Surrender (15 page)

T
he sun was setting low, barely skimming the treetops when Ashton and Netherland emerged from the thickets of the woods holding hands. He had shown her a portion of the land and had given her a history lesson while doing so. He had told her that the Cherokee Nation was the second-largest First Nations tribe in the United States and that its land was rich with woodland and pastures, hills and valleys, and rivers and lakes. The Cherokee People had lived in the southeastern United States until their removal during the Trail of Tears. He also told her that some members of the tribe now lived in Oklahoma while others lived on Cherokee land in the mountains of North Carolina.

He talked about his deceased father, who at the age of twenty-five and a member of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Government, had met and fallen in love with the daughter of a military general stationed not far away at Fort Smith. It had been a match doomed from the start with interference from the young woman’s family. The two eloped and he’d been conceived. However, within a year his parents had gotten a divorce. Ashton’s voice had become bitter when he’d said that, thanks to his maternal grandfather, it had been a rather nasty divorce that had torn him between two families and two cultures.

Netherland glanced up at him. Tall, dark and extremely handsome were words that didn’t quite do him justice. Neither did they cover the strength and masculinity he exuded without even trying. The stark blending of both cultures into his features, Native and African-American, made him so arrantly attractive it literally took her breath away.

She remembered how she had awakened that evening to find him gone. Getting out of bed she had showered and dressed in a long floral skirt and a peach pullover top, and after giving herself a tour of his home, she had sat on the sofa and waited for him to return. And while she waited, she had come to terms with a number of emotions within her. She loved him, of that there was no doubt. She trusted him. She didn’t doubt that, either. What she did doubt was her ability to come through for him—in what he believed, and in what he wanted.
But by the time he had returned, she had tossed all her fears and doubts aside and had walked into his arms the moment he opened the door. She had wanted him to pick her up and take her to the bedroom and make love to her. Instead he had taken her hand in his and told her they were going for a walk.

“You should be hungry by now,” he said quietly, breaking into her thoughts, as well as the silence that had suddenly surrounded them. “I can make a mean beef stew. How about some?”

She smiled. “That sounds good.”

It was better than good, Netherland thought as she spooned the last of the beef stew from her bowl. It had been delicious. Returning to the cabin, Ashton had taken a large stew pot out of the cabinet; then he had expertly moved around the kitchen selecting the key ingredients he needed to make the stew. She had sat at the table and watched him, offering to help, but he’d told her it was something he wanted to prepare alone…for her. So she had talked while he had cooked. She told him about how she had used the money she’d inherited from her maternal grandmother to purchase Sisters with dreams of transforming what had been an empty warehouse into an upscale restaurant and hangout for women.

“It’s a nice place. You should be proud of yourself and your accomplishments, Netherland.”

She smiled. “Thanks, and I am.”

They ate in silence, finishing the meal with a lot on their minds.

“You can help me clean up the kitchen if you’d like,” Ashton said, smiling over at her.

She smiled back at him. “Oh, you like having me around for the heavy stuff,” she said jokingly.

“I like having you around period.”

Netherland’s body reacted to Ashton’s words and the steady gaze that held hers. She tried to inject a semblance of normality and lightheartedness into her voice when she responded, “And what if I refused to help you with the dishes?”

He leaned back in his chair, locked his hands behind his head and continued to gaze at her. “Then I have to think of another way to get you to show your appreciation for the food I prepared for you. I’m sure if I think long and hard about it, I’ll come up with something. And I’ll make sure it’s something we’d both enjoy doing.”

Netherland watched as the pure, unadulterated sensuous look in his eyes said it all. Parts of her body responded as it throbbed and hummed when his eyes darkened. She cleared her throat. “You wash and I dry.”

An easy grin played at the corners of his mouth. “Okay, but later, when you take your bath, I’ll wash
and
I’ll dry.”

Netherland’s breath caught in her throat, and heat surged through her. The two of them stared silently at each other for a long moment before she finally nodded. Ashton intended to keep that promise, and
a sizzle of excitement as well as anticipation raced through her bloodstream just thinking about it.

“Are you ready to help me tackle the dishes?” he asked in a throaty whisper that tingled along her spine and made goose bumps appear on her arms.

“Yes.”

He stood and held his hand out to her. “Come on, then,” he said gently. “The sooner we can finish the dishes, the sooner we can get into other things.”

The cleaning up of the kitchen, like dinner, was done in amicable silence. By the time the last of the dishes had been put away Ashton took Netherland’s hand in his and led her from the kitchen into the living room. He crossed the room to the fire in the fireplace, sat on the floor in front of the hearth and pulled her down across his lap with her legs on either side of his waist.

Netherland faced him and looked into his eyes.

“For starters,” he said, brushing a butterfly kiss against the corner of her mouth. “We’ll talk about our future and where we go from here.”

To the bedroom I hope,
Netherland thought as the strong sensations of his fingers stroking her back brought a smile of pleasure to her lips. They were lips he was determined to taste as he touched his mouth to the corners of hers for a second time. “Our future?” she asked in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.

“Yes. As soon as it can be arranged, we’ll marry the Christian way.”

Netherland lifted her brow. “Is there supposed to be another way?”

“Yes, the Indian way. The way we’ll do tonight.”

His fingers, she couldn’t help but notice, left her back and slid beneath the hem of her skirt and softly stroked her bare thigh.

“Marry? The Indian way? Tonight?” she whispered thickly, not sure if her voice had emitted the words loud enough for him to hear them.

“Yes. The ritual calls for the joining of our two souls, our two spirits and our two hearts into one. It will be just you and me, speaking words committing our lives together and to each other. To the Cherokee Nation our union tonight will be just as binding as any other because it will come straight from the heart. Our hearts.”

