"Of course, sir." The man reached under the counter and pulled out a velvet box. "Here is our selection."
Cole all but growled his displeasure when they looked inside. "No."
"Sir?"
Cole didn't answer. He simply pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. "James. I need a diamond ring. No less than five." He turned his attention back to her for a brief moment. "What ring size are you?"
She looked down at her ringless hand. "I don't know."
"Excuse me, sir," the chapel attendant said, "but I can guarantee that she's a six." He smiled at her. "I've been doing this for a very long time."
Cole spoke into his phone again. "Six." After a short pause, he said. "No, that's unacceptable. Five minutes ago." He looked up at the sign on the wall. "Cupid's Wedding Chapel, behind the Wynn." He put the phone back in his pocket. "The ring will be here in five minutes. What paperwork do you need us to fill out?"
"Great idea," she chirped. "We should get the paperwork done right away!"
She felt Cole's eyes on her, felt herself flushing as he said, "We need a minute alone."
The man behind the counter nodded quickly. "Of course, sir. I'll just go check on a few things in back."
Cole had a way of focusing all of his attention on her that rattled her brain--and made her panties shockingly damp.
She couldn't believe the way she heated up beneath his gaze. No other man had ever made her feel this way, like she couldn't control her hormones around him. It wasn't just that he was extremely good-looking. And built like a bodybuilder. No, it was something else that had her pulse racing.
It was the way his eyes said Mine when he looked at her.
Just like they were doing right now.
She took a breath to try to clear her head, but the breath was so shaky she almost didn't get any air in.
"Anna." He put his finger beneath her chin and tipped her chin up.
"Isn't this exciting?" she asked, trying to give him a confident smile.
"Yes," he agreed, and then, "Tell me what's wrong."
She forced herself to say, "Nothing's wrong," the same thing she'd been saying to everyone her entire life, whether or not it was true.
His finger moved from her chin up her cheek. "I can handle the truth, sweet Anna."
And the thing was, she suddenly believed him. Unable to look away from his dark, hot gaze, she said, "It's not that I don't want to do this. I mean, you asked if I wanted to get married and I said yes, so we're here and I'm sure it's going to be really great, but then when you started asking about paperwork, I--"
Well, it had just seemed so cold. So businesslike. So far from the heat that had driven them here.
"I kind of started to freak out." She sucked in a breath. "But I'm okay now." And it was the strangest thing, but just telling him what she really felt went a long way toward dissolving the knot in her stomach.
"What's your last name, Anna?"
Finding it difficult to focus past the fact that his fingertips were now traveling along the outside of her earlobe, she said, "Davis." His fingers ran down the side of her neck and it made so many wicked and wild desires jump to life inside that she had to close her eyes for a minute to try and keep her balance.
"Want to know mine?"
Anna opened her eyes in surprise. "Of course I do," she told him. "It's just that when you're doing that, I can't concentrate."
His full, masculine lips curving into a sensual grin, he ran his fingers across her collarbone and down the underside of her upper arm. "Good."
More moisture flooded her panties and she couldn't hold back a soft moan of pleasure.
"So sweet, Anna. So damn sweet."
The desire that rippled through her at his heated words sent her reeling. Needing desperately to ground herself in something, anything, she buried her face against his chest. But instead of grounding her, when she breathed in the heady scent of him--a clean, male scent that drew her in even deeper and made her want to rub herself all over him like a cat in heat--she could barely focus on anything other than how much she wanted Cole. No, this wasn't simply wanting, this was something else entirely, a desperate craving that ate away at her.
And then she felt his hands on her shoulders, pushing her back far enough that he could hold her gaze again. "You'll be Anna Taylor soon."
Her breath caught in her throat. It was a heck of a way to tell her his last name.
Before she could get her lungs or brain to cooperate again--was she really about to leave Anna Davis, the woman she'd been for nearly thirty years, behind?--the chapel's front door opened and an attractive gray-haired man walked in.
She felt herself flush as he quickly took her in, head to toe. He kept his face expressionless, save for the slight surprise lingering in his eyes.
"Introduce me, please," the man said to Cole.
Cole's eyes hadn't left her, not when his friend had walked in, not now that he was making the introductions. "James, this is Anna Davis. My fiancee."
Anna's heart rate leapt at the word fiancee and she worked to school her face into a normal smile of greeting. "It's nice to meet you, James."
The man's eyebrow lifted slightly. "It is very nice to meet you, Ms. Davis."
The next thing she knew, he was opening up a velvet case, much like the one the chapel attendant had under the counter. She gasped at the rings inside this one.
"No," she said, shaking her head and shooting a panicked glance at Cole. "You can't--I shouldn't--"
"Are these the biggest ones you could find?" Cole asked his friend in a clearly irritated tone.
Ignoring him, James told Anna, "Of course you will look beautiful in any of them. But now that I've met you, I think this one would be perfect."
He held out the only ring that had caught her eye, a princess-cut diamond surrounded by a circle of smaller diamonds. Still, she didn't reach out to touch it.
Frowning, Cole said, "Damn it, these diamonds aren't big enough." He pulled out the biggest one, so big she wasn't sure she'd be able to lift her hand with it on, and said, "How about we use this one tonight and then tomorrow morning we'll trade it in for something better?"
Standing in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, staring at a diamond that had to be at least five carats in the hands of a man she'd met approximately sixty minutes earlier, Anna stopped processing.
And starting laughing.
Both men stared at her as if she were completely off her rocker. She supposed they were right. After all, she was here, wasn't she?
"Cole," she finally said when she was able to speak, "these diamonds are all way too big."
"Too big?"
Cole looked utterly confused and she could have sworn his friend made a sound that was something between a cough and a barely-swallowed laugh.
