“Whoa, shit! I’m sorry! You okay?” he asked, his voice panicked, holding up his hands innocently. I nodded and smiled at him, trying not to laugh. He looked so funny; I’d never seen anyone move so fast. He blew out a big breath and his shoulders relaxed as he raked a hand through his messy black hair.

“I’m fine, calm down.” I sat up, stretching my arms above my head. I groaned as my joints cracked and protested to the movement. My body ached all over; my muscles were tight and uncomfortable from my feeble attempts at fighting him the day before.

“Jeez, Anna, I’m really sorry. I didn’t realise I was asleep on you like that. You should have pushed me off or something.” He winced apologetically. I smiled as I noticed how cute he looked when he’d just woken up. His eyes were still sleepy; he had the line of my tank top imprinted across the bottom of his jaw where he’d been asleep on me, and his hair was sticking up everywhere.

“Don’t worry about it, the lying on me was fine, it was the snoring I almost smothered you for,” I joked, climbing out of the bed and grabbing my bath robe.

“I don’t snore!” he protested, and then he frowned, looking at me curiously. “Do I?”

I burst out laughing, raising one eyebrow incredulously. “You don’t know whether you snore or not? Haven’t girls ever told you?” I scoffed. How could any girl not tease the life out of him for it? He was so loud, I’m surprised he didn’t wake himself up.

He sat on the edge of the bed and shrugged. “I’ve never stayed the night with a girl before.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see if he was joking. Nope, no signs of humour there. “Really? How come?” I asked, plopping down on the bed next to him and crossing my legs.

“I told you, I’ve never really had a girlfriend, so…” he trailed off, shrugging casually.

“Wow, you really are a player! So you f**k the girls then it’s just like what, ‘Thanks, ma’am’, and you leave?” I guessed, laughing.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not a player! I told you, I’ve just never met anyone who I wanted to spend the night with,” he explained.

I smiled. “Until now.”

He nodded. “Yeah, until now. But I’ve never once said ‘thanks ma’am’!” he said, grinning.

Before I could protest, his arm shot across my shoulders and he pushed me so that I fell back on to the bed. He lay down next to me, pressing his body to my side. My heart started to race, but I wasn’t scared because I could see he was joking. He was watching me intently, probably to make sure he was alright doing this.

“Well, thanks for letting me spend the night, ma’am” he whispered sexily. My breath caught in my throat at the husky sound of his voice.

“You’re welcome, Agent,” I answered. “And thanks for staying the night, I slept really well.” I could feel the blush heating my cheeks because I’d spent the night in a bed with him and I’d had his body wrapped around mine when I woke.

“Me too.” He rolled off me and walked to the door as if nothing had happened. “Want to meet me for breakfast?” he asked, stopping at the door.

“Um, it’s a bit late for breakfast, but I’ll eat lunch with you.” I nodded at my alarm clock, showing him the time.

He looked at the clock and shook his head, looking a little bemused. “Right, okay, lunch then,” he corrected, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “Come get me when you’re ready.” He closed the door firmly behind him and I walked over to my closet, picking out clothes for the day. After running a brush through my wild hair a couple of times, it became apparent that there was no salvaging it. Instead, I pulled it up into a ponytail and clipped my bangs to the side. I looked in the mirror and frowned. I looked the same as I did every other day: baggy and loose. I longed to wear normal clothes, but it was easier this way to go unnoticed; it actually scared me when guys started to look at me with lust in their eyes.

I knew every man wasn’t like Carter, but just in case, I couldn’t bring myself to show any skin or curves. It was funny how that was different with Ashton. I hadn’t thought twice about wearing my swimsuit in front of him yesterday. There was something about him that just made me trust him, giving me more confidence around him.

When I was done, I made my way out to Ashton’s room. “Hey,” he greeted cheerfully as he opened his door.

“Hey.”

“So, what do you want to do today? Is there anything good to do around here?” he asked as we walked down to the kitchen for lunch.

“Not really. There’s a small shopping mall about half an hour away. Want to go there? I could buy some new art supplies, ready for school,” I offered, shrugging.

“Sure okay, sounds good,” he agreed, smiling happily.

“Wow, you’re easy to please,” I teased, elbowing him in the ribs playfully.

He smiled. “I guess. I just don’t get much time off from training, so I don’t get to do normal things like that often.”

“Well, that sucks,” I said frowning.

“It doesn’t suck! I love my job; it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. The training’s finished now so things should calm down,” he explained, shrugging.

“Well not really, I mean, you got stuck on some crappy assignment to babysit me. My dad said that you won’t even get time off apart from scheduled school breaks. You must suck at being SWAT if they stuck you here,” I joked, smirking at him. Bless him; I bet he barely passed his training!