~ Anna ~
When my cell phone vibrated on the side, I was laying on my bed with my arm covering my eyes, trying to block out the midmorning sun that was streaming through my window. I groaned and rolled to the side, stretching my arm out to reach for it. Every single one of my muscles protested from the slight movement. My whole body hurt from the run that I’d taken earlier in the morning. I’d pushed it too far today. After speaking to my father first thing and learning that I was going to be getting a new near guard today, and the bombshell that he’d dropped on me about the guy posing as my boyfriend, I’d taken my frustrations out in the gym, running on the treadmill until I’d vomited and almost passed out.
Finally catching my phone with my fingertips, I pressed it to my ear and stared up at the ceiling. “Yeah, what?” I muttered into the phone, already knowing what this would be about. My father had told me that I’d get a call when the new guard arrived, and I would have to show him around the house and get to know him ready for next week when we both went to the new school.
Maddy’s overly cheerful voice greeted me. “Hi, Annabelle. Could you come down to your father’s office, please? Agent Taylor is here, and he’d like to meet you.”
I sighed and closed my eyes in defeat. “Fine, I’ll be there in a minute.” I disconnected the call before she could answer, and then headed out of my room on my wobbly legs. As I trudged through the house, I kept my eyes on the ground so that no one would try to speak to me. Not that they tried often anymore; I’d made it clear to people that I didn’t want to interact.
As I let myself into Maddy’s office, she looked up and smiled, but it was tight and wary. It seemed as if everyone had a problem with how to behave around me now. “You’ll like this one, Annabelle, he’s so handsome!” she gushed, raising one eyebrow excitedly.
I frowned and folded my arms across my chest as I made a distasteful, scoffing sound in the back of my throat. Her comment was both inappropriate and unwelcome. It didn’t matter what he looked like, all that mattered was the fact that I didn’t want another guard. All they ever did was come in, disrupt my life, and then leave me after a couple of months when they realised that I wasn’t even worth protecting.
When she waved her hand at my father’s office door, signalling for me to go in, I shoved it open and stepped inside. The room went quiet instantly, and my gaze flicked to the stranger standing in the middle of the room.
I felt my eyes widen from shock. Maddy was right, he certainly was handsome. His black hair was shorter around the sides, but fell across his forehead messily, and he had the most beautiful dark green eyes that I had ever seen. His face was perfect, just like an angel’s. His body would be incredible too – I could see that even though it was covered by a plain, white T-shirt and ripped jeans. He actually looked like he’d just stepped out of a magazine shoot and was easily the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen.
I took all this in within a second before my eyes went back to his. His gaze was raking over me slowly, his mouth slightly open as he took in every inch of me, making me want to squirm on the spot or run away as fast as my legs would carry me. Lust was written plain across his angelic features, and it made my stomach ache.
I kept my expression neutral and quickly looked away to my father, who was watching me with tight eyes. Clearly he was uncomfortable after our little spat that had taken place in my bedroom this morning when he’d told me about this new guarding arrangement.
“So, this is him then? The new near guard boyfriend,” I asked, saying the last word angrily.
He nodded. “Yes, Annabelle. This is Agent Taylor. Agent Taylor, this is my daughter, Annabelle Spencer,” my dad answered, looking between the two of us warily.
The beautiful stranger extended his right hand towards me. “Hi, Miss Spencer, I’m Ashton. It’s nice to meet you.”
I recoiled slightly, but tried not to show my nerves. I didn’t like to show people that I was afraid. My eyes flicked down to his extended hand and my heart started to race at the thought of him touching me. Physical attention, especially from men I didn’t know, made my lungs constrict and my body go cold. It had done ever since Carter. I glanced back up at the agent’s face. He was smiling at me; his eyes warm and friendly. I swallowed the fear away and raised my hand to his, trying to be confident, but I could see that I was shaking as I shook his hand briefly. His eyes never left mine, making me feel slightly relaxed, despite the fact that a man I didn’t know was touching me. As I dropped his hand, I stepped back and folded my arms over my chest; my mother was watching me with wide eyes as if waiting to see what I would do.
I raised my chin as I faked a confident smile, dragging my eyes over him from his head down to his toes. “Well, Ashton, you don’t look like the normal guys I get assigned. I’m gonna be generous and say that you’ll last a week, maybe even ten days, before you request a reassignment,” I teased cockily.
