Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 Read Free Page A

what they were talking about, not having a clue what question he’d asked.
    Then she kneed him in the balls.

Chapter Two
    Natalie
    “I’m really sorry. Like…really sorry.” Sitting at the conference room table at C&C headquarters, Natalie stared at the man who’d just saved her. And then she’d racked him.
    On the sidewalk.
    After he’d kissed her.
    “Fuck, I’m still nauseous.” He sat in a chair across from her and she’d already apologized several times on the taxi ride.
    “I thought I was squishing you.”
    “So you decided I didn’t need family jewels?”
    Crossing her arms on the table, she placed her forehead on top of them. “No. It was an accident. I swear it. I was just getting up and was too twitchy. Misjudged our distance apart.”
    “By a mile.”
    “Oh good gracious.” She lifted her head and took a drink from a glass of ice water she’d grabbed before she collapsed in her seat. “You really are whining a lot about one little tap.”
    “Says the woman with no nuts.”
    “Says Captain Obvious.”
    Campbell grinned and her insides wanted to melt. So she drank more water to freeze that stuff out. She didn’t have the time or emotional reserves needed to deal with feelings for the Casanova smirking at her across the table.
    He’d called Detective Wyatt, a buddy of his from their time in the Marines. Wyatt had sent a uniformed officer to the scene to make a report. Thankfully they’d gotten to leave before he had to notify the owners of the two damaged vehicles. Telling strangers they’d had a hit-and-run with no ability to find the asshat who’d wrecked their rides didn’t sound like a good time.
    Wyatt was going to follow up with them as soon as he was free from another case so all they could do now was sit tight and wait for him. Alone. With the man she wanted and couldn’t risk being distracted by staring at her. With that smile she dreamt about.
    “Penny for your scowl,” Campbell offered.
    Natalie glared and to his credit he finally got serious.
    “Was this like the other attacks?”
    “Yes and no.”
    He leaned forward, and she made sure to keep both hands surrounding her glass so he couldn’t take either of them. Which he wouldn’t have done, but she was pretty sure he was going to anyways. “Care to elaborate?”
    Closing her eyes reminded her a little too much of feeling defeated so she opened them again and stared him right in the baby blues. “Two of the other times were in the middle of the day with other people around. They could have been targets as well.”
    “But you already knew it had something to do with you.” It wasn’t a question, which she really appreciated. Feeling patronized at the moment would push her far past the edge of cordial.
    She nodded. “The emails had been escalating, threats getting harsher. More direct. Then they stopped for a while. Thought I was good, you know. Creepo moved on.”
    “Do you have any idea who would want to hurt you?”
    “Isn’t that the five-million-dollar question?” Another drink to wet her throat so she could speak with him staring at her. So focused. So sexy. She shook her head, reminding herself exactly why she didn’t want to get sexually involved with the Adonis within grabbing distance. “One thing I’ve noticed, whoever is sending the emails is using my standard email I use at work. The one on my business cards.”
    “Why is that noteworthy?”
    “I only use that email with people I interact with at the clinic. I have a private one everyone else uses.”
    “Well, we need to get on that immediately. We can pull server records and IP info from each of the emails and—”
    “It’s already been done.”
    “Ruh ruh?”
    “Scooby Doo? Really?”
    “I see your education has already begun, young grasshopper.”
    She didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry or fall apart completely. She decided on option D, which was act as if everything was fine. Fake it ’til you make it at its finest.