Nothing Left to Lose (65 page)

“I know you
will, son,” he replied as he ended the call.

I stared at the
phone, my tired brain not quite able to work out what just
happened. I’d expected at least a warning that I should back off
and do my job properly, but there had been nothing at all. He
hadn’t even mentioned the fact that she kissed me in front of the
reporters.

I sighed as I
pushed the phone onto the side, deciding to give up trying to
second guess everything. People never seemed to react the way I
thought they would lately. When my eyes started to get heavy, I
rested my head back on the sofa.

Just as I was
about to fall into slumber, the sofa dipped next to me, so I forced
my stinging eyes open. Anna smiled sadly at me, her hair was still
wet and scraped back into a bun. She was wearing one of my T-shirts
again. “Lie down,” she cooed, pushing her hand under the back of my
head and pulling it towards her gently. All that came out of my
mouth was a strangled gargle as she pulled a little harder and
smiled. “Lie down, Ashton.” I gave in fighting and twisted, lying
down and setting my head in her lap as I swung my legs over the arm
of the sofa and fell into a peaceful sleep.

When my alarm
sounded in the morning, I cracked my eyes open, wincing as the
light from the window made my eyes sting. I squeezed my eyes closed
again and rolled over to cuddle into Ashton; I was actually pretty
surprised he wasn’t all over me already. I rolled onto his side of
the bed, instantly noticing that the sheets were cold against my
skin. I pushed myself up, frowning at the empty space beside
me.

The alarm was
still beeping loudly, so I turned it off, wincing because I was
still tired and didn’t want to go to college today. My heart sank
when I remembered that this was the first day since the party so
the cat would be out of the bag about who I was now. Things were
going to change today, no doubt.

After slipping
on a bath robe, I headed out of the room and made my way to the
kitchen, needing a strong coffee. My eyes settled on Ashton sitting
there with both Dean and Peter. I frowned as I poked Peter in the
back as I walked past. “Shouldn’t you be in bed? Don’t night shift
workers usually sleep during the day?” I teased.

“Hey, Anna.
Yeah I should, but my boss is a real hard ass,” Peter answered
jokingly, motioning towards Ashton who was sitting there with a
pencil and paper and a stack of notes and diagrams in front of
him.

I waved my hand
dismissively. “Don’t listen to him, he’s a pussy cat. Just go to
bed.”

Peter laughed,
and Ashton rolled his eyes. “We’re just going over some stuff for
today as a precaution,” Ashton explained.

I had to scoff
at that. “Just chill, will you? Everything’s fine. Jeez, you’re
going to work these two to death. Nothing’s going to happen. Maybe
I’ll have a couple more people talk to me today, or maybe they’ll
all avoid me like the plague. Nothing to be dramatic over,” I
shrugged, genuinely not knowing what to expect.

Ashton cleared
his throat loudly and turned back to Peter and Dean. “Ignore the
interruption,” he stated, waving dismissively at me.

I laughed
incredulously. “Interruption? Wow, rude much?”

A smile
twitched at the corner of his lips as he carried on planning with
the agents, obviously trying to ignore me and not react.

“Anyone want
coffee? I’m making eggs if there are any takers,” I smiled wickedly
as I interrupted again on purpose.

“No thanks.
We’re working,” Ashton replied tersely before the other two could
answer.

I grinned.
Wow, serious Ashton is here today!
I waited for him to start
talking again before I spoke, “Orange juice, Dean?”

Ashton sighed
dramatically. “Seriously, Anna, are you trying to annoy me?” he
asked, raising one eyebrow in warning.

I nodded,
smiling sweetly. The idea of Ashton getting annoyed with me was
actually pretty funny; I didn’t even think he would. I could see
Dean and Peter trying to hide their smiles. Ashton shook his head
at me, obviously trying terribly hard not to smile and turned back
to them, starting to plan again.

“Cereal
anyone?” I asked, laughing wickedly.

Ashton jumped
out of his chair so fast that I barely saw him move. He grabbed me
from behind, wrapping one arm tightly around my waist, pinning my
arms to my sides and covering my mouth with his other hand. I
laughed against his hand as he shushed me and pinned my body
against his so I couldn’t move.