One side of his full lips pulled up as he shook his head. “Actually, Miss Spencer, I’m here for eight months, and I don’t quit,” he replied confidently, folding his arms across his chest too, mirroring me.
The arrogance he was exuding made one of my eyebrows rise, but I fought desperately to hold back any reaction to him. “You can call me Anna.” I waved my hand dismissively, ignoring his attitude.
“Anna it is then.” His answering smile was gorgeous and seemed to light his whole face.
My mother cleared her throat obviously. “Why don’t you show Agent Taylor to his room, Annabelle? Maybe you could give him a tour of the house and grounds too. Show him where the lake is.”
I frowned at that. They always expected me to play nicely with these agents. I had no idea why though, because they never lasted long and then the whole routine would start all over again. “I’ll show him to his room, but he’s a big boy, I’m sure he can find the lake himself. I mean, you can’t miss the damn thing, it’s right there.” I turned and stalked out of the room, ignoring Ashton exchanging pleasantries with my parents behind me.
As I stalked up the hallway, fast footsteps sounded as he ran to catch me up. “Thanks for waiting,” he muttered sarcastically.
I scowled over at him. In all honesty, I was a little surprised at his attitude. Usually the guards were all ‘Yes, Miss Spencer. No, Miss Spencer’. Clearly this guy had some balls. “Whatever, pretty boy. You want me to show you to your room or not?” I snapped. My body still hurt and I wanted to take a nap before dinner.
“Sure, that’d be great.” His arm slipped around my shoulder. My heart seemed to stop before my body reacted immediately. I ducked under his arm and put both hands on his chest, shoving him as hard as I could. Because I’d caught him off guard, he stumbled back a step and looked at me with wide, horrified eyes. My teeth clenched together as I pulled back my right arm, throwing a punch in the general direction of his face. But he was too fast for me and threw his arm up to block my hit before holding both hands up innocently.
“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry,” he apologised quickly, shaking his head.
Tears welled in my eyes as my body shook from the shock of it. Male attention wasn’t something I could deal with anymore. It brought back too many memories that I could barely even cope with.
“That’s it, you’re gone,” I growled, spinning on my heel, about to march back to my father’s office and demand that he be transferred.
“Oh shit, come on, no, please? I promise that won’t ever happen again, I just forgot myself, that’s all. Please? I need this job,” he begged, as I marched down the hallway.
The pleading tone to his voice seemed to strike a chord inside me and I stopped, gritting my teeth, considering. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and turned to face him. I could see how sorry he was just by his slumped shoulders.
“You’re an asshole,” I spat venomously. These men had no idea of the power they held over me and how much even just a casual touch could affect me for days afterwards.
He nodded, holding up his hands innocently.
“Don’t ever touch me again. You’re already hanging by a thread,” I muttered, shaking my head angrily. I had no idea why I was giving him another chance. Usually I would have strutted into my father’s office and demanded they send him away, but the sorrow in his eyes was evident, so I knew it was just an innocent move that wouldn’t occur again anytime soon.
He nodded in agreement, so I resumed the tour. As we walked past doors in the hallway, I said the names of the rooms but didn’t give him a chance to look in them. He could find his own way around; I didn’t owe him anything.
“Kitchen. Dining room. Games room. Lounge. Den. The gym’s down there,” I said, pointing to my favourite part of the whole house.
“Wait, you have your own gym? Can I see it?” he asked excitedly. I risked a sideways glance at him. He was grinning happily; he obviously liked to exercise, which was actually pretty apparent by his toned physique.
“Sure, go ahead.” I smiled and waved him into the gym. As soon as he was out of sight, I abandoned my tour and walked up to my room, slamming the door behind me. I threw myself down on the bed, sighing deeply. Eight months I’d been told he was here for. He definitely wouldn’t last more than a month, tops.
After about half an hour, there was a knock on my bedroom door. I groaned at the interruption, shoving my sketch pad under my pillow. “What do you want?” I called, not in the mood to socialise any more today.
“Can I come in?” Ashton retorted. I pushed myself up from the bed, chuckling wickedly because he was clearly annoyed with me for running off and leaving him. As I pulled open the door, his annoyed face greeted me. “Yeah, that was funny,” he said sarcastically. I full on laughed and cocked my head to the side, not caring that he was annoyed with me. His frown deepened. “I need to come in and pace your room.”
