"How about we do word puzzles first, autographs second?"

"Oh Cole, you're only making me feel worse about the other thing I have to ask you."

She frowned. "I hate putting you in this position, so much I can't even tell you. But there's this fundraiser coming up soon and the district had been short of funds lately and--"

"Of course I'll do it."

As she looked up at him with surprise, he had to wonder, had anyone ever been this beautiful?

"You don't even know what my principal wants you to do."

"Will you be there with me doing whatever it is?"

"Yes, of course. I wouldn't throw you to the wolves like that. Not for anyone or any reason."

"Did you ever think for one second I wouldn't help you?"

"Of course not. I just felt so bad about the way my school is using your fame."

"You have nothing to feel bad about, sweetheart. Nothing at all."

"I don't get it." Another frown came, this one deeper. "You're so great. You shouldn't have had to go out looking for me--looking for a wife to bring to your grandmother. You should already have been married with kids."

She was looking at him so intently, it was almost as if she was trying to see all the way into his soul for the answers.

"Other people don't see me like you do."

All they saw was football and money--and what they could get from him.

"Then they're all wrong." She reached up, ran her fingers through his hair. "And stupid."

She pressed her free palm against his chest. "And blind. Crazy blind."

Jesus, he'd never wanted anything, anyone, as much as he wanted the woman in his arms, her ocean eyes so wide and loving.

Loving.

A sharp pang nicked him in the center of his chest, knocking loose a memory from his childhood. One of hundreds of afternoons he'd watched his friends' parents come and pick them up from school while he walked alone to the bus. He'd loved his grandmother more than anyone in the world, but he'd wanted a mom and a dad so bad that sometimes he almost hated her.

Almost as if she'd taken their place, as though if she were gone then maybe they'd come back and he'd be whole.

And now, here he was, wanting a real wife just as bad as he'd wanted a real family back then. Fucking longing nearly tearing him apart again, nearly breaking him, the way it had tried to break him when he was a kid.

Didn't she know he hadn't gone looking for love? Or forever?

Anna was supposed to be temporary.

Not forever.

He wasn't supposed to want her to stay forever.

Good thing he knew exactly what to do, exactly how to make it seem like he didn't care.

"No, baby," he forced himself to say, "they're right. I'm not the wife and kids type."

He waited for her to push out of his arms, to walk away, to cry. Instead, she simply blinked at him. "Why aren't you?"

He was hit with another picture of himself as a kid, scrawny and smaller than the other boys in his class, a little kid who had to learn early how to protect himself.

Every day on the field, he practiced the defensive plays he'd learned as a kid. Protecting his back had helped get him where he was today.

He wasn't going make the mistake of dropping his guard. Not for anyone.

Not even for Anna.

"Some people want those things. Some don't."

Her eyes darkened, a storm rising over the ocean. "Okay." Her voice was measured. Too measured. "I've got another question for you."

He tensed, waiting for her to push him, waiting for her to try and force him to admit what he was feeling for her. Women had done a lot of desperate things over the years to try and bind him to them. Fake pregnancies. Crying. Begging. None of it had worked even the slightest bit. In fact, he'd only ended up losing what little respect he'd had for them.

"Are you done showing me crazy?"

Jesus, what had she just said? Was she talking about sex when every other woman would have been trying to yank out his heart?

"You don't want to go upstairs with me right now." His c**k twitched behind his zipper even as he warned her, the words hard, low, raw.

He couldn't trust himself with her. Not when he wanted too damn much. Not when he wanted things a man like him had no right to want from a woman like her.

"Maybe you're right. We shouldn't go upstairs."

Pain speared him at her quick agreement, until he realized she was glancing at the living room, then back at him.

"Right here worked pretty good yesterday."

Fuck. No. She couldn't be saying what it sounded like she was saying. But the look in her eyes, the new sensuality he'd so enjoyed putting there, was definitely front and center now.

"Anna."

He could only warn her one more time before she pushed him too far. Especially when just being with her, just breathing her in and listening to her sweet words had already pushed him to the edge.

She stared right back at him. "Cole."

He heard a growl rip from his throat, and then his hands were on her, turning her, bending her over the dining table, pushing her skirt up to her waist. He knew his hand was coming down over her ass, but couldn't stop any of it.

The sound of his open palm again her panty-covered ass shot into the silent room.

But then another sound came. Anna's whimper.

Not of pain. But of desire.

He'd promised her crazy, but constantly ripping her panties off wasn't really what he'd meant. He'd planned to slowly introduce her to pleasure, had thought he'd tease her until she was begging for his lovemaking. Instead, he yanked her panties down to her knees and couldn't stop staring at the imprint of his hand on her flesh.

And as he lifted his hand and brought it down on her sweet, soft flesh again and again, he knew he wasn't just playing a sensual game, wasn't just trying to drive her higher as arousal dripped from her pretty pu**y lips down the inside of her thighs with every connection of skin on skin.

He was spanking her for making him feel too damn much.

He was punishing her for making him fall in love with her.

He was about to actually hurt her because he was desperate to prove to her that she was wrong.

Furious with himself--with her--with the whole damn world, he yanked open his pants and positioned the throbbing head of his c**k at her entrance. Instead of trying to get away from him, she squirmed against him, trying to take him inside her body.