That Carolina Summer (North Carolina) (19 page)

“Yes, it's true!” She was goaded into admitting it, and his piercing study stiffly fused her nerves with frissons of guilt.

Craig had returned her reputation to her intact, but she felt the self-punishing need to blacken it in Josh's eyes. A desire to do it before he did.

“What Craig omitted telling you was that I did go to that motel with the intention of going to bed with him,” she declared with a defiant tilt of her chin.

“Then why did you change your mind?” Josh challenged smoothly.

Annette didn't want to tell him the answer to that. She averted her head to escape his gaze. “I just did, that's all.” She mumbled the reply.

Craig began to speak, bringing the center of attention back to him. “I want you to understand, Mr. Long,” he said to her father, “that I'm not interested in just a casual relationship with your daughter. I care about Annette very much."

Impatience and irritation rippled through her. The only person Craig cared about that much was himself, and Annette knew it. It wasn't her name he was interested in clearing as much as it was his.

“Will you stop being so noble, Craig?” she flared. “In another minute you're going to be volunteering to do the honorable thing by marrying me."

Craig opened his mouth to respond, but Josh cut in, “And that can't be, since Annette is going to marry me."

The calm statement jarred Annette to her feet. “What?” She was furious at his supposition she would accept. After all he'd put her through tonight—humiliating her in front of her family—he was crazy to think she'd fall all over herself accepting his proposal. She stood before him, her arms rigidly at her sides and her hands clenched into fists. “I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth!"

Josh wasn't impressed by her anger or her denial. His gaze was coolly indifferent as it ran over her face. “Where you are concerned, I am the last man on earth,” he stated simply.

For a long second, her gaze silently battled with his before Annette chose retreat. “I've had enough of this.” Her voice trembled its anger through tightly clenched teeth. “I'm getting out of here."

She half turned to march out of the room in high dudgeon, but Josh snared her arm and hauled her back. Struggling, she tried to break loose, her angry resistance seemed to arouse his own anger.

“You aren't going anywhere,” he informed her with tight-lipped grimness. “I can't make up my mind whether you need a husband or a keeper."

“I don't need you!” She hurled the bitter words at him as his fingers dug into the soft flesh of her arms to hold her, inflicting pain.

“It's about time somebody took you off your father's hands,” Josh declared roughly. “You've caused him enough grief already.” His hard gaze swung away. “With your permission, Mr. Long, I'm taking Annette as my wife."

Turning her head to look at her father, Annette watched the transformation on his face as his look changed from grim paternal outrage to a kind of pleased and mocking satisfaction. She couldn't believe it. He didn't like Josh.

“You have my permission—and my sympathy.” A near smile edged the corners of his mouth.

“No!” Annette gasped in shock. “You can't mean it."

But the suggestion of a smile just increased. Her father didn't bother to reply. Instead he turned to Craig. “I believe your presence here has become superfluous, Mr. Fulton.” He took him by the arm and guided him to the door. “Thank you for coming."

A little bewildered, Craig let himself be turned out. The door remained opened after he left and her father sent a pointed glance at his younger daughter.

“It's time you called it a night, isn't it, Marsha?” He prompted her departure.

Motionless in the grip of Josh's hands, Annette watched in disbelief as first Craig left, then Marsha left. The door was closed and her father walked to Kathleen, curving an arm around her shoulders and turning her in the direction of the adjoining bedroom.

“Where are you going?” Annette demanded. “You can't leave me here with him."

The gray of her father's eyes gleamed with a smile. “I think my future son-in-law can handle the situation without my help."

“I'm not going to marry him,” she insisted.

“Yes, you are,” Josh stated, attracting her gaze back to him.

His certainty infuriated her. It wasn't right that he should be so sure of her, so positive she would agree. Silver fires blazed in her eyes.

“No, I'm not!” Annette retorted.

Her father's voice intruded on their disagreement in a low murmur. “We'll leave you two to sort it out."