My grip on my door handle tightened as I pulled it close to my side, blocking his entry. “What? Go pace in your own room, it’s right next door,” I scoffed, nodding towards the door next to mine.
“Yeah I know, someone showed me after you ditched me,” he muttered sarcastically. “I didn’t mean I wanted to pace in your room though. I need to pace your room out so I know where everything is.”
I frowned, not liking the idea of having someone in my private space. I didn’t usually allow agents in my room, but his stern expression told me that he wasn’t going away until he’d done whatever it was that he wanted. I sighed deeply and shoved open my door, gesturing for him to come in. “You’re freaking weird! No one else has paced my room before.”
As he walked in, his eyes flitted around. My bedroom was plain apart from my sketches that were stuck all over one wall; they were all to do with the same thing – Jack. No one knew that though, everyone just thought they were different things – a pair of blue eyes here, a dandelion there, a football stadium with a player celebrating, a smudge that was the exact shape of his birthmark he had on the edge of his hairline. I had drawn them all last year. I didn’t draw Jack anymore; I tried to, but it just hurt too much. Last year was when I decided to stop feeling anything, and drawing Jack just made the pain come back in droves. The things I drew now I didn’t show anyone, they were too dark. I didn’t put them on my wall; I hid them or destroyed them before anyone saw and demanded that I seek help again. I refused to go back to the hospital.
“These are really great,” Ashton complimented, looking at my wall of sketches.
I sat on my bed and pulled my knees up to my chest. “Thanks,” I mumbled, watching him look at each one individually.
“What’s this one?” he asked, pointing to one of Jack’s birthmark.
I sighed, shrugging. “What does it look like to you? It’s one of those inkblot tests. It’s whatever you think it is.”
He turned back to it, cocking his head to the side, staring at it intently for a few seconds before he spoke. “Huh, well then maybe I’m hungry because this looks like a cheeseburger and fries, heavy on the ketchup.” Not expecting such a witty response, his comment caught me off guard and, uncharacteristically, I burst out laughing. He turned back to me and smiled, seeming almost proud of himself. “So I’d better get pacing, it may take a while.” He smiled at me apologetically.
I sat back against the headboard and watched him walking around my room. Starting at the door, he would pace to the bed, then the door to the closet, the door to the window, bed to the window, bed to the closet. He went on and on for about twenty minutes. I watched him silently the whole time, just resting my chin on my knees. He was very methodical, but I had no idea why he was doing it.
“Okay, I’m done. I just need to ask you a few questions, then I’ll let you get back to hating me or whatever you were doing before I came in,” he said, smiling.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, Pretty Boy, what do you want to know?”
“What side of the bed do you sleep on?”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” My temper was rising again, I could feel it.
He shrugged innocently. “I need to know so that if I have to come in and get you, I’ll know where you’ll be.”
“Oh for goodness’ sake! None of the other guards have done anything like this or asked stupid questions! No one can get in the house. We have security, dumbass,” I spat acidly.
A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Just humour me, please. I need all the information so I can keep you safe. I don’t care what other guards have done; I’m here to stay, so at least you’ll only have to go through this once.”
I laughed humourlessly. “You’ll quit, Pretty Boy, trust me, they all do. Everyone leaves me eventually,” I stated confidently.
His cocky smile fell from his face immediately at my words. “Please just answer the questions so I can keep you safe.” He pouted, looking like a lost puppy.
I gulped as I realised that he’d just used the cute puppy dog face on me, Jack used to pull that trick all the time. “Ugh fine, I tend to sleep in the middle of the bed.”
“Okay. Do you have any weapons in your room?” he asked, looking round as if he could see anything. I shook my head in response. He nodded. “Can you shoot a gun?”
I recoiled at the word. I hated guns, I’d seen too many of them in my lifetime already. “No,” I croaked, my mouth suddenly dry.
He pursed his lips before nodding. “I’ll teach you to shoot. Just in case. You can never be too prepared for anything.”
Needing this conversation to be over and for him to leave the only place I considered a sanctuary, I shrugged in agreement. “Are you done now?” I asked, nodding towards the door, signalling for him to leave.
“Er… I just have one more thing, but I don’t want to upset you or anything,” he said quietly. I took a deep breath and waited for him to continue. “I’m supposed to be your boyfriend. For people to believe that lie, I’m going to have to touch you from time to time.”
