Anna laughed at my answer, and we carried on walking, but it was a slow feat because they were all crowded around the path to the car. We were about half way to the car now.
“Annabelle, now your father has been elected, do you think your relationship with Ashton will change?” another asked.
Anna smiled. “I hope not, I don’t want it too. Hopefully he won’t see me as a different person now. What do you think, Pretty Boy, you gonna see me any different?” she asked, turning to look at me, smiling affectionately.
I grinned and pulled her closer to me. “I won’t see you any different, Baby Girl,” I promised.
“Can you two kiss so we can get a photo?” one of the reporters pleaded.
I groaned inwardly. She wouldn’t want to do that. If we were to kiss, then her parents would find out and she would hate that. I looked down at her and was just about to tell the reporters that that kind of thing was private, when Anna gripped the front of my T-shirt and pulled my mouth down to hers.
My whole body stiffened from shock, but I kissed her back immediately, very aware that the cameras were clicking like crazy around us as they took their shots. As she tried to deepen the kiss, I pulled back and shook my head discreetly. Clearly, she had forgotten where we were and that everyone was watching. She whimpered as I pulled away, but then blushed as she seemed to come back to reality. I smiled and brushed my finger across her pink cheek as I nodded my head in the direction of the car, signalling for her to start walking again.
“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.”
“Yeah, I get it, bud, don’t worry, I thought it was something like that,” he admitted. He made a strangled laugh. “You do know that if you screw up and hurt her, he has the power to have you killed,” he joked.
A tired grin covered my face. Trust Nate to think of it that way! “Lucky I’m not gonna screw up and hurt her then.”
“I saw you two getting interviewed outside the hotel. I didn’t realise you were so serious about her. I knew you were in love with her, that much was pretty damn obvious by the love-sick puppy eyes you shoot her, but I didn’t realise that you wanted to marry her. It came across on TV like you were trying to make a joke, but I know you too well, Taylor. You were serious, weren’t you?” he asked.
I smiled. Nate always had known me well. “Yeah, but I don’t think she’s up for it yet. I’m working on it though. Listen, Nate, I need to go, I haven’t slept in forever and my head is killing me.”
“Sure, I’ll speak to you in the week, say hi to Anna for me when you see her, okay?” he instructed.
“I will. See ya,” I disconnected the call and switched on the TV, flicking onto the news channel, only to see me and Anna plastered all over the screen. There were clips of us leaving the hotel and answering questions. They still loved us as a couple and were talking about our nicknames for each other. A proud grin slipped onto my face when they played the bit of her pulling me in for a kiss. Admittedly, it looked just as hot as it had felt.
In my hand, my cell phone rang again. My body jerked in my seat when I saw the number that was flashing on the screen. I answered the phone with wide eyes.
“Hi, Agent Taylor. Please hold for the President-elect,” Maddy stated formally. I swallowed the lump that was building in my throat. No doubt Anna’s father was calling to reprimand me for what I’d said about wanting to marry her outside the hotel.
Moments later, his firm voice greeted me. “Agent Taylor, I just wanted to check how Annabelle was holding up after the reporters hounding you two at the hotel.”
“She’s fine, sir. She was shocked and nervous about it, but she’s fine now.”
He sounded like he breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s great. Melissa and I were concerned that she’d be under too much pressure with everyone thinking you were dating,” he said.
I grimaced, knowing this was where he was going to warn me to do my job and to keep my hands off his daughter. “She’s fine, sir. You don’t need to worry.”
“Good. At least people still aren’t aware that you’re an agent. The boyfriend cover seems to be working well so far.”
I smiled. Well, it definitely works well for me. “Yes it is.”
“Well, call me if you have any problems on your end, or if you need to up the security and I’ll make the arrangements,” he suggested easily.
I frowned. Okay, where’s the speech? “I will, sir. Don’t worry about Anna, I’ll take care of her,” I promised.