Nothing Left to Lose (62 page)

The new barman
kept looking over at me somewhat excitedly. I smiled warmly as he
brought me another coffee that I hadn’t ordered. He had a newspaper
tucked under his arm. “Excuse me, Miss Spencer, do you think I
could get your autograph?” he asked nervously.

I burst out
laughing. “My autograph? What for?”

He smiled,
confused. “Well, you are the President’s daughter, are you
not?”

I nodded,
frowning. “I guess, but why would you want my autograph?”

He grinned as
he pulled the newspaper out from under his arm and held it out to
me. “You’re all over the paper.”

I gasped,
practically snatching it out of his hand as my heart jumped into my
throat. “No way! Seriously?”

He nodded.
“Yeah, front page and pages four, five, six and seven,” he stated,
shrugging. My eyes wandered the paper as my breathing seemed to
falter. On the front page there was a huge picture of my parents as
they posed on the red carpet. Just underneath their picture, was
one of me and Ashton. My eyes widened as I sat back in my chair,
dumbstruck and lost for words.

“Can I read
this?” I asked, scanning the text quickly.

“Yeah, sure.
When you’re done would you sign it for me?” he asked. I nodded,
still not quite knowing what to say. He turned on his heel and
strutted back to the bar, leaving me there with my heart in my
throat.

I scanned the
article quickly. It was all about my dad’s birthday celebrations
and a rough guide to what we ate and the decorations inside the
ball room. Once I was done with the first page, I flicked through
to the continuation part. The next couple of pages were more about
the celebrities who attended and who wore what. As I turned the
page again, I gasped, and my eyes widened in horror. Pictures of me
and Ashton were splashed everywhere. The headline above it:
New
Celebrity Couple ‘Annaton’.

To say that I’d
not slept well would be a ridiculous understatement. I hadn’t been
able to switch my brain off and stop worrying about Anna all night.
My cell phone hadn’t rung though, so either Mike decided not to
call me, or she’d had a good night.

Pushing myself
out of bed just after seven, I snuck into the shower. My eyes stung
with tiredness as I stood under the spray and let the powerful jets
loosen my bunched up, tensed muscles.

When I was
finished and dressed, I headed back into the room, seeing that Dean
was just waking. I forced a smile, hoping I didn’t look as rough as
I felt. “Morning, sleep alright?”

He snorted and
narrowed his eyes at me. “Not really.”

One of my
eyebrows rose in