"Way too big." Her gaze swung back to the one James had pointed out. "But that one's pretty. I guess I could get used to wearing it."
"Leave the ring."
James turned a bemused gaze to Cole. "Of course."
He put it on the counter, then closed the velvet box. He caught Anna by surprise with his smile, so friendly and genuine. "My best wishes to you, Anna." He left before wishing Cole luck.
"Wonderful, the ring has arrived!" The attendant returned, holding a clipboard and a pen.
"I just need to see photo IDs and have you fill out your addresses, social security numbers, and signatures and we can get straight to the ceremony."
"We'll tell you when we're ready," Cole bit out.
The man's eyebrows rose. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I just remembered one more thing I need to take care of. Excuse me."
Cole practically carried her over to a small sitting area in the corner of the room.
"You scared him," she said.
"I don't care about him. I care about you."
Her stomach fluttered. He cared about her?
Oh my.
"You're overwhelmed."
No question, he was a man of few words. Still, he managed to say everything that needed to be said.
"Who wouldn't be?"
Before she knew it, he had pulled her onto his lap. "I don't want to hurt you, Anna."
He was so big and warm and hard beneath her thighs, against her chest, her hands. And when she was close to him like this, suddenly everything became so much clearer.
He hadn't forced her to come here. He'd simply asked her to marry him and she'd agreed.
Because, for the first time in her life, she wanted to see what it felt like to really live.
"You're not hurting me, Cole. And you don't need to apologize."
"Good," he said in that low, rough voice of his that heated her up beyond reason,
"because I'd rather kiss you." And then his mouth was on hers and her insides were lighting up like the Fourth of July.
"Sweet," he murmured against her lips, between kisses. "Sweeter than sugar."
Her body ached to get closer to his, to shift so that she wasn't sitting sideways across his legs, but straddling him instead.
When he finally let her up for air, she had to say, "You taste good, too."
"Nowhere near as good as you, Anna," he said, his eyes still on her lips, which were throbbing from his passionate kiss.
"Kiss me again, Cole."
She didn't have time to take another breath before he was there, stealing it from her lungs, shifting her so that her br**sts were pressed hard against his chest, her arms wrapped tightly around him.
It didn't make any sense, not just being here in a wedding chapel with a man she hardly knew, but the fact that every cell in her body wanted to become part of him--and never, ever let go.
Every day, every minute of her life had made sense up until now.
And none of that sense had ever felt as good as this crazy did.
"Let's get married, Cole."
He stilled at her whispered request, before saying, "Anything for you, sweet Anna."
From that point on, everything happened in a blur. Cole lifting her off of his lap, the two of them walking over to the counter hand in hand to fill out the paperwork, realizing that they both lived in San Francisco as they wrote out their addresses; listening to the officiant say, "Do you, Cole Taylor, take Anna Davis to be your lawfully wedded wife," hearing Cole say "I do" in his low, rough voice; realizing she was being asked, "Will you, Anna Davis, take Cole Taylor to be your lawfully wedded husband?" and the words "I do" coming before she could let herself second-guess them; sliding the platinum band onto Cole's ring finger; watching Cole slide the diamond ring onto her left hand as the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife" were spoken...
...and then kissing the stranger she'd just married.
* * *
Cole didn't want to ever stop kissing Anna. She was addictive, her taste, the feel of her soft curves, the breathy sounds of pleasure she made as he swept his tongue against hers and nipped at her full lower lip. Unfortunately, making out with his new wife to the sound of a throat clearing--loudly and repeatedly--wasn't exactly what he had in mind for his wedding night.
Not that he'd ever thought about his wedding night.
Or ever pictured himself with a new wife.
His heart rate kicked up, the ring Anna had put on his finger feeling strange as the officiant said, "Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor."
Anna leaned closer into him as if she were trying to keep herself from falling. Fuck, he felt the same way even though getting hitched had been his idea, the perfect way to make sure Anna stayed with him at least long enough to meet his grandmother. And make her final wish come true.
Guilt knocked around inside his chest. At the same time, his dick was so hard he could pull it out and pound nails with it.
"Thank you," Anna replied to the officiant and the witness, whom Cole guessed were probably a married couple themselves.
"You're very welcome, honey." She lowered her voice. "I shouldn't be saying this, but after thirty years of owning Cupid's, we've seen our fair share of couples come through our doors. Enough to know which ones are going to make it, and which aren't."
He could feel Anna's intake of breath against his chest. "You can tell just from looking at the couple?"
Shit. Why hadn't he dragged her out of the chapel as soon as the rings were on? If this woman told Anna that their marriage was doomed--not thirty seconds after closing the deal--
Cole was going to be pissed. There were plenty of half-crippled football players out there who could vouch for the fact that it was never a good idea to piss off Cole Taylor.
"Oh yes. We certainly can," the woman affirmed. "I can tell that you two are going to be among the lucky ones."
"We are?"
He would have laughed at the surprise in Anna's voice if he hadn't been more than a little insulted by it. Why the hell had she married him if she didn't think it was going to work out? He was the only one in this "relationship" with an ulterior motive, wasn't he?
She couldn't be that good an actress, could she? Hell, she was all but dripping innocence, and hadn't so much as reacted to learning his full name. Then again, for such an innocent girl, it hadn't exactly taken a hell of a lot of work to convince her to marry him.
Suspicion began to ride him as the woman said, "So many couples come in here on a spur-of-the-moment decision and just don't have what it takes to make it. But you two." She beamed at them. "I can almost see your bond. Strong and true. Real love. But you don't want to spend your wedding night gabbing with an old lady. Not when I can see how much you both are looking forward to celebrating your marriage."
Anna blushed furiously at the woman's comment, but for Cole it was a welcome splash of truth. The true love stuff was all bullshit. But the woman was dead right about one thing.
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.