Page 12
Author: Kirsty Moseley
“Oh quit being a baby, I thought you were a tough guy,” I teased.
“Yeah, I can fight and shoot bullets, but man, that is cold!” he whined like a little girl.
I pulled my T-shirt off over my head. When I looked back at him, he was staring at me, his mouth was slightly open, and his eyes were wide and raking over my body slowly. My stomach tightened into a knot when I realised he was checking me out. I wanted to pull the shirt back on and run, but there was something in his eyes that made me want to trust him; I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. So instead of putting the shirt back on, I folded it up deliberately slowly before dropping it on top of my jeans.
He hadn’t moved. It was like he was stuck on the spot, just staring at me. Taking advantage of his distraction, I stalked over to his side, smiling sweetly. When I got closer to him, my heart started to speed up fractionally, but it wasn’t from fear. When I was close enough, I raised my hands, putting them on his chest, making his full lips part and his eyes tighten. I grinned wickedly and shoved on his chest as hard as I could. Distracted, he lost his footing and stumbled backwards into the lake.
I burst out laughing as he broke the surface again, gasping and immediately swimming for the ladder. “Holy shit, that’s cold!” he rasped. I quickly moved to the ladder, sitting down and dangling my legs into the cold water so that he couldn’t get out. “Come on, let me out, it’s freezing!” he whined, half climbing out of the water so that we were at the same level.
“No way. You’re in now, you’ll get used to it in a minute or two,” I said confidently.
A wicked smile slipped onto his face as his arm snaked around my waist. I gasped, knowing too late what was happening. His body twisted and he threw me into the water. The cold shocked my body and made me stiffen automatically; I kicked for the top and gasped when my head broke the surface.
“Oh shit,” I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut, kicking my legs to stay afloat as the cold water attacked my system.
“Bet you want to get out now, huh?” he asked from behind me. I looked back at him; he was standing on the dock, his hair dripping. The sunlight kissed his wet skin, making him look sexy as hell.
“Oh come on, Pretty Boy, you afraid of a little cold water?” I jeered, swimming off.
I heard a splash and knew that he had dived back in; seconds later he grabbed my ankle. I laughed as I tried to carry on swimming, but he just pulled me back to him. I turned around and splashed him in the face, which just started a splashing war. It was fun and I hadn’t had fun for years. His easy smile and the beautiful surroundings made me feel more relaxed and unlike the uptight, frightened girl I had become. I felt younger somehow.
After a while, my teeth started to chatter noisily and my body was shivering uncontrollably. “Come on, let’s get back to the dock and get dried off before we get hypothermia,” he suggested, turning his back to me.
I quickly grabbed around his neck and wrapped my legs around his waist so I was on his back. “I’m too cold, you’ll have to carry me, tough guy,” I joked through my chattering teeth.
He laughed quietly but didn’t protest. As he swam for the dock I could feel his warmth seeping into my skin from everywhere our bodies touched. When we got to the dock, I climbed off his back and forced my shaking legs to climb the ladder. Picking up the two fluffy towels, I wrapped one around my body and turned, holding the other out towards him.
When I laid eyes on him, my stomach dropped into my toes. He was just pulling himself out of the lake. The water was running down his goosebump-covered body, and I secretly envisioned rubbing the towel all over him. Actually, screw the towel; I want to rub my hands all over him…
“Great idea, Anna, swimming in the lake. Next time let’s go to a pool,” he suggested, roughly rubbing his hand in his hair, flicking droplets of water everywhere.
I laughed awkwardly at the thoughts that were playing out inside my head. All of them involved me being about three feet closer to him. “You were the one who chose the lake. We do have a heated indoor swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. If you wanted that then you should have said,” I countered, grinning.
His mouth popped open in shock. “Damn it! You have a heated pool yet you’ve just made me swim in icy water?”
“Oh yeah, but where’s the romance in a heated pool, huh?” I joked.
He closed the distance between us and took his towel from my hand. A sexy smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he twisted it in his hands before looping it around the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him. I gasped and stiffened, shocked by the close proximity. My heart was beating way too fast as he leant in even closer, my stomach was clenching. It was one thing for my mind to play out a little fantasy of our bodies pressing together, but now that it was real and I wasn’t in control, I started to panic.
As his mouth inched towards mine and his breath blew across my lips, I jerked my knee up towards his groin. Obviously predicting my strike, he jumped backwards, laughing to himself as he avoided my blow.
