He sighed deeply and bent, pressing a soft lingering kiss on my forehead before standing up again. “I want to spend the holidays with you. It’s nothing to do with work, trust me.” The way he looked so deeply into my eyes made me feel like I was the only girl in the world.

“Okay,” I replied breathlessly.

He smiled, already thumbing through his contact list. “I’ll see what I can do then, okay?” He turned and headed into our bedroom, closing the door tightly behind him so that he could speak to my father about it and reason out his case for wanting to take me away.

I smiled broadly. Worst case scenario, he would come and spend the holidays at the Lake House. At least then I would still get to see him every day. The thought of seeing him open his gifts on Christmas morning made my stomach quiver with excitement.

Chapter Thirty-Three

~ Ashton ~

Once in the solitude of the bedroom, I closed the door tightly behind me. I didn’t want to make this call near Anna in case I had to bring up Carter in the conversation. As I pressed the connect button and put the phone to my ear, I silently prayed that he would go for one of the three options because I didn’t want to spend two weeks pining for her.

Maddy answered on the third ring. “Hi, ma’am, it’s Agent Taylor. How are you today?” I asked politely.

“Oh, Agent Taylor, I’m good. How are you and Annabelle?” she asked happily.

“We’re great, thanks. Is it possible for me to speak to Senator Spencer?”

“Sure. He’s free right now, I’ll buzz you through.”

The line beeped, and he answered a few seconds later. “Agent Taylor, is everything alright?” he asked quickly.

“Yes, sir, everything’s fine. I just wondered if I could talk something through with you. It’s about Anna’s winter break.” I tried to sound confident when all I wanted to do was beg this man to let me spend Christmas with his daughter.

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“Well, sir, Anna has just asked me if it would be possible for her to go away for winter break. She said she wanted to get away and have a break somewhere hot,” I lied, blaming the whole thing on her. Hopefully, if he thought it was her idea and something she really wanted, he would be more likely to accept it. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to speak to him in private.

“She wants to go on vacation?”

“Yes, sir, she said she’d like to,” I confirmed, trying to sound casual.

“I’m not sure that’s possible, I mean, with the whole guard situation…” he trailed off, sounding like he was thinking about it.

Okay, Ashton, now sell it. “I’d be happy to take her. We could go somewhere where she’s not going to be recognised. The risk will be minimal to her. Less than here actually,” I countered, trying to convince him.

“You would take her? What about your time off?” I could clearly hear the shock in his voice.

I smiled. “That’s fine, I don’t need time off. I’d be happy to take Anna.”

He was quiet for a while, obviously thinking about it. “Well, where were you thinking?” he asked.

I smiled. Okay, I’m half way there, he hasn’t said no! “I’m not sure where she would want to go, sir. Somewhere far enough away that she wouldn’t be recognised, somewhere quite remote,” I suggested, thinking of lying on a quiet beach with her.

He sighed. “Can I call you back? I’ll speak to Melissa about it; she was looking forward to having Annabelle home for Christmas as much as I was.” The disappointment in his tone was obvious.

“Okay, sir.” I closed my eyes and prayed that her mother would say yes.

“You think she would like that? It would make her happy?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, I’m positive it would.”

“I’ll call you back in a bit.” He disconnected the call.

I physically crossed my fingers, just hoping that he’d agree to it. My mind wandered to all of the places we could go. Of course, I couldn’t afford five star luxury, but since I’d been guarding Anna I’d had nothing to pay out for because they paid my rent and expenses. I had some money saved, so we could certainly go somewhere nice.

About fifteen minutes later, my cell phone rang. I was still in the bedroom because I didn’t want to go out and get Anna’s hopes up by saying he was thinking about it, just in case it didn’t happen. If he said no, then I would move onto option two of her coming to LA with me. I didn’t think she’d actually want me to go to her parents’ house with her, they would be cooing over our ‘relationship’ and she hated that, it would make her feel uncomfortable.

“Agent Taylor,” I answered, knowing it was Maddy’s number.

“Agent Taylor, please hold,” Maddy instructed.

The phone clicked, and he came on. “Agent Taylor, I’ve spoken to Melissa, and we’ve agreed to her going on vacation if you’re sure that you don’t mind taking her,” he said casually, as if we were discussing the weather. My breath caught in my throat because I was seriously expecting him to say no.

“Absolutely,” I confirmed, grinning from ear to ear.

“Okay, great. We were thinking that Melissa and I would book the trip as her Christmas present.”

My mouth popped open in shock. “Sir, that’s nice of you, but I can cover it.”

He laughed a booming hearty laugh. “That’s not in your job description, son.”