Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 (33 page)

“Thank God.”

“They asked if you were going to have someone to take care of you after you left.”

“And you told them?”

She shrugged. “I told them you did.”

He palmed her cheek as she leaned over him. “And who would that be?” he asked against her lips.

“Me. If you’ll have me.”

Kissing her filled him with so much joy and thankfulness he had no idea how he got so lucky. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Half a dozen kisses later she pulled away and sat on the edge of the bed. “Now we just have to decide where.”

“Where what?”

“Where you want to go to? Back to your place to get better or…” The hope in her eyes made him love her more.

“I want to go home,” he told her.

“And where’s that?” Her whispered question reminded him of exactly how much he wanted a forever with her.

Starling wiggled in her sleep and settled down again as he patted her back.

Without another thought he pulled the box from beside him and opened it up. “This isn’t how I wanted to ask you. I wanted to be down on one knee and do the romantic thing, but waiting for you to be mine isn’t going to work for me anymore.”

“Me either,” she whispered.

He pulled the ring out and set the box aside. Holding her hand, he slid the ring in place. Watching it sparkle in the light made him happier than he thought possible. “I want you with me, and I want to be with you. I asked you before, telling you all the wrong reasons. Well, they weren’t wrong. They just weren’t all of the reasons. Not the most important ones. I love you. A lot. I want to be a family and have our own children or adopt. I have a feeling the right children will find their way to us.”

Tears slipped down Natalie’s cheeks and she brushed them away. “We can name them something that starts with an F. I want in on that family tradition. We can have it all. As long as we’re together.”

“I want to spend my life making you happy and I’m determined to teach you how to take a compliment. Have a feeling it might take me a while so I think this is a good step in the right direction.”

She laughed as he hoped she would.

“I love you,” he continued. “I think I always have. Pretty sure that’s why I fought it so hard. Helping you. Working with you. Protecting you. You were the only person who could bring me to my knees. And you did it. With one little roll of your eyes I was a goner.”

“And what about our nights?” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose that.”

“Me dominating you isn’t something I ever want to lose. Not with marriage or other children. Nothing.”

“I don’t either. It’s incredibly special.”

“Yes you are.”

She looked into his eyes and bit her bottom lip.

“You are. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met and I’m not letting you go. Not ever. And you should know a collar is going to be my next purchase when I get out of here. I want it all with you. Vanilla, kinky, and everything in between.”

“A collar?”

He nodded. “Two actually. One for you to wear all the time. It can be something as simple as a necklace or a bracelet. Something everyone else just sees as pretty but we’ll know the difference. And then another collar. Our private collar. One for you to wear at night and when we play. Something that there is no question that it declares you as mine and mine alone. So, Natalie Swan Grant, will you do me the honor of marrying me and submitting to me? For life. To have and to hold. Sickness, health, rich, poor. All of it. I want it all with you.”

She nodded and more tears fell. “Yes. For always, Campbell. Forever and always. Yes.”

He pulled her down and kissed her. “Then my answer is, with you.”

Rubbing beneath her eyes, she blew out an unsteady breath. Fuck, he loved affecting her like no one else did. “You’ve thrown me so hard I don’t even remember what I asked you.”

“You asked me where home is. My home’s with you. Wherever that may take us.”

Natalie smiled and kissed him again. “Then let’s get you out of here. Maybe we can even get you a cup of coffee on the way home.”

“I love it when you’re a rebel.”

“Just wait until you get your strength back.” She bobbed her eyebrows at him. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Epilogue

Natalie

On Starling’s first birthday a huge crowd gathered around her to watch her dig into her cake.

To begin with she’d been hesitant and didn’t know what to do with it. That lasted until Natalie got some on her finger and had her taste it.

After that she went at it Tasmanian Devil style.

Natalie stood there in a bright white dress, watching their adopted daughter AKA the flower girl, devour her cake. Happiness and thankfulness bubbled inside her as she glanced at her left hand again.

A platinum wedding band circled her finger and sat next to her engagement ring.

She and Campbell had been married for approximately two hours and thirteen minutes. There was no way she could hide the smile lifting the corners of her lips.

It had actually been Campbell’s suggestion to do it on Starling’s birthday. He’d made a joke that it would be easier for him to remember one date instead of two, but she knew the real reason.

He was the most amazing father she’d ever seen. Never failed to be right there where his girls needed him. Never failed to be a part of every step of their journey as a family. And Starling was a huge reason why they’d found each other and knew any challenges they had were worth working through. Worth fighting for.

So becoming an honest-to-God family on her birthday was special and wonderful, and she stared at their daughter again as she shoveled more cake into her little mouth. When Starling was older they’d tell her Natalie was actually her aunt, but for now all she needed to know was that she was safe. And loved more than any little girl ever.

Natalie’s hand went to her throat as she caught Campbell’s gaze from across the ballroom.

The simple silver chain went perfectly with her dress and her hair and her fancy sparkly shoes. But it also went with the woman she was when all of that was stripped away. The necklace was thin and looked just like the rope Campbell used to tie her up with. To seduce her with. Bind her with.

To everyone else he was Campbell.

