Surrender (3 page)

The two men fell silent when the basketball game resumed.

Netherland angrily paced the floor of her office. “Can you believe him? I can’t believe he would do such a thing!”

Rainey leaned back in her chair smiling. To say her friend was upset would be an understatement. “I still don’t understand why you’re in such a tiff, Nettie. It’s a charity function, and the money is being raised for a good cause.”

Netherland waved off her words. “I’m well aware of that, Rainey. It’s just that Ashton Sinclair agreed to do it on the same night he claimed he wanted me. He even had the nerve to mention a vision he had of marrying me.”

Rainey raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought you had no intentions of getting involved with him.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you so upset?”

Netherland stopped pacing and gave Rainey her full attention. “It’s the principle of the thing. No man claims he wants one woman then volunteers to be placed on an auction block to spend a weekend with another.”

Rainey smiled. “Maybe he’s hoping that you’ll be the highest bidder.”

“I don’t know why he’d hope that. I’ve told him countless times that I won’t go out with him.”

“Then what’s the big deal, Nettie? Why are you wearing a hole in your carpet about it? Ashton must mean something to you for you to have gotten so upset about it.”

Netherland took a deep calming breath and perched her rear end on the edge of her desk, crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “I can’t let him mean anything to me, Rainey, he’s military,” she said softly.

Rainey heard the lack of conviction in Netherland’s voice and decided to use another approach. “If Ashton wasn’t military, would you go out with him?”

Netherland thought long and hard on the question before answering. “Yes.”

“Would you even go so far to think he’s possibly husband material?”

Netherland thought about the dreams she’d had of him lately. “Yes, possibly. I wouldn’t know the answer to that until I got to know him better. There are a few things I do like about him. Although he’s
persistent, he’s never pushy, he’s confident but never cocky, and he’s assured but never arrogant.” She sighed deeply. “But none of that matters because he
is
military, Rainey.”

“Your ex-husband wasn’t in the military, yet your marriage to him didn’t work out, either, Nettie.”

Netherland met Rainey’s gaze. She was one of the few people, other than her family, who knew the reason for her divorce. “No, he wasn’t military, but Erik and I married young, and for all the wrong reasons. Then, there was the fact that I couldn’t give him the very thing he wanted.”

“A child?”

“Yes, a child.” Netherland lowered her head and studied her left hand, specifically the finger where she’d worn a wedding band for all of ten months. She and Erik had begun dating at the beginning of their last year of high school. When her father’s military orders had come for them to leave Camp Bullis, Texas, for some godforsaken country in the Middle East six months before graduation, she and Erik, both seventeen, had eloped one night and had gotten married. After that, her parents had had no choice but to leave her behind with her new husband when they left the country. She and Erik lived with his parents for the remainder of the school year. Her parents and brothers had returned for her high-school graduation, and it seemed everything was going great until she’d had a long talk with her mother. Her mother had told her something she should have been told
years ago. A severe case of childhood mumps had left Netherland sterile. After telling Erik about it, he had begun acting as if her inability to conceive were some sort of disease. Soon after that, their storybook marriage began falling apart and eventually ended in a divorce. That had been nearly eleven years ago. Over the years she’d heard that Erik had remarried and had four kids, which hadn’t surprised her. He’d always talked about having a large family someday.

Netherland was happy for him. Since then she had accepted the fact that she would never be anyone’s mom unless she adopted a child. She was okay with that and hoped whatever man she eventually married would be okay with it, as well.

“Are you going to warn Ashton about Angela, Nettie?”

Netherland lifted a chin. “Why should I?”

“Because once she hears he’s in the auction she’ll save every penny she can get her hands on for him. What woman wouldn’t?”

“I won’t.”

“Only because of your hang-up about military men.”

Netherland looked at her friend. “What about you, Rainey? Are you going to bid for him?”

Rainey gave Netherland a smirky smile. “It would serve you right if I did. But at the moment, I have my sight on someone else.”

“Who?”

“The elusive Alexander Maxwell.”

A
shton’s gaze drifted around the restaurant for the umpteenth time since arriving more than an hour ago. He had yet to see Netherland. He had eaten his meal with his senses on full alert, but she hadn’t made an appearance. He couldn’t help wondering if perhaps she was avoiding him.

“Is there anything else I can get you, sir?” asked a hostess who came up to the table.

He smiled and leaned back in his chair studying her name tag. “What you can do, Rainey, is tell me where Netherland is tonight.”

The woman glanced around the room before bringing her gaze back to his face. “She must be in her office working.”

Ashton nodded. “And where’s her office?”

The woman seemed reluctant to tell him at first, then studied him intently before finally inclining her head toward an archway. “At the very end of that hall.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Smiling, Ashton grabbed the wine bottle off the table in front of him, along with two wineglasses. Standing, he headed in the direction the hostess had given him. He knocked when he came to the closed door.

“Yes, come in.”

