course we can. It’s a messy world, Cassandra. I suppose it’s easy to forget with the nice office building and civilized conference room, but we’re mercenaries. That is exactly what we’re supposed to do,” he said.
“That you think so is exactly why your brother hired me,” she said.
Lucian didn’t show how her words rankled, nor would he admit that there may have been a shred of truth in what she said. His team worked by the book to the extent possible; they were good guys, but the world was complicated, far more than he had recognized when he’d joined his brother’s merry band of mercenaries. But he didn’t exactly appreciate Cassandra’s or the shareholders’ interference.
“Look, Lucian,” Cassandra said, her voice even softer with actual understanding this time, “I get it. You have a job to do, and I know you do it well and with the best of intentions.”
“But,” he said, knowing that there was a “but,” and hating that her lack of confidence in him hit him so hard.
“But we have to be careful,” she replied with finality.
“We do, but I’m not going to be hamstrung or interfered with,” he said.
“You know I have no interest in doing either,” she said.
Lucian let the short, barked-out laugh emerge, that sound conveying what he thought of that better than words would.
She gave him a grudging smile. “Clearly you disagree, but I don’t. However, I won’t hold my tongue if you aren’t running operations appropriately,” she said.
“Meaning?” he asked, leaning back in his chair and overlooking her grating use of the word “appropriately.”
“Meaning by the book,” she replied easily, unruffled.
He laughed again, wondering if she was really as naive as that. “You think there’s a book?”
That got a response, and Lucian didn’t miss the way her face turned down with her displeasure.
“Lucian—”
He cut her off. “We can agree to disagree about philosophy, so let’s get to the heart of the matter. What exactly do you want? Concrete terms, Cassandra. And no nonsense about counting bullets,” he said.
“What I’ve always asked for. You need to keep me in the loop. Tell me about your plans and include me in the process. Help me help you,” she said earnestly.
When she went silent, sitting up straight, her eyes lit with conviction, Lucian watched her as she watched back. A few seconds later, he laughed. Seemed not only was she naive but she knew her way around a cliché too. Cassandra soon joined in his laughter, the smile again giving her face a lightness and beauty that was so rare, so treasured.
She shrugged. “Okay, so ‘help me help you’ isn’t exactly an eloquent expression, but you get the point. Yes, I report to the shareholders, but I care about Silver Industries. Whether you want to recognize it or not, I’m an asset. Use me,” she said.
The reaction was immediate, unwanted, and after a second, Lucian could see the spark in Cassandra’s eyes, the flash that she struggled to suppress. Use her? He could do that, had thought of all the ways how he could, how she could use him, but now wasn’t the time or place, though the insistent and increasing throb of his instant erection made him regret that.
Cassandra cleared her throat, again bringing Lucian back to the present, and when he gazed at her, he knew she still had more to say.
“What, Cassie?” he asked, his voice edged with question and the certainty he wouldn’t like her answer, the intense sexiness of the moment ebbing.
“I need input on personnel decisions,” she said.
The heated moment passed in a blink, fast enough that Lucian almost forgot it had happened. Cassandra sensed the shift too, and Lucian could see her calculating her next response. He hadn’t said anything, but she knew she had touched a topic Lucian considered nonnegotiable.
She knew that, but Lucian would make the point plain anyway. “And here I was thinking we were making progress,” he said