“Right, we’re
done now anyway but just to recap, Peter, you’ll come meet us at
the end of school. Dean will move a little closer, and if I call,
then you’ll adopt near guard position and ignore me completely,”
Ashton ordered. I squirmed in place as I started to find it
incredibly sexy the way Dean and Peter were hanging on Ashton’s
every word. I could see the respect for him and it made me
practically overflow with pride. “I’ve already spoken to the school
office this morning and told them that additional arrangements may
need to be taken, and they were fine with it. There should be no
problems, it’s just business as usual, but Dean can show his
presence from now on seeing as everyone will expect Anna to have a
guard with her now.” His grip loosened slightly around my waist,
but I didn’t move away from him, I liked having him this close; I
shifted my weight to my other leg and discreetly ground my ass
across his crotch. His arm immediately tightened back up again,
pinning me against him. “If there are any problems at all, I need
to maintain cover, so you take her away. Don’t wait for me to make
the first move, I’ll only move if I have to because I need to look
like a boyfriend and not an agent. Right, well, Peter, you’d better
go get some sleep,” he said sternly.

Dean and Peter
nodded, both standing to leave. “Got it, boss,” Peter answered,
nodding as both of my far guards left the apartment.

After the front
door shut, Ashton kissed the side of my neck softly, still holding
his hand over my mouth. “Now, Miss Spencer, you need to stop
interfering with my job, or else,” he growled sexily in my ear. My
whole body started to throb at the sound of his husky voice as he
held me tightly against him. When he bit the back of my neck
playfully, I whimpered with desire and instantly regretted teasing
him because now I was going to be fantasising about him all day.
“Is that understood?” he whispered against my neck, sending his hot
breath blowing down my back. I couldn’t answer; my mouth was dry
and my body practically vibrating with excitement. “I said, is that
understood, Miss Spencer?” he whispered in my ear. I grinned
against his hand and nodded. “Hmm, good,” he purred as he moved his
hands from their restraining positions and rested them on my hips
gently. I didn’t move away from him, I couldn’t. I loved the feel
of his body against mine, I would be quite happy just to stand here
like this all day. “How about I make you breakfast?” he offered,
his voice still thick with lust.

How about we
skip breakfast and school and go to bed?
It was on the tip of
my tongue, but somehow I held it back. I squeezed my eyes shut,
trying to block out the lustful thoughts that seemed to come to me
so frequently lately. “No, it’s okay. Thanks for the offer though,
I thought I would make something hot today,” I said, finally able
to drag myself out of his embrace. “You hungry?”

“Of course,” he
grinned, watching as I pulled out a packet of bacon from the
fridge. He nodded eagerly. “You know you’re the best girlfriend
anyone ever had, don’t you?”

I smiled.
“Well, I do now that you’ve told me,” I replied, shrugging. I did
already know that actually, he told me a lot.

When we arrived
at school, the whole parking lot seemed to turn in unison to watch
us. A hushed silence settled over the crowd, and I shrank into
Ashton’s side, already wishing I was somewhere else. This was going
to take a lot of getting used to.

Ashton’s arm
tightened around me as the excited whispering started. “Relax, Baby
Girl, it’ll die down,” he said, squeezing my waist
affectionately.

As we made our
way to the building, my eyes settled on Rosie and the rest of our
friends that were standing in a little huddle outside the front
entrance. I sighed, feeling my shoulders slump in defeat. I knew
this would happen; clearly they would all treat me differently now
that they knew who my father was. It was inevitable. However, the
wide eyes and tight lips that looked back at me made my insides
ache. I should have taken more time to prepare myself for this kind
of public rejection, I wasn’t ready at all.

But as we got
to the last step, a cheeky grin broke out on Rosie’s face as she
produced a pen and paper from behind her back. “Can I get Annaton’s
autograph, I heard they’re going for ten bucks on eBay,” she
teased, before bursting out laughing.

My shoulders
relaxed as she shook her head grinning happily. Maybe I’d
underestimated them a little. I smiled, grateful for their
acceptance. Rosie York was an incredible person, and an even better
friend, I would have been extremely sad to lose her because of
this. We’d gotten incredibly close.

