Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [81]
“Yeah, twelve years’ worth.”
The kitchen screen door banged shut, and she was suddenly being kissed like she’d never been kissed in her life. “When your teeth start to rattle, let me know,” Parker said as he came up for air.
“They’re rattling.”
Annie felt herself being slung over Parker’s shoulder for a bouncing ride down the long hallway to his bedroom, where he dumped her unceremoniously on his bed. “Get ready,” he said, dropping his bathing trunks.
“What . . . what happened to foreplay?” Annie squawked.
“That was foreplay back at the falls. This is it!”
“Well, I like . . .”
“God, you talk more than my sisters do. What do you like?”
She told him. “Of course if you can’t . . .”
“I guarantee that I can.”
“Or my money back?” Annie said breathlessly.
“My guarantees are foolproof.”
“Prove it!”
A long time later, Parker managed to croak, “Do you want your money back?”
“God, no. Tell me something. Can you do that again?”
Parker laughed. “Maybe in about three days. How about you?”
“At least three days.”
“At least we’re on the same wavelength. I thought this day would never come.”
“I thought the same thing, Parker.”
“I want to marry you,” Parker said.
Annie leaned up on one elbow. She was tempted to say, but we hardly know each other. Instead she said, “I accept.” Fool, fool, fool, her mind shrieked.
“You do! When?”
“Whenever you want. I’ve had twelve years to think about this. I can be ready in six months.” Annie Clark, you are out of your ever-loving mind. You don’t love this man. Why are you doing this? Just so you can belong to someone. Uh-huh, all the wrong reasons.
“Six months is perfect. I have a harvest to get ready. Shall we have the wedding here in the islands?”
“I’d like that very much.”
“That means winter of next year, right?”
“Right. That kind of makes it eight months, though,” Annie said. “I have new stores to open, and I need to prepare for the selling end of the coffee: How does February of next year sound?”
“It sounds like a very long time. I can wait. Now, what about that six-month contract. I can’t live with that, Annie.”
“I can come back and forth and you can come to Charleston or we can meet halfway. We won’t be apart much. I think I can handle it. Can you? What do you mean, you can’t live with it. It is what it is. I’m not changing my mind, Parker.”
“You have to change your mind. If we’re getting married, we have to make decisions together. If you can handle the separation, then I can handle it. Will it be possible for us to live here on the island, Annie? I have to be honest with you. I don’t think I could survive anywhere else. Those years away at school proved that to me. I’m an island boy through and through. If you want to live on the mainland, I’m willing to give it a try.”
Annie felt like she’d been hit in the gut. Deal with it now or later? Later would work. She needed to think. “I would love to live here part of the year. I’m not giving up my business, Parker. Or my dogs. The contract stands, too.”
“I would never ask you to do that. You aren’t going to be working seven days a week, are you? I love dogs. But we have to change the contract.”
“No, the contract stays. Maybe two or three days a week. I have very capable people working for me. Tom can handle it just the way Kiki handles the coffee business. This is the best of all worlds if you meet me halfway. My business is mine, Parker, and yours is yours.”
“Maybe we could coax Mattie out of retirement, and, along with my sisters, they can teach you about the islands. If you want to learn, that is. No, no, Annie, it doesn’t work that way. We have to merge. ”
“I want to learn everything there is where you’re concerned. I want to know the man I’m marrying inside and outside. Up one side and down the other. But there won’t be a merger.”
“There has to be a merger. Our attorneys can work it out. I guess that means no secrets if you want to know everything about me. That’s okay, I don’t have any secrets. As they