Anna tugged her hand from his. "Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Especially after we just ..." Her flushed cheeks filled in the rest of the sentence.

Fear and worry for his grandmother suddenly taking precedence over everything, he said,

"I want to introduce you to my grandmother. She's better in the morning."

Anna's face--which was even prettier in the light of day--immediately softened. Coming toward him, she put her hands back in his.

"I'd love to meet her, Cole."

Using the moment to his advantage, he drew her across the room into the large, tiled bathroom. He couldn't wait to spend some time with Anna in the huge Jacuzzi tub, was practically salivating at the thought of turning the jets onto her, watching her come apart beneath the pulsating streams of water he'd aim directly at her clit. But that ridiculously potent fantasy would have to wait.

He turned the shower on and when the water was warm enough, brought Anna under the spray. She reached for the shampoo and even though they needed to hurry, he plucked it from her fingers.

"I'll wash you," he said, each word gruffer than the one before.

His dick grew bigger with every stroke of his fingertips against her scalp, as he tilted her head back slightly and watched the soapy water stream down her spine and over her luscious ass.

"My God, you're beautiful," he said as he picked up a bar of soap and ran it over every inch of her soft skin.

She shivered against him, moaning softly as he soaped and rinsed her breasts, her arms, her belly, her legs, and then--finally--her sweet pussy.

Cole barely held onto his control as he grazed her cl*t with his fingertips, then pushed the soap all the way along her labia, from cl*t to anus.

Her legs all but buckled beneath her as he stroked her clean and he had to catch her in his arms to keep her from falling.

"How can I still want you?" she whispered into his chest. "How can I still need you after everything we've just done?"

There was no hope for it. Hating himself for taking any longer than he had to before bringing her to his grandmother, Cole simply couldn't resist what Anna was offering.

Still holding her in his arms, he moved her so that her back was flat against the tiles. She gasped as she felt his erection pressed hard and thick against her belly.

"Hold onto my neck," he instructed her.

Her hands trembled as she complied, but he knew it wasn't nerves this time that had her shaky. It was pure, unfettered lust.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to f*ck you right here, right now, up against the wall in the shower."

Her tongue came out to lick at her lips, her teeth biting down on her full lower lip in uncertainty. Somewhere in the back of Cole's brain he knew he was pushing her too far, too fast, but he couldn't stop himself.

Not when he wanted Anna this badly.

Not when he'd been almost incoherent with lust since the moment he'd set eyes on her.

Not when even the previous two times he'd taken her hadn't done a damn thing to slake that desire.

"Wrap your legs around me and hold on tight, sweetheart."

Without waiting for her agreement--because he wasn't asking, he was demanding--in one swift move, he put his hands on her ass, and as she opened her legs to him, he lifted her up and slid her down onto his throbbing shaft.

Her head fell back, a moan of pleasure escaping her lips. Thanking God that she was such a quick learner, the next thing he knew, she was riding him like she'd been having stand-up sex in a bathroom all her adult life, her cl*t rubbing against his pelvic bone, her br**sts against the hair on his chest.

"Oh God, yes, yes, yes!"

Cole had to grit his teeth to ride out her orgasm and keep from shooting into her as her pu**y clenched and pulled at his cock.

His balls pulled in tight to his body, his abs tight, Cole knew he couldn't hold back his release another second. Pulling out of her wet, clasping heat on a roar, he thrust himself into her belly, streams of ejaculate coating her once-clean skin.

When it was all over, when he realized she was trying to get back down on the floor but he hadn't loosened his grip, Cole gently lowered her and washed her clean. She leaned against the wall, still panting as he quickly shampooed and soaped up. Turning off the water, he handed her a towel.

"Thank you."

Despite the fact that she'd been fu**ing him like a wild woman in the shower not five minutes ago, she sounded just as prim, just as innocent as she had the night before.

He was about to tell her how mind-blowing fu**ing her was when she made a sudden sound of dismay.

"My clean clothes are all back in my room."

"They were delivered last night."

"When? I didn't hear anyone knock on the door." Her eyes went big. "Oh no. They didn't come while we were..."

