I opened my eyes to see him awkwardly holding up my book. I smiled and nodded, noting his obvious embarrassment that he was enjoying a book aimed predominantly at teenage girls. “No need to be embarrassed, you can’t beat a good vampire novel. I’ve got the other three as well if you want them.”

He laughed and shrugged. “I’m not embarrassed; I’m just waiting for the teasing to start because I read a chick book.”

“Chick book,” I laughed at his derogatory choice of words, sitting up and shaking my head.

He smiled and nodded back towards the door. “I’m gonna go grab a shower.” When he bent down to retrieve his gun and knife from the floor, my eyes sneakily dropped down to his behind. I arched one eyebrow in appreciation. The back view was actually just as good as the front. After collecting his weapons, he strutted across the room, pulling open the door. Before he could leave I called his name, making him turn to look at me expectantly.

“Thank you for last night. That was nice of you,” I admitted. The words were hard to say. I wasn’t used to being nice to people lately so I was kind of unsure how to do it.

His lips curved into a beautiful smile. “Anytime.”

As he closed the door behind him, I pushed myself out of the bed, deciding that I would take a shower too.

After, I didn’t bother drying my hair or putting on make-up – I never did. I threw on a pair of loose combat-style jeans and a black tank top with a black, baggy sweatshirt over the top, and then headed downstairs for breakfast.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw Ashton sitting at the breakfast bar with a huge stack of pancakes in front of him. The kitchen staff were falling all over him. Sarah, the waitress, was flirting with him shamelessly, her cle**age almost popping out of her shirt that was never normally undone like that.

My stomach was already full of anguish over what was going to happen this morning, so instead of eating a proper breakfast, I just grabbed a banana, ignoring how Mary, the chef, frowned disapprovingly.

Ashton turned and smiled at me. This earned me a nasty look from Sarah because she’d lost his attention. While I poured a glass of orange juice, she stepped closer to him, pulling her shoulders back to make her br**sts look like they were about to pop out of her shirt. “So, Ashton, I have a few hours off today, would you like to do something?” she asked, raising one eyebrow in a silent offer of nakedness, I assumed.

A frown lined his forehead as he shook his head. “Actually I was hoping that Anna would want to hang out with me today,” he replied, turning to me.

The banana seemed to get stuck in my throat. “I’m busy today.” I had things I needed to do.

One of his eyebrows rose in question. “Oh really, what are you doing?”

I swallowed loudly. This was why I didn’t like having guards; they were always trying to get into things that had nothing to do with them. “I’ve got things to do. It’s not really any of your business,” I replied rudely, downing the last of my juice before tossing the banana skin into the trash can and storming out of the room before he could question me further.

Pulling my keys out of my pocket, I strutted out of the front door and over to my car. Just as I opened the door and slid in, I heard him shout, “Hey! Where the hell are you going?”

I winced as I saw Ashton jog out of the house, frowning angrily in my direction. Annoyance bubbled in my stomach because I didn’t want him with me. Deciding to leave before he could insist I let him come, I threw the car into drive and shoved my foot down on the gas. Instead of watching me leave like I’d assumed he would, he jumped into the path of the car. My eyes widened in horror as I slammed my foot down on the brake and held my breath, waiting for the thud of his body to hit the car. It didn’t, instead almost as soon as the car stopped, the passenger door opened and he climbed in, still glaring at me.

“No! Get the f**k out of my car!”

“You were going to leave the estate?” he snapped incredulously.

“Yes! I’ve got things to do, and you can’t come,” I ranted, giving him my best warning glare and slamming my hand down on the steering wheel in frustration.

“Anna, you can’t just leave without me! I mean, have you even told Dean you were leaving?” he asked, running his hand through his hair.

“No. I’ll only be an hour or so. Just get out, Agent Taylor,” I spat nastily.

“No. For Christ’s sake, you can’t just leave without me!” he growled, shaking his head fiercely.

I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself as I realised I wasn’t going to win this argument. “Fine.”

I put the car back into drive and sped out of the driveway. I smirked as he quickly snapped on his seatbelt and gripped the door handle so tightly that his knuckles went white. I sped down the narrow lanes that I knew like the back of my hand until I got to the small row of shops that constituted Main Street. Taking the last space available, I turned to look at Ashton. I smiled wickedly at his tense jaw and straight back. That’ll teach you for not getting out of my car!

“I’m just going to jump out, why don’t you wait here for me?” I teased, knowing he’d follow me regardless of what I’d said. I leant into the back and snagged my purse before climbing out of the car and heading into the florist. While I purchased a bunch of daisies, Ashton hovered behind me, silently looking around the empty store as if some knife-wielding madman was going to jump out and butcher me.