Surrender - Brenda Jackson

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my prayers, and I was able to find someone at the last minute, thanks to a tip I received this week. It seems this man is hot in demand. I bet the bids for him will bring in a lot of money,” she said excitedly. “Women think he's sexy as all outdoors. I spoke with him last night, and he consented to do it. Some lucky sister will be spending a weekend with him in New Orleans.”

      Netherland's interest was piqued. “Now you have me curious. Just who is this man who's so hot in demand?”

      Syneda smiled. “Trevor's friend who's visiting him. Colonel Ashton Sinclair.”

      Ashton inhaled deeply and silently counted to ten. A quick glance across the room indicated that his good friend Trevor Grant was doing likewise. They both watched the very pregnant woman in the center of the room tilt her head way back and look up at the ceiling.

      “Are you sure there's no way the ceiling can get wallpapered today?” she asked, glancing first at her husband and then at Ashton.

      As if on cue, Ashton and Trevor answered simultaneously, “Yes, we're sure.”

      Corinthians Avery Grant lifted one dark brow as she stared at each man again. “I hope I didn't work you too hard today, but I don't have long before the baby gets here, and I want to make sure everything is perfect.”

      “And things will be, honey.” Trevor walked over to his wife and pulled her into his arms. “But don't you think wallpapering the ceiling is a bit much?”

      “I want Baby Grant to look up and see pretty things instead of a dull white ceiling.”

      Trevor nodded, trying to understand her reasoning but failing miserably. “Then how about if Ashton and I paint it another color—a sunny yellow or something?”

      She nodded as if considering his idea. “That might work.”

      “But not today, sweetheart. Ashton and I are beat. You've already gotten your money's worth out of us. Is there any way we can take a break, relax and watch the basketball game?”

      Corinthians nodded. “Yes, that's fine. I feel tired anyway.” Kissing her husband on the cheek and smiling gratefully at Ashton, she turned and waddled out of the room.

      “Why is she tired, Trev? All she's been doing all day is standing in one spot giving orders.”

      Trevor chuckled, knowing his friend was telling the truth. “Yeah, but she looked so beautiful while giving them, don't you think?”

      Ashton shook his head, grinning. “I'll cut on the TV. You can grab the beer out of the fridge.” Both men quickly left the room before Corinthians had a change of heart and found something else for them to do.

      A while later during a commercial break Trevor asked Ashton how he was doing with Nettie. “I finally had to level with her, man, and let her know that we're getting married.”

      A grin covered Trevor's face. “I'm sure that went over well.”

      Ashton chuckled. “I didn't stick around too long after that to find out just how well it did go.” He cast Trevor a determined look. “I thought seriously about kidnapping her. What do you think about that?”

      “I'd rethink that plan if I were you. Last I heard kidnapping was still a federal offense. You'd be faced with a dishonorable discharge for sure.”

      Ashton nodded. “I could seduce her into submission.”

      Trevor grinned again. “That might work. There's nothing illegal about that. By the way, I heard you volunteered for the Brothers Auction. I wonder how Nettie is going to feel about that when she finds out.”

      “I plan to make sure she's the one I take with me to New Orleans.”

      “Then I strongly suggest that you have a very good plan in place. Rumor has it that Angela Meadows is going to be the one with all the money that night. No one will be able to outbid her.”

      “Who's Angela Meadows?”

      “Although she's a good-looking woman, she's every man's nightmare. A real man-hater.”

      Ashton raised a brow. “If she hates men, then why go out with them?”

      “To give them one night of pure hell. Two men dumped her at the altar so she's out for revenge. You should ask Clayton about her. He dated her once, and once was enough. The woman's crazy, man.”

      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

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