Nothing Left to Lose (Guarded Hearts 1)

“Do you think you two will get married?” someone questioned.

I grinned sheepishly. I would marry her right now if I could! I squeezed her waist, she probably knew what my answer would be to that because I’d made a couple of little marriage jokes to her already. Anna winced, recoiling slightly at the question. “We’re pretty young to be thinking about marriage,” she answered weakly, shaking her head in rejection.

“Ashton, what do you think?” the same guy probed.

I laughed and shrugged, deciding to answer honestly. “Well, I don’t think we’re too young, let’s leave it at that.”

Anna gasped, slapping me on the shoulder playfully before pushing me towards the car. “What the? Seriously, Ashton, you should get in the car before you drop us in anything!” she scolded nervously, blushing profusely. The reporters around us laughed too at her embarrassed outburst.

I grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her forwards the last couple of steps as the cameras started up again. Dean opened the back door of the car, so I manoeuvred behind Anna so that she had to get in first, discreetly positioning my body so that I was between her and the reporters. Once she was safely in, I slipped in behind her and Dean slammed the door before climbing in the driver’s seat. Twisting to look out of the back window, I saw Mike and the other guard climb into the car behind us and follow as Dean pulled out and sped off down the road.

Anna slapped me on the shoulder again. The blush was still prominent on her cheeks. “What the hell was that?” she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. A small smile twitched at the corners of her mouth though, so I knew I wasn’t in too much trouble.

I smirked at her. “Oh come on, if I asked you flat out, you’d say no. Maybe I need to trap you into it,” I joked, winking at her.

The smile faded from her face instantly. “Don’t ever trap me into anything, Ashton. I don’t like being forced into things,” she mumbled. Her chin trembled as she spoke and I suddenly realised this wasn’t just about me making a joke, this was something deep-rooted to do with Carter and her not having control of her life.

I cupped my hands around her face, making her look at me as I smiled apologetically. “I was playing around. I would never do that to you,” I promised.

“Good,” she sighed and nodded. Her heavily lidded eyes met mine and she scooted closer to my side, setting her head on my shoulder. “Let’s go home,” she whispered.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The trip home was uneventful; no one was waiting for us at our end of the airport. I was hopeful that no one would know where we lived or even which state we were in. Her father was still going to limit press access to her as much as possible.

By the time we got back to our apartment, it was after two in the afternoon. Anna immediately headed off saying she wanted a nice, long soak in the bath, and I headed to the lounge and flopped on the sofa, exhausted. I hadn’t slept well at all in the last couple of days, and my body was definitely feeling the ill effects of that now. My nerves finally settled, and I relaxed now that we were home. It was so much easier when we were on our own and could behave like ourselves rather than putting on an act for her parents so that they wouldn’t look at us strangely. As far as they were concerned, they thought I was doing my job and playing the role of attentive loving boyfriend, no one knew that it carried on when we were alone. Dean had some idea. He’d certainly shot me a couple of looks that suggested he knew how I felt about her. That didn’t matter though; the only one I wanted to know how I felt was still entirely oblivious.

After ten minutes of me sitting in silence and fighting my stinging eyes, my cell phone started to buzz in my pocket. As I pulled it out and looked at the screen, I groaned. I was too tired to be dealing with this already.

“Hey, Nate,” I greeted, putting it to my ear. “I know what you’re gonna say.”

He laughed excitedly in response. “Fuck me, Taylor; you’re dating the President’s daughter? I met the President’s daughter and saw her semi-naked! I drank and flirted with the President’s daughter!” he chirped.

“He’s not President yet, but yep,” I agreed tiredly.

“You’re all over the papers. Every channel I put on the TV, the two of you are on there.” I could just imagine his face, shocked and amused, one eyebrow raised like he did when he tried to tease the life out of me.

“I know, man, weird huh?”

“So seriously, what’s he like? Is he a nice guy? Did you know who Anna was when you met her? How come the papers said you had been together for a year and three months?” he fired off the questions, one after the other.

My breath caught in my throat at the last one. Nate knew we hadn’t been together that long, but we had to say that because of her college. “I don’t know, that must be a misprint, it’s three months,” I lied. “And no, I didn’t know who she was when I met her. She didn’t tell me at first. But yes, I have met the President-elect. He’s a good guy,” I said, trying to answer all of his questions briefly.

“Why didn’t you tell me who she was? Her dad was Senator when I met her, you could have told me.”

I sighed. He was such a good guy, he wouldn’t even mind when this was over and I told him about my assignment. He’d understand, I knew that, but I still didn’t like lying to him. “Nate, I couldn’t. I wanted too, but she had to try and blend in for her security and stuff. I’m not allowed to do anything without her bodyguards say so.”