"My grandmother needed to think I was settled. That I'd found true love. It was her last wish." Ty knew about Cole's grandmother and his eyes darkened with sympathy. "So I called 1-800-Good-Girl and they sent her over."
"Holy shit, are you saying that you married Anna only because of your grandmother?"
"I found Anna in a club Friday night, looking like a doe caught in the headlights. I convinced her to marry me, then presented her to my grandmother on a silver platter at the hospital Saturday morning."
Cole's gut twisted tighter with each sentence. He'd thought laying it out in black and white would help set him straight, that he and Ty would laugh at another play pulled off to perfection.
But Ty wasn't laughing.
And neither was Cole. Hell, he felt like a bigger shit than he ever had before.
"Are you telling me that the nice girl I met Sunday let you buy her?"
"No." Fuck no. She wasn't a whore--wouldn't even take money or jewelry for her cooperation. "She won't take anything from me. Says she doesn't want it."
"I think I hear what you're saying, but this isn't adding up. Especially since Julie said Anna clearly doesn't know the first thing about football. She's not a groupie. She doesn't want your money. Why would she actually go through with marrying you?"
"She's got a soft heart." Cole had seen Anna with his grandmother, with her family, with the children in her class. "I didn't play fair. I wouldn't let her leave me until she met my grandmother."
And he'd promised her pleasure, thinking it was a fair trade.
What a f**ked-up ass**le he was.
Ty's frown lifted suddenly. Too suddenly. He shook his head slowly, whistled between his teeth. "You do realize that she's doing it because she's in love with you, don't you?"
"She's not in love with me," Cole countered. "She just thinks she is."
"Right." Ty sounded less than convinced, but he dropped it. "So we shouldn't get too used to seeing her around, then?"
"We'll stay together as long as we need to." It went unspoken, but understood by both men, that everything would change once his grandmother passed away.
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.