Security extraordinaire, father, son, brother, now husband.

To her?

He was so much more.

Everything. He was everything.

That description was closer but yet still not enough.

The necklace couldn’t be more perfect as her day collar, which Campbell had given to her within days of getting home after being shot.

Her eyebrows pulled low as she thought of that time and the half-brother she’d had for less than a handful of minutes before he’d died. She still struggled with it sometimes. Losing him. Playing the what-if game didn’t help her any, but it was hard not to do it.

Campbell shook hands with Detective Wyatt who then turned around and gave her a small smile and wave before walking out of the reception hall.

Her husband strode up to her and pulled her into a hug with a bone-melting kiss to top it off.

“Please. Please. I’m married now. What will people say?” She couldn’t resist giving him a hard time.

“That I’m the luckiest man alive to be married to a knockout like you.”

She didn’t even try to contain the sigh slipping through her lips. “How am I supposed to remain standing when you make me so weak in the knees?”

“You don’t have to.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I’ll always be there to catch you.” He kissed her again before she could say anything else and then looked down into her eyes. “Why did you look sad a minute ago? I don’t like you sad any day but definitely not today.”

“Just thinking of Jay and everything that happened at the end. Of Braden being the one to go to the cops and tell them the part my father played in all of it. And my mother. Wonder if I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around it.”

Campbell pulled her close and swayed with her to the music as they both looked on at Starling as she painted the tray on her high chair with cake.

Clay, Angela, and baby Wyatt were ringside to the cake massacre, making sure things didn’t get too out of control.

Clay grinned. At the antics of the birthday girl or the fact Campbell had paid him a hundred dollars early, she didn’t know. Campbell had told her it was some kind of bet. Something about being engaged. Then he wouldn’t elaborate when she’d pressed him. She made a mental note to ask Angela since she would most definitely be able to get her the details.

“I know I’m not supposed to like Braden on general principle of being your ex, but he really is an okay guy. Especially when he let it slip to the shareholders of your father’s company that your parents had been embezzling money for years.”

Natalie shook her head. “They told the accountant who was cooking the books so technically they did tell someone. Unbelievable. But you know something that still doesn’t make sense to me?”

“What?”

The crowd awwed as Starling fed a handful of cake to baby Wyatt. Somebody yelled out, “Wyatt should have been the bachelor to catch the garter.”

“Wyatt was the one to catch it,” another guy on the other side of the crowd called out. “Just happened to be the older version.”

Detective Wyatt had been stunned when Campbell pegged him in the face. Talk about priceless. Natalie made a mental note to see if the photographer caught it on camera. Oh she hoped so. Taunting him that he was the next on the list was going to deal her no shortage of delight.

“Hey, did Wyatt leave?” she asked her husband.

Campbell nodded. “Kidnapping case he got handed this afternoon. He was pretty sure his partner had a good lead so he scrammed. Told me to tell you goodbye.” Pulling her chin back around, he whispered, “Goodbye” against her lips and kissed her.

Sometime later when he finally lifted his head, Natalie relaxed against his chest. “That was some goodbye.”

“Always doing something to the best of my ability is kind of a motto.”

Natalie looked across the ballroom, finding the now familiar faces of Campbell’s parents and siblings. Amazing. Each one of them. “And I know exactly where you get that from.”

“Hold on, our conversation was shanghai’d by the munchkin. You were going to tell me something you still couldn’t believe, understand, something.”

“Oh, yeah. My parents. Why steal money? They blew through all their money and what was in my trust in just a handful of years. Really? And the company was profitable the whole time too? Just doesn’t make any sense. I know I just have to let it go because I won’t ever know, but Lordy I’d love to know what really happened.”

“I can actually answer that,” came a voice from behind them.”

Both of them turned around to find Braden standing a couple feet away.

“Hi, Braden. Fancy meeting you here.” Natalie hugged him and then Campbell shook his hand.

“I watched Clay walk you down the aisle a couple hours ago so I had it on good authority you’d still be hanging around.” He smiled and Natalie hugged Campbell again.

“Thanks for doing that for me. It meant a lot.”

“My honor. Truly. I’m so very thankful you’re happy and the fact you wanted me to be a part of it still blows me away.”

“We’re still some kind of family I think,” Natalie told him. “We don’t all fit into some cookie cutter family tree but we really do fit together somehow.”

“I very much like to think so and I come bearing gifts.”

“You don’t need to do anything, Braden. I told you that.”

He was already reaching into the pocket on his suit jacket. “I know, which makes it ever nicer that I can anyway. When I walked up you were pondering why your parents were embezzling money.”

Natalie nodded. “Sure didn’t make any sense to me. Nor why they’d want me back in the picture at the end when I was already out of the picture. None of it made any sense.”

Holding up a piece of paper, he handed it over. “This is why.”

Natalie slowly took the paper and then glanced up at Campbell. His scowl told her he had no clue either.

She opened the page and scanned it. Then scanned it again. “Okay, Braden you’re going to have to explain to me what I’m looking at. Looks like stocks or something but that means less than nothing to me.”

“It’s a portfolio accounting of the current value of Grant Enterprises and the portion allotted to each of the main shareholders.”

