Nothing Left to Lose (50 page)

He nodded in
agreement, passing me the controller and restarting the game as he
sat at my side.

As it turns
out, I sucked royally at video games. We were playing some kind of
war game, but all I was doing was running around aimlessly and
getting killed. Ashton seemed highly amused by my lack of ability
though.

After about
half an hour, the timer on the stove beeped and he paused the game,
setting his controller onto the sofa. “I’m gonna go get lunch, no
cheating while I’m gone,” he teased, kissing me quickly on the lips
but pulling away way too quickly for my liking. I watched him go
into the kitchen, and a few minutes later he returned with the only
thing he could cook without cremating it – tuna and cheese baked
potatoes.

I smiled
gratefully. “Thanks, Ashton.”

“So, what shall
we do today?” he asked, digging into his food.

I shrugged. “I
don’t know, what is there to do?” I smiled down at my full plate. I
was actually ravenous after all of the exercise this morning.

“Do you want to
see my training academy? I’m sure my captain would like to meet
you.”

“Sure. Sounds
great,” I agreed, grinning. I would love to see the academy he
raved about so much.

“I’ll have to
call my Captain to see if I’m allowed to take you in there,” he
winced as he pulled out his cell phone, dialling quickly. After a
couple of seconds the line obviously connected, so I listened to
his side of the conversation. “Hi, sir, it’s Ashton Taylor. No,
everything’s going great actually. I’m in LA with Miss Spencer and
she’s requested to see my academy, do you think that would be
possible? Yeah, she’s good. No, she’s not being difficult at all,”
he smiled at me, so I blushed and looked away. “She’d really like
to come, sir. No, but I can get the senator’s permission if it’s
needed.” He looked at me with wide eyes before his face relaxed.
“Yeah great, we’ll be there in about half an hour or so. Thanks,
g’bye, sir.” He grinned happily and pushed the phone back into his
pocket. “It’s all arranged, so whenever you’re ready.”

I smiled and
tucked into my food. I had a feeling he would enjoy showing me
around there. When he was done eating, he showered quickly and
threw on his clothes while I did the dishes.

When we got
there, Ashton was beaming his kilowatt smile. He grabbed my hand,
dragging me in behind him. A balding older man wearing a black SWAT
T-shirt and black pants came over. The warm smile and the way he
shook Ashton’s hand told me that they liked each other.

“Officer
Weston, this is Anna. Anna, my old captain,” Ashton introduced,
waving a hand between us.

The man turned
to me and smiled, somewhat nervously. He had obviously read my file
too and was erring on the side of caution.

I held my hand
out to him. “Nice to meet you, Officer Weston,” I greeted politely.
His eyes widened in surprise as he glanced at Ashton, who nodded
and smiled encouragingly.

Officer Weston
tentatively shook my hand with his rough calloused one. “You too,
Miss Spencer,” he replied, his face betraying his total and utter
confusion.

I waved my hand
dismissively. “Anna’s fine, not Miss Spencer.”

He nodded.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting a visit from you. What are you two doing
here in LA? And where’s your far guard?” he asked, glancing behind
me.

“We’re on our
own for the weekend, sir. It was cleared by Senator Spencer,”
Ashton answered quickly.

The older man’s
eyes snapped to Ashton. “Seriously? He let you bring her to LA on
your own?” A proud smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Ashton
nodded and smiled down at me, squeezing my hand that he was still
holding. “You must be making an impression there, Taylor.”

I laughed at
that. “Oh he is,” I chimed in, smiling suggestively at my pretend
boyfriend.

Ashton choked
back a laugh and nodded. “Well, I’ll be showing Anna around then,
sir,” he chirped happily. Officer Weston nodded and handed me a
visitors’ badge as Ashton dragged me off up the hallway, grinning
like a mad man.

His tour was
pretty thorough. As we went into the swimming pool, combat rooms
and gym, Ashton was telling me little stories about what him and
Nate used to get up to in there and how many ways they got into
trouble with their superiors. It sounded like they were a nightmare
to control. It surprised me that Officer Weston seemed to like him;
actually, it surprised me that they graduated at all, what with all
the pranks and practical jokes they’d pulled.

After we’d seen
practically everything, he smiled excitedly at me. “Wanna see the
shooting range?”

