Anna had to bite her lip so she wouldn't laugh at the way the two women were ribbing each other. At the same time, she'd noticed they both seemed to have a glow about them, especially when they were talking about their husbands. A little pang of envy caught her in the chest, similar to the way she sometimes felt when she watched her sisters with their husbands.
"So." With unsettling abruptness, Julie and Melissa stopped teasing each other and turned their laser focus on Anna. "Tell us about yourself. What do you do for a living? How did you meet Cole? When did you know he was your forever?"
Oh God, what was with people and the word forever?
"I teach first grade." She paused, readying herself to lie to these two nice women. Just one more lie to add to the heaping pile. But she couldn't quite do it, not when they'd been so nice to her. "We met in Las Vegas. One of my sisters was getting married and he was visiting his grandmother."
She would have stopped there, but she already knew neither of these women was going to let her get away with leaving the "forever" question unanswered.
Dropping her voice, she lowered her gaze to her lap. "I knew it was forever the first time he looked at me."
Julie's soft gasp echoed Anna's own private reaction to what she'd just said.
To what she'd just admitted...to herself.
Oh God, had everything she was starting to feel for him already been there in that first glance, when he'd looked into her eyes and told her they were beautiful?
"It's clearly mutual."
Julie's surprising statement was quite possibly the only thing that could have pulled Anna out of her shocked self-examination.
"Cole is usually pretty even-keeled, but he almost bit my head off in the hall before we came in here."
Anna didn't understand. "Why? What happened?"
"I told him I wanted to give the press our version of your story, rather than whatever random misinformation they'll splash onto the Internet and the newspapers. I thought he was going to tackle me when he told me that your relationship is private. And that there wasn't any story."
Melissa agreed. "I've never seen Cole act like that about any other woman. I honestly never thought he'd find anyone he really, truly could care about. Not until you."
Anna couldn't believe how wrong these women were about Cole. He'd bit off Julie's head because he was trying to keep their lies from being revealed, not because he cared about his new wife.
"I still can't believe he managed to keep you a secret," Julie said. "When did you say the two of you met?"
Anna knew she wasn't a good liar. Not only did she preach to her first graders day in and day out about the value of honesty, but she simply didn't like the way lying made her feel, like gears were grinding together in her gut, pulling and tugging at her insides.
Thankfully, before she could answer, the game began and everyone's attention turned to the field. She peered out at the men in their uniforms. She wanted to ask which one was Cole, but it would be way too suspicious if she did. Fortunately, he wasn't hard to pick out. Not when she already knew how he moved, the broad set of his shoulders, his tight hips. He looked up at the VIP box between plays and she couldn't stop her body from reacting. From wanting.
Needing.
As she watched the players move on the field, she was glad to find herself quickly picking up on the rules. Time passed and she had almost started to feel comfortable, when suddenly Cole thundered into a player from the other team, knocking the huge man to the ground without even breaking stride.
"Oh, my God."
She was too stunned by what she'd seen, by the brutal way he'd stopped the other team from advancing down the field, by what she now realized was his job, to keep the words from leaving her mouth, to keep what she was sure was a clear expression of shock from her face. He was paid to be violent, given so much money for being huge and hard and unstoppable that he could pay for a mansion on the hill in San Francisco, for an expensive sports car, for a penthouse in Las Vegas, for the jewels he'd offered to buy her.
But bigger than her shock at what she'd just seen her husband do, was her shock at herself.
Because instead of being horrified at the violence, instead of wanting nothing more to do with Cole as the other man was helped, limping, off the field, her body had heated up...and she wanted her husband now more than ever.
She wanted all of that barely leashed violence unleashed over her. On her.
In her.
Realizing that both Julie and Melissa were staring at her, questions in their eyes, she shot to her feet. She had to get out of here, had to go somewhere she could be alone and pull herself together.
Somehow, she had to figure out a way to stop reacting with such pleasure every time she saw Cole, or said his name aloud, or even thought about him, about little things like how good he'd been with her family, especially her mother. He'd been perceptive enough to realize that her mother was upset and he hadn't pushed, hadn't tried to get Jackie to like him. He'd just been himself, been easy with all of them, telling them football stories he'd had to know they would like, and by the end of the night, Anna had caught her mother smiling at him despite herself.
"I have to go--" She paused awkwardly.
"The restroom is just out the door and down the hall to the left," Melissa said, concern lacing her brows.
"Thanks."
Splashing her face with cold water in the bathroom, taking the time to repair her light makeup, Anna stepped outside a sliding door into the cool air off the Bay and tried to breathe deeply. But she didn't have enough time to figure out a way to deal with her response to Cole, to tamp down on it and contain it in a little box, one she would only let herself open for the sensual pleasures he'd promised her.
Still, no matter how hard it was going to be to hold firm, she couldn't give up the fight.
Not when she knew with utter certainty that if she gave in to the insidiously soft emotions growing by the second behind her breastbone, she was going to be in a whole lot more trouble than just being caught telling a couple of lies.
