Nothing Left to Lose (63 page)

She laughed and
stood, looking down at me. “I’m starving. I’m assuming you haven’t
eaten yet?” I shook my head in response, now feeling my stomach
grumble because she’d mentioned food. “Breakfast then?”

I stood and
nodded eagerly. “Hell yeah. Coming, Dean?” I offered, turning to
see him still scanning the paper.

He nodded
absentmindedly. “Sure, breakfast with celebrity couple Annaton,
every guy’s dream,” he joked, closing the paper and tossing it onto
the bed. “Can I get your autograph?” he joked, grinning widely as
he walked towards the door and pulled it open.

Anna winced,
scrunching up her nose. “Don’t joke about it, I already signed
one.”

I looked at
her, shocked. “You already signed one? When?”

“When I was in
the bar this morning,” she shrugged and turned for the door to
follow Dean out of the room.

I grabbed her
hand and made her stop as I scowled at her. “When you were in the
bar? You went to the bar without guards? Damn it, Anna!” Why did
she have no regard for her safety? Did she not know that it would
kill me if something happened to her?

She frowned and
shook her head. “I took a guard.”

“When were you
in the bar?” I asked, frowning and hating the fact that no one had
called me.

She shrugged
casually. “This morning. I couldn’t sleep, so we went for a tour of
the hotel and then had a coffee, or four, in the bar.”

My heart sank.
“What time did you get up, Baby Girl?” I asked, pulling her to me.
I raked my eyes over her face, noticing again how tired she
looked.

“I don’t know.
About five? Can we go and eat, please?” she whined, begging me with
her eyes to let it go.

I sighed deeply
as I traced the shadow that resided under her eye. That shadow
broke my heart. “Okay,” I agreed. “Maybe we could get an early
night tonight or something? I didn’t sleep too great either.”

She groaned and
wrapped her arm around my waist, pressing herself to me. “You
weren’t worried about me all night, were you?”

“Nah, bed was
lumpy. You really do think too much of yourself,” I joked, turning
her towards the door and pushing her out as she burst into a fit of
giggles. When we got to the end of the hallway, Dean pressed the
button for the elevator, and we all headed in and downstairs to the
restaurant for breakfast.

As we stepped
into the restaurant and were shown to an empty table, I tried
extremely hard not to notice that the tables closest to us had
stopped eating and that the middle aged lady had her forkful of
eggs halfway to her mouth as she stared at us unashamedly.

Anna squirmed
in her chair, so I slid my hand across the table and took hers,
squeezing gently. I was graced with a dazzling smile in return.
Breakfast was awkward, to say the least. While we were eating, we
were approached several times by other guests who were gushing
about how excited they were to meet us, and how they had voted for
Anna’s father. After posing for a couple of shots on people’s cell
phones, I finally decided enough was enough and discreetly nodded
to Dean. He then kept everyone else at a respectable distance, but
that didn’t stop the whispering, staring, pointing or discreet
photos where people were taking selfies with us in the
background.

Anna hardly ate
anything, just pushed her food around her plate and kept glancing
around nervously. When I finally realised that this wasn’t going to
get any better, I stood and held my hand down to her. “Let’s go get
a coffee in the bar area. Hopefully no one will be in there at this
time of day. It’s got to be better than this,” I suggested.

Her hand slid
into mine as she smiled gratefully. “Hope so.” She sidled up to me
and leant her head on my shoulder as we walked through the lobby,
again trying to ignore people that stopped walking just to stare at
us. Thankfully, when we got to the bar, it was fairly empty, apart
from two or three people that I recognised from the party last
night. They didn’t pay a blind bit of notice to us as we slipped in
and sat on one of the plush comfortable sofas. Dean and Mike
stopped at the door, shoulder to shoulder, clearly blocking the
entrance so that we could have some well needed privacy.

After ordering
a couple of espressos, I took Anna’s hand again, this time noticing
how she winced slightly. I frowned, confused as I pulled her hand
up, meaning to look at it. “Your hand okay?” She nodded, tightening
her grip on me so that I couldn’t let go. Her eyes told a different
story though. I gently pulled my hand out of hers and groaned when
I saw four little crescent shaped cuts on the palm of her hand.

