"Look at that sweet little tongue," he murmured as she bathed the thick plastic head with her saliva.

Her gaze followed his to the plastic shaft that he was moving across her lips so that she could wet the top half. Her womb clenched at the way it glistened with her saliva, not because the toy itself turned her on, but because she was imagining Cole's c**k in its place, feeling him hot and throbbing against her lips as he slowly let her taste him.

She was so lost in her delicious vision that the next thing she knew, he was swirling the head over her nipples, using his forearms to push her br**sts together, so that he could drag the wet plastic across both in a sinful figure eight that had her arching her back up into his touch, almost forgetting her promise to hold her arms and hands in place at the headboard.

"So damn sexy."

Cole's reverent words moved across her skin like a whisper, pulling the tiny hairs all across the surface of her body up and toward him, and then he was blowing a puff of warm air over her tightly puckered nipples. The skin across her br**sts had never felt so tight. She'd never been this close to coming with nothing more than breast stimulation.

"Open your legs, sweetheart."

That first night, as soon as she'd agreed to trust him, he'd taken choice from her. He'd protected her from her own lack of faith in herself. But now, he was asking her to trust not only him.

He was asking her to trust herself, too.

Aware of every movement, even the slight flutter of her eyelashes on her face, the way her chest was rising higher, falling deeper with every breath, she separated her thighs, opening herself up to Cole.

And the toy in his hands.

"Anna." Cole dipped his free hand between her legs, slowly moving two fingers through her arousal before bringing them to his mouth and sucking them clean. "Sweet, sweet Anna."

"Touch me again, Cole." She didn't need any prompts from him this time to tell him what she wanted. She was learning how to listen to her body's signals, was gaining courage in putting voice to her desires.

Oh, and how he touched her, the same two fingers not only sliding between her slick folds, but sliding all the way inside, driving so high inside her that she had to arch into his hand to try and take him even deeper. But then she could feel his fingers curling, stroking, settling against a shockingly sensitive place.

"Cole?" Her breath caught on his name, turning one syllable to two.

In lieu of an answer, he slid his fingers from her and positioned the head of the dildo at her entrance. For a moment it was all too much for her again--this shockingly beautiful man lying na*ed on the bed with her, a sex toy in his hands, wicked promise in his eyes. She closed her eyes and worked to suck in air, to locate her courage once more.

"Watch with me, Anna."

The low words rumbled across her belly, her breasts, and brought her back to him. Back to the incredible pleasure he was not only promising, but was already giving.

He lifted her upper body to tuck a pillow beneath her head and shoulders and she opened her eyes just in time to watch as the head pushed her open. He left the toy there, let them both stare at her labia, glistening with her arousal, stretching open over the thick intrusion.

"Does that feel good, baby?"

She knew he knew exactly how good it was, but just thinking about telling him had another flood of arousal coating the tip, had her inner muscles clenching around the plastic as her body tried to pull it deeper inside.

She turned her gaze from the toy to the man who was wielding it with such perfect precision. "Oh yes."

His pupils dilated. "Let's see if we can make it even better."

He left her no time to respond, pure sensation taking over every part of her as he gently, slowly started spinning the toy inside of her. Even without pushing it in further, he was making her feel so ridiculously, incredibly good with the way the latex rubbed and pressed against her sensitive inner walls. And then, just when she thought she was getting a handle on her arousal, he filled her up.

This time she didn't need him to tell her to watch. Not when she couldn't have taken her eyes off the shiny latex shaft as he slowly slid it out from between her legs and then sank it back in on a groan. Her thighs fell further apart as she opened herself up to him, to the toy, to the sinful pleasure taking her over. Not once had he touched her clit, and yet she could feel--and see

--how swollen the tender tissue was.

She opened her mouth to ask him to touch her there, to put his lips and tongue over her, but before she could get the words out he made a request of his own.

"Get on your hands and knees."

Everything inside her stilled with shock. And that was when she realized just how naive she really was. Had she really thought that she was brave enough to do whatever he asked her to do? Had she really been innocent enough to think that simply plying her with a dildo while she lay spreadeagled on his bed would be as far as he would push her?

He didn't ask against again, he simply kept her trapped in the dark heat of his gaze.

And he waited...waited for her to realize that she was less shocked by his command than she was by the impossible excitement that swamped her at the thought of moving into the oh-so-vulnerable position.

