Amaryllis Read Online Free Page B

her job at the university, joining Psynergy, Inc., and preparing to register with a marriage agency, she’d had very little time to think about the Iceman.
    His name had actually been familiar long before his discovery of the relics. Everyone had become aware of Lucas Trent three years ago when pirates had attempted a takeover of the Western Islands.
    The pirates, a motley coalition of outlaws, career criminals, and assorted riffraff from the three city-states had united under a leader to try to take control of the rich resources of the Western Islands.
    Amaryllis had been busy with her research and teaching at the university during the Western Islands Action, but she had heard some of the details. She knew, for instance, that Lucas’s wife and his partner had been killed during the initial pirate raid.
    In the chaotic days that followed the raid, Lucas had put together a hastily deputized police force from among the miners, technicians, traders, cooks, sailors, and shopkeepers who had found themselves stranded in the islands when the fighting broke out.
    It was during the Western Islands Action that Nelson Burlton had dubbed Lucas the Iceman. Burlton and the other correspondents who had covered the story had marveled at the effectiveness of Lucas’s strategy and tactics. The pirates had been driven from the islands in complete disarray in less than two weeks.
    But it wasn’t Lucas’s success as a commander three years ago that had caught Amaryllis’s attention. In truth, she had been too occupied with final exams to notice him. It was his discovery of the relics that had made her so intensely aware of him.
    She would never forget the photo of him that had beensnapped soon after he had emerged from the jungle with the artifacts in his hands. The harsh landscape of his face had been indelibly imprinted on her mind.
    Today she had been shaken to realize that, if anything, the news photos and film clips had understated the reality of Lucas’s features. His face was not exactly a thing of beauty. It was a graphic rendering of masculine strength and determination. His bold cheekbones, aggressive nose, and strong jaw were as exotic, compelling, and mysterious to Amaryllis as the alien artifacts themselves.
    She knew now that the news photos had failed utterly to capture the bleak, icy gray of his eyes. Nothing could have prepared her for her first in-person glimpse into those veiled depths. The chill of a fierce self-control swirled there. Amaryllis decided that Lucas’s nickname suited him far better than Nelson Burlton could possibly have guessed.
    The bad news, so far as she was concerned, was that whatever it was about Lucas that had tugged at her senses through the medium of film and photograph was a thousand times stronger in real life. His laconic, Western Islands drawl ruffled the tiny, sensitive hairs on the nape of her neck. The sight of his big, competent, jungle-roughened hands had done strange things to the pit of her stomach.
    She was no closer to a logical explanation for her reaction to him now than she had been a year ago.
    She was relieved when the door to her office slammed open.
    â€œWell?” Clementine Malone, owner and sole proprietor of Psynergy, Inc., strode into the room. Her shrewd, dark eyes gleamed as brightly as the metal studs on her black leather jacket and pants. Her short, stark white hair, cut to resemble a stiff brush, seemed to actually bristle with anticipation. “Did you get Trent’s signature on a contract?”
    â€œRight here.” Amaryllis waved the signed forms. “I’ll be working with him on Thursday night. But I think I’d better explain something, Clementine. There are some problems with this job.”
    â€œWe can handle ’em.” Clementine plucked the contract from Amaryllis’s fingers and scanned the signatures. “Nice going. Very nice, indeed.”
    â€œThanks.” Amaryllis watched her boss flip