Pierce

Chapter Forty Eight

***A/N - Last chapter before Epilogue!

Pierce ~

Pierce and his teammates sat around the fire swapping stories and making fun of each other for hours. Natalie sat between his legs, leaning back on his chest as she listened and laughed along with his teammates at their ridiculous stories. Her suntanned arms and shoulders felt warm against his chest and the smell of coconut suntan lotion permeated his senses as he nuzzled her neck, peppering her with kisses just below her ear every few minutes because he just couldn't help himself.

"I love you Nat." he whispered in her ear.

His words put a wide smile on her face and she reached back and rested her hand on the side of his face as she answered.

"I love you too," she hummed next to his cheek.

The night was so perfect he thought his heart might explode. Natalie had changed everything in the blink of an eye. She had taken hold of Pierce and tamed his wild heart, showing him exactly what it felt like to be loved unconditionally and he was addicted, completely and utterly addicted.  The life he led before he met Natalie seemed so distant and foreign, like he hadn't truly been living before she came along.  She spiked his pulse and calmed his heart all at once, leaving him in a state of perfect contentment and he couldn't believe how lucky he was. 

Blowing out a relaxed breath, he looked around at his teammates holding the women they loved and having the time of their lives together.

Life is good...No - it's fucking perfect.

*****

The next week Pierce dropped Natalie off at Luxe for her first day back to work, making her promise to call him if she changed her mind and wanted to leave. She had been experiencing some anxiety which was perfectly understandable considering the trauma she had been through, but thankfully she was only going to go in for a few hours, which worked out perfectly because Pierce had been called in for a meeting at Knight.

He walked into the conference room for the scheduled briefing, but found it completely empty. Picking up on voices coming from the offices down the hall, Pierce followed the low hum and stumbled on the entire team huddled around looking at something.

"What's everybody looking at?" Pierce asked.

"Oh just Dec's latest investment."

"Glock or rifle?" Pierce asked, expecting to see a weapon in Declan's hands.

Instead he saw a tiny sparkling diamond ring resting in Declan's calloused hand.

"No shit?" Pierce asked excitedly.

"This little thing has been burning a damn hole in my pocket for a while now. I haven't figured out how I want to ask her yet, but until then I'm letting Hunter lock it up in the safe here. Lex almost found it twice and I can't handle the stress of having it in the house with her snooping around."

"Congrats man," Pierce said, slapping his back and eyeing the size of the diamond, making a quick mental note that when the time came, Natalie's would need to be slightly bigger.

After securing Lexi's ring in one of the safes, the team gathered in the conference room waiting to be briefed on their next assignment.

Hunter entered with files in hand with Axel following close behind him.

The hell is Axel doing in this meeting?

"Well no good deed goes unpunished or unnoticed around here boys." Hunter started as he passed the files to Declan.