Ty zipped up his jeans. "Julie really liked Anna. Said she wasn't like the other girls you've brought around. She said Anna's soul hadn't been sucked out with a liposuction tube."

Maybe another time that would have been funny. But Cole didn't see a whole lot of laughing in his future. The time would come when Anna wasn't in his house, wasn't in his bed, wasn't in his life anymore. And it would suck.

"Look, I know I'm no expert in the whole relationship thing." Ty put his hands up and Cole recognized it as his usual tactic. Playing the nice guy before he went in for the kill.

"That's for damn sure," he bit out, fully aware of the way Ty had f**ked things up with Julie, knew the f**kups had gone all the way back to high school. The last person who should be giving him advice was this prick.

Then again, Ty was happy now, wasn't he? With a wife any guy on the team would kill to be with.

Everyone but Cole.

Because he couldn't see past Anna to any other woman on the planet.

"I don't know much, but the thing is--" Ty stopped packing his duffel bag, looked Cole in the eye. "--I know one thing for sure. I couldn't live without Julie. Wouldn't want to do it, period. But I almost had to. Because I was an idiot. More than once. Truth is, I should have been down on my knees groveling, begging, praying for her to give me another chance and not screw it up years ago." Ty zipped up his bag, put it over his shoulder, and shrugged. "Anyway, see you at practice tomorrow."

Cole slammed his locker shut, the entire wall of metal shaking even after he walked away. Who the f**k did Ty think he was, giving him advice?

Cut and dried. The whole goddamned situation with Anna was cut and dried.

He'd needed a temporary wife. She'd agreed to a trade of great sex. Both of them were upholdingtheir sides of the original deal. Once they were divorced, once she wasn't coming around his dick every thirty minutes, she'd realize she wasn't actually in love with him.

And when she looked back, she'd see that loving him couldn't have been possible in the first place.

Working like hell to straighten himself out before he went home to Anna, he almost trampled a woman waiting in the hallway.

"Cynthia?"

What the hell was the journalist doing here?

She quickly shut the phone at her ear. "Cole. Your coach told me you were getting changed. I've got some follow-up questions about your career that I wanted to put in the article."

Cole worked to keep his expression clear as he walked with her and answered her questions.

Had the guard in the hall let Cynthia into the locker room while he and Ty were talking?

He couldn't tell from looking at her, didn't think she was acting any differently now than she had the previous night.

What had she heard?

Shit. He couldn't just ask her, couldn't give her any ammo if she didn't already have it.

After she'd asked him her questions, he went down to his car. But instead of driving out of the underground lot, he sat and stared at the cement wall.

* * *

Cole walked into a scene out of every guy's fantasy. Dinner was on the table and Anna was sitting in her seat wearing nothing but one of his ties and spike heels, her legs kicked up on the table, ankles crossed.

"Welcome home, honey. How was your day at the office?"

His wife--his oh-so-beautiful wife--was smiling and sexy, but also shy and nervous.

And so sweet he couldn't believe she was his.

For now.

He moved across the room, dropped to his knees in front of her. Picking her legs up off the table, he put them on either side of his face.

"A whole hell of a lot better now."

He lowered his mouth down to her sweet pu**y and her hands dropped from where they'd been covering her br**sts--that combination of sinful and innocent that blew his head apart every time he looked at her.

Every time he loved her.

And when she cried out at just the barest touch of his tongue on her clit, so wet and ready for him, he had to pull her down onto the floor with him, had to be inside of her while she came.

Notorious among the football groupies for his staying power, Cole didn't have a prayer of lasting any longer than Anna had. And as he came deep inside the soft, sweet woman riding his lap, he knew himself for the fool he was after what he'd said to Ty.

Cole had found something special in Anna.

Now he just had to hope that one stupid, stubborn conversation didn't come to light...and pray that it didn't all go to hell.

Chapter Twenty

Anna had never felt so good. Or so happy. So incredibly happy that sometimes she was sure she must be dreaming, that she was going to wake up one of these days and realize Cole wasn't real, that she'd invented him to be her perfect man. Strong, dominant, sexy, and yet so caring, so warm, so wonderful.

Neither of them had to get up early on a Saturday morning and for the first time since coming home to San Francisco, they'd had a chance to have leisurely morning sex. Not, she thought with a smile as she burrowed deeper in the covers, that there had been anything particularly easygoing about it.

They were way too hot for each other to make it too long without combusting in each other's arms.

And the thing was, Anna had had enough easygoing sex before Cole. She loved the hot flash of attraction, loved how powerless she was to her desire.

Because that's what Cole was to her. A deliciously sensual drug that swamped her system.

She craved his touch. His warmth. His words whispering over her skin. From the first moment that he'd kissed her, she'd been lost, with no desire to be found.

Time and time again, she'd forgotten to protect herself against pregnancy when they made love. But instead of being worried, instead of wondering how she could possibly have let herself get so carried away, she found herself noticing the tenderness in her br**sts and wondering if maybe, just maybe, in nine months she'd be seeing Cole's eyes on a little girl or boy.

Everything she'd ever wanted was coming true, things she'd almost stopped dreaming about.

All because of the beautiful man walking into the bedroom holding two cups of coffee.

Her cell phone jumped on the dresser across from the bed. The ringer was off, but Cole eyeballed the screen. "It's your mother."

"I'll call her back later."

She took the mug from him, sipping from his lips first. She'd barely tasted her coffee before he took it from her and put both of their mugs down on the nightstand.

"You don't mind cold coffee, do you?"

She shivered in delicious anticipation at the wicked look in his eyes. "Isn't that why they invented microwaves?"

She went to her knees to reach for him and his arms immediately surrounded her, her mother's call and the coffee completely forgotten. But then, her phone jumped again--and this time she could hear his ringing, too, from the drawer in the closet where he put it at night.