She tugged her
hand out of my grip and sighed. “It’s fine,” she mumbled.

My heart sank
as I looked at her, silently begging her to stop shutting me out
and telling me she was fine when, clearly, she wasn’t. “Bad dream?”
I inquired, not actually wanting to know the answer but, at the
same time, needing to. She nodded, and my stomach clenched with
anger. If I ever managed to get within a few feet of Carter Thomas,
I would beat him to death without hesitation. I swallowed the raw
anger that tasted so acrid in my mouth. “Want to talk about
it?”

She closed her
eyes and shook her head, picking up her coffee and wrapping her
hands around it as she blew the steam from the rim. “No.”

I nodded in
acceptance. Silence washed over us for a minute before I decided to
change the subject. “So, do you have much to pack?”

She smiled
gratefully. “Not really. It’ll only take like ten minutes. I’m
keeping those shoes from last night; I think they’ll look super
cute with a pair of jeans. What do you think?” she asked
excitedly.

I grinned
because she could get so excited about a pair of shoes. “Yeah, I
guess. I didn’t really see them.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “I showed you them.”

I nodded. “Yeah
you did, but you also showed me your legs at the same time. My eyes
didn’t make it down as far as the feet.”

She giggled and
slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re such a pervert!” she scolded,
shaking her head, trying to look like she disapproved but failing
miserably.

I grinned and
nodded. “Only around you, Baby Girl.” She rolled her eyes. She
never believed me when I said that, but it was true. Since I’d met
her, I hadn’t even looked at another woman, and I just didn’t want
to either.

Behind us, Dean
walked over, talking into his cell phone. “Yeah, I’ll tell them.
Yeah, I’m sure we can get it on, it’s fine. Thanks, Cindy.” He slid
his cell phone back into his pocket and winced. “Cindy from the
press office just called to let me know that the news channel had a
reporter at the party, and they’ll be on in five minutes,” he
nodded in the direction of a large flat screen TV that was mounted
on the wall. “I’ll go see if we can get that turned on.” He
strutted off to the bar, talking to the barman for a minute before
the black screen flickered to life and then settled on the news
channel.

Anna pulled her
knees up to her chest, and we both sat watching it, expecting it to
be about the party and her dad’s birthday. On the screen came the
host of the show, and seated next to her was one of the reporters
that had waited outside on the red carpet, who had inquired about
Anna’s dress.

The host smiled
warmly, doing her introductions, before turning to the reporter.
“So, Judy, you were at the party at The Wiltshire last night.
What’s the gossip? The papers are raving about Annabelle Spencer
this morning, and I must say, she’s very beautiful,” the host of
the show said, smiling broadly. Anna gulped and shifted
uncomfortably in her seat. Placing my hand on her knee, I squeezed
supportively. They would just talk about her for a minute and then
they’d move on.

Judy, the
reporter, put her hand over her heart and beamed. “Oh my gosh, she
was so beautiful in person, and so sweet. And that boyfriend of
hers is incredibly good-looking! I can see why the papers are
flagging them as the new celeb couple of the year,” she answered. I
couldn’t help but grin. Everyone seemed to think we made a
marvellous couple, apart from Anna.

Anna laughed
awkwardly, wincing in my direction as if she was now waiting for me
to run away screaming again, like she had suggested earlier.
“Sorry.”

I rolled my
eyes, but didn’t get a chance to answer before they started the
excited chatter on the television again. “I know the party was
actually to celebrate the birthday of the President-elect, but my
goodness, when Annaton stepped out of that limo, all of the
attention just shifted to them. It was like some sort of eclipse.
And I got the first question!” Judy gushed excitedly.

The pair of
them then went on to analyse every detail of Anna’s dress, hair and
make-up, before moving on to me. They somehow even knew who made my
tuxedo – even I hadn’t known who made my tux. After, they showed a
clip of me helping Anna out of the car and us walking up the red
carpet. They ooh’d and ahh’d when Anna turned to me and smiled as
we were having our photographs taken and when I brushed her hair
back. I had to admit, watching it from the outside
did
make
us look like a loved-up couple. The next clip was me joking about
meeting the parents; they slowed it down, showing Anna laughing and
looking at me with a gorgeous little smile on her face. When it got
to my next line about Anna being the best thing that had ever
happened to me, they showed that twice, gushing about how sweet I
was and how lucky Anna was to have me.