Instantly, my heart slammed in my chest and a wave of nausea rolled over me. He scooted closer to me on the bed. I flinched at his closeness and jumped up quickly, holding my hands in front of me in protest. “Don’t, just don’t,” I muttered, looking at him pleadingly. My lunch was threatening to come back up.
“I’m not going to touch you. I just… Anna, to pull this off I’m going to have to be able to touch you in public. Maybe just hold your hand,” he suggested, standing too but making no moves to come near me.
“Why don’t we just say we’re friends?” I offered.
He shook his head. “No. The reason they want me as your boyfriend is to keep the guys away from you. Apparently it’s always the guys that get you kicked out,” he countered, chuckling at something.
“No, actually it’s always my temper that gets me kicked out,” I corrected, smiling weakly as I backed up another step. “Hey, we could say I’m a lesbian,” I bargained, praying he’d agree.
He chuckled, watching me as I backed up again. “Let’s just stick to the brief. I just need you to know that I’m here to protect you. I would never hurt you, ever.” His eyes locked onto mine as he stepped forwards.
I held my breath, wondering if he too could hear my heart racing. He stopped in front of me and held out his hand, smiling reassuringly. My eyes dropped to it, and I shook my head. I couldn’t do it. It would bring back memories of him, and I couldn’t think about him.
“Please, I can’t,” I begged, swallowing the lump that was stuck in my throat.
“I will never hurt you. I want to protect you,” he whispered.
Oh come on, Anna, get a grip of yourself! He’s an agent here to protect you, you’re in a house full of people, he’s not going to attack you! Just move your hand and stop being such a damn wimp! My mental chastising had a positive impact on my confidence, so I raised a trembling hand and put it in his. His fingers threaded through mine, and he squeezed gently. I looked at my hand, shocked. It didn’t actually feel too bad, it was quite pleasant actually, warm and soft. Some of my stress evaporated, and I glanced up at his handsome face; a small satisfied smile graced his lips.
“That’s great, Anna. Maybe if we tried to hold hands for a little a bit every day, then you’d get used to it before we start college next week,” he suggested.
“You won’t be here next week, Pretty Boy,” I answered confidently.
He laughed incredulously. “Anna, I don’t quit, I never quit, so you’d better get used to me. I’m going to be around for a while, whether you like it or not,” he replied arrogantly.
I yanked my hand out of his and folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t need a fucking babysitter! I can take care of myself,” I stated, annoyed again.
He raised one eyebrow and smiled wickedly. “Really? You can take care of yourself? So if I wanted to throw you down on the bed, I couldn’t do that?”
Oh God! My heart took off in double time. “Ashton, if you touch me, I’m gonna break your pretty face,” I warned.
A confident smile crept onto his lips. “You couldn’t land one punch before I pin you to the bed.”
He took a step forward and I didn’t give him the opportunity to touch me. I shot my hand out to punch him in the stomach, but he knocked my hand away easily before it got anywhere near him. My stomach clenched with fear because that small move showed me that he was faster than me. Panic made my blood go cold, but I wasn’t willing to concede yet. I’d never give up without a fight again. He took another step towards me and I sent a kick towards him as hard as I could. He sidestepped it easily, caught my leg and closed the distance between us so fast that I didn’t have time to react. His free arm wrapped around my waist, and he threw us both onto the bed.
As he landed on top of me, I felt the scream ripping its way up my throat as the panic took over. He put one hand over my mouth and grabbed my hands with the other, pinning them above my head, his body pressing me into the bed. I screamed and thrashed, trying to throw him off me as I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to think of anything other than Carter, but I couldn’t stop myself from returning to those memories again. In my head, I saw his brown eyes sparkling with excitement as he prepared to rape me. I heaved and turned my head to the side in defeat, letting the tears fall as I just stopped struggling. There was no point, he was too strong for me.
I waited for the pain, but it never came. I opened my eyes slowly and looked up. Ashton was still holding me down on the bed, but somehow he wasn’t heavy, as if he was holding his weight off me.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise. Trust me,” he whispered as he took his hand off of my mouth. My tears were still falling so he wiped them away gently. “I just wanted to show you that you need me. I want to protect you. You need me, so please don’t keep making this difficult. I won’t leave you like the others,” he said softly.
