Finally, she whispered the shocking, difficult truth. "Yes. I've always wondered what one of these stores was like inside." All the while knowing she would never find out.

He brushed his thumb against her lower lip and she couldn't stop herself from lightly tasting his flesh. A small moan of pleasure emerged from her throat at the rough texture of his calloused skin against her sensitive tongue. And then he pushed his thumb into her mouth and by pure instinct she sucked him in deeper, taking his thumb between her lips and teeth as she had his penis.

He groaned and shifted hard in his seat. "So sweet, Anna. So damn sweet."

She nipped at him, reaching up for his hand so that she could pull him in further and rain kisses and little licks all along his palm. He pulled away.

"No, baby. I'm not going to let you distract me." He brushed his damp thumb across her lips. "Not yet."

He reached over her, his hard muscles pressing into her in the most delicious way as he opened her door.

"You have five seconds to go or it'll be me picking out your toy."

His threat made her jump out of his car as if her seat were on fire.

But once she was outside, she didn't move toward the front door. He rolled her window down and she had to give one more little protest. "This wasn't what I meant when I said I wanted to be crazy with you."

"Five minutes, Anna." The window rolled back up.

She clamped her jaw shut as she pushed open the front door, trying to prepare herself for whatever shocking sights awaited her. But she was surprised to find herself in a perfectly normal-looking store. The middle racks all held clothes that didn't look much different from what she'd seen adults wear to Halloween parties. One wall was full of books and videos, and while some of the covers were mildly titillating, they weren't anything she hadn't seen in her previous boyfriends' closets.

But it was the display on the far wall that held her interest: dildos of every shape and size and color. Anna knew her sisters all had one--heck, for all she knew, her mother probably had one--but Anna had never been able to get over her embarrassment enough to actually go into an adult store and buy one. Even the "massagers" they sold at drugstores made her blush.

None of her previous boyfriends had even suggested they use sex toys. Then again, none of them had ever made her feel particularly sexual. And not one of them had looked at her like they wanted to burn her clothes and have her walk around naked all the time.

The knowledge that Cole wasn't about to let her come back to the car empty-handed gave her the courage to walk across the store and study her options. Only, it was hard to concentrate on reading the descriptions of included features when she couldn't erase the image of Cole using each and every one of them on her.

Her heart pounded so hard she swore she could feel it between her legs, a steady throb of arousal that only heated her up more.

Thankfully, the very normal-looking man behind the counter didn't even seem to notice she was in the store. He wasn't coming over to offer suggestions or looking at her like she was a pervert. If anything, he seemed bored and tired as he flicked through a magazine.

The clock was ticking down on her five minutes--and Cole would surely buy the most shocking thing he could find if he had to come in after her. She grabbed the closest box and took it to the counter.

"Cash or credit?"

"Cash."

The man had no reaction to her slightly squeaky response. He simply told her the total.

Anna quickly counted out the bills, then took the bag from him.

The heat of Cole's gaze immediately hit her as she exited the store, almost making her stumble off the curb. A moment later, she slid into the passenger seat, tightly gripping her new purchase.

"Not knowing what you've got in the bag, but knowing it's going to be damn good, whatever it is, is killing me, sweetheart."

She looked at him, realized his knuckles were showing white on the gearshift. All because she'd gone in and bought a sex toy.

For him to use on her.

She closed the bag tighter. The balance of power had shifted between them. Yes, he'd all but ordered her to walk into the sex shop and buy a toy, something she never, ever would have thought she'd want her husband to do.

But now she knew better.

It was exactly what she'd wanted.

He hadn't just had her do it for him, solely for his own pleasure. Instead, he was forcing her to face her secret desires, so deeply hidden she hadn't dared admit them even to herself.

He'd done it for her pleasure too.

Once more he was pushing her outside of her comfort zone. Not to a place she didn't want to go--she already knew he wasn't the kind of man who would ever do that. Instead, he'd walked hand in hand with her to another, higher ledge and told her it was okay to jump.

Her body was already so aroused, so sensitive to the slightest brush of fabric against her skin, that she hadn't thought it would be possible for her feel more. But the swelling in her chest had nothing to do with sex--and everything to do with her heart.

A heart she'd vowed to protect at all costs back at the stadium.

* * *

Cole hadn't come this close to losing it in his pants since early adolescence. But from the minute Anna had walked out of the sex shop holding that brown bag, he'd been using every mental trick he knew to try to hang on until they were back at his house, when he could put his mouth, his hands on her. At this point, it didn't even matter what was in the bag. He just needed to possess her, to feel her warm and soft beneath him, to drive into the wet clench of heat between her legs and know that she was his.

Somehow he let her walk from his car to the house on her own, rather than just cavemanning her and dragging her in by her hair so that he could f**k her like the savage he really was. But once the door clicked closed behind them, once she turned around with that look in her eyes that was part anticipation, part apprehension, he was lost.

Completely f**king lost to wanting her.

"Take your clothes off, Anna."

Each word was clipped, his teeth clenched together so tight he was on the verge of chipping them.

She looked around the empty living room. "Here? But I thought--"

She stopped at the look in his eyes, at his slow approach. "Take them off before I rip them off."

The brown bag dropped from her hands. "Okay, but shouldn't we--"

"Not fast enough." He didn't have a prayer of keeping his hands off her, of stopping himself from ripping her silky shirt straight down the middle.

"Cole."

He took her lace-covered nipple in his mouth even as his name left her lips, the single syllable melding with a moan. He lifted his head from her sweet breast and rasped out, "I can't make it another second, baby," the only warning he could give before he yanked apart the zipper on her jeans and tore them off her legs, her shoes coming off along with them.