My mouth was dry. “What’s this?” I asked, not liking the sound of delivering the jewel and then leaving without her.

She laughed happily. “I got you the weekend off and booked you flights to go home for the weekend so you can spend your birthday with your friends!” she chirped, her eyes dancing with delight.

No. Fucking. Way!

“Anna, what?” I gasped, reading over the paper again. Apparently I was to deliver her to her parents, then fly to LA. She’d booked a rental car too for me to pick up at the airport that I would use all weekend. On Monday morning I had flights to go back to the Lake House to pick her up again and escort her back to college.

“I’m going home for the weekend, and you, Dean and Peter get the weekend off. The only trouble is that you’ll be travelling most of Friday and Monday because they’re being all pathetic and won’t let me fly on my own, I’m sorry,” she said, frowning angrily.

She’s planned for me to spend the whole weekend without her? No way, I’m not doing that! “You want to go home and send me off for the weekend?” I asked, shocked. I was actually a little hurt because she looked so happy about being away from me for the weekend. Does she not feel anything for me at all? I immediately mentally chastised myself for that thought. I knew she felt something for me, and that she was doing this for me. Maybe she didn’t realise that it would almost kill me to be away from her for that long. I couldn’t do it, not for a whole weekend. I physically didn’t think I was strong enough to be away from her, not just because I was desperately in love with her, but because I’d be worrying about her too damn much. What if something happened to her? What if that was the day they came for her, and I wasn’t there to protect her?

She cocked her head to the side, looking like a curious puppy. “Why are you not looking happy about this? I thought you’d want to see your friends for the weekend.” Her face fell, and I immediately felt terrible because I was obviously hurting her feelings.

I grabbed her and pulled her down next to me. “Baby Girl, this is really thoughtful of you, really, no one has ever done anything like this for me or put themselves out so much for me, and I love it, I do,” I started, unsure how to word it. I took a deep breath, composing my thoughts. “But I just can’t do that,” I added, looking at her intently.

Confusion crossed her face. “You can,” she insisted. “I’ve arranged everything; you just need to take me back to my parents first.”

I shook my head. “Anna, you’re not understanding me. I love the gift, but I can’t go. I can’t leave you,” I stated, willing her to understand and not be upset.

She rolled her eyes. “Pretty Boy, seriously, you worry about me too freaking much. There are over ten guards at my parents’ house, you know that. Plus, they have all the security on the house too. There’s nothing that can hurt me there,” she countered. “I promise I won’t sneak off without guards,” she said sarcastically. I smiled at her blatant lie. We both knew she would sneak out to see Jack; there was no way she’d take a guard there.

I shook my head in rejection. “I’m sorry that I’m ruining your gift, but I’m not going,” I said sternly.

“Why?” she cried, looking hurt and a little annoyed.

“Anna, I don’t want to be without you for the weekend. You’ve done this so that I’ll have a nice birthday, am I right?” I asked, waving the itinerary at her, watching her face. She nodded and pouted, shooting me the begging face that I had zero resistance to. I groaned. Oh shit, not the face! Please don’t use the face on me because I can’t give in on this! “Well, I won’t have a nice birthday without you. I can’t leave you,” I explained, trying not to sound too much like an obsessive stalker.

A smile played on the edges of her mouth. She obviously liked what I’d said about not leaving her, and it made my insides do a flip. “But you’ll get to see your friends, go out with them and get drunk. You’ll probably get some birthday sex,” she teased.

I mentally sighed. It was so hard being in love with this girl when she had no idea. She was making a casual comment about me getting laid, when in all honesty, I was pretty sure that I’d never want sex again if it wasn’t with her. I just didn’t even see other girls anymore, everyone just looked so plain compared to her and I knew they always would.

“Anna, I’m not going. Thank you for the thought, it’s honestly the most special thing anyone has ever done for me, but I’m not spending my birthday without you.” That was the end of it. We were staying here and I would have the best birthday ever, even if I just got to hold her for a couple of seconds. Her eyes started to fill with tears and I felt my heart break. “Aww shit. Please don’t cry. I just want to spend my birthday with you,” I insisted, wiping her tears quickly and kissing her cheek tenderly. She was fighting for control; I knew she didn’t like to cry.

“I just wanted to give you a nice birthday,” she explained, her voice breaking.

