After four shots the gun was empty so he took it from my hands. I breathed a sigh of relief and felt my shoulders sag forward as I smiled, more than a little proud of myself for overcoming my fear like that. It was all because of Ashton though. I knew there was no way I would have even set foot in this place if he weren’t with me.

“I am really proud of you for doing that,” he said, bending forward and planting a soft kiss on my forehead. I gulped, feeling my smile grow even bigger because of his praise. “Want to see how you did?” he offered, pointing to a button labelled target recall on the side of the booth we were in. I nodded eagerly and pressed it, watching as the paper target slowly made its way to us, on the little overhead track. Ashton smiled at it happily as it stopped next to him. I’d shot twelve shots in total. Nine of them had actually hit the paper, three of them were even on the shape of the body which I was surprised about. I hadn’t thought I’d even hit the paper with my hands shaking like they were. “A few more times and you’ll be a pro,” Ashton joked.

“Are you going to have a go? Or are you scared you can’t match my awesome skills?” I teased. I would actually quite like to see him fire a gun for some reason, maybe the horrible images would be replaced if I saw him do it.

He shook his head quickly. “Not today. Another time I will. I think you’ve been in here long enough already,” he answered, picking up the gun and setting it, along with the extra clips we’d been given, into the black tray. “We should probably get going.”

I nodded in agreement. That was probably a good idea. I didn’t want to push it too far today and end up suffering the consequences tonight when my nightmares took over. Taking off my ear defenders and goggles, I dropped them into the tray too.

“I’ll have you shooting like a pro by the end of my eight month assignment,” he said as we walked to the reception desk to sign out.

I scoffed and shook my head. “I’d be happy just to get all of my shots on the paper by the time you leave.” Actually, I’d be happy just to be able to hold a gun without my hands trembling dangerously.

As we walked out of the building and got in the car, I spotted Dean still sitting in the same spot. The boredom was easy to see on his face. Ashton nodded at him as he held my door open for me to get in. “It must be a really tedious job, being a far guard. I mean, he’s always on his own, sitting around waiting for me,” I mused once Ashton climbed into the driver’s side and started the car. I actually felt a little sorry for Dean; he must be bored senseless watching me all day.

Ashton shrugged, pulling out of the parking lot. “That’s his job. He gets paid for it.”

A sudden thought occurred to me. “Do you get any extra money for looking after me? I mean, you’re basically on duty for twenty-four hours a day, right? So are you getting double pay or something?”

A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth as he drove. “Nope, but I get the pleasure of your company, which is something I would gladly pay for. I actually think I’m doing them out of something,” he answered. I blushed and shook my head, not knowing what to say to that. Thankfully, conversation flowed easily after that as he started telling me about his best friend, Nate Peters, who was apparently a bit of a ladies’ man. Ashton assured me that if I ever met him that he’d try to get me into bed.

“So how does he get all of these women then?” I asked, grinning after hearing a tale of Nate scoring with three women in one night – and then it turned out that two of them were sisters, so he gotten a drink poured over his head.

He smirked in my direction. “It’s the uniform. Girls like the uniform.”

“Ahh.” His meaning was clear. “So you score in yours too then I bet.” My mind flicked back to the photo I’d seen of him in his uniform. He was right; the uniform was a definite pantie-moistener.

He shrugged awkwardly. “Sometimes I guess,” he admitted.

“Did you bring it with you?” I asked. Immediately my face flooded with heat as my insides squirmed with embarrassment at asking that question. Holy shit, Anna, you are on fire today!

He grinned. “Why, do you want to see it?” he flirted.

I gulped; the answer to that question was ‘heck yeah’, but I refused to admit it. “Sure, why not. I can handle it, I have considerable self-control,” I lied, shrugging.

He chuckled, grinning wickedly. “Yeah, much to my disappointment.” He shook his head. “I didn’t bring it. I’m undercover, remember? I’ll show you some other time if you want,” he offered, turning back to watch the road. Oh heck yeah, I would certainly like to see him in that uniform! I didn’t say that though, and quickly changed the subject to his shooting.

Chapter Thirteen

When we pulled up at the house, I was a little disappointed. I genuinely liked spending time with him, but there was just too much pressure here.

“So, you wanna go do something? Swimming maybe?” he offered as we climbed out of the car. “In the indoor heated pool, I meant, not the ice water again,” he added quickly, shuddering.

I laughed at that. “Er… there’s something I really want to do first, so maybe in like an hour or something?” I suggested, raising my eyebrows. Yesterday, while shopping, I’d seen the Apple store and realised that Ashton needed an iPod if he was going to survive college. I was pretty sure he didn’t have one, and I had a spare, brand new one that I’d bought for myself a few months ago when I thought I’d lost mine. Music was a college attendee’s survival essential; he’d need that to keep himself sane.