A Marked Man (28 page)

“Not hidden,” he said. “An inlet curves around there and comes this way. Did you tell your mama you were meeting me today?”

“No, not this time. Why?” She hadn’t wanted another lecture.

He put an arm along the back of the seat behind her. She didn’t mind. “The other day I thought you didn’t seem yourself. You were edgy.”

“I was fine.” She most certainly had been edgy.

“Annie—” He turned so he could see her face and pulled up a knee. “I would like to meet your mama.”

“Why?” That was an inappropriate response but he had shocked her.

“Because you and I aren’t children. We know somethin’ special’s happening with us and it’s happening fast. Don’t you think your family should be included?”

“We’ve only met five times,” she said quietly. “Six if you count the library.”

“Exactly, and I think about you all the time.” He shook his head. “Forgive me. I’m goin’ too fast for you but this never happened to me before. I haven’t known many women because I always figured I was looking for one special one. Now I’ve found her I want us to share our happiness with those who care about us. Next weekend I hope you’ll let me take you to meet my folks in New Orleans.”

Annie’s heart thudded so hard it hurt. “I see.”

Martin was quiet awhile.

“I like sitting here with you,” she told him.

“But you didn’t understand what I said to you—about feelin’ something special between us?”

Annie messed with a thread hanging from a button on his shirt. “I do understand.” She leaned closer and wound the loose piece around and around beneath the button so it wouldn’t fall off.

“Do you feel the way I do, cher? Would you hate it if I asked you to marry me?”

Her head buzzed and she thought she must have misheard him. Things like this didn’t happen to Annie Duhon-the-loser. Now, she shouldn’t put herself down like that. The nice people who helped her get well after…She’d made mistakes in the years after her little girl died, but those people at the rehabilitation place taught her how to respect herself again. She’d never touch drugs again.

She looked at Martin and he smiled at her. With his free hand he gathered up both of hers and held them against his chest.

“I like you a lot,” she said.

“Enough to marry me?”

He wasn’t making fun of her after all. “Well,” she said, tentative. “Yes, I like you enough for that.”

“Poo-yi—”
He let his head hang back and he laughed. Then he hugged her to him. “I was scared to ask but I’d made up my mind I would. Once I make up my mind I don’t change it. You have made me a happy man.”

Annie’s pulse fluttered and she couldn’t get quite enough air.

“Do you like this?” Martin kept on holding her but reached into a pocket. With Annie in the crook of his arm, he showed her a ring. “Would you do me the honor of letting me put it on your finger?”

“It’s beautiful,” Annie said of a dark ruby in an antique gold setting. She held out her hand and he slipped it on her finger. “I don’t think I should take it,” she told him. “You don’t really know me.”

“I know you as well as I need to. That was my grandmother’s ring. She gave it to me for the woman who becomes my wife. That’s you, Annie.”

What would her mother say? She would like Martin, how could she help it?

The ring looked elegant on her long-fingered hand. She started to giggle, couldn’t help it. She and Martin were engaged to be married. They’d never as much as kissed. He treated her with so much respect, just like you’d expect a gentleman to do.

They both faced the bayou but Martin pulled her close. “I don’t want to wait,” he said. “We don’t need to go through all the ritual. Talk to your mother and see how dates work out for her—we’ll do it together. Three weeks should be all we need to get ready.”

Annie’s heart got tighter. Her life was going to change. She’d known it would, but not so soon.

He stroked the side of her face. “Would you like to give up your job and go to school full-time? You know I travel. I want you to do whatever makes you happiest so you’ll be busy while I’m gone.”

School full-time? Annie covered her face and let her hair fall forward.

“Hey, hey, cher.” Martin rubbed her shoulders and neck and kept his fingers there beneath her hair. “You wouldn’t be cryin’, would you?”

She shook her head. Tears ran down her cheeks but she laughed and hiccuped.

“I have rushed you,” Martin said.

“No, no, no. I’m so happy.”

Annie looked into his face.

He wiped the tears from her cheeks.

She wanted him to kiss her and brought her mouth closer to his.

Martin put a finger on her lips and touched his own to her brow. “I sure do want you, Annie.”

He wanted her. A man like him who could have any woman he wanted. He must expect her to say something but she couldn’t think what. Please don’t let him get mad about her not saying anything.

“Listen to this place,” he said, his voice gentle. “Some would think it silent, but everything’s talkin’.”

Annie’s stomach quit hurting. “I like it here,” she said. Waving willow branches swished and cast shadows over Martin’s face. Small animals skittered in the brush, crickets clacked and she even heard faint creaking in the cypress trees and the sound of dry Spanish moss catching against peeling bark on the trunks.

“It’s noisy,” she said, smiling at him.

A pirogue swayed through the water, a man standing at the oar and two small children sitting one behind the other in the middle of the narrow wooden boat. The children screeched with laughter.