“It’ll be the best birthday I’ve ever had, as long as I’m with you,” I promised. Nothing would ever top that; just waking up next to her on my birthday would make it the best ever.

She smiled weakly. “You’re just too damn sweet, Pretty Boy,” she whispered, making my heart beat faster and my hands itch to touch her soft skin, to hold her and caress her, and to finally be able to tell her that I loved her.

“You know they say that it’s the thought that counts? Well that’s true, and this thought blows my mind, so thank you.” I smiled, pressing my body against her side lightly, feeling her warmth seep into my skin and my legs brush against hers. Goosebumps broke out all over my body at the small contact of her skin on mine. I lay down next to her and sighed contentedly.

“Please think about it,” she begged, taking my hand and interlacing our fingers.

I shook my head. “I can’t. I don’t even want to think about a weekend away from you, I’d miss you too damn much. I’d be pining for you the whole time, which would suck big time.”

“But you’d get to see Nate,” she countered, obviously still trying to persuade me.

“Anna, the only way I’m going to LA is if you come with me,” I rebutted. Wait, that’s a great idea! I can take her with me to LA and introduce her to my friends, show her around where I live and the places that we’ve talked about! Excitement started to build in my chest at the thought of it. “Come with me,” I suggested, pushing myself up so I could look at her face. She laughed, obviously thinking I was joking. I raised one eyebrow, waiting for my offer to sink in.

Her smile slowly faded. “Seriously?”

I nodded eagerly. “Hell yeah! You want me to see my friends, and I want to be with you, so that’s a great solution.” I was already starting to plan it out in my head. I’d have to keep Nate and Seth away from her, they were total players and probably wouldn’t care that she was mine.

“Ashton, I can’t,” she laughed nervously, looking at me like I was crazy. She playfully pushed on my chest, so I grabbed her wrists, pinning her arms above her head. I rolled on top of her, being careful to keep my weight off her. My heart swelled at the fact that she let me do this to her. If anyone else – even her own mother – pinned her to the bed, she’d be going crazy, but she was smiling at me while I did it, her trust in me evident in her eyes. She wasn’t scared of me, and I loved it. She was meant to be with me, I just needed to make her see it too.

“Sure you can. I’ll get to introduce you to my friends. We’ll have to keep up the girlfriend charade though because they don’t know I’m assigned to you, they think I’m in Washington in Division Two,” I explained, grinning happily. This was going to be great. I could tell she wanted to, her eyes were excited, but she was trying to hide it from me.

“I’d love to come, but I can’t. Dean and Peter are getting time off too, I can’t ask them to give up the weekend, it’s been planned for weeks. We can’t even stay here, we’ll have to go to the lake house if you won’t go to LA,” she protested, shaking her head firmly.

I smiled persuasively. “How about I make you a deal?” I offered, smiling and pulling her arms higher above her head so her hands were touching. She looked so incredibly hot and trusting under me like that. I wanted to kiss her so badly that it was almost painful, but I wouldn’t, she wouldn’t want that.

“What kind of deal?” she asked.

She shifted one of her legs out from under me, only to hitch it over my hip and lay it across my ass so my crotch was pressed against hers. My body reacted immediately to the intimate position. I gulped and scooted down slightly so that my groin was pressed into the bed between her legs rather than onto her. She didn’t need to know just how freaking crazy she drove my body. The girl had some talent, that’s for sure; she could turn me on just by looking at me in the right way. It was ridiculous. I’d never felt anything like this attraction for her, it was almost animalistic, and if we were dating for real, I’d probably want to make love to her for twenty three out of the twenty four hours in the day, only allowing her time off for eating and bathroom breaks.

My brain was like mush as I struggled to remember what we were talking about before she moved and made me think of other things.

I cleared my throat as I finally composed myself. “Here’s the deal. You come with me to LA if I can get them to agree to it, or if I can’t, then we both stay at the lake house,” I offered. “Either way, I’m spending my birthday with you,” I tagged on the end.

She sighed sadly. “Ashton, I’m not gonna be able to go. It’s not fair to pull Dean and Peter out of a weekend off. Dean’s going home to stay with his mom; he said he hasn’t seen her for almost a year.”

“Is it a deal or not?” I asked, grinning slyly. I was pretty sure I could convince them to let me take her, but even if they refused, it was a win-win situation for me. Whatever happened, I would get to be with the love of my life.