“Awesome. Still means nothing to me.”

“Look at graph three, column one. What name is on there?”

“Column one says Natalie Newbury…” Trailing off, she stared at the graph again. “This has to be wrong.”

“I assure you it is quite accurate. You asked me months ago why I stayed on working with your father. This is the reason. Right before your grandmother passed she called me to bitch me out for being a…” He looked at the ceiling for a second. “A spineless pussy I believe were her words about me staying. But I overheard your father one day talking about liquidating your trust. He’d find a way by God. I couldn’t let that happen. I just couldn’t. So I stayed to figure out how to block him from doing that. I had to find a way to keep him from demolishing it along with his portion. I’d already had a glimpse of how fast he was blowing through money. When I found out what they were doing, I couldn’t come out and say it because I didn’t have enough support of the members on the board. Thankfully your grandmother helped in the wings to get enough support in the good ole boy network. It barely worked, but it worked. And now your inheritance is yours. All of it. You’re now the number one shareholder in Grant Enterprises. Valid upon your…marriage.”

Her mouth flopped open a few times before anything intelligible came out. “I’m so freaked out I don’t even know what to ask yet. Why didn’t you tell me this all before? We’ve been talking again for almost a year.”

“Part of it was with the trial of your parents there was a lot I couldn’t legally talk about.” He shook his head. “But that’s not the real reason. I failed you once. Horribly. I couldn’t fail you again. If I couldn’t do anything to fix it then I would have walked away and never looked back, but your grandmother is actually the one who told me about the loophole.”

“What loophole?” Natalie asked.

“Marriage. All of the stipulations of the will and trust from anyone on your grandmother’s side speak of a male heir, except one tiny line in the fine print that marriage of a female heir will supersede everything else and all claims. She was a bit of a sneaky lady with a penchant for the dramatic. I wonder where someone else gets it from?” He eyed her for a second and smiled. “So your father writing you out of the will and out of your inheritance wouldn’t be valid in the slightest as soon as you married.”

“Why didn’t she tell me that before she died?”

“She wanted you to get married because you loved someone so much that spending the rest of your life without them wasn’t a possibility.” He nodded toward Campbell. “And I do believe she got her wish.”

“So you stayed to block my father from finding a loophole of his own? Until I got married?”

“Correct.” His slow smile reminded her of the boy he used to be.

She couldn’t get her mind wrapped around how wrong she’d been for so long about him. “Why?” she whispered.

“Why what?”

“You did all of this. Not just a good Samaritan kind of act but years and years of doing things. Why would you do all of that for me?”

Staring at her, he took a breath. “He was my son, too.”

Natalie took his hand and the first tear slipped free. “He most certainly was.”

Braden brushed beneath his eyes and squeezed her hand a second before letting it go. “Which brings me to my second present. Actually our present.” He looked at Campbell.

“Our present?” Natalie asked as Campbell moved behind her and covered her eyes with his hands.

“Ours. We’ve been working on something for a while.”

Clutching the paper in her hands, she took a deep breath. “I don’t know how many more surprises I can handle.”

“You’re gonna love this one,” Campbell whispered in her ear and then he turned her around a bit so she didn’t know which way she faced. “You know how we had to use the dogs as ring bearers earlier? Epic disaster.”

She snickered and leaned back against him. “They were cute.”

“They were little hellions who didn’t go anywhere we wanted them and it was like a greased pig contest at a county fair to catch them to get the rings. I’m surprised they still had the rings tied on when my niece and nephew caught them.”

“It was memorable if nothing else.”

“Do you remember who you wanted to be the ring bearer?”

“Cooper, of course, but he couldn’t come. The family was waiting on news of a baby girl up…for…adoption…”

Campbell moved his hands and Natalie blinked, hoping beyond hope a family would be standing in front of her she desperately wanted to meet in person.

She squealed and turned around to hug Campbell. “Oh my God.”

Cooper and his mother and father, who held a little pink blanket that was probably wrapped around Cooper’s new baby sister, stood a few feet away. They’d been talking and video chatting for months and months but their schedules just hadn’t aligned for a visit.

Then the wedding came up and they all thought it was going to be the perfect time to meet. But the little girl’s birth mother had chosen them to be the parents of her daughter.

“Go meet him. I’ll be waiting.” He kissed her temple and then urged her forward. Didn’t take much encouragement.

“Oh my gosh, Cooper, you’re even taller than I imagined.” She reached for him and then hesitated, glancing at his mom.

Kathryn laughed. “Hug him up, he’s been dying to meet you.”

Natalie opened her arms and they met in the middle. She dissolved into quiet tears and held on tight. “You’re so tall.” She laughed through her tears and then held him at arm’s length. “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown in a year.”

“I’m twelve. I keep telling Mom pretty soon I’m going to be looking down at her saying, ‘Take out the trash.’” He laughed and it sounded just like his mom.

His mom gave him what looked like a mock scowl, and adjusted the baby in her arms. “Not gonna be long before he’s taller than me but I’m pretty sure that allowance money is going to dry up quickly if I have to do the trash again. Understand?” She made a face at him, and he rolled his eyes.