Cole barely hid his grin in time at her clear embarrassment. Still, he couldn't stop himself from teasing, "Come to think of it, we were pretty loud last night." He lowered his voice, made sure she held his gaze. "Especially when you were begging me to make you come."

Her face flamed again and he had to press a kiss to her sweet mouth.

"You're too easy, sweetheart."

Shooting him an irritated glance, she said, "I'm going to get dressed."

After she'd left the bedroom, Cole realized it was the first time he'd been alone since last night. Normally, when he was done fu**ing, he couldn't wait for the woman to go home and leave him alone. But even though Anna was only a room away, even though he could hear her unzipping her suitcase and pulling out clothes, she was too far away.

He didn't just want her in the same room.

He wanted her in his arms.

As he dressed, Cole forced himself to face what had happened on their wedding night, despite how much he'd rather keep his head in the sand over what Anna was making him feel.

Of course he'd wanted to give her pleasure. And he'd taken the responsibility she'd given him to show her true pleasure seriously. But at the same time, he'd been fighting against the strange feeling in his chest--a warmth he'd never felt for any other woman--and had thought that tying her up and doing kinky things to her would put some separation into sleeping with her.

But it had backfired.

Big time.

Because even as she'd been begging and pleading with him for release, he'd been the one dying. Just thinking about the way she'd been na*ed and stretched out and bound and blindfolded--and so damn sweet, through it all--had him hard again.

Because he hadn't known it could be like that either.

And he wasn't just talking about the sex.

Cole hadn't known he could feel that close to anyone.

Not until he'd met Anna.

Chapter Seven

"My grandmother is probably going to ask you all sorts of questions, like how we met.

Let's change around a few of the details."

Still trying to catch her breath from the way Cole was shooting through the streets of Las Vegas in his sports car as if he were trying to win a race, Anna somehow managed to get a reply out through her clenched teeth.

"Which details?"

Cole shifted gears again and knocked the air she'd just sucked in back out of her lungs.

"Most of them. I'd like to get our story straight before we get to the hospital."

They hit a straightaway and she was finally able to think clearly enough to hear the warning bells clanging in her head. A hundred questions shot through her mind all at once. She started with, "We need a story?"

His face was the picture of innocence--her first clue that something wasn't right. Until now, Cole had been nothing but wicked. And she'd loved every second of it. Innocence looked all wrong on him.

"My grandmother is from a different generation and I think it might be easier for her to accept our relationship if she thinks it's more than a quickie Vegas wedding."

The words quickie Vegas wedding grated at her, made her feel like nothing more than a cheap slut all of a sudden.

"Are you saying you want me to lie to your grandmother?"

A muscle jumped in Cole's jaw and his hand tightened on the gear shift. "Look, Anna, she's really sick. Stage four melanoma."

"Oh, Cole." Even though what he was saying wasn't sitting right with her, she had to put her hand over his, had to try to give him comfort.

"She raised me. Took care of me when anyone else would have put themselves first. All she's ever wanted is for me to be happy. To have a good life."

"She sounds amazing."

"She is. That's why I've got to fulfill her dying wish, Anna."

There was no logical reason for her to feel as if ice had just settled over her heart. Not when she was out in the middle of the desert with a man who had taught her the true meaning of pleasure. All she wanted was to rewind an hour, to go back to being in Cole's arms beneath the covers.

"What's her dying wish?"

Cole looked as tense as she'd ever seen him. "Jesus, there's no good way to say this." He grimaced, blowing out a hard breath. The muscles along his forearm were taut. "She wanted me to fall in love with a good girl. So I told her that I already did and that I was going to bring you to meet her this morning."

An icicle speared her chest, going so deep that for a moment she half expected to find blood on her shirt.

Pulling her hand from his, she turned away from him and focused her gaze on the flat road. His words from the night before came back at her: Perfect. My sweet little schoolteacher.

"Oh my God, that's why you picked me last night."

"Anna, sweetheart, don't take it like that."

