"The press."
She put her hands in her still damp hair. "I look horrible."
"No way. You're the prettiest thing I've ever seen."
A fake husband didn't have to say things like that to his fake wife. Just as he didn't have to touch her the way he did, or give her so much pleasure that just thinking about all the things he'd done could have heated her up in a snowstorm.
Knowing she was blushing from his compliment, she clarified. "While I know they want pictures of you, not me, I'm really afraid I'll be late if we have to run into them now. There's a back entrance, just around that corner."
He frowned, but made a quick right turn before they were seen. "I don't like dropping you off on a street corner."
His clear concern was very sweet, and definitely deserved a kiss. "You're a very sweet man, Cole."
"Good thing my boss doesn't agree with you," he grumbled against her mouth, but she knew he appreciated her words by the gentle way he kissed her back.
Working to catch her breath, she was grabbing her bag and clicking the door open when she felt his hand on hers.
"What time should I pick you up?"
Warmed by the fact that he wanted to go out of his way to come get her--her school was on the opposite side of town from both his house and the stadium--she said, "Again, very sweet.
But on Mondays, after I meet with the other K through 2 teachers, my friend Virginia usually gives me a ride. I should be home no later than six."
Seeing the way his eyes warmed at the way she'd naturally called his house home, hope swelled inside her chest again. Maybe their fake marriage could turn into a real one in the not so distant future. She went out on a limb by giving him another kiss.
"I had a great weekend with you, Cole."
"Only great?" He nipped at her lips, teasing her as much with his mouth as he did with the question.
"No," she said softly. "It was phenomenal."
And as she jogged away from the car toward the elementary school campus, making it just in time for the bell, she realized she still couldn't stop smiling.
Because of Cole.
* * *
"Miss Davis, my mommy said we should call you Mrs. Taylor now. Why did you have to change your name?" "What's it like to be famous?"
"Can you have Cole sign this for me and my big brother?"
Anna was suddenly hard-pressed to keep smiling. Okay, so she was getting slightly more comfortable with the fact that she'd fallen head over heels for a man she hadn't known last Thursday. But everything that came with him...frankly, she wasn't sure when she'd get used to it.
Some people were made for fame. Some definitely weren't.
It was pretty darn clear which check box her mark belonged in.
Knowing it was perfectly natural for her students to be excited about the news of her marriage, she carefully answered each and every one of their questions. Somehow it got to be recess. After she let her kids out to play for fifteen minutes, in lieu of her usual cup of coffee in the teacher's lounge, she was about to close the classroom door when a well-manicured hand pulled it open.
"Anna. Congratulations."
Biting back a sigh that she wasn't going to get the tiny bit of quiet time she desperately needed to get her head on straight, Anna accepted her principal's congratulations.
"I've been thinking," Celeste Manning began, and Anna forced herself to keep smiling, even as her gut told her to be wary. "As you know, we've really had some trouble getting the community to contribute to our fundraiser this year, what with the current economic climate. But, that was before I found out we have a celebrity in the Cougar school family."
Anna couldn't imagine Cole at one of their little school fundraisers.
"I'm sure my husband would really love to help the school out, but--"
Celeste's clapping hands cut Anna off mid-sentence. "Wonderful. I have to hurry back to my desk to let not only our parents, but also everyone in the city know that we will be auctioning off a special dinner with Cole Taylor."
Anna gripped her boss's wrist before she got away. "Celeste, you don't understand. He's very busy."
"He couldn't possibly be too busy for his wife. Besides, our phone lines have been clogged all day with calls from the press. At least now I'll have something to say to them that will benefit our school." Celeste glanced down at her wrist and Anna released her. "Although I do have to say, we all feel rather taken by surprise. You should have let us know you were engaged. We would have thrown you a party with cake."
Cake.
They would have fed her cake.
Anna could barely hold in her laughter until she got the door closed. And if it was slightly tinged with hysteria, well then, at least she had the rest of recess to get ahold of herself.
* * *
Before he went to the tape room, Cole stepped into Julie's on-site PR office, knowing she often started her day at the stadium before moving to her office across from the Bay Bridge. "We have a problem."
Julie frowned as he told her about the paps waiting outside Anna's school. "Fortunately, Cole, they aren't legally allowed on a school campus."
"She feels trapped." And he hated seeing that fear come back into Anna's pretty eyes.
"Of course she does. Marrying an Outlaw is definitely not for the fainthearted." Julie pinned him with one of her trademark no-bullshit gazes, always a little strange on such a classically attractive face. "Look, Cole, I know you wanted to keep your relationship private, but the fact is, if you want them off your back, you're going to have to give them something."
The thought of exposing Anna, his sweet, innocent Anna, to the craziness of fame made his gut churn. "No."
"I'm not talking about a press conference. One interview." She held up her hand to stop him from telling her where to shove her suggestion. "I'll handpick the journalist. Trust me, she'll be thrilled to get the scoop on the surprise marriage of the season."
"Anna never asked for this."
"Speaking from personal experience, loving an Outlaw has always been worth the price that sometimes needs to be paid."
Cole knew he hadn't done a damn thing in his life to deserve a good, sweet woman like Anna--especially with the bonus that she'd turned out to be a wildcat in bed. But despite the way he couldn't stop thinking about her, couldn't stop touching her--despite how good just being with her made him feel--he had to keep reminding himself that there was no way she was going to fall in love with him.
Unlike Julie, who was willing to make sacrifices in the name of love for her husband, Anna wasn't in love with the man who'd tricked her into marrying him. She didn't know about his past, about the fact that while he might be acting sweet around her now, he'd been anything but sweet before.