“It’s hard to find a little peace that lasts,” Martin said, sounding annoyed. “Let’s go, it’s time for our picnic. I don’t like an orange sun. Looks like it’s bleeding to death.”

The orange sun he spoke of lowered in the sky, sending fiery shafts through the trees and lightening the color of the water. Annie thought it beautiful. “We should eat,” she said. “I’ll help you bring the food from the car.”

“It’s getting cold,” he said, although Annie hadn’t cooled off one bit. “We might eat in the car but that isn’t what I had in mind. Maybe we could go to your house and eat. We could wait for your mama. We need to talk.”

“Mama won’t be back till late. She’s with her sister.”

At first his silence worried her. He was working out how they would do things. Men didn’t like it if you messed with their plans.

“You’re right,” she said. “It’s comfortable at my house and we could wait for Mama to come home.”

She could see he liked the house. It was a single story, surrounded by trees, and Annie and her mama kept bright potted flowers along the gallery.

“It’s nice out here,” Martin said. He parked his car facing the narrow lane leading from a rough road to the Duhon place. “Secluded. You and your mama made a good choice.”

“My folks bought it. Dad died two years ago and left the place paid for so we get along fine.”

Martin got out and came around to help her from the car. He ruffled her hair and said, “We’re going to need a house of our own—in New Orleans. Your mama won’t like that, but she’ll feel better when we tell her she can be with us whenever she pleases.”

They climbed to the gallery and Annie let them into the house. “The kitchen’s at the back and the window’s so close to the trees we can pretend we’re picnicking after all,” she said. It felt funny to be in the house with Martin—alone. Not that she didn’t know she could trust him.

“I want to tell you something,” he said suddenly. “I should have made sure you knew everything about me before I asked you to marry me.”

He walked past her, straight to the kitchen and leaned against the sink with his arms crossed.

“Don’t look so unhappy,” she said. “We all have things in our past we wish we could forget.”

“You couldn’t have anythin’ bad in your background. You’re untouched. Annie, I was married before but my ex-wife wasn’t a good woman. I had to divorce her.”

Of course he’d had a life before they met. So had she. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t had a good reason. I had a baby, Martin. When I was in high school. She died and I still feel sad about it.”

“Thank you,” Martin said. “Thank you for believin’ in me enough to tell me that. We’re going to be so close, cher. Come here and let me hold you.”

He met her in the middle of the kitchen and they clung together.

“We’ve made a commitment,” he said.

Annie whispered, “Yes. I never expected to have this much joy.”

“This is just the beginnin’. Purging the soul takes time. Annie, I’m exhausted. I didn’t get much sleep last night and it’s been the kind of day that wrings you out. Maybe I should go. Your mother won’t appreciate a man who’s fallin’ asleep while he talks.”

A panicky feeling shook Annie. “I don’t want you to leave me. Not now.”

“And I don’t want to leave you—ever—but I need to be sensible.”

“Take a nap till Mama gets home. She’ll be another couple of hours. Sleep here.”

He shook his head. “That wouldn’t look good.”

“Oh.” Her face felt hot. “Why, it’ll look just fine. You can sleep in my room and I’ll bake something for after dinner.”

“You’re tempting me.”

She smiled. “Good. Oh my, how long is it since you ate?”

“I’m not hungry now but I will be later, in time for your baking.”

“Come on, sleepy boy,” she said, leading the way to her room at the front of the house, across from the tiny sitting room. She opened the door and walked in ahead of him. “Don’t laugh at the frilly stuff. Mama likes it and I think she pretends I’m still her little girl.”

Martin came behind her and put an arm around her neck. “It’s okay for her to think of you that way. Innocence is easy to love.” He kissed her ear, ran his tongue around the inside. “It’s so easy to love you. I shouldn’t ask, but would you lie with me? I need to feel your warmth.”

She struggled to find her voice. “I shouldn’t.”

“No, of course not. Forgive me. I’ll go now.”

“You stretch out on that bed. I’ll hold you till you sleep.”

Without warning, Martin picked her up and dropped her on the bed. He sat beside her, held her wrists above her head and kissed her. Annie could scarcely catch her breath. She’d never been kissed like that before. His tongue reached into her throat and flicked back and forth. When he raised his head his face had flushed, and his black eyes shone bright. “You’re so beautiful,” he said. “I bet you’re beautiful all over.”

He excited her. Inside, she trembled.

“Can I do the things I want to do? We are goin’ to be married.”

Annie stared up at him and drew in a sharp breath when he sat astride her hips. He released her hands, slid the straps of her dress from her shoulders and pulled the bodice down to her waist. She didn’t wear a bra. Panic bubbled into her throat. She watched the top of his head, the glimmer on his dark hair when he licked her breasts, bit her nipples. “This isn’t right,” she told him, not wanting him to stop.

His response was to pull her arms free of the straps. Once more he took her hands over her head but this time he produced lengths of twine and tied first one, then the other wrist to the rails of the wrought iron bed. Her finger stung when he wrenched off the ruby ring.