“I just needed some time to make sure, but now that there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re mine, I’m hoping that we can get the elopement over with without the customary kidnapping,” he admitted before adding with a thoughtful look on his face, “Not that I’m opposed to kidnapping you at this point. In fact, if you try to run away again, I’ve already decided to break out the restraints in my bag, tie your adorable little ass to a short board and drag you into the courthouse.”

“Wait, why do you have to kidnap me to get me to marry you?” she found herself asking even though to be honest there was a lot that he said that deemed questioning and probably some time spent in a psychiatric ward.

“Tradition,” was all he said with a shrug as he finished putting ointment on her scrape and carefully applied a gauze pad to the wound.

“It’s tradition to kidnap your bride?” she asked, really too stunned to move on from that subject.

“It is in our family,” he admitted with another shrug as he reached over and helped her remove her shirt and bra, leaving her completely naked as she lay there, too stunned to move.

“Seriously?” she really just had to ask.

“Mmhmm, you can even ask your grandfather about it. He told me to be damn sure before I kidnapped you,” he said as though that cleared everything up for her.

“My grandfather knows about this?” she asked, once again, too stunned to really react as she lay there digesting all of this information while Duncan stood up and started to take off his clothes.

Normally she would stare and probably sigh a few times, but right now she was having a hell of a time wrapping her mind around a few things.

“So, your game plan is to kidnap me?” she asked, pretty sure that everything boiled down to that.

“Mmmmhmm,” he murmured as he covered her body with his and in one thrust, entered her. “It’s the only way to make you mine.”

Lip trembling, she asked, “Why would you want to do that?”

“Because,” he said as he slowly thrust inside her, kissing her neck as he went along and earning a moan of pleasure despite the fact that she was crying at the moment, “I love you and would happily face a felony charge for you, Necie.”

Since there really was no way to respond to that last part, she settled for, “I love you, too, Duncan.”

Epilogue

One Year Later…

“Damn it, woman! Stop slapping me!”

“Then stop trying to touch my cupcakes!” Duncan said with a glare as he held their sleeping daughter in his arms while he glared at Grandpa.

Grandpa swung his glare back to him. “They’re my cupcakes!”

“You’re on restrictions,” Duncan said, taking far too much joy in reminding her grandfather that he wasn’t allowed to have anything today that had sugar, butter, or salt in it.

Which meant that Grandpa would be stuck eating turkey, boiled potatoes, peas and if he was lucky, unsweetened applesauce for dessert. Normally she would feel bad that he was stuck on a restricted diet on days like this, but not after last night when she’d caught him sneaking a large slice of chocolate fudge cake when he was supposed to be watching his great-granddaughter so that she could finish up some last minute orders at the bakery and Duncan could grab an extra shift so that he could have today off.

Instead, they’d found him sitting on the couch with Uncle Jared, Jason, Trevor and three of his brothers, all eating the chocolate cake that she’d made for today with their baby girl sleeping on Jason’s shoulder, her face covered in chocolate and looking happier than they’d ever seen her.

“Think you can watch your granddaughter without spiking your sugar?” Duncan asked, already handing the little girl over to her grandfather.

“Watch it, boy,” Grandpa warned, “One day you’ll be my age and have to do the same damn thing.”

With that bad boy smile of his, Duncan took great pride in reminding Grandpa of the one thing that guaranteed that he would never have any food issues with one word, “Bradford,” which of course earned him another glare from Grandpa even as he kissed the sweet little girl in his arms.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to give my wife her Christmas gift before the guests start arriving,” he said, taking Necie’s hand in his and lead her towards the door all while glaring over her head at her grandfather, who’d taken great pleasure over the last year out of making his life a living hell.

Apparently, Grandpa had a set of rules for the man who stepped up and took over his job of caring for Necie, and he made damn sure that Duncan memorized each and every rule and if he didn’t, he went out of his way to terrorize her poor husband.

“Why are we going outside?” she asked, smiling as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze, telling him just how much she loved him.

“Because I have a surprise for you,” he said with that bad boy smile of his that she loved so much. “Not that I want you using it,” he said, the smile instantly gone as he threw her a look of warning, “but I found the perfect snow shovel for you.”

“You bought me a snow shovel?” she asked, amazed that he would even consider letting her go near another one with what happened this past fall with the rake, which had been an accident!

“Yes, ma’am, I did,” he said, proudly as he reached past her and grabbed a bright yellow snow shovel that was wrapped in a bright red bow, leaning against the house and handed it to her. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” he said as he handed it to her.

“Thank you!” she said with a watery smile as she accepted it, not because she was so in love with shoveling the snow, but because he was trusting her not to send him back to the emergency room to get his foot put in a brace or his jaw taped for stitches.