And was there any way she would ever be able to go back to the woman she’d been before Cole?
“Sweet Anna.”
He moved onto his back and effortlessly lifted her so that she lay across him rather than the mattress. She relaxed into him, utterly sated now, and realized with a small smile against his chest that they were no longer strangers. Two days of almost constant togetherness meant that she could recognize the sounds of desire and arousal, anger and frustration, in his voice. And now, the way he almost dropped the last syllable of her name as exhaustion took him toward sleep.
He pressed a soft kiss onto her hair. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
His sweet words were on the verge of being slurred and she wasn’t surprised when his breathing became slow and even. Just as she wasn’t surprised by the truth staring her in the face as she lay there with his heart beating steadily beneath her palm.
There was no going back from the way she felt about this man.
Not just because they’d made love without protection twice in a row and she might have already conceived their child. Not just because being with Cole made her happier than she could ever remember being. Not just because he’d spent every minute of their short relationship cherishing her, worshiping her. Not just because of his fierce love for his grandmother.
No. It was all so much simpler than that.
Cole was the key. The key to the prison in which she’d been locked her whole life.
In two days, he’d managed to not only set her body free.
He’d set her heart free, too.
And as Anna reached for the covers and pulled them over their naked bodies, she knew she wasn’t just losing the fight to keep her heart from her husband...she was chucking it onto the field with both hands.
Chapter Fourteen
“Now that’s a pretty sight for a Monday morning.”
Cole stepped into the shower just as Anna was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. Even with her eyes closed, her body instantly responded to his nearness.
“Let me do that for you.” He moved behind her and his hands went to her hair, lightly massaging her scalp as the warm water washed the suds down her back.
He hadn’t been in the bed when she woke up and she’d instantly missed him. But the numbers on the alarm clock had her rushing into the bathroom to get ready for work.
When he turned her around in his arms and kissed her all the way awake, late or not, she couldn’t keep her hands off his hard muscles.
She stopped at his biceps. “You’re bigger than you were before.”
“It’s always like that after I lift weights.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t keep the murmur of appreciation for his incredible, ridiculously perfect body to herself.
His hands ran down the sides of her spine before cupping her bottom. “Other things are bigger now too. Wanna see?”
Oh yes, she really did. “I need to hurry and get dressed or I’m going to be late for school.”
Still, even knowing she didn’t have time to do anything more than throw her clothes on at that point—blow drying and makeup weren’t in the cards today—she couldn’t stop herself from pressing her lips to his big, broad chest and licking across a nipple.
“What will happen if you’re late?”
His hands roamed from her hips to her breasts—and the already slick flesh between her thighs.
“My first graders will worry that something happened to me.”
His hands paused on their trip across her erogenous zones. “Those kids owe me big time for this.” When she didn’t immediately move away, he said, “You’d better go before I change my mind, sweetheart.”
Her body throbbing with unsatisfied desire, she had to force herself to step out of the shower and grab a towel.
She was surprised when he emerged sixty seconds later, threw on some clothes, and picked up his keys. “Ready whenever you are.”
“Wait a minute. If you work on Sundays, shouldn’t you get today off?”
“Most guys do, but as defensive captain I need to look at game tapes while it’s still fresh.” He leaned against the door, twirling the keys around one finger as he watched her put on her shoes. “So, where am I taking you?”
She looked up at him in surprise. “You don’t have to take me to school. I usually take the bus.”
His grin made her heart beat faster. “Not too many bus stops in this neighborhood.”
She frowned. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
Clearly. Of course, not having a plan to get to her job on Monday morning was only one of a hundred things she hadn’t given any thought to when she’d agreed to marry Cole in Las Vegas on Friday night.
“You saw my office, Anna. Now I’d like to see yours.”
He called his grandmother from the car’s built-in speakers to check on her, and this time Anna said a quick hello, too. She smiled all the way through town, right until they turned the corner to her school.
“Sorry, Grandma. I’ll have to call you back later.” Clicking off the phone, he said, “Damn it. They shouldn’t be here.”
Anna craned her neck. “Who’s here?”
“The press.”
She put her hands in her still damp hair. “I look horrible.”
“No way. You’re the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
A fake husband didn’t have to say things like that to his fake wife. Just as he didn’t have to touch her the way he did, or give her so much pleasure that just thinking about all the things he’d done could have heated her up in a snowstorm.
Knowing she was blushing from his compliment, she clarified. “While I know they want pictures of you, not me, I’m really afraid I’ll be late if we have to run into them now. There’s a back entrance, just around that corner.”
He frowned, but made a quick right turn before they were seen. “I don’t like dropping you off on a street corner.”
His clear concern was very sweet, and definitely deserved a kiss. “You’re a very sweet man, Cole.”
“Good thing my boss doesn’t agree with you,” he grumbled against her mouth, but she knew he appreciated her words by the gentle way he kissed her back.
Working to catch her breath, she was grabbing her bag and clicking the door open when she felt his hand on hers.
“What time should I pick you up?”
Warmed by the fact that he wanted to go out of his way to come get her—her school was on the opposite side of town from both his house and the stadium—she said, “Again, very sweet.
But on Mondays, after I meet with the other K through 2 teachers, my friend Virginia usually gives me a ride. I should be home no later than six.”
Seeing the way his eyes warmed at the way she’d naturally called his house home, hope swelled inside her chest again. Maybe their fake marriage could turn into a real one in the not so distant future. She went out on a limb by giving him another kiss.
“I had a great weekend with you, Cole.”
“Only great?” He nipped at her lips, teasing her as much with his mouth as he did with the question.
“No,” she said softly. “It was phenomenal.”
And as she jogged away from the car toward the elementary school campus, making it just in time for the bell, she realized she still couldn’t stop smiling.
Because of Cole.
* * *
“Miss Davis, my mommy said we should call you Mrs. Taylor now. Why did you have to
change your name?”
“What’s it like to be famous?”
“Can you have Cole sign this for me and my big brother?”