She whirled to face him, her seat belt cutting into her skin. "Don't take it like the truth, you mean? God, I'm so stupid. So unbelievably, idiotically stupid. Of course you wouldn't have come over to me without an ulterior motive. You could have had anyone in that club." Her throat swelled, caught on her next words. "But you had to find a good girl for your grandmother--and I was the only one in the room wearing a halo."

Without warning, Cole drove off the side of the freeway into the dirt, causing a huge dust storm all over his previously shiny car. "Fine, so I picked you out of the crowd because you looked innocent." He was clearly angry, frustrated. "But that doesn't change what happened between us last night. That doesn't change the fact that we can't keep our hands off each other."

"Wrong. It changes everything."

"No. It doesn't change this."

He had their seat belts off and his mouth on hers so fast she couldn't stop her reaction to it, couldn't stop her tongue from mating with his, couldn't stop her whimper of desire from sounding into his car.

"Last night you said you didn't know it could be like this. It isn't, Anna. Not with anyone else. It's never been this hot. It's never been this good. Just with you."

She had to force herself to push away from his seductive words, from the heat that was wrapping itself around her all over again. The pain of what she'd just learned still spreading through her chest helped.

She'd trusted him.

And he'd betrayed that trust, even when he'd promised not to.

"I want to go get a divorce. Right now."

A possessive growl rumbled through his chest, reverberating off the walls of the car.

"No."

"I'm not going with you to meet your grandmother."

"Like hell you aren't."

He moved to turn the key in the ignition, but fury made her faster and she ripped it from beneath his fingertips.

"I thought you were marrying me for me, that I was special in some way!"

His jaw jumped. "Jesus, Anna. I did. You are."

"No, you didn't. And I'm not. You picked me out of a crowd and took me to a wedding chapel so that you could give me to your grandmother as some sort of prize. The perfect little schoolteacher on a pedestal." She didn't bother to hold back the sarcasm in her words, simply didn't care anymore.

"I didn't force you to marry me, Anna." She started at the sudden change in his voice, from raw and frustrated to coolly calculating. "We'd just met. Barely done anything but kissed.

So tell me, did you marry me for me? Did you marry me because I'm special in some way?" He paused, let his questions sink all the way in. "Or did you marry me for another reason entirely?

Did you marry me because you wanted to put one over on your sisters? Because you were sick and tired of people thinking you didn't have any guts? Because you hated the fact that you'd never done anything crazy?"

She narrowed her eyes, knowing exactly what he was trying to prove. Well, it wasn't going to work. He'd hurt her. Badly.

And she wasn't going to forgive him, even if she already knew she'd never come apart like that in anyone else's arms.

"Don't turn my words around on me. You want me to lie to your grandmother. You want me to tell her that we're in--" She couldn't say the word, couldn't bring herself to voice such a huge lie.

Unfortunately, Cole had a scarily one-track mind. "You didn't want your sisters to meet me, did you? And you were so angry about everyone thinking you were innocent. We both know why you married me, don't we, Anna? But I'm not angry with you, am I? I'm happy, pleased that we both were able to get what we wanted. And that it was so damn good between us, so much better than I ever thought it could be."

"Take me back to the hotel."

"Be reasonable, sweetheart."

She suddenly hated the sound of the endearment that she'd once loved so much. "Don't call me that."

As if she hadn't said anything, he said, "We both had our reasons for marrying each other.

How about we rejoice over our incredible chemistry instead of splitting hairs over the details?"

She looked at him as if she were seeing him for the very first time. Which, she supposed, she was. "You're serious, aren't you? You really think that's all it's going to take to get me to stay with you?"

His eyes narrowed. "No, I guess I should have known better. Fine. After we visit my grandmother, I'll take you to Tiffany and you can pick out anything you want. Money is no object."

She reeled back as if he'd slapped her. And the truth was, he might as well have for the pain his "offer" had just sent through her.

"I can't believe you just said that."

"Jesus, Anna, what am I doing wrong now?"

"You're an as**ole. That's what's wrong." The curse felt strange on her tongue, but there was no other word for Cole, for the way he was behaving, for what he was implying. "But you know what the really amazing thing is?" Steam all but blew out of her ears. "Not that you just treated me like a whore. But that you don't even seem to realize you've done it."