Anna response was quick, fluid, believable. "My sister was getting married. I didn't want to overshadow her wedding. And then, when she was heading off on her honeymoon, Cole showed up out of the blue. We just couldn't wait another second."

Cole's gut cramped at her easy lie. She could never have done that on Friday. He'd promised to teach her new things, but he'd never meant for one of those things to be twisting the truth.

How could he ever forgive himself for doing that to her?

Cynthia turned off her recorder. "Seriously, guys, my readers are going to love your story.

It's so romantic. So perfect. Thanks so much for chatting with me. If I have follow-up questions, I'll be in touch. Look for the story in the weekend edition."

They said their goodbyes, walking the journalist out to a cab. They drove back to his house in silence. There were so many things he suddenly wanted to say to her. So many things he didn't know how to say.

Nothing in his life had prepared him for Anna.

For the love that she gave him so freely, no strings, no demands.

Just love. Pure and sweet.

Yes, he'd given her pleasure, but along the way he'd forced her to take on skills she should never have needed to know.

Lying.

Evading.

They walked into his house and Anna reached for his hand. "Are you okay?"

He wanted so badly to pull her against him, but he couldn't stand the thought of sullying her with his touch. "You don't deserve this mess. Not any of it."

Her hand slipped tighter through his, so warm, so soft. "You're not forcing me to do anything, Cole. Marrying you, staying with you, doing this interview--they were all my decisions, right or wrong. If I wanted to stop, I'd stop."

He didn't have the strength to keep his gaze off her beauty, the innocence that still clung to her, despite his bad influence. And then he saw it, the question in her eyes.

"What you said to Cynthia...did you mean it?"

Since that first moment he'd seen her, he'd been getting lost in her eyes. Lost again even as guilt bore down on him, he said, "I meant everything I said tonight."

She'd protected him from even one small lie, taking the weight of them all on her own shoulders. No one but his grandmother had ever protected him before. No one had ever cared enough to take a risk like that for him.

Her beautiful eyes swam with disbelief and confusion. "How could you possibly think I'm brave?"

It killed him that she didn't see it, that she didn't already know.

"Do you remember our first night together?"

She flushed, leaning her forehead into his chest. But he wouldn't let her hide from him, couldn't stand not to see the sweet heat in her eyes as she rewound back to their first time together.

"How could I ever forget?"

He grinned down at her. No one had ever made him feel this happy. This good. And not just in bed, where she kept blowing his mind. Just like this, talking, teasing.

"You could have told me to stop at any time." He brushed a lock of hair away from her sweet lips. "You were so brave. Not just that night, but every time we've been together."

She shook her head, protesting, "That was just sex."

"I've had plenty of sex, sweet girl. Trust me, what we've got going isn't even close to

'just sex.' But if that's not enough for you, I saw you with your mom. In the kitchen at her house."

Her eyes widened in alarm. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to be proud of the way you stood up for yourself."

And for him. She might not have been telling the complete truth about their relationship to everyone that night, but she'd told her mother a truth she'd held inside for far too long--about how lonely she'd felt in her own big family, surrounded by loving parents and siblings.

As lonely as he'd felt in his family of two.

"There hasn't been a single situation where you haven't held your own, no matter how strange it all is for you, like the VIP box or dealing with the paparazzi. By the way, Julie and Melissa already told me that if I ever screw up and you leave me, they've chosen you over me."

He loved the small smile she gave him. "Hell, tonight during that interview, you were the calm one. The brave one protecting me." He tipped her chin up with a finger. "Do you believe me now?"

"It's just that no one has ever called me brave before."

"Then they're all wrong." He hadn't forgotten a word she'd said to him the previous night. And now, he was the one saying them all back to her. "They're all stupid. And blind. Crazy blind."

"Crazy," she echoed, the one word breathless with the same need that was killing him as they stood in the middle of his kitchen.

He needed to be closer to her, needed to know that she was right where she belonged...in his arms.

"I know I promised you crazy, sweetheart. I know you told me last night that you like it raw. Rough. And so do I. But right now all I want is to make love to my wife."

Her eyes widened at his choice of words. He'd never called it making love before, hadn't dared let himself go there.

"You make me a better man," he told her, his voice husky with need. And emotion.

"I love you, Cole."

He scooped her up in his arms, kissing her even as he walked across the room to the stairs, his heart pounding harder with every step. Not just because of how much he wanted the beautiful woman in his arms.

But because for the very first time in his life, he was going to make love to a woman he actually cared about.

Chapter Eighteen

No one but Cole had ever looked at her with such powerful desire. But she'd seen that desire before.

This time it was the emotion in his dark eyes that captured what was left of her heart.

He hadn't said the three words she'd said, hadn't gotten down on his knees to declare undying anything to her. But she didn't need him to.

Because she could see it in his eyes, could feel it in the press of his lips in a kiss that had nothing to do with sex...and everything to do with love.

Love.

"Sweet Anna." He laid her in the middle of his big bed, staring down at her with such heat. With such need.

With so much love.

Love.

"My sweet Anna."

Aching to feel him take her over the edge, she said, "I need to love you, Cole." She reached out for him, desperate for his touch. For his love. "Please let me love you."