“Ten bucks,
really? Maybe we should sign a load and sell them ourselves?” I
joked, turning to Ashton. He laughed in response.

Serena smiled.
“I can’t believe your dad is going to be the next President. My
dad’s a paint salesman,” she said, grinning.

I shrugged,
wincing apologetically. “I didn’t really want to announce it to
everyone. People can be a little standoffish when they find out
your father’s running for office.”

Rosie nodded
and stepped forward; linking her arm through mine. She gave me a
little tug away from Ashton and made me start walking up the
hallway with her. “On to more important things,” she whispered,
looking over her shoulder at Ashton conspiratorially. “I saw you
two get interviewed. Do you think he’s going to propose?” she
asked, grinning excitedly as her eyes sparkled happily.

I chuckled
awkwardly. “I hope not. We’re too young.”

She sighed and
nodded in agreement. “True, but he’s so yummy. Imagine being
married to that,” she said, fanning her face dramatically as she
winked at me. “You should accept if he does.”

I dropped my
eyes to the floor. I hated marriage talk, it made me uncomfortable
and brought back feelings and memories that I tried extremely hard
to bury. “He won’t,” I assured her. I didn’t want to plant false
hope there for her by going along with her excited chattering;
after all, he was just a bodyguard who had become my friend,
nothing more.

For the rest of
the day, a few people came up to speak to me, most seemed a little
intimidated. A rare few asked for autographs or a photo, which was
more than awkward considering they were in my classes and had been
talking openly to me for the last couple of months.

By the time the
end of day came around, I was grateful to be out of the spotlight
for a little while. As we stepped through the door to our
apartment, I breathed a sigh of relief that the day was over and
done with. There were only a couple of weeks left of school anyway,
and then the semester was over. Hopefully, by the time we came back
in the New Year, everything would have settled and people would be
used to it even more and not bat an eyelid at me.

I flopped down
on the sofa while Ashton headed to the kitchen to make coffee. When
he set my cup on the side next to me, I smiled. “Thanks. I’m glad
that’s over with,” I admitted. “Just another couple of weeks and
then we can get away from all of this for Christmas.”

I frowned as I
said it. I wasn’t actually looking forward to Christmas at all. Of
course, I was looking forward to not getting up for classes and not
having assignments to finish, but I wasn’t looking forward to being
away from Ashton for two weeks. Because this one was a scheduled
school holiday, he got the two weeks off, so I would need to brave
it on my own with my parents at the Lake House.

He nodded
thoughtfully and sat down next to me. “Yeah, Christmas. I wanted to
talk to you about that actually, but there never seems to be the
right time because we’ve been so busy lately.”

I nodded,
already knowing what this would be about. “Yeah, we can go tomorrow
or something. There are still a few bits I need to buy, but I’ve
got most of mine already,” I stated, pre-empting him suggesting we
go gift shopping soon. I’d been very organised and had already
arranged the more important things that I wanted to get – like
Ashton’s gift that Maddy had arranged for me.

“Go where?”

I smiled,
confused. “Shopping. Weren’t you just about to say that you needed
to buy gifts?”

He shook his
head. “No actually, but I do need to do that,” he admitted.
“Actually, I was going to ask what we’re doing about Christmas
itself.” He frowned as if he was trying to work out a complicated
algebra problem.

“What’s that
supposed to mean?” I asked, picking up my coffee and blowing it
gently to cool it before taking a sip.

He shrugged.
“Well, I’m guessing that you’ll want to spend Christmas day with
your parents. But maybe we could spend New Year in Los Angeles.
What do you think of that?”

I almost choked
on the coffee as he spoke.
Spend New Year in LA? With him?
“What? I don’t…” I stared at him, waiting for him to say something
that made sense.

“If you don’t
want to come to my place again, that’s fine, I just thought that
you liked it last time and figured I’d suggest it.”

I smiled
gratefully. “That’s a really nice thought, Ashton, but you should
just go out with your friends. That way you won’t have to worry
about me, and you can just have a good time.”