I looked up into his deep green eyes, and I could see the sincerity there; they were kind, caring, and gentle eyes. They were the complete opposite of the brown eyes I’d been envisioning a few seconds before. I believed him. Ashton wouldn’t quit after a week, and he wasn’t going to hurt me.
“Okay, but please get off me,” I begged, my voice trembling as I spoke.
“I will, but I think this is good for you. You can’t go through life on your own, afraid to let people touch you, afraid to let people in, in case they leave you. What happened to you won’t happen again, I promise,” he said, looking pained.
I closed my eyes and let the tears fall. The grief, pain and disgust returned in droves. I’d been able to push the pain away for months now, refusing to acknowledge that I was forever broken, just walking around like an emotionless zombie; the only thing I allowed myself to feel was anger.
“Do you need me to get off, or can you cope for a couple of minutes?” he asked quietly.
I took in a shaky breath. “Please don’t hurt me,” I whispered, turning my head to the side again.
“I won’t.” He let go of my hands, but I couldn’t move; it was like my body was frozen in place.
I still felt sick, but for some reason I trusted him. I didn’t want to, I genuinely didn’t, but I couldn’t help myself. He didn’t move at all, didn’t even shift his weight. I kept my eyes squeezed closed. I knew he was looking at me but I wanted to stay in control, and the only thing that was keeping me in control of myself was counting his heartbeats that I could feel against my chest.
After a couple of minutes, he pushed himself off me and stood up. “See, you did great. I just need you to trust me,” he congratulated, offering his hand to help me up. I rolled on to my side and pulled my knees up to my chest in the foetal position as my body suddenly racked with sobs. “Oh shit! I’m sorry, Anna! Why didn’t you say? I would’ve gotten off, I swear!” he gasped, sounding horrified, making no moves to come near me again.
“Just leave, I just want to be on my own,” I begged. I didn’t want him here; he was making everything worse with his stupid, nice guy attitude and cocky, good looks.
Silence filled the room for a few seconds before he finally agreed. “I’ll just be next door then. I’m really sorry.”
I didn’t open my eyes until I heard the click of the door. Weakly, I crawled up the bed, pulled the soft pillow over my face, and then screamed until I lost my breath. Thoughts were rushing through my brain too fast for me to comprehend: Why did I not mind him being on top of me? Why did I let him do that to me? And most importantly, why did it upset me when he moved away?
Guilt. It was eating me up inside because I’d just enjoyed another man’s touch. I felt so guilty that I wanted to vomit. Oh God, Jack, I’m so sorry! I won’t let that happen again, I promise, I mentally chanted in my head.
I rolled over and picked up the photo that I had by the side of my bed. Jack’s handsome face greeted me, making me feel even worse for letting Ashton touch me. We were just fifteen when the photo was taken, merely a year before everything turned upside-down. We were at the beach. He was smiling his beautiful smile and had his arms wrapped tightly around my waist. I was laughing at something goofy he’d whispered in my ear just as the photo was taken. Everyday I wished I could remember what it was that he’d said. I rubbed my thumb across his face. I missed him so much; it was like a knife in the heart everyday.
That night I cried myself to sleep – something I hadn’t done for months.
I woke up screaming. I’d been dreaming about Carter again as usual. My heart was pounding in my ears as I sat up, panting, trying to get my breath back the same as I did every night. I raised my knees up and put my head between them.
Suddenly my door burst open and the lights flicked on, almost blinding me. I whimpered in surprise but looked up to see Ashton in just his boxer shorts. His eyes were darting around my room. He held a gun in one hand, pointing straight out in front of him; his other arm was across his body, and he had a wicked-looking knife in his hand. His expression was totally focussed and murderously angry. He looked like a mean SWAT agent now, not a pretty boy model.
He crossed the room in a split second. “Get up and get behind me. Now!” he ordered. I instantly jumped out of the bed, wondering what was going on. Was someone in the house?
As soon as I was behind him, he started backing up, making me move with him. I almost stumbled and gripped my hands on his hips to steady myself. We backed up until I bumped into the wall behind me, making me whimper. He pressed his back against my chest, shielding me with his body as he continued to scan my room.
“Shh!” he hissed. I whimpered again and clamped my hand over my mouth, pressing my face hard into his bare back to silence myself. “Where?” he whispered fiercely. “Where are they?”
I pulled back so I could take my hand off my mouth. “Where’s who? I don’t know,” I whispered back, pressing into his body, trying to melt into him.