She nodded, not capable of speaking, especially when his fingers continued to stroke her thigh. She felt an immediate sense of loss when he pulled his hand from under her skirt and reached out to her.

“Give me your hand.”

He placed a beautiful leather band with studded diamonds around her wrist, then took her hands in his. She felt the strength of his hand enveloping hers. Then he closed his eyes and began softly chanting some sort of Indian song. When he finished, he opened his eyes, and their gazes locked.

“Netherland,” he began in a hoarse voice, a voice that she could tell was thick with emotion. “Since the moment I first laid eyes on you, I wanted you. You
are my soul, the very essence of my being. You are my kindred spirit, my mate. Heaven and earth may one day pass away but my love for you will last forever. I will honor this vow I make to you, a promise and pledge on the graves of all Cherokee warriors before me. I will be a good father to the children we will have together, honoring you as their mother and as my wife, my woman. To love and to protect you. I commit myself to you and no matter where I go, you will always be here,” he said, placing their joined hands over his heart. “For always.”

“Ashton.” Netherland’s voice trembled as tears clouded her eyes. She felt the rapid beating of his heart beneath their joined hands. His words had touched her deeply as he pledged his life and his love to her. “I didn’t want to love you,” she said softly. “I didn’t want to be a part of your life, and I didn’t want you to be a part of mine but I discovered the more I fought against you, the more I wanted you and was drawn to you.”

She leaned in closer to him. “I love you, Ashton, with all my heart and with all my soul. I want to share your dreams but more importantly, I want to be a part of them. I hope everything in your visions comes true, and because of you I believe that miracles are possible. Because of you I believe in love. And from this moment on I surrender. I surrender all to you—my heart, my body and my soul.”

“Netherland,” Ashton murmured as he released her hands, bent his head and pulled her closer into his
arms. Before she could take her next breath, he captured her mouth with his in a kiss that was long, slow and deep, seeping heat from her lips to his. Their tongues mated, crazed with passion, driven with need.

Netherland suddenly broke off the kiss. Gripping Ashton’s shoulders and tilting her body sideways, she tumbled them onto the floor. For a brief few moments they lay side by side, gazing at each other as they tried to get their rising passion under control. She then shifted to her knees over him. “Make love to me, Ashton. Make me yours completely,” she whispered sensuously and at the same time reaching down and sliding the palms of her hands up his shoulders.

With lightning speed Ashton hooked his arms around her waist and scooped her off the floor with him. He held her tightly, enfolded in his arms as he carried her into the bedroom. Once there he gently placed her on the bed and stood back and looked at her, inhaling her sensuous scent. Reaching down he lifted her top over her head, unhooked her bra and tugged it off. Intent on divesting her of all clothing, he went to the buttons on her skirt and slowly undid each one. Moments later he tossed her skirt aside and then removed her shoes. That only left her panties.

With unerring precision he slowly pulled them down her gorgeous, long legs, then let the silky, skimpy garment fall from his hand to the floor. His gaze then covered every inch of her naked flesh, starting at the top of her head, pausing briefly at the center of her, before moving down to her toes. The
room was quiet. The only sound that could be heard was their erratic breathing being forced through constricted lungs.

“Now it’s your turn to undress me,” he said, stretching his hand out to her.

Netherland’s response to his request was a throaty, sensuous sigh as she placed her hand in the palm of his. He gently tugged her upright and brought her against the solid wall of his chest. Wanting to see as much of his bare skin as he was seeing of hers, she began unbuttoning his shirt while placing lingering kisses along the side of his neck and jaw. She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and dusted kisses on his chest.

Cupping her chin, Ashton lifted her face up to stare down into her eyes. Then he slowly pulled her to him and kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue, his breath invading her mouth to conquer her soul.

Netherland wound her arms around his neck and gloried in the feel of his mouth on hers, tasting, mating. And at the same time his hand gently caressed the bare flesh of her behind, bringing her closer to the fit of him, rubbing the essence of her against the hardness in the front of his jeans. Moments later she pulled away from their kiss and her fingers went to the zipper of his jeans and tugged it down.

“I’ll take over from here, sweetheart,” Ashton said silkily as he took a step away from the bed.

Netherland watched as he began removing his jeans, then his loincloth underwear, dropping the last piece of clothing that hid him from her view. A
startled gasp escaped her lips. She had not imagined him being so big, so powerfully virile. She forced herself to breathe between ragged breaths.

“I—I don’t think it’s going to work,” she said in a deep, shaky breath, not taking her eyes off that part of him.

He came back to the bed. “We’ll fit.”

She shook her head, then met her gaze. “I’m not so sure about that.”

A smile fanned the corners of his dark eyes. “I am. A woman’s body is made to adjust for her mate. I won’t hurt you, sweetheart.”

Before giving her a chance to respond, he reached out and filled his hands with her breasts, slowly caressing each nipple as he watched her eyelids flutter weakly and a groan escape her parted lips. He seized the opportunity and kissed her, locking her mouth to his. Getting on the bed he pulled her back with him. Then he was touching, stroking her everywhere.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?” he asked hoarsely as his hand slid slowly across her flat stomach. He gently began caressing her in the area where her fallopian tubes were. “The gift of fertility will be bestowed upon us from the Spirits of Mother Earth to commemorate our union.”

“Umm,” was all she could say as she closed her eyes. His thumbs were moving in a slow, sensuous, gentle message over her abdomen, making her moan softly, deep within her throat.

He bent over her and closed his lips over one
nipple of her breast, then another, lavishing it with the hot, wet attention of his tongue.