Legal Legacy 2 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles Book 10)

Legal Legacy 2

The Good Life…

A
nd Beyond.

Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles

Book 10

By Kimball Lee

Copyright 2014 Kimball Lee

Kindle Edition

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chapter One

“It’s time, Charlotte, my father’s waiting for you.”

“
Oh, so now I’m Charlotte? Alright, Atti, where did that come from? And you don’t have to call Bly your father just because I’m marrying him,” Charlotte said, reaching up to brush the lock of hair from her son’s forehead. He was the exact image of Alexander Bly when she had first met him, tall and beautiful and overtly masculine, the only difference was that Atticus had inherited Charlotte’s sapphire-blue eyes. They were both so commanding, so much alike, Bly and Atticus, when either of them entered a room every voice lowered to a whisper and all eyes were riveted as if no one else existed.

“He
is
my father and I’m not going to hide it anymore. Dad and I talked about it when we were in Las Vegas before he… well, he didn’t intend for our lives to end because his did. I want what Dad wanted, to make sure that you and Hadley and Charlie are happy and well cared for. I won’t be able to watch over the three of you for a while. Alex can, he loves you as much as Dad did and he’ll be a wonderful father figure for Charlie and Hadley. Charlie’s thirteen, not a good age to lose the most important man in your life but he and Alex have formed a close bond over the past year. Anyway, Alex can’t take Dad’s place but he will go above and beyond and I… I love him for it,” Atticus said, and he leaned down to kiss his mother’s cheek just as the door opened and a gaggle of laughing women rushed in to help Charlotte with her wedding dress.

“Out, get
out Atti, its bad luck for the groom’s son to see the bride before the wedding,” Hadley laughed at the ridiculousness of her statement but she still pushed her brother toward the door where he collided with Mia and Skyler.

“Excuse me,” Skyler said,
trying to maneuver past him, refusing to look into those sapphire eyes. That would be the end of her, to have to look up at Atticus and not run her fingers along his strong square jawline. It would be impossible not to kiss his wide seductive mouth if their eyes met, and if they kissed there would be no stopping what was bound to happen next.

“Sky, wait,” Atticus said,
catching her slender wrist and pulling her into the hallway as his mother and the other women smiled and looked away.

All the women except for Mia
, who leaned against the open door and watched. She was still entranced by her half-brother. She didn’t imagine herself in love with him any longer, but she hadn’t quite gotten past her jealousy of seeing the raw desire written across his face when he looked at Skyler.
Someday, someday
… someday she hoped a man would look at her in just that certain way. Someday the right man would be as spellbound by her as her father was by Charlotte, and as Atticus was by Skyler. Oh, to have a man want her, need her and love her as if the very beating of his heart depended on it.

“I’
m only here to stand up with your mother when she says her vows and then I’m leaving. Let me go, please Atticus,” Sky’s voice was a soft plea and when she finally allowed her eyes to meet his she was shocked at the amount of love and pain she witnessed there.

“Sky, my beautiful Sky,” he whispered as he released
her wrist and leaned into her so that their lips nearly touched.

“No.” She said firmly, stepping back. “I can’t Atticus. I wanted to be here for Charlotte and Alex but I can’t show up at all your family functions, sleep with you and then just go on with my life. Your heart might work that way but mine doesn’t, it breaks every time I’m near you. I mean
, who meets the love of their life when they’re just a little kid? I did. I can’t count the number of years I’ve dreamed about the two of us together. And even when we are together it’s still a dream just beyond my reach. You love me for a night, a few days, or from afar, but that’s not enough for me.” 

“Go a
long now, Atticus,” Evangeline stepped between Sky and Atticus and tried to shoo him away. He gave his grandmother a radiant smile and a peck on the cheek and led Sky down the seemingly endless hall toward a multitude of immense unfurnished rooms.

