lucian continued to watch Cassandra after he’d spoken, the long table that separated them keeping physical distance between them but doing nothing to decrease the intensity flowing between them.
    “Lucian,” she said, her voice changing in a subtle, almost imperceptible way. There was something like understanding in the sound, but Lucian knew he hadn’t won her over. Cassandra confirmed as much with her next words. “You have to be careful. The world doesn’t work the way it used to,” she said.
    Her words set Lucian on edge, lit the ember of anger that had been brewing on a low simmer in the background. “I don’t need you to tell me how the world works, Cassie,” he said, letting edge bleed into his voice.
    She gave no outward sign she had noticed the change in his tone, but he knew she had. “Don’t you?” she said.
    He held her gaze and she his, and for a moment they sat in ever-thickening silence.
    Finally, her expression softened, only a little but enough that some of the anger that beat at the back of Lucian’s mind began to fade. “You did a good thing. I’m glad Cruz could break up that animal trafficking ring, that he found Nola. But you guys just can’t go traipsing around, doing whatever, and messily, I might add,” she said.
    “Of