Legal Legacy 2 (Surrendering Charlotte Chronicles Book 10) Read online

  Legal Legacy 2

  The Good Life…

  And 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 along 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 head 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 w
orst 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 much 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.

  Charles had never seen Alexander Bly happier or more hopeful as he waited to marry the love of his life. Charlotte’s hand was trembling as it rested on her father’s arm and they walked together along the flagstone path from the mansion to the tiny chapel overlooking the sea.

  “Are you nervous, darlin’?” Charles whispered to his daughter patting her hand and gazing down into the sapphire-blue eyes she had inherited from him. Her face was a work of art, the flawless alabaster skin, high cheekbones and full rosy lips. Charlotte reminded him of his own mother who had been the most coveted and sought after debutant in New Orleans in her day, she’d driven so many young men to distraction it had caused quite a scandal among the tight-knit southern society.

  “No, I’m excited,” she whispered and held on tighter as they entered the sanctuary with its faded murals and dozens upon dozens of white roses and shimmering candles. Bly had sent white roses to Charlotte the morning after he followed her home from the mayor’s gala, a huge bouquet that JP had smiled and handed to her, roses whose scent drifted back to her now in this idyllic chapel on this magical night before Christmas.

  Bly could hardly breathe as he watched Charlotte gliding down the aisle toward him. She moved gracefully and with a purpose. That purpose was to join him at the altar and then be joined to him for the rest of their lives. He could see it on her face and in her secretive smile and mostly in the incandescently joyful glow of her brilliant blue eyes. They shone in her pale beautiful face like jewels and they silently spoke every word of love he had waited so many years to hear. Charlotte loved him, truly and completely, her heart and her soul were entwined irrevocably with his. His immense wealth by no means defined him, it was the solid and immoveable fact of Charlotte’s love that made him the absolute richest man in the world.

  Atticus, Holden, Charlie, Christopher and West stood at the front of the chapel with Bly, and Amanda, Hadley, Mia, Skyler and Ava took their places opposite them. A classical guitarist played instrumental versions of Charlotte’s favorite songs and when she appeared at the door of the chapel the notes of “Here Comes the Sun” softly floated in the rose and beeswax tinged air.

  Time stood still when Charles kissed his daughter and placed her hand into Bly’s and yet it also moved swiftly. It seemed as if she had only just handed her frothy bouquet of tiny whi
te roses studded with holly and red berries to Amanda and looked up into Bly’s eyes and then suddenly they had pledged to love and cherish one another from that moment on until the end of time and then they were kissing with no intention of stopping.

  “Dear and honored guests,” the minister said, clearing his throat as Bly and Charlotte continued to kiss and smile and laugh and kiss yet again as if only they existed in the chapel and in the world. “I present to you the happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Bly. Merry Christmas Eve to all and the festivities will continue in the main ballroom!”

  Charlotte and Bly didn’t leave the chapel even after all the guests had filed out. Bly kissed Charlotte’s hands and she marveled at the colossal emerald-cut diamond ring he had saved from their long ago trip to New York. He rested his forehead against hers after kissing her eyes and her cheeks and her lips and he said he knew that special ring was meant for this once in a lifetime occasion. He had never once lost hope that he would slip it on her finger in the sight of God and the people who were closest to them and although the ring was one of a kind and beyond compare, it paled in comparison to the priceless gift of Charlotte’s love and her intrepid spirit. His lips moved against the smooth hollow of her neck, the soft curve of her cheek and rested against her ear. He whispered words of a love that was too large to be contained and had no end. He wanted her to know that she was a miracle in his life, she filled his heart with such a brilliant abundance of joy that it spilled over and washed through his body and soul and completed him at last.

  *

  As best man Atticus attended to his duties and escorted his Aunt Amanda out of the chapel, across the wide expanse of lawn and patio and then he kissed her cheek as Christopher took her off his hands. Atticus had a kind word to say about almost every person he’d ever met but Amanda had fallen from grace in his eyes with her cold indifference toward Skyler. He watched her lavish attention on his Uncle Christopher and on Ava and Jack as she circulated throughout the ballroom and although she was Alex’s sister and she and Atticus shared a bond of blood, he couldn’t find a soft spot in his heart for her.