“You’re right, a freezing cold lake is much more romantic,” he agreed, still chuckling to himself. My breathing started to slow down, my heart rate returned to normal now that he was further away from me.
“You’re an idiot,” I muttered, taking his towel off my shoulders and throwing it at him. He grinned and caught it effortlessly, rubbing his hair with it, making it stick out at all angles while I pulled on my clothes over the top of my damp swimsuit.
“You ready to go?” he asked finally, picking up his folded clothes and the bag containing empty wrappers from all of the food he’d consumed.
“Yep,” I confirmed, climbing into the boat.
He rowed on the way back and I closed my eyes, leaning my head back, enjoying the last of the sunshine. I’d had a nice day. I hadn’t thought that for a long time.
Chapter Six
As we stepped in through the front door, Sarah looked up from her dusting task, and a large, predatory smile crept onto her face. Ashton sighed next to me but smiled back. When she set down her duster and sauntered towards him, swaying her hips, something settled in the pit of my stomach, something unfamiliar and unwelcome. My eyebrows knitted together when I realised that it was actually a slightly jealous feeling. The feeling actually scared me because in spending the day with him and getting to know him a little, I realised that I actually enjoyed his company. That was the worst thing that could happen to me. I didn’t want to spend time with people, grow to like them and let them into my life, only to have them march right out again and leave me. For the last few years, since Jack had died, I’d deliberately alienated myself so that wouldn’t happen. I couldn’t get hurt again, so this was like a pre-emptive strike before they abandoned me.
Clenching my jaw, I shook my head at myself and forced the jealous feeling away. There was no way in hell I was letting myself get jealous over a bodyguard; Sarah was welcome to him.
Needing to distract myself from the fact that I’d almost done the unthinkable and made a friend, I decided to go to the gym for a while. “See you later,” I muttered, stalking off to my bedroom as Sarah twirled a lock of her hair around her finger and looked at Ashton through her eyelashes. After changing into workout clothes, I marched downstairs and into the gym. Not bothering to stretch beforehand, I stepped onto the treadmill and turned it on slowly while I put on my iPod and cranked it up as high as I could stand.
My run started out at a gentle jog but, as usual, quickly changed into something else entirely. Running was my thing. Running made my body ache and gave me something to focus on when I was struggling to keep myself sane everyday. I gritted my teeth as my legs burned from the effort of running at a flat out sprint for over twenty minutes. I was going to have to stop soon.
Wanting to enjoy thinking about nothing other than the physical pain for a few minutes more, I cranked up the speed even faster. I was running so fast that I could barely keep up. I could only run for another couple of minutes before I started to get a little light-headed and my hands started to tingle, so I slowed it down until I could stop.
As soon as I stopped, my legs refused to support me any longer. I slumped to the floor gasping for breath as I put my head between my knees, listening to the lyrics of the Usher song I had blasting through my iPod. When the tingles had subsided from my fingers and I no longer wanted to vomit, I flopped back onto my back and closed my eyes.
Suddenly my earphones were pulled from my ears. Shocked because I hadn’t realised someone else was here, I opened my eyes to see Ashton standing over me, frowning. “Why do you do that to yourself? Shit, Anna, I watched you run as fast as you could for fifteen minutes and you were already sprinting when I came in!” he cried incredulously.
I gritted my teeth, ignoring his obvious agitation, and pushed myself up to sitting. “Whatever,” I dismissed. “Want to show me how you keep blocking my hits all the time?”
“You want me to fight you?” he asked, raising one eyebrow in disbelief.
“I don’t want you to hit me if that’s what you’re thinking, but I actually thought I was pretty good at self-defence until I met you,” I admitted.
He shook his head. “Anna, I think you need to rest, surely you’ve done enough for today,” he countered, his expression turning hard.
I stood up; my legs wobbled and threatened to give out on me. “Ashton, this is my routine, usually it’s a morning routine but I had somewhere to be this morning, so I’m doing it now instead. I always run then have a few minutes with the punch bag. If you want to help me then great, if you don’t then just get out and stop interrupting me before I cool down,” I growled as I pushed past him, grabbing the training gloves from the side and putting them on. I then proceeded to punch and kick the stuffing out of the punch bag.
He sighed. “I’ll show you a few things if you want. But you need to stop this. This isn’t good for you, you shouldn’t train like this. It’s crazy,” he replied sharply.
I huffed and turned around to face him. He wasn’t dressed for training; he was still wearing the jeans and T-shirt he’d worn to the lake. He took off his shoes and socks, and then his T-shirt and belt so he was just wearing his jeans.