“Hey, Anna, I’ve got to go to work now. It was really good to meet you,” Nate said, walking up to her with his arms out. I stiffened, knowing that she wouldn’t want to be that close to him.

I saw her hold her breath as she hugged him. “Yeah, you too, Nate. Thanks for letting me stay in your bachelor pad.”

He grinned wolfishly. “You know what, you can come and stay anytime you want.” He turned back to me, slapping me on the arm. “Seriously, Taylor, bring her back here, she’s a lot of fun.” I could tell by the way he said it that he’d meant it, he genuinely liked Anna.

“I will,” I confirmed. I would certainly be working on her, trying to convince her to come back here with me in her next scheduled school break. Hopefully her father would go for it a second time, seeing as this trip was so successful.

He gave me a hug and slapped me hard on the back. “I’ll give you a call, we can arrange a time for playing,” he chirped excitedly. I grinned and nodded in agreement, thinking lovingly about my PS4 that I had waiting for me at our apartment.

“Yeah, definitely. I’ll call you.”

Anna smiled and waved as he left the room, closing the door behind him. “Nate’s a great guy. I can see why you like him.”

“Yeah, he’s cool, all the girls think so,” I replied, grinning at her.

“Hmm, that’s funny; he just doesn’t do it for me,” she winked at me, and we both laughed and packed up our belongings. Before we left the apartment, I took a few shots of the place. I already had the exact pictures that I wanted on here. There were at least fifteen good photos of me and Anna, and more than that of just her on her own, looking like a goddess.

On the way to the airport, we stopped by Denny’s to get another chilli cheese dog. That was another thing I would miss about LA. Before we boarded, I called Dean to make sure that he knew where and when to meet us on the other side of the flight. Once everything was set, we were ushered through and seated in first class. As soon as we were in the comfy chairs, she scooted closer to me and I wrapped my arm around her tightly. Within minutes, my eyes became heavy due to my lack of sleep the previous night. When I knew I couldn’t fight it anymore, I rested my head back on the chair and just let myself doze.

“Ashton, help me please!” she begs. I can hear that she’s crying, her breathing is hitching somewhere off in the darkness, but I can’t see her. I turn, running in the direction that I think she is, but I can’t find her. Doors and corridors stretch off into the distance, and her crying seems to echo from the walls so I can’t get a sense of direction. The place is like a maze. “Please, he’s coming. Please help me!” she screams.

Desperation makes me feel sick as I run and run, crashing through door after door, trying to get to her. “I can’t find you, Anna! Where are you?” I shout, spinning in a little circle as I grip my hands into my hair, totally panic stricken.

“Please help me,” her voice is a whisper and it breaks my heart as I start running aimlessly again.

A wicked laugh echoes down the corridor and my hair stands up on the back of my neck as I hear his voice. “Well hello, Princess, long time no see.”

I jerked up, gasping for breath as my hand shot straight down to my ankle, fumbling as I reached for my gun. But it wasn’t there, my holster was empty. I’d had to check it in, so it was locked in a little box in the cockpit with the pilot because of the standard air travel procedure. Sweat beaded on my brow as I looked around quickly, realising that I wasn’t in some darkened maze trying to find her; I was, in fact, still sitting in first class. Anna looked up at me worriedly, her sketchpad balanced on her knees.

“Ashton, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Baby Girl. I just had a bad dream.” As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn’t.

“Really, what about?” she asked, snuggling against me. Her touch made my panic fade marginally.

I grasped wildly at anything that wasn’t to do with Carter. “Car crash.”

She recoiled, scrunching her nose up. “Maybe I should drive when we land,” she replied, raising one eyebrow teasingly.

I shook my head and laughed, feeling my tense body relaxing. “No. You were driving in my dream.”

She slapped my chest playfully. “I’m not a bad driver!”

“Yeah right, I won’t trust you to drive our kids around,” I joked.

She poked me in the side playfully. “I’m not having your babies, Pretty Boy.”

I shrugged casually. “Hopefully you’ll change your mind. I still have time to make you fall for me. I predict we’ll be engaged within a year,” I teased, pulling her body closer to mine, noticing how she tensed at my words.

Her forehead creased with a frown as her eyes tightened. “You still under the impression that I’m gonna fall in love with you?” she replied sarcastically.

