If his c**k got any harder, he was going to bust a zipper. He wanted Anna, and he wanted her now.

He took her hand in his. He'd never been a big hand-holder before now, not even with long-time girlfriends, but holding her hand in his felt so right, so natural. He led her out of the chapel and down the back streets he'd learned as a kid, back to the hotel.

The warm night air was a shock after the air-conditioned chapel, especially considering Cole already felt overheated. Not just because he'd gotten hitched. But because holding Anna close like this did something strange to his insides.

Taking the back door he used when he was trying to go unnoticed, they got on the special elevator that went up to the Wynn's penthouse. The doors were closing as she said, "Wait a minute. The button for my floor isn't on here." She frowned at the elevator wall. "Why is there only one button on this?"

He put in his key and turned it before pressing the button. "This elevator only goes to my suite. And someone can get your things later."

Still clearly confused, she said, "It will just take me a few minutes to get them myself."

But Cole was all out of patience. He'd wanted her from the first second he'd set eyes on her. He'd been burning for her from the first taste, the first touch. Their wedding had pushed him way the hell past the point of reason.

Five more minutes to get her things wasn't an option.

Circling her waist with his hands, he dragged her into him.

"I don't want to wait a few minutes, Anna. I want to have sex with my wife." He all but growled the final word. "Now."

Chapter Four

"I want to have sex with my wife."

Wife. She was a wife.

Cole's wife.

How she wished the words, Oh no, what have I done? were coming out of Carrie Underwood's mouth right now via stereo speakers, instead of right between Anna's ears.

At least, she thought with barely repressed hysteria, unlike the character in the country song, Anna knew Cole's last name.

Even if she didn't know much else.

Anna's legs went weak. She needed to sit down, preferably with her head between her legs and a brown paper bag over her mouth and nose.

But even though her legs had decided not to bother holding her up anymore, she wasn't in any danger of falling. Not with Cole's hands gripping her tightly around her waist, holding her so close it was almost as if he didn't want to give her any room to think or breathe.

Or change her mind...and start running.

Desire was dark and possessive on his face as he said, "Do you have any idea what you do to me, Anna?"

By the end of the sentence, he'd lowered his head so that the final words were barely more than a hot breath against her mouth. But instead of another one of those drugging kisses that took away her breath and swept her up into him, his mouth was gentle against hers.

Anna shivered at the sensations caused by that brush of sensitive lips.

And what he'd said.

She wasn't the kind of woman who spent hours looking into the mirror, searching for flaws or beauty. She looked like what she looked like. Plenty of people had called her cute, so eventually, that's what she'd decided must be true.

But cute couldn't possibly inspire a reaction like Cole's, could it?

Equally confused as she was consumed by unfamiliar desire, Anna found herself whispering, "I want you, too," against his mouth.

For the moment, desire was the one thing she was certain of. The one thing she could trust.

"Damn it, I'm not going to take you in the elevator," Cole said as he pulled away from her. A split second later he was bending down and slipping an arm beneath her knees.

She was short, but not exactly stick-thin. No one had ever tried to pick her up before.

A thrill rushed through her at how effortless it was for Cole, at how protected--womanly

--he made her feel.

Still, she wasn't used to being swept off her feet by a man who easily weighed twice what she did. So even though she was excited--and aroused--by his actions, she was also a little bit scared. Because the truth was, he could do whatever he wanted to her, and she wouldn't have a prayer if she tried to fight back.

Moisture shouldn't be pooling between her legs at the shocking thought.

More than a little freaked out at the way her body seemed to be utterly disconnected from her brain--as barely rational as it was right now--she said, "Cole, what are you doing?"

God, she sounded like a shocked fifties movie star in a black-and-white movie, but she couldn't help it. Nothing had gone like she'd thought it would tonight. She should be alone in bed right now wearing her flannel PJs, watching an old movie about a couple getting a quickie wedding in Vegas.

Instead, here she was, living the drama in full color.

Cole's response came with a grin that took her breath away. "Enjoying the hell out of carrying my bride over the threshold."

She couldn't help but smile back. Cole was one of the best-looking men she'd ever seen, up close or in pictures. Gorgeous and forbidding. Dark and hulking.

But when he smiled...his smile made her insides light up like a beach bonfire.

"Keep looking at me like that and we aren't going to make it past the front door."

He wasn't smiling anymore. Instead, he looked dangerous.

Sexy.

So sexy she wasn't sure she wanted to make it past the front door.

"I've never had sex up against a door."

The sound that came from his throat was half-growl, half-moan. "I wouldn't tease me right now, Anna." He kicked open the door.

"I'm not teasing."

And she wasn't. She was desperate.

Desperate for something she didn't understand.

Desperate for something she'd never felt before.

A heartbeat later, Cole had her back pressed into the now-closed door, her dress up around her waist and her legs wrapped around him. She didn't know how he'd done it, but she didn't care, not when the only thing that mattered was getting relief from the intense heat, the throbbing between her legs. She felt swollen and sensitive against him, where her underwear rubbed against the zipper of his pants.

His hands were wrapped around her butt cheeks and as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her hard enough that it almost hurt, she couldn't stop herself from thrusting into the thick bulge. A moment later, his mouth was moving across her face, down to her neck and she was baring herself to him, submitting to his dominance in the most elemental of ways.