I glanced over at Ashton again, seeing that he was watching an old couple who were sitting at a grave about a hundred yards away from me. He was glaring at them murderously as if he would shoot them if they made one move in my direction. I smiled weakly, knowing that I’d put him through enough. I’d said my piece, hopefully now that it was off my chest, some of the guilt would fade over time.
“I’d better go. Ashton’s going to have a heart attack if I stay away from him for much longer.” I pushed myself up to standing and brushed the grass off of the rear of my jeans. I smiled at Ashton and waved him over. Relief washed over his face as he jogged towards me. Kissing my fingertips, I traced the letters of Jack’s name. “G’bye. I’ll come back soon and see you. Sleep tight.”
Ashton stopped at my side and smiled down at me sympathetically as he touched the small of my back. “Okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m ready to go.” I took one last look down at the gravestone as I slipped my hand into Ashton’s. “Bye, Jack.”
As we walked back towards the parking lot, I nodded down at the gun that was still gripped in Ashton’s other hand. “You can put that away now, Pretty Boy, that old couple aren’t here to kill me,” I joked.
He laughed sheepishly. “Well you never know, those wrinkles could have been a disguise,” he teased, as he stopped and pushed his gun back into his ankle holster. I rolled my eyes at him. “So, are you okay?” he asked, squeezing my hand tightly.
I nodded. “Actually, I am. Thank you for letting me have some time, I really appreciate it. I know that was hard for you.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I don’t like to not be able to do things for you, but I can’t do that again, especially with your dad being sworn in to office tomorrow. I need to be close to you out in the open like this. We’ve already lost the far guard for the day; I can’t push the boundaries too far.”
I blew out a big breath, resisting the urge to make a sarcastic comment about him being an overprotective control freak just like my father. I hated the whole guard situation, but I’d never really had a say in it. “Come on, we have a few hours before we have to be at the airport, why don’t we go down to the lake or something,” I suggested, changing the subject. I’d love to go back there, where I’d first started getting to know him. It seemed weird that it was just over four months ago that he’d waltzed into my life, blown everything up in the air and made me re-evaluate the way I lived my life.
Ashton nodded enthusiastically. He seemed almost as happy as me to be going back to the place where we’d had our ‘first date’.
Chapter Forty-One
~ Ashton ~
Our time at the Lake House had ended all too soon. We’d barely had time to hang out before we had to make the trip to the airport so that we could fly to Washington, ready to watch her father be sworn into office. Anna had been quieter than usual, but that was probably down to it being Jack’s birthday.
By the time we arrived at the hotel we were staying at, we didn’t even get time to change our clothes or freshen up before a little man in a penguin suit and too much gel in his hair ushered us into the private dining room, where her parents and a few close family and friends were gathered.
We were the last to enter, and everyone else was already seated and dressed impeccably in smart suits and evening dresses. I couldn’t have felt more out of place in my jeans and T-shirt if I’d tried. Anna’s dad stood as we entered, smiling warmly. “You made it. I’m afraid we had to start without you, so you’ve already missed the chicken liver pâté.” A shudder tickled down my spine at how disgusting that sounded.
“Thank God,” Anna whispered, not even bothering to disguise her distaste. I chuckled, poking my finger into her ribs in reprimand.
Her dad grinned and walked over, and I noticed that the rest of the room had gone silent and were watching the exchange. “How was today?”
Anna’s body tensed as she raised her chin. Her hard exterior was back again, she never seemed to like anyone getting behind her defences. Thankfully, she had been allowing me to lately. “Fine.”
Her dad nodded, obviously catching on that she didn’t want to talk about it to him. “Good. I’m glad you’re here. Thank you for coming.”
She shrugged, finally now letting a beautiful smile creep onto her lips. “Of course, I wouldn’t miss it. Shall we sit and get on with dinner, Ashton hasn’t eaten for two hours, he’ll be passing out soon,” she joked, grinning up at me.
“Two and a half,” I corrected, winking at her playfully. Her dad chuckled at my side, so I turned to him. “It’s nice to see you again, sir. Thank you for allowing me to crash your family dinner.”
“Anytime, son, anytime.”
