And that he really did love her.
But he remembered that first limo ride from the San Francisco airport, the way he hadn't asked her if she would come with him to his house. He'd demanded it, as if her opinion hadn't mattered.
He now knew that her opinion mattered more than anything.
"Where do you want James to take you?"
She looked at him in surprise, but the expression disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"Home. My home."
Coming around to hold the door open for Anna, James looked at Cole like he was dogshit on the bottom of his shoe. His assistant waited until she was safely inside and the door was closed to say, "You're an idiot. A complete f**king idiot."
James didn't wait for a response, just went around to the front of the car and slid in behind the wheel.
With Cole's wife inside the car with him.
Possessiveness gripped him hard and he was just curling his fingers around the door handle to pull his wife out of the limo, to work like hell to convince her to come with him in his car, to try and get her to forgive him and give him another chance, when James hit the gas and the limo sped away from the curb so fast it almost took Cole's hand off.
"Fuck!"
Cole took off across the arrivals lanes at a full-on sprint, dodging each car as if he were on the field instead of a crowded airport, until he found his car. Jumping inside, he sped toward the exit with his car door still open, barely closing it in time to prevent it snapping off on a cement pillar. He threw a hundred-dollar bill at the ticket taker and almost crashed through the gate in his hurry to get to Anna.
He didn't know what he could possibly say, what he could possibly do, to get her to give him another chance. All he knew was that he couldn't give her up.
Not without a fight.
Not until he knew for sure that she didn't love him anymore.
* * *
He turned into her street just as James was walking down the steps back to the limo. Double-parking his car, not giving a shit if it was towed or even totaled by another car, Cole jumped out. He barely heard James say, "Swear to God, you must be the biggest goddamned idiot I've ever met," barely saw the photographers clicking pictures outside as he ran past his assistant and up the stairs.
Praying she hadn't yet locked the front door, knowing that she was so trusting she often forgot, he pushed against it.
And it opened.
Anna looked up from the spot where she was kneeling on the floor picking up mail, the dog sleeping in his carrying bag by the hall table. In that moment, catching her completely off guard, Cole thought he caught something in her eyes that she'd been hiding from him all day.
Love.
"Anna, we need to talk."
She stood up, leaving her mail on the floor, her dark hair silky as it fell over her shoulders, her long lashes almost shielding her ocean eyes from him. She was so beautiful that simply looking at her made his chest hurt with every single breath he took.
"I don't want to talk."
She moved toward him and he expected her to slap him, to scream at him for ruining her life, to tell him to get the hell out of her house and her life.
Instead, her hands went to the hem of his T-shirt, pulling it up his body.
More confused than he'd ever been, Cole couldn't think fast enough to stop her from dragging it all the way up to his armpits. And with her fingernails raking across his chest, it was instinct to lift his arms above his head so that she could get it all the way off.
"Anna. Sweetheart." He wanted to pull her into him, wanted to force her to listen to him beg for forgiveness until she finally capitulated and forgave him for being the world's biggest ass**le. "I didn't bring come here for this."
"I know."
She untied the bow at the front of her dress and a second later pulled it over her head and tossed it on the ground.
"Anna." He put his hands on her shoulders, stupid enough to risk touching her when she was standing there almost naked and so beautiful he couldn't believe his eyes, no matter how many times he looked at her. "You don't want to make love to me here. Now."
He hated the way she winced at the word love, hated it even more when she said, "You taught me too well, Cole, taught me not to fight what I really need." So matter-of-fact. "And I need you. Here. Now. Just like this."
Her hands went to his belt, unbuckling it, and he tried to still them with his own, but she was focused, one hundred percent intent on pulling his zipper down.
"Anna, baby," he said, dragging the words from his own throat, "listen to me. We need to stop before you do something you don't really want to do."
The pain in her eyes broke his heart as she said, "I thought that was true. All my life I'd told myself I didn't want this." She dragged his jeans down and the erection he couldn't contain jutted out at her through the thin fabric of his navy blue boxers. "I was lying to myself. You taught me all about lies."
She dropped to her knees and he tried again, tried to stop her from doing something she'd hate him for forever.
"Sweetheart, you don't have to do this."
She lifted her gaze to his, locked in tight. "I do." Her tongue slipped out in a wet caress across his bulging c**k head and he couldn't stop his arousal from bursting onto her lips. "Even though you've broken my heart, I need this."
Her words tore at him. She wasn't saying she needed him. Just that she was addicted to exploring the deep sensuality that he'd helped her find.
She ran her hands up onto his stomach, his muscles tightening beneath her soft touch.
"That first night in Las Vegas you unlocked the door to a part of me that I was denying."
She sucked his c**k head inside, swirling her tongue around it. When she pulled back there was lust in her eyes--and so much bleak pain all Cole wanted to do was pick her up and tuck her against his chest and not let her go until it was gone.
"I can't help but crave touch now. Can't stop wanting that rush of release." The breath she took shook her body. "Crazy," she whispered. "I need crazy." Her voice, her expression was ravaged with painful knowledge. "I'll never be able to lock that door again. Even after you're gone. Even without you."
Jesus, she was outright telling him that she was going to replace him. That whether or not he was the man in her bed, she wasn't going to force herself to live in a sexual prison.