“I’m hoping.” I smiled and couldn’t help but laugh; if she knew I was serious, she’d freak the hell out! Knowing I needed to change the subject before she saw though my playful joke that wasn’t actually a joke, I nodded at her sketchpad. “What you drawing?”

She smiled and turned it around so I could see. On the page was a perfectly drawn portrait of Nate and me sitting on the sofa in my apartment.

“That’s incredible.” What she could do with a piece of paper and a pencil amazed me.

“Thanks,” she nudged my shoulder with hers. “So, that girls’ night…” she trailed off, looking at me hopefully.

I suppressed my groan and forced a smile. I had agreed to it after all, so there was no backing out now. “Yeah, whenever you want.”

She beamed at me and her whole face seemed to light up. “I’ll talk to them about it tomorrow then, maybe we’ll arrange it for Friday night?” she suggested, watching my face.

I nodded and looked away so she didn’t see that panic that was starting to burn inside me at the thought of leaving her alone. Technically, I wasn’t allowed to leave her alone if there was someone else with her, but I would be right next door. I could maybe have a background check done on them before they came, just to make sure nothing flagged up. Today was only Sunday, so I had a few days to get some searches run before Friday. I’d definitely keep that secret though, she’d probably kill me if she knew I was screening her friends.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~ Anna ~

As I slowly started to wake up on Saturday morning, I realised my head was pounding. I groaned and put my hands up to my head, squeezing my temples, trying to get the pain to subside. The previous night had been girls’ night, and I had certainly made the most of it. Though my head was now telling me that there had been way too much giggling, pizza, popcorn and vodka.

“Suffering?”

I groaned again because of the loud voice that was almost gloating near my ears. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, nodding. He laughed and my ears instantly rang. “Shh!” I mumbled, rolling onto my front, pressing the pillow over my head. “Ugh, don’t let me drink ever again!” I moaned.

He laughed, and the mattress dipped next to me. “Here, I brought these in for you, I thought you’d be a little delicate this morning,” he whispered, sounding amused. I lifted the pillow off my head to see him sitting up, fully dressed, holding out a glass of water and two pills.

“Thanks,” I mumbled gratefully, pushing myself up and swallowing them quickly. Looking down at myself, I saw that I was still wearing my shirt that I had on last night. My jeans were in a pile on the floor though. I didn’t even remember coming to bed, but clearly I’d been too intoxicated for pyjamas.

Ashton smiled widely. “Come on then, get up and get dressed, I’m taking you out for breakfast to make you feel better.”

I looked him over while he spoke. He looked super sexy today. He had on a pair of light blue ripped jeans and a white T-shirt with a black hoodie over the top. I swallowed my wave of desire quickly. It had been almost a week since we’d been back from LA, and keeping things on a purely friends’ level had been a struggle. Now that I knew how good being with him could be, I couldn’t help but wish for it to happen again and again, but we were managing to move past it and behave in a respectable manner.

“You look nice today,” I muttered, lying back down and throwing my arm over my eyes to keep out the light.

He laughed and lay down next to me. “Are you still drunk? I thought you would have cut out the flirting now that you aren’t stumbling all over the place,” he teased, moving my arm and smirking at me.

I shook my head. “Was I drunken flirting with you again?” I asked, smiling apologetically.

“Oh yeah, Baby Girl. After I carried you to bed, you begged me to f**k your brains out, you cursed angrily because my belt buckle wouldn’t unfasten and, therefore, must have been made by ugly goblins that didn’t agree with sex, and then in the end you made me go to sleep right on top of you when I turned you down,” he said, chuckling.

I smiled sheepishly, feeling a blush creep up my face and neck. “Sorry. I guess I forget myself when I’m drunk.”

He grinned and nodded in agreement. “Don’t worry though, I was a perfect gentleman. I didn’t even let you blow me like you were begging.”

I squealed and threw my hands over my face. “Oh God, stop. There’s a reason that people don’t remember these things in the morning, you’re not supposed to remind me! The alcohol induced memory loss is a form of protection from all the stupid things you did the night before.”

He chuckled wickedly. “Alright, fine. I won’t say another word.” He sat up. “Can we go eat? I’m starving.”

I sat up and winced as the movement made my head a little fuzzy. “You’re always starving,” I teased. He grinned and leant in, planting a soft kiss on my forehead before standing up and leaving the room.

Forgoing the shower because I didn’t have the energy, I dressed and then put on a large pair of shades to keep the brightness of the day out of my eyes.