For a further
ten minutes, they somehow found more things to talk about before
finally changing the subject back to what the show should have been
about all along – Anna’s father. When Dean finally turned off the
TV, I grimaced over at Anna. She was wincing, hiding behind her
knees and just peeking over the top. I laughed before I could stop
myself.

She groaned and
shook her head. “It’s not funny, Ashton! Did you not just watch the
same programme as me?” she whined, pouting at me as if I could
somehow make all of this better and make it disappear in a puff of
smoke. “And what the hell is Nate going to say? And Rosie, and the
rest of the guys at school?”

I smiled weakly
and got off of my chair, squatting in front of her and taking her
hands in mine. “Anna, calm down. Everything will be fine, and we’ll
get through it together. If Rosie and the guys from school want to
treat you any different after this, then they’re not worth having
in your life and you’ve lost nothing special anyway.” I didn’t
mention Nate. I was pretty sure I was in for some mocking about the
name, and a decent amount of ridicule for looking like a soppy jerk
on TV, but he was my best friend, and there was no doubt in my mind
that he wouldn’t treat me or Anna any differently.

She took a deep
breath and closed her eyes before nodding, seeming to visibly calm
herself. “Okay, fine. Let’s just go pack or something. I want to go
home. I’m done with all this stuff.”

Leaning
forward, I wrapped my arms around her tightly and hugged her,
letting her delicious smell waft over me. Her arms wrapped around
my neck too, hugging me back. Not ready to let go of her yet, I
slid my arms down her back and under her ass as I leant back and
pushed myself to my feet, lifting her with me and holding her
tightly against me.

She giggled,
and her legs automatically wrapped around my waist, clamping
herself to me as she buried her face into the side of my neck and
finally seemed to relax. A contented sigh left my lips because she
was back in my arms again, right where she belonged.

As I carried
her through the foyer and headed towards the elevator, someone
shouted our names from my left. I turned my head in that direction,
seeing a photographer on his knees snapping shot after shot of me
carrying her before Dean and Mike both rushed forward and
intercepted him, blocking his view.

Anna gasped and
I quickly set her down onto her feet, ushering her towards the now
open elevator. Not waiting for Dean, I pressed the button for her
floor and looked out, seeing them guiding the photographer out of
the front door without actually touching him.

“Shit,” I
growled under my breath as the doors closed and left us alone.
“Sorry. Hopefully they were able to intercept before he got a
decent shot?” I offered weakly.

She sighed and
nodded, gripping my waist and pulling me towards her as she pressed
herself against my chest. As the elevator travelled upwards, I
dipped my head and captured her soft lips in a gentle kiss. She
seemed to melt against me as her grip tightened on my waist. A
small moan escaped her lips as she kissed me back. When the doors
to the elevator slid open, I reluctantly pulled my mouth away from
hers, smiling when her eyes took a few seconds to open again. When
they did open, they latched onto mine and seemed to burn with a
passion that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. An agent stuck
his head around the door, seeing that it was us before nodding in
acknowledgement and going back to his lookout post.

Gripping her
hand tightly, I gave her a little tug towards her hotel room door.
“Let’s pack your stuff and then you can come to my room while I do
mine.”

There wasn’t
much to collect really. All of the party clothes had been provided
for us, so it was only what we travelled in yesterday and our
sleepwear that needed to be packed. She was done within three
minutes and then we headed down a floor to pack my belongings.

She lay on my
bed while I threw my clothes into a bag. When I was done, the need
to hold her was just too great, so I gave in. I crawled up the bed,
hovering over her as I smiled down at her underneath me. I didn’t
touch her as her gaze came up to meet mine. I searched her eyes,
desperately trying to see if what the papers had printed was true.
Her full lips curved up into a smile as she reached up and traced
the line of my jaw with one delicate finger.