THERE WAS ONLY ONE CHAIR in the darkened room where their son slept. Jordan guided Kathleen to it. “We're going to be in here for a while, so we might as well make ourselves comfortable.” He spoke softly, so that he wouldn't disturb the sleeping boy. Taking the chair for himself, he drew Kathleen onto his lap.

“You certainly reversed your opinion of Josh in a hurry,” she murmured, and curved a hand around his neck, absently letting her fingers seek the dark tendrils of his hair.

“Until tonight he hadn't proved to me he was the right man for her,” Jordan replied.

“Now you're convinced.” Kathleen eyed him with warm amusement.

His hand moved along her arm and caressed the rounded bone of her shoulder in a leisurely fashion. “The next problem will be adjusting to the idea of becoming a grandfather.” He smiled.

“I wouldn't worry about it,” she murmured. “You'll make a very sexy grandfather."

“That's because I'm married to a sexy grandmother,” Jordan assured her, and let his lips find hers in the dark to show just how powerful the attraction was.

ANNETTE STRAINED in Josh's hold, her fingers flattened against his chest. “You're crazy if you think I'm going to marry you.” She repeated the denial the instant her father and stepmother left the room. “Just because I thought I loved you—"

“You do love me,” Josh interrupted with unwavering sureness.

“I don't!” she snapped.

His mouth crooked. “Do you want me to prove it?” he taunted.

“No, I—” She broke off the denial, saving her energy to resist as his hold on her shifted.

The iron band of his arm circled the back of her waist to force her against his length while he combed his fingers into her tawny hair to hold her head still. Annette tried to elude his descending mouth and failed.

Her lips stayed stiff under the persuasive pressure of his mouth as it coaxed and urged them to respond. It was agony to resist the burning warmth of his kiss. She could feel it melting her limbs and firing her senses. And she suddenly wondered what was the use in fighting it and began kissing him back.

Josh insisted on a total surrender, not content until she was clinging to him and caressing him with trembling hands. Only then did he draw back while she shuddered with the intensity of her longing. His encircling arms continued to support her.

“Say you love me.” The disturbed pitch of his voice vibrated over her downcast head. “I want to hear it again."

“I love you, Josh,” she admitted reluctantly.

“And you're going to marry me,” he said, insisting that she voice her agreement.

A barely audible cry of anguish came from her throat. There were tears in her eyes when she lifted her head to look at his ruggedly handsome face. His velvet gaze seemed to caress her.

“You don't want to marry me, Josh,” Annette declared, and reminded him, “You don't even love me."

“Oh, but I do,” he corrected with a twinkling gleam in his eyes.

“But—” Her breath became caught in her throat. She couldn't believe that he meant it, not after the things he'd said the other night. “All you wanted was an affair. That's what you told me."

“Yes,” Josh admitted, and stroked her cheek and the side of her hair as if he enjoyed touching her. “At the time, I thought that was all I wanted."

“And you don't? You didn't?” She didn't know which it was, past or present tense, or both.

“It took me a while to realize the kind of affair I wanted with you was the permanent kind that comes with marriage,” he said to make his meaning clear. “You have your sister to thank for that."

“Marsha?” Annette was too dazed by the wondrous discovery that he loved her when she had thought it was all so hopeless.

“Yes, Marsha.” Josh smiled. “When she came to my suite tonight and told me you'd gone to some motel with Craig, I was rudely awakened to the fact that I was in love with you. The thought of any other man having you made me jealous as hell."

“But ... you said that men don't marry virgins.” How well she remembered those painful words.

“What I meant,” Josh said with a curving smile, “was that I don't make love to virgins, then marry them. And that's true, because I'm going to marry you first."

“Josh.” His name was an aching little cry of sheer pleasure.

Further discussion of the subject became nonessential as Annette gave herself up to the delights of his embrace, and love circled them in a golden halo.

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