And there she was, sitting behind her desk looking so beautiful it nearly took his breath away. He could tell from her expression that he was the last person she had expected to see. Her surprise quickly transformed into a frown.

“Ashton? What are you doing here?”

He came into the room and closed the door behind him, locking it. He leaned against it for a moment before slowly walking over to her desk, his gaze not once leaving hers. Her brow lifted when he placed the bottle of wine and the two wineglasses in front of her.

“Since you won’t go out with me, Netherland, I’ve decided to stay in with you.”

Netherland pulled in a long, slow breath. The room had become silent. For some reason she could no longer hear the music that had been playing moments ago. Nor could she hear the clinking of the
dishes and silverware from the kitchen that was located on the other side of the wall.

She took another deep breath, telling herself firmly that she would not let Ashton get to her.
Too late,
her body silently chanted.
He’s already gotten next to you.
Raw, primitive heat coursed through her body as he continued to look at her, making her heart pound and her blood race. And then, as if on cue, there was that heat settling between her legs again, this time making her thighs tremble.

To gain some semblance of control, she forced her gaze from his to focus on the wine bottle and wineglasses in front of her. “I have too much work to do, Ashton.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

He leaned against the edge of the desk facing her. “I can wait until you’re through.”

Netherland frowned. “It may be a while.”

“I have nothing else to do. Go ahead and finish what you’re doing and pretend I’m not here.”

Fat chance!
Netherland thought as she tried to refocus on the documents in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him move away from her desk to settle in the love seat on the other side of the room. As hard as she tried, she could not gather her train of thought to complete the task she’d been working on before he had arrived. Considering that he had been on her mind constantly all day, she had hoped that staying in her office and catching up on
some paperwork would be the perfect solution to not having to see him tonight. It appeared that he had no intentions of letting her avoid him.

After wasting a good ten minutes trying to unscramble her brain and feeling his presence too close for comfort, she finally had enough. “That’s it,” she said, standing up. “I’m through with what I was doing. We may as well go back and join the others.”

Ashton didn’t stand. Instead he leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs and looked up at her. “Are you afraid to be alone with me, Netherland?”

Netherland looked at him, astonished. He didn’t know how close to home he’d hit. Yes, she was afraid to be alone with him, but not for fear of what he might do to her. She was afraid of what she might let him do. Her attraction to him was too strong. There was no way she could deny that. If she stayed around him too much longer she would forget about the very reason they could not become involved. “I’m not afraid of being alone with you, Ashton.”

“Then let’s share a drink together. One drink is all I ask. Is that too much to ask?”

You don’t know the half of it,
Netherland thought. But if sharing one drink with him would get them out of her office that much quicker, then she would go along with it. “Okay, I’ll share one drink with you. Just one and not much.”

He stood and walked over to her desk and retrieved the wine bottle and glasses. He came back to her and handed her a wineglass. “Most people would
envy you, Netherland,” he said, pouring her a small amount of wine.

She lifted a brow. “In what way?”

“The one thing you hated about the military most people would find rewarding.”

Netherland took a sip of her wine before asking, “What could be rewarding about being uprooted every two to three years?”

Ashton took a sip of his own wine before replying. “In your travels you’ve probably seen places that most people only dream about seeing.”

“I would gladly have let them trade places with me. Although I do admit it was nice seeing most of those places, I’d rather have had stability. You don’t know how devastating it was for me whenever my father received new orders. That meant leaving the house behind that I had just started to consider home, and leaving friends behind that I had just gotten to know. There was never anything constant in my life.”

Ashton nodded. “Didn’t your parents try to make the moves easier for you?”

“They did what they could but it’s not easy being the only girl with two older brothers and two younger brothers. Things might have been different if I’d had a sister who could have been my best friend, but that wasn’t the case. As close as I was to my brothers while growing up, I couldn’t always get them to do girly stuff with me. They were boys, who were their father’s sons with aspirations of a life in the military.”

Ashton nodded as he leaned against the edge of her desk. “Did all four of them go into the military?”

“Yes.” She then told him about her brothers and what branch of service each belonged to. “So as you can see I’ve been surrounded by military men practically all my life. That’s another reason I don’t want to become involved with one.” She smiled. “Military men are some of the bossiest men I know.”

Ashton quirked a brow. “I’m not bossy.”

“You think you’re not?”

“Yes.”

Netherland shrugged as she sat down on the love seat, feeling relaxed. “Well, that’s your opinion of yourself.”

“Do you think I’m bossy?”

A smile touched Netherland’s lips. “Although I have to admit that I’ve never seen you in action, I would think being a marine colonel would demand a certain degree of bossiness, wouldn’t it?”

Ashton chuckled. “Yes, a certain degree.” He took another sip of his wine. “Earlier you mentioned how often you had to move. I have one up on you. I had to move about every six months instead of every two to three years.”

Netherland sat up. “Every six months? Were you a military brat, too?”