“Sure.” I
shrugged. I didn’t want to, but he looked so excited about it that
I didn’t want to ruin his fun.

Instead of
taking me to some dingy room like we’d been shooting in, we went
outside. “Hey, Carl, let me borrow your gun, would ya?” he shouted
over my shoulder. I turned to see a guy decked out in full SWAT
uniform.

My breath
caught in my throat because it was even hotter than I imagined it
to be. If I saw that on Ashton, I was pretty sure I would just
burst into flames, and all that would be left of me was a pile of
dust on the floor. “Ashton, why the hell didn’t you put that on for
me last night?” I whined, digging my fingers into his waist as a
thousand fantasies of him calling me ma’am in the hot uniform
flooded my brain. I squeezed my eyes shut and moaned, the thought
alone made my legs feel weak.

He chuckled
wickedly. “Whoa, chill, Baby Girl. I have mine at home if you want
me to show you,” he whispered, his teeth nipping my earlobe as he
wrapped his arms around my waist. My mouth started to water. That
was definitely something I would be requesting before we left LA.
He winked at me and turned back to the guy, who had now reached
us.

“Hey, Taylor,
what are you doing back here? I thought you were in Washington,”
the guy called Carl said as they shook hands and did the one-armed
man hug thing.

“Yeah I was.
I’ve got the weekend off, but they just called me in at the last
minute to sign for something. We were on our way out, so I had to
bring my girlfriend in too,” Ashton lied, rolling his eyes, faking
exasperation.

Carl looked me
over and grinned wolfishly. “I didn’t know you did
girlfriends.”

I smiled
suggestively. “Oh, he does them alright,” I interjected, winking
and holding out my hand to him, smiling. “Anna.”

He shook my
hand. “Carl.”

“So, can I
borrow your gun for a sec? I just want to show off for my girl,”
Ashton repeated. Carl nodded, swinging what I assumed to be an
assault rifle off his shoulder.

I jumped and
jerked back away from it. My breath seemed to catch in my throat.
Ashton took the offered gun and moved it away from me. “It’s
alright, I promise,” he smiled reassuringly at me. Carl took off
his ear defenders that were hanging loosely around his neck and
held them out to me. I took them and nodded a thanks, though my
eyes were still firmly fixed on the gun.

“Use Station
Four, it’s just been set up,” Carl instructed, nodding off to the
right.

Ashton grinned.
“Cheers, man.” He pulled me over to the grass next to a number four
sign, and laid himself down on his stomach, fiddling with the gun
for a few seconds before patting the grass next to him. Taking the
hint, I lay down at his side and looked out into the direction that
he was looking in. I couldn’t see a thing, only grass and more
grass. “You ready? Put those on,” he instructed, nodding at my ear
defenders that were in my hand. I nodded and slipped them on, not
knowing what to expect. He let off a series of shots in bursts of
two, and then clicked the safety back on less than a minute later.
“What do you think?” he asked, smirking at me.

I shrugged in
response. “It’s a big gun?” I offered, not sure what else to
say.

He laughed and
wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. “Look
through the eyepiece.”

Confused, I did
as I was told. At first I had no idea what I was looking at, but
then I spotted it. There was a target out there, one of the paper
ones like we usually practiced with. Pulling my eye away from the
eyepiece, I squinted off into the distance. I couldn’t see it at
all. When I used the eyepiece again, I noticed that the black shape
of the head had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth all made out of
bullet holes.

I burst out
laughing. “I can’t even see that! How far away is it?” I asked,
searching the horizon for it again.

“Five hundred
yards,” he answered, shrugging.

I gasped in awe
of his talent. “You shot a smiley face from five hundred yards
away?”

“Yeah, but you
should see Nate shoot. He could literally shoot a fly if it landed
on that target,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“You’re
incredible. Honestly, your talent just boggles my mind,” I
breathed.
How on earth can one man be so skilled at his job, yet
look and act the way he does?
I turned my head to see his face
inches from mine; his beautiful green eyes sparkling. I moved my
head closer and pressed my lips to his softly. Instead of it being
a chaste kiss though, it turned into something else. His hand went
to the back of my head as the kiss deepened and he moved so that I
had to roll onto my back with his body half over mine. When I
seemed to lose all control of myself, he took my hands off his butt
and pinned them above my head, smiling against my lips.

