Surrender

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 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.”

Chapter 4

Ashton'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.”