“Kind of. I was what you would call a custody brat. After my parents’ divorce I had to spend half the year with my father on the Cherokee reservation and the other half with my mother and her family wher
ever they happened to be. My maternal grandfather was a high-ranking officer in the army, and every year he was reassigned. Since my mother chose to live with her parents after the divorce, that meant I had to live with them when I was with her.”

Netherland nodded, finding the story of his childhood fascinating but sad. He was right. He’d had it worse than she had. “If you spent half the year on the reservation and the other half with your mother and grandparents, how were you educated?”

“Luckily I was able to keep up with the two different educations as well as the two vastly different cultures, but it wasn’t easy. Like you, whenever I had to make another move I left not only friends but family and cultures behind, as well.” One day he would tell her how his grandparents had tried, during the six months he spent with them, to make him forget he was part Indian. He couldn’t speak the language around them or do anything to remind them that their grandson had two heritages.

“Then why, Ashton? Why did you choose a life in the military? Knowing how unstable your childhood had been, why didn’t you seek stability in your life when you got the chance?”

Ashton walked away from the desk and came and sat next to Netherland on the love seat. She was so absorbed in hearing his response she didn’t notice at first. When she did, it was too late. He was sitting so close to her that his thigh was touching hers. So close that she could see the irises of his eyes.

“My main reason, which I’m sure was the same for your father and brothers, was a sense of doing something for my country. I’m a product of two heritages but foremost, I consider myself an American. I love this country and will defend it until the end. And believe it or not, the military gave me all those things I missed out on having while growing up. My stable home was being part of the marines. In that home I obtained a family that included every other marine. In my early days there, during boot camp, I met two men who today are closer to me than any blood brothers could be.”

“Trevor?”

Ashton nodded. “Yes, Trevor is one, and the other is a man by the name of Drake Warren, whom we fondly call Sir Drake.” He smiled. “Hopefully, you’ll get a chance to meet Sir Drake when he arrives for the christening of Trevor and Corinthians’s baby. He’s one of the godfathers.”

Netherland lifted an arched brow. “Just how many godfathers will this baby have?”

“Three.”

“Three?”

“Yes. Sir Drake, Dex Madaris and myself.”

Netherland nodded. She wasn’t surprised to hear Dex Madaris’s name among them. Everyone knew that Clayton’s brother Dex and Trevor had been friends since childhood.

“Who’s the godmother? Or should I say godmothers?”

“As far as I know there’s only one godmother. Corinthians’s best friend Brenna St. Johns, or Brenna Jordache since I understand she recently got married.”

Netherland nodded. Although she didn’t know Corinthians’s best friend Brenna personally, she had heard from Syneda how the woman had gone on a three-week cruise and met the man of her dreams on the ship and married him.

Netherland was about to take another sip and noticed her glass was empty.

“Want some more?”

She looked at Ashton, again noticing how close they were sitting on the love seat. “No, I think I’ve had enough.” Netherland looked down at her empty glass before raising curious eyes to Ashton. There was something she wanted to ask him, something that had been bugging her all day.

“Why did you volunteer to be a part of the Brothers Auction?”

Ashton studied her, remembering something Trevor had said. “Does it bother you that I did?”

Inhaling deeply, she blew out her breath in a rush. How could she explain to him that yes, it did bother her and make him understand why it did, when she didn’t fully understand it herself? She had no dibs on him, and he was free to do as he pleased with whomever he pleased. “It shouldn’t.”

He looked at her, met her gaze intently. “Does it?”

Netherland hated that he was making her admit to something she didn’t want to admit to. A part of her
wanted to lie to him and say, “No, it doesn’t matter.” But another part, the part that had asked the question earlier of why he had volunteered to do it, still wanted an answer. “Yes, it matters.”

He was silent for a moment as he continued to hold her gaze. “And why does it matter, Netherland?”

Netherland bristled slightly. She had answered several of his questions and he had yet to answer one of hers. “It just does, okay,” she said curtly. “Now will you tell me why you volunteered to do it?”

He reached out and traced a finger along her cheek. “The reason I did it was that I thought the money was being raised for a good cause and that my participation would be my contribution. You contributed by volunteering the use of your restaurant.”

Netherland nodded. “So your volunteering had nothing to do with…”

When she didn’t complete her question, he raised a dark brow. “Had nothing to do with what?”

She looked at him. “Knowing all those women would want you and that one of them will get the chance to spend a weekend with you in New Orleans.”

Ashton wanted to pull her closer. He wanted to tell her that the only woman who would be spending that weekend with him would be she. What Netherland didn’t know was that he had devised a plan and had given someone strict orders to top the highest bid, no matter what it was. In essence, that person would be bidding on his behalf. There was no rule that said a contestant could not bid on himself and present the
winning bid to the woman of his choice. He had no intention of letting any woman choose him. He would be the one doing the choosing.