Evangeline placed her jeweled hands on her slim hips and shook her he
ad as the pair ducked into a library whose double-height walls of bookshelves were filled with thousands of leather-bound books but there wasn’t one stick of furniture in sight. Evangeline called after him although she wasn’t sure if he was listening or not, “You need to be supportive of Alexander, you are his best man after all, Atticus, so run and check on him. Poor Alexander, I’m sure he’s a bundle of nerves after all the years he’s waited to marry your mother… Oh dear, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it? Well, no matter, and tell Charles we’re nearly ready for him. Ah, today every man gets his wish, Alexander will marry Charlotte, Charles will walk his daughter down the aisle and Christopher will whisk Amanda off to a spare bedroom as soon as the ceremony is over if I’m not mistaken.” Evangeline sighed deeply and closed the bedroom door once it was clear that whatever Atticus wanted to say to Skyler, it was the most important thing on his mind at the moment. It was upsetting to see the look of frustration on her grandson’s face as he gazed down at the girl. She had hoped Atticus had inherited Charlotte’s strong will and knack for getting on with life rather than Alexander’s tendency to obsess over one true love for evermore.

Atticus
didn’t want to torment Skyler and he was good at controlling his thoughts and actions in all aspects of life— except where she was concerned. A delicate spiral staircase led to the second floor gallery of the library and he sat on the second step and pulled Sky onto his lap. His mouth claimed hers before he even realized what he was doing, his big hand slipping inside her blouse to caress her small breasts and erect nipples.

She groaned against his mouth squirming on his lap as his erection
pressed into her little ass. His kiss, his touch, his smell, every part of him turned her blood to liquid fire and melted her resolve. How could he do this to her when she was trying so hard to move on with her life, a life without him. It was almost unthinkable and yet he had been the one to decide their fate, to insist that she shouldn’t wait for him while he risked his life and played his war games, just like his dad had done before him. Skyler forced herself away from him, jumping up and crossing the room before he could stop her.

“You have no idea what you’re doing to me, Atticus. This isn’t fair and isn’t like you to knowingly cause me more pain than I already feel just
from thinking about you,” she said straightening her blouse as she watched him rake back the piece of hair that fell across his forehead and then rest his face in his hands in resignation.

“Sky, I’m out of control when you’re near me and I know
it’s wrong…. I fucking love you and have to have you and the thought of another man’s hands touching you… FUCK! This is so fucking fucked up! I swear to God I want to marry you right now— tonight. But it’s selfish because I’m not ready to give up my other life and I don’t mean women, I mean the teams, Special Ops. God help me, I love it so much and I need to do it while I’m young and free. I’ll be twenty-two in the spring and then in eight years I’ll take over Bly International, that’s not something that appeals to me. Sky, do what you have to do, but someday I want you to be my wife and have our children. I could handle the pressure of taking over Alex’s corporation if I had you at my side but I won’t ask you to wait, and I hate to hurt you by loving you and still pushing you away. I’m not myself since my dad died and I can’t say if I ever will be again, I’m my own worst enemy right now. Go do what you have to do and if I lose you forever I’ll have no one but myself to blame.”

“I don’t know if I can wait for you Atti and worse than that I don’t know that I’ll be able to have a child,” Sky said and she turned away so that he wouldn’t see the scalding tears that sprang to her eyes when she said those last hard words.

“Don’t say that, beautiful Sky. If I have one child in this life, you will be its mother. I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he stood close behind her and it took every ounce of strength he possessed not to envelope her thin frame in his arms and crush her to him.

“Ah, Atticus. Some things can’t be helped or undone no matter how m
uch you wish you could change them. I need to go help Charlotte now, this is her big day and we shouldn’t spoil it with our regrets and unfulfilled dreams.”

*

Amanda couldn’t help but stare at the vision of Charlotte so beautiful and gloriously radiant as she put the finishing touches on her hair and makeup. “Alex asked if you were wearing a short dress, Charlotte. He really has a thing for your insanely long gorgeous legs and this dress is killer. Who other than Chanel and Charlotte could make a little white dress with all-over lace cut-outs look so sexy and classic at the same time? Oh and I love the little tease of a garter belt and white satin ankle-strap stilettos, make him work for it sister!”