If she deviated from their agreement to simply stick it out through his grandmother's illness, she was going to get caught wanting more. So much more that she could already feel herself drinking in every single one of Cole's touches, his kisses, his gazes.
If there was one thing she knew with utter certainty, it was that no man--especially one this rich, famous, and good-looking--would ever want his fake temporary wife to fall in love with him.
Finally, when she heard loud cheering and saw people beginning to file out into the parking lot, she made herself return to the VIP box. Cole would be worried if he couldn't find her. Besides, she might not be the most adventurous woman in the world, but she wasn't a total coward either. Not anymore, anyway.
Thankfully, neither Julie nor Melissa acted like anything was strange about her disappearing for so long. They introduced her to the other players' families and everyone was incredibly nice, despite their clear curiosity over her sudden appearance in Cole's life.
But all the while, she was waiting. For Cole.
"Sweet Anna."
His arms came around her from behind, his heat enveloping her, his breath warm on her cheek, and there was no force strong enough in the world--not good sense or any one of the ridiculously big men from his team who were now in the room with them--to stop her from turning around in his arms and lifting her mouth to his for a kiss.
His smile was the first and last thing she saw before his mouth covered hers and she closed her eyes to sink into the pleasure of being in his arms.
"I missed you."
He spoke against her lips, just loud enough for her to hear, and as pleasure lit her, inescapable and wonderful, she couldn't remember what she'd been so certain she needed to fight against just minutes before.
"You'll get her the rest of your life. Time to share your wife with the rest of us." The low male voice behind her was laced with barely suppressed laughter.
Fe
eling her face flame with embarrassment at the way she'd forgotten there was anyone else in the room, Anna tried to pull out of Cole's arms. But she should have known better. The man she'd married on a whim wouldn't let her separate herself from him like that--whether they were surrounded by a crowd or completely alone.
Turning so that he was still holding her to his side while they faced the two couples in front of them, he said, "Ty, Dominic, I'd like you to meet my wife, Anna."
Two of the best-looking men she'd ever seen live and in person smiled down at her. But as she shook their hands and said the appropriate things, instead of her heart beating and her skin tingling with awareness, she felt nothing.
Only Cole could make her heart feel like it was going to break through her ribs. Only Cole could make her skin heat and tighten with desperate need.
His hand lay warm on the small of her back, the only reason she felt at all secure in this strange new place.
She appreciated that neither Ty nor Dominic focused on her, that they both seemed to realize it would make her more uncomfortable than she already was. Melissa and Dominic moved away to talk to some of their other clients. As the conversation swirled around her about the game, about upcoming barbecues, about people they all knew, Anna was able to watch the easy way Ty made Julie laugh, her eyes lighting up every time her gaze landed on her husband.
They weren't a couple she would ever have put together just from looking at them. Ty was clearly a wild, dangerous bad boy to his core, while Julie was as polished as a woman could be. And yet, despite the fact that they shouldn't make sense together, their deep affection for each other was powerfully clear, even to a bystander, as was their desire for each other, just barely beneath the surface but visible in the way he was constantly touching her and she was touching him back.
Hope lit Anna's heart a beat before a bone-deep sadness settled in. It was all very well to wish that she could be as good a strange fit with Cole. But all it did to her was make the knowledge that it wasn't ever going to happen more painful.
She could feel Cole's eyes on her, dark with heat and concern. "Ready to go?"
They said their goodbyes, relief hitting her that she didn't have to try to play the role of Cole's wife anymore.
He took her out a door that bypassed the press and she got into his car. She had just put her seat belt on when he hit the locks.
"Finally, alone with my wife again."
That was when she realized she should have made every excuse she could think of to stay in that room with a crowd of strangers.
Because even as he called his grandmother to find out how she was feeling and fill her in on the details of the game, as unsafe as she'd felt in the VIP box, she'd been a million times safer then than she was now.
Chapter Twelve
"Nothing I like better than Sunday afternoons. Especially after a win."
On the surface, Cole's words shouldn't have made shivers run up and down her spine, but she could easily read the subtext, especially when his hand moved to her kneecap. He wasn't grabbing at her, wasn't doing anything particularly sexual, and yet her body was responding as if he had put his big hand down her pants--flooding with arousal, her breasts peaking hard and tight beneath her bra and top.
She didn't respond, not when the idea of an entire Sunday afternoon alone with Cole had her almost panting with anticipation.
She could feel his eyes on her, the heat in them, as he turned down a narrow alley and pulled over in front of a small storefront. Her brain felt fogged up by all the unfamiliar desire rushing through her synapses and she hadn't been paying enough attention to realize he hadn't been heading straight back to his house.
"There's something I want you to do, sweetheart."
His warm, gravelly voice, already so thick with need it took her breath away, wrapped itself around her body like a physical touch.
"I want you to go into this store and buy something."
Her eyes moved from that dangerous heat in his eyes to the almost dark storefront.
"Where are we?"
