Price of Surrender Read Online Free Page A

thousand…?“
    „Of course.“ He nodded at once. She felt the satisfaction in him and could have struck him. „I can understand how
    you would feel more comfortable knowing I’m a man of my word.“
    Adena was appalled at the cynicism which sharpened his gray eyes as he turned away and strode toward the
    study. My God, she thought wonderingly. He really did think he could buy anything! It was a little staggering. She
    shook her head in an unconscious gesture of incomprehension and picked up her purse.
    Well, she had learned her lesson. Tough, hard-bitten men like Holt Sinclair didn’t need people like her feeling any
    sense of responsibility toward them. They could take care of themselves! She watched him disappear down the hall to
    the study and then turned unhesitatingly toward the front door.
    Once safely outside, Adena didn’t waste a second. She was into her bright yellow Audi and on her way down the
    winding hills toward the Golden Gate Bridge in record time. One could only give thanks that such disastrous days were
    usually infrequent occurrences in the course of a lifetime!
    It wasn’t until she turned the key in the lock of her flat and heard Max’s cheerful bark of welcome that Adena
    finally began to relax. As she opened the door, her handsome, standard-sized schnauzer came forward with as much
    eagerness as his innate dignity would allow him to demonstrate.
    „Oh, Max, you don’t know how good it is to come home to a civilized, polite, and thoroughly admirable male such
    as yourself,“ Adena told him with a chuckle, leaning down to scratch behind his pointed gray ears.
    Max lifted his mustachioed face for the caress, clearly happy to have her safely home.
    „Just wait,“ she vowed, „until I’ve told you all about my day!“
    With a sigh of relief, Adena crossed the small, plant-filled foyer and entered the living room of the flat. A rich
    persimmon carpet swept from one end to the bay windows which looked out onto the street It served as a luscious
    backdrop for the predominately white and green color scheme.
    Adena flung herself down on the white sofa, kicked off her shoes, and leaned back with a small groan, it was over.
    A great deal was over.
    „I hope you don’t mind eating an inferior grade of dog food for a while, Max.“ She thought about her finances in
    the light of her unemployed state. There should be enough in her savings to see her through a couple of months of
    job-hunting without forcing Max to eat that horrible dry dog food he detested. If worse came to worse, she could start
    liquidating her small stock account But, she told herself with forced cheer, it shouldn’t be too long before she got
    another position. She was a well-trained and fairly experienced accountant. Surely she wouldn’t find herself pounding
    the streets for long?
    Adena glanced over at her copy of the Wall Street Journal and thought about checking the employment ads. No,
    tomorrow would be soon enough to start Tonight she needed some sleep.
    „You’ll be happy to know, Max, that you won’t be seeing much of Jeff Carrigan anymore,“ she remarked in a tired
    voice. When Max pricked up his ears and pushed his nose into her lap, she smiled wryly. „I know you didn’t like him
    very much. Today I became somewhat disenchanted with him myself!“
    How badly was she going to miss Jeff Carrigan? It hadn’t been a heartrending experience telling him not to bother
    calling her anymore. But it had been a depressing one. She had been attracted to his easy charm and their mutual
    interest in the field of accounting. He had been a handsome, polished escort whom she had begun to hope might have
    a place in her future. With her career well-established, Adena had told herself, the time had come to think about the
    future.
    She closed her eyes briefly against the memory of Jeffs reaction to her discovery of the payoffs. He had smiled at
    her with a slightly cynical, wholly attractive smile, his tawny brown eyes faintly