“Would
you hush, Amanda? I hope the girls didn’t hear you, they don’t need to know I’m wearing sexy under… things! In fact I
did
choose everything to please Bly, I want my body to be like a gift he gets to unwrap. And I can only imagine that he looks like absolute perfection in his tuxedo, I’ll enjoy unwrapping him as well! You can be sure my heart will do somersaults the minute I look into those incomparable sea-glass eyes. Okay enough of that, I feel like a teenager on a first date. You’ll truly be my sister now Amanda, it’s all sort of unbelievable isn’t it? Hadley, Mia, Sky, Ava, thank you my darling girls for being my bridesmaids and Amanda you are not just the maid of honor, you’re my ‘best woman’. Okay, what’s the verdict everyone, should I wear this little veil or not?” Charlotte asked and she couldn’t keep the happiness from her voice.

A Christmas Eve wedding was just the celebration they all needed Charlotte had decided.
She had let holidays go uncelebrated after Finn’s death, grief had pushed all ‘trivial’ matters from her mind that first year. Bly had wanted to go to the courthouse immediately after she had barged into his office and declared that she could no longer live without him, but she had insisted they wait a month and make Christmas extra special for their combined families. Thanksgiving would still be celebrated in Surrey since Bly had bought the cottage from Jude paying ten times what it was worth so he could give it to Charlotte and her children as one of many wedding presents. Jude had ridiculed Bly for having paid so much but Bly told him to go fuck himself, Charlotte was priceless and there was nothing he wouldn’t give her or do for her. Bly insisted that Jude put the deed to the cottage in Charlie’s name as part of a legacy handed down to him in honor of Finn and Charlotte’s love.

Evangeline, Amanda and Bly had planned the entire wedding while Charlotte put her personal and business affairs in order in San Diego. There was no limit to what Bly would do to insure Charlotte’s happiness and he knew how much the law firm Finn and JP had started meant to her so he had encouraged her to keep it operating even in her absence. Together she and Bly created the Finnegan Hale and John Paul Thomas Charitable Trust with a large part of Finn’s winnings from Las Vegas which allowed her to hire a half dozen more lawyers and offer their services pro bono to veterans and their families.

“Charlotte, darlin’, are you ready? Your groom is waiting and he is more than anxious to see his lovely bride.” Charles Tremont tapped on the door and then stepped inside. He thought he had never seen so many beautiful women in his life, women of all ages from Evangeline to Skyler and all of them buzzing around Charlotte as if she were the center of their universe. She and Christopher were certainly the center of his world and he had never stopped loving Evangeline. But that was old news and over and done with. West was Evangeline’s weakness, she was his and the two of them were happy together. Evangeline doted on Atticus and it would have been nice if she and Charles could have shared that joy with each other since Atticus was the first grandchild for both of them. But easy wasn’t always the way things worked out. So Evangeline’s life revolved around Alex and his son Atticus, and to a slightly lesser degree she doted on Holden, West and Beau. Charles had retired from politics but he had a full life with his children and grandchildren. He and Christopher were as devoted to young Charlie as Bly, Charlotte and the rest of the family were. It had been a miracle of sorts for Charles to have found Charlotte when he had never known he had a daughter, and through her, his son Christopher had by all intents returned from the dead.

*

Charlotte was truly a vision as she walked the length of the great hall at Palomar Villa out into the starlit evening. The palatial mansion was to be her new home in Santa Barbara, the home where she and Bly would begin their lives as husband and wife. He’d bought Palomar Vineyards with its acres and acres of twining pinot-noir grapevines and expansive views of the blue Pacific Ocean framed by the green and craggy Santa Ynez Mountains. The estate was a world unto itself with its opulent thirty-five thousand square foot residence, twelve sumptuous guest cottages, winery, ancient adobe chapel, stocked lake, citrus and avocado orchards and vast gardens for vegetables and free-range poultry. Casitas or “little houses” were clustered in a scenic corner of the estate comprising a lovely village of state-of-the-art homes for those employees who chose to live on the property.