She'd never heard her own voice so husky and Cole's eyes flared with possessive desire as he ran the knuckles of one hand down the side of her cheek.
"A toy store."
"But it doesn't look like someplace children would...Oh." She licked her lips nervously.
"It's not that kind of toy store, is it?"
His mouth turned up at the edges, but she wouldn't have called it a smile. He looked at her like she was a delicious meal that he couldn't wait to dig into.
Cole clicked open the lock to her door. "Go."
But she couldn't move. "I haven't ever--" She shook her head. "I don't know--"
His fingers moved to her chin and gently turned her face toward his. "But you want to."
It wasn't a question. And yet she knew he expected an answer.
She took a deep breath, feeling the way it shook inside her chest. And all the while, as she fought for the strength to tell him what he already knew, he watched her with that heat she'd never thought to see in a man's eyes.
Finally, she whispered the shocking, difficult truth. "Yes. I've always wondered what one of these stores was like inside." All the while knowing she would never find out.
He brushed his thumb against her lower lip and she couldn't stop herself from lightly tasting his flesh. A small moan of pleasure emerged from her throat at the rough texture of his calloused skin against her sensitive tongue. And then he pushed his thumb into her mouth and by pure instinct she sucked him in deeper, taking his thumb between her lips and teeth as she had his penis.
He groaned and shifted hard in his seat. "So sweet, Anna. So damn sweet."
She nipped at him, reaching up for his hand so that she could pull him in further and rain kisses and little licks all along his palm. He pulled away.
"No, baby. I'm not going to let you distract me." He brushed his damp thumb across her lips. "Not yet."
He reached over her, his hard muscles pressing into her in the most delicious way as he opened her door.
"You have five seconds to go or it'll be me picking out your toy."
His threat made her jump out of his car as if her seat were on fire.
But once she was outside, she didn't move toward the front door. He rolled her window down and she had to give one more little protest. "This wasn't what I meant when I said I wanted to be crazy with you."
"Five minutes, Anna." The window rolled back up.
She clamped her jaw shut as she pushed open the front door, trying to prepare herself for whatever shocking sights awaited her. But she was surprised to find herself in a perfectly normal-looking store. The middle racks all held clothes that didn't look much different from what she'd seen adults wear to Halloween parties. One wall was full of books and videos, and while some of the covers were mildly titillating, they weren't anything she hadn't seen in her previous boyfriends' closets.
But it was the display on the far wall that held her interest: dildos of every shape and size and color. Anna knew her sisters all had one--heck, for all she knew, her mother probably had one--but Anna had never been able to get over her embarrassment enough to actually go into an adult store and buy one. Even the "massagers" they sold at drugstores made her blush.
None of her previous boyfriends had even suggested they use sex toys. Then again, none of them had ever made her feel particularly sexual. And not one of them had looked at her like they wanted to burn her clothes and have her walk around naked all the time.
The knowledge that Cole wasn't about to let her come back to the car empty-handed gave her the courage to walk across the store and study her options. Only, it was hard to concentrate on reading the descriptions of included features when she couldn't erase the image of Cole using each and every one of them on her.
Her heart pounded so hard she swore she could feel it between her legs, a steady throb of arousal that only heated her up more.
Thankfully, the very normal-looking man behind
the counter didn't even seem to notice she was in the store. He wasn't coming over to offer suggestions or looking at her like she was a pervert. If anything, he seemed bored and tired as he flicked through a magazine.
The clock was ticking down on her five minutes--and Cole would surely buy the most shocking thing he could find if he had to come in after her. She grabbed the closest box and took it to the counter.
"Cash or credit?"
"Cash."
The man had no reaction to her slightly squeaky response. He simply told her the total.
Anna quickly counted out the bills, then took the bag from him.
The heat of Cole's gaze immediately hit her as she exited the store, almost making her stumble off the curb. A moment later, she slid into the passenger seat, tightly gripping her new purchase.
"Not knowing what you've got in the bag, but knowing it's going to be damn good, whatever it is, is killing me, sweetheart."
She looked at him, realized his knuckles were showing white on the gearshift. All because she'd gone in and bought a sex toy.
For him to use on her.
She closed the bag tighter. The balance of power had shifted between them. Yes, he'd all but ordered her to walk into the sex shop and buy a toy, something she never, ever would have thought she'd want her husband to do.
But now she knew better.
It was exactly what she'd wanted.
He hadn't just had her do it for him, solely for his own pleasure. Instead, he was forcing her to face her secret desires, so deeply hidden she hadn't dared admit them even to herself.
He'd done it for her pleasure too.
Once more he was pushing her outside of her comfort zone. Not to a place she didn't want to go--she already knew he wasn't the kind of man who would ever do that. Instead, he'd walked hand in hand with her to another, higher ledge and told her it was okay to jump.
Her body was already so aroused, so sensitive to the slightest brush of fabric against her skin, that she hadn't thought it would be possible for her feel more. But the swelling in her chest had nothing to do with sex--and everything to do with her heart.
A heart she'd vowed to protect at all costs back at the stadium.