“You’re so
adorable,” he purred, pressing himself to me tighter as his lips
found mine again. Someone cleared their throat behind us, and
Ashton groaned. “Go away, Carl. Can’t you see we’re busy?” he
muttered, kissing me again.

“Agent Taylor,
that’s not exactly appropriate behaviour. If you were still under
my charge, you’d be doing kitchen duty for a week!” Officer Weston
growled.

Ashton jumped
up quickly. I’d honestly never seen anyone move so fast in my life.
He turned, standing straight and saluted his officer. The sexy
little display of respect made my stomach quiver. “I’m sorry, sir.
I was just showing Miss Spencer how to shoot, sir,” he lied,
holding down a hand to help me up while still standing straight as
a poker.

“Really?
Showing her how to shoot, is that what you kids call getting it on
nowadays?” Officer Weston countered. An amused smile played on his
lips. My face burned with embarrassment at being caught and I
pressed into Ashton’s back, trying to hide.

“Yes, sir,”
Ashton answered, his tone amused.

“Well, I’m glad
you’re taking your role as boyfriend seriously, Taylor,” Weston
said, shaking his head and walking away, chuckling to himself.

Ashton turned
to me and winced. “Oops.”

“That was so
embarrassing!” I giggled.

“Embarrassing?
I thought he was gonna have my balls,” Ashton countered, shaking
his head in amusement. He leant down and grabbed the gun from the
floor, folding in the little legs before holding his hand out to
me. “Come on, let’s go to that museum I was telling you about. I’d
really love to take you.”

I smiled at his
thoughtfulness. “You’ll be bored,” I countered.

A
heart-stopping smile crept onto his face as his hand squeezed mine.
“Not if I’m with you, I won’t.”

I didn’t think
it was possible to have a better day than the one we’d had
previously, but I was wrong. After a few hours at the museum, we
ate ice cream in the park while he told me little stories about
living in LA, what he loved and hated about it. The more he’d
spoken about it, the more in love with it I’d fallen. I’d decided
there and then that if I managed to graduate and get a job, I would
try to relocate to LA. Maybe then Ashton and I could hang out
occasionally. Of course, that was three years into the future, and
I still had a long way to go before I could think about graduating
at all.

Once we’d
finally grabbed one of the hotdogs that he raved about, we headed
back to his apartment. He even allowed me drive, much to his horror
and white knuckles. Ashton drove all the time usually, he said it
was in case he had to take evasive action, but I knew it was just
my driving he hated. I must admit, maybe I did drive a little too
fast at times and tended to stomp on the brakes a little too hard
occasionally.

We’d already
arranged to go out again with his friends tonight. One of Nate’s
cousins was a doorman at a bar that had a live band playing, so
that was where we were heading tonight.

Once we were
back at his apartment, I changed into a little black dress and some
hot pink heels. My hair was unsalvageable, so I just unfastened the
braid and clipped it up in a little twist at the back of my head.
While Ashton dressed next to me, the red scratches on his back came
into view again.

I winced. “Did
I hurt you last night? I’m really sorry,” I muttered, nodding at
his back when he seemed confused.

He twisted,
looking in the mirror before laughing. “Looks like you marked me
too then,” he mused. He slipped on a shirt, covering it up and
smiled over at me. “You weren’t hurting me, trust me.”

I chewed on my
lip and stood up, smoothing down my skirt. “Look okay?”

“You look
stunning.” His eyes shone with adoration as he held out one hand
towards me. “Ready?”

I nodded and
grinned, excited for my second night out with him in LA.

When we arrived
at the bar, Ashton led us past the huge line to the front and gave
his name to the doorman. Much to my amazement, we were waved
straight through.

Ashton scanned
the bar from the doorway. I assumed he was looking for his friends,
but couldn’t rule out the possibility that he was surveying the
area for hostiles because he never seemed to relax. Nate’s blond
head caught my attention, and I frowned as I spotted Seth standing
a few feet away from him with his tongue down a girl’s throat
already. I looked back at Ashton and felt unreasonable jealousy
settle in the pit of my stomach as I wondered if he had a different
girl every night like his friends seemed too. If he did, it would
explain why he was so killer in bed.