Not when she was finally right where she'd wanted to be for so very long, held in the arms of a strong man who knew exactly what she needed, even when she hadn't known it herself.

He pulled her tighter and she willingly curled into him, closing her eyes, her muscles relaxed, her breath coming more evenly as she realized just how much all of that crazy, extremely physical sex had worn her out.

* * *

Cole hadn't thought anything could top the wild sex they'd just had on the couch. He was wrong.

So goddamned wrong.

It didn't make any sense that anything could be better than f**king Anna, especially not when they repeatedly had the most explosive sex of his life.

But Anna's warmth, the soft press of her curves against him as she fell asleep in his arms

--holding the sweet trust of a woman he was starting to really care about in the palm of his hands--was good.

Too good.

Way too good.

So good that a man could lose his way if he wasn't careful.

Chapter Thirteen

Anna woke in Cole's big bed. He was stretched out beside her, watching, obviously waiting for her. Even though he wasn't touching her, she felt her skin come alive beneath his gaze.

He was naked now, too, and as she ran her hungry gaze down his tanned skin, over the deeply sculpted muscles over his shoulders and chest and stomach to the thick erection jutting out from his body, she realized what he was holding.

The dildo she'd bought.

Amazingly, in their frantic coupling in his living room, she'd forgotten all about it. Now, looking at the thick flesh-colored plastic penis she'd chosen made her blush. She reached out for a nonexistent blanket to pull up over her nakedness.

Cole's gaze was full of heat and such deep possession it stole her breath. "Why don't you put those hands above your head, sweetheart?"

It shouldn't be so tempting to follow orders. Her hands and arms shouldn't automatically be rising above her head, but the truth was, she'd already given up trying to make her reaction to this man fit into a tidy little box.

There was nothing tidy whatsoever about any of this. Not their quickie marriage, or the fact that instead of cursing the way he'd manipulated her into marrying him as a gift for his grandmother, she felt almost ... thankful.

"You look so pretty like that, Anna. Your skin all flushed, your sweet br**sts arching closer to my mouth." He bent over her then, his tongue a flat press of heat over one peak.

Anna instinctively moved her hands to thread into his hair and he lifted his head from her sensitive skin.

"Did I tell you to move your hands?"

She bit her lip. "No." When he simply held her gaze, but didn't say anything more, she realized he was waiting for her to put them back up by the headboard. She swallowed reflexively.

"Aren't you going to tie me up?"

"Oh no, sweetheart." He grinned at her, his eyes sparkling with humor in addition to that intense heat that never seemed to go away. "This time I'm going to expect you to keep your hands right there all on your own."

His words shouldn't have been a compliment, shouldn't have signified anything more than dirty verbal play, but they still felt like a big deal.

Like he was trusting her to own a heck of a lot more of her sexuality than she had during their first night together.

Searching within herself, she decided he was right--she wasn't going to freak out this time. Instead, she was going to trust herself, trust her body to know what felt good. Rather than fight it when it all got to be too much, she was going to relish every single sensation.

Moving slowly, sensuously, she moved her hands back into place, where he wanted them.

Approval lit the desire in his eyes. "Good choice."

Belatedly, she realized he was talking about more than the position of her hands. He was holding up the dildo between them, slowly moving it toward her chest, rubbing the soft plastic between her br**sts, the head dragging along her breastbone.

She knew she should have been shocked as she lay there watching Cole caress her skin with the toy. The night she'd met him, she would have been. Even yesterday, she knew she would have made some protest.

But in less than forty-eight hours, Cole had almost effortlessly broken down walls she hadn't even realized she'd built.

Instead of being shocked at the renewed arousal throbbing at the tips of her br**sts, between her legs, she reveled in the glorious heat.

Instead of being anxious about what Cole was planning to do with the dildo, she was practically panting with desperate anticipation, could feel herself creaming, readying herself for whatever he wanted, for whatever he was going to do.

Still, she wasn't prepared for him to lift the toy to her mouth, for him to say, "Lick it," or for her own tongue to automatically obey.

"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 ni**les, 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 ni**les. 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.