Dinner was… small. Even after five courses, my stomach was still trying to eat itself. How upper class people survived eating a tiny piece of fish drizzled in oil and laid on a bed of asparagus, I would never understand. Thankfully though, Anna had said the same thing once the evening was over and we were finally dismissed. To make up for it, I’d followed her to the family floor and her suite, and we’d ordered Sloppy Joes.
The dinner conversation had been a little too high brow for me, and I’d struggled not to show my boredom. It was nice though, being included in Anna’s family. And it wasn’t even Anna that had requested my presence; it was her father that had asked for me to attend with his daughter. After the ‘hands on ass plastered all over the tabloids’ mistake of our vacation, I had been worried that he would have had a problem with me, or told me to keep my mind on the job, but it hadn’t even been mentioned at all.
After two Sloppy Joes, I was finally satiated, but it was now almost midnight. “I should really go and let you get some sleep, we have an early morning call tomorrow,” I begrudgingly said, pushing myself off her sofa and wiping my hands on a napkin.
She frowned, and her eyes flicked to the door. Just like when we’d attended her father’s birthday party, I’d been booked a room that was three floors down with the other agents, and the Spencer family and other close-knit members of her father’s cabinet had this floor booked out to themselves.
“I don’t want you to go,” she whispered, pouting.
“I could stay if you want, but I’m not sure how we’d explain it to anyone that asks why I spent the night in your room,” I shrugged. I didn’t want to leave either, especially not after everything that she’d been through. No doubt she would be suffering tonight.
She stood. “Stay then. I don’t care what anyone else thinks about it. I don’t want to be on my own, not tonight.” She took my hand and nodded back towards the four poster bed behind us in the large room. My heart leapt in my chest because she clearly didn’t care about the subsequent rumours it would generate. When we got to the bedroom part of her suite, she picked up her pyjamas from the bed and smiled at me tentatively before silently turning and waltzing into the bathroom.
Watching the door for her return, I slipped out of my clothes, laying my gun and holster on the bedside unit before climbing into her bed. She came out a few moments later, dressed in a killer red silk negligée that made every male part of me wake up and jump for joy.
A small smile graced her lips as she slid into the bed next to me and scooted up close to my side. As I wrapped my arms around her, I sighed contentedly. She felt so incredibly right in my arms. Every inch of her silk-covered body pressed against me as she just looked up into my eyes. The way she gazed at me made me feel like the most important man in the world. It was almost as if I was the only thing that she could see, and, in that moment, I knew we were meant to be together forever.
Her hand tangled into the back of my hair as the weightless feeling consumed me. “Ashton, can I talk to you about something?” she asked quietly. I nodded. She took a deep breath before she spoke. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and because you asked me to open up to you more, I figured that maybe I should talk to you about it.”
I smiled encouragingly and reached out, brushing my fingers across her cheek. “You can talk to me about anything.”
Her eyes fluttered closed as she dipped her head and pressed her face into the side of my neck. “Carter’s trial starts in just over three weeks,” she mumbled against my skin.
Anger boiled inside me, the same as it always did when I thought of him. “Yeah,” I managed to force out.
“I know the lawyer guy said that I probably won’t get called to give evidence again, but I was wondering,” she gulped, “if I do have to go to court, would you come with me? Maybe you could sit somewhere where I can see you?”
I bent my head and kissed her hair. It actually hurt a little that she felt she needed to ask. “Of course I will.”
Her small body relaxed against mine as she pulled her head back and smiled up at me gratefully. “Yeah? Thanks. I think that’ll really help me if I can see you.”
Her comment made me feel a hundred feet tall. “Whatever you need, Baby Girl. Though I’m pretty sure you won’t get called.”
She nodded in agreement. In her eyes, I could see the love burning and swirling as she stroked the back of my neck with one finger. I desperately wanted to lean in and kiss her, but I forced myself to remain still. After a few minutes she moved forward and snuggled into my neck again. Her leg tangled in with mine the way it always did when she wanted to go to sleep, so I knew the conversation was over. The next three weeks before the trial were obviously going to be a distressing time for her, but hopefully she’d allow me to help her in any way I could and not close herself off from me like she did everyone else.
Her father’s inauguration ceremony went exactly to plan. Anna, her mother, and I had stood on the sidelines, watching as he’d stood in front of the White House and had been sworn into office, taking the pledge and promising to serve his country.