“Who was in your room? Why were you screaming?” he questioned, clearly confused now too.
Realisation washed over me. “Oh shit! You came in here because I was screaming?” I breathed a sigh of relief as the shock slowly faded from my stressed body.
“Yeah… what?” He shook his head, still scanning my room for danger.
“Nothing, it’s nothing. I was dreaming. I’m sorry.” I felt like a complete loser in that second. Everyone had moved bedrooms so that I was the only one down this end of the hall because I woke up screaming every night. I hadn’t even thought about waking Ashton up. Everyone else just ignored me now.
He turned around to face me, looking concerned, still standing close to me, his chest almost pressing into mine. “You were dreaming?” he asked quietly. I nodded in response. He blew out a large breath and swapped his knife into his gun hand so he could drag his hand through his messy bed hair. “Holy fuck. You were screaming as if you were being murdered,” he said, looking at me, wide eyed.
“Maybe I was,” I murmured.
He raised his hand and brushed some hair over my shoulder before taking hold of my hand. “It’s because of what I did earlier, wasn’t it?” he muttered. His voice was full of remorse.
I shook my head fiercely. “No, it wasn’t,” I assured him. “I have nightmares every night, it had nothing to do with you,” I promised. He squeezed my hand gently, sending little tingles up my arm. I frowned, noticing how I didn’t hate that he was touching me. Maybe it was just practice, like he’d suggested. “Maybe you should change rooms. There’s another room upstairs, you won’t hear me then.” My eyes dropped to my feet as heat flooded my face from embarrassment.
“Do you dream like that every night?” he asked, bending his head to look into my eyes.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “But I don’t want to talk about it, so please don’t ask. I’m sorry I woke you up.”
His green eyes locked on mine. They were strangely calming. “I don’t mind that you woke me up. I just wish you’d let me try and help you.”
Help me? No one could help me; it was too late for that. The only person that could help me had died.
“You can’t.” I put my hand on his chest and pushed him away from me. He was standing so close and I was getting hot, trapped in the corner. I needed some air.
“I can, you just need to let me in,” he said, catching my hand again.
I groaned in frustration. “Ashton, please just leave. I just need some air or something. I’m sorry I woke you, I won’t go back to sleep again so you can get some sleep.” I stepped away from him, needing a little personal space.
He shook his head adamantly. “You can go back to sleep. I’ll watch over you. That way you might not have any more nightmares,” he suggested, gripping the back of my dresser chair and pulling it to the side of the bed.
I laughed incredulously. “And that’s part of your new job description?” I shot back sarcastically.
He shook his head, turning on my bedside lamp before walking over to switch the ceiling lights off. “Nope. But I want you to feel safe with me so I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I scoffed, watching as plopped himself down in the chair. “So you’re going to watch me sleep?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed, setting his gun and knife on the floor at the side of the chair.
I gulped at his stern expression. “Ashton, seriously, please just go to bed. I won’t wake you again.” I reached over and picked up a book from the side and got comfy on my bed to read it.
He sighed deeply. “Look, when you get to know me, you’ll know that once I’ve made my mind up about something, there’s not much that can change it. Now I’m either gonna sit here and watch you sleep, or I’m gonna sit here and watch you read,” he stated, smiling at me cockily.
I frowned as I read his expression. It was deadly serious; he wasn’t going back to sleep either way. We glared at each other for a couple of minutes, neither of us wanting to back down. Finally, I sighed deeply, knowing I’d lost. What he didn’t know was that I would still have nightmares with him sitting there anyway, so this little thing was pointless. My father had already tried sitting in the room while I slept; nothing helped. I’d tried everything, drugs, hypnotists, yoga; nothing had any effect on them. Maybe Ashton needed to find that out the hard way and lose a night of sleep before he’d give up trying to help me.
I sighed and tossed my book in his direction. “Fine. Wanna read that?” I asked as he caught it.
He grinned and looked at the cover. “You like vampires?” he asked, holding up my battered and abused copy of Twilight.
I smiled back. “I like that one,” I admitted, settling back into the bed and just watching him flick through to the first page. “Good night.”
“Night, Anna.” Sitting there reading, in just a pair of black boxers, I saw no sign of the badass from minutes before, he was back to male model again now.
I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep, knowing that it wouldn’t come easy. It never did.