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 naked 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.”