Her limbs were too shaky for her to even try to move in a sensual manner, but when she finally got into position, resting her weight on her palms and her knees and shins, and looked over her shoulder at Cole, he was looking at her as though she were--

"A miracle. You're a goddamned miracle."

The look in his eyes, the reverence in his words didn't just make her wet, didn't just make her ache for his touch.

It made her heart pound harder, swell bigger.

It made her fall deeper than she should.

And it made her get way too close to the one thing that would rip her apart and tear her previously fine life to shreds when their temporary marriage ended.

Thankfully, there was no way for her thoughts to spin any further toward the danger zone, not when he was stealing them away with the firm press of the toy's head against her folds.

Sliding easily into her wetness, it felt so good that she had to arch into it, had to tilt her head back to try to take in enough air to fuel the desperate need taking her over.

"I wish you could see how beautiful your ass looks, so round and soft and sweet."

His lips moved over her bottom and even as his kisses there shocked her, especially when she felt his teeth lightly score her skin, she whimpered her pleasure.

"I knew watching you take this would be good, Anna," he murmured as his mouth moved down over the curve where her bottom met her thigh.

She gasped as he licked at the seam of incredibly sensitive skin, bucking herself even harder into his hand, the heel of his palm landing hard and heavy against her aching cl*t with every thrust of the toy.

"But I had no idea it would be this good."

She could feel the heat of his eyes on her pussy, on the wet clench of her muscles against the toy.

"Nothing has ever been this good, baby."

He moved before she could react, sliding his head beneath her open thighs, his tongue reaching out to lave her clit, his free hand pulling her down onto his mouth.

She came that quickly, her cl**ax a lightning bolt that ran from her cl*t to the tip of her toes, the top of her head, the tips of her fingers. Even her earlobes tingled. And all the while, Cole's tongue on her cl*t was driving her crazy. All the while, he never lost his rhythm with the decadent, sinful toy in his hand. All the while, she was gasping her pleasure into the pillow, grinding herself down onto his face, onto the wonderful pressure of the toy inside her.

And then the toy was gone, making a loud thud as he threw it across the room. Cole slid out from under her and came around her back, covering her h*ps with his, her back against his chest. Thank God he held her up as he drove into her, taking her in a position she'd never let another man take, with her up on her hands and knees, her br**sts in his hands, his mouth kissing, sucking, inhaling the skin along her neck and shoulders and back, his hard flesh driving, stretching her open as far as she could go.

She'd never heard sounds like the ones coming out of her mouth as he drove into her. But it wasn't a one-way street, wasn't a world where he put her where he wanted her and she gave him pleasure despite herself.

No, it was the exact opposite.

Anna was taking at least as much pleasure from Cole as she was giving to him. She pushed back into his hard shaft, into the rock-hard muscles of his thighs and tight hips, with everything she had, used up every last ounce of energy to find her way back over an even higher peak than the one she'd just crested barely moments before.

"Come again for me, baby."

The raw command came with the sudden press of rough, calloused fingers over her cl*t and this second unexpected hit of extreme pleasure had her crying out with what was left of her voice. Her entire body exploded around his, black spots appearing in her vision as Cole roared out her name, his out-of-control thrusts pushing her flat into his mattress, his fingers never once losing ground on her pulsating clit, wet with her arousal and his come. But even after she came down from the heady pulses of her cl**ax, she loved the way Cole continued to drive into her, his c**k still hard as steel against her swollen, sensitive inner walls, as he continued to stimulate her clit.

It should have been impossible--her body couldn't possibly sustain this level of pleasure, could it? --but before she knew it, she was right back in the place she thought she'd just left behind, on top looking over the edge.

"Again, sweetheart. One more time. For me."

His thrusts were more measured now, his touch more concentrated on the stiffening bud between her legs. But it was the warmth, the adoration, the sheer need in his tone that had her crying out one more time.

Holding her steady until she rode out the astonishing waves of pleasure, Cole shifted his weight slightly off the side, just enough to cover her still without crushing her.

Anna's mind worked to right itself, but Cole's nearness had always made clear thinking difficult. More so now than ever before. No matter how she tried, she couldn't think past--no, couldn't ignore the question that had been there since his first kiss in the club: Who was she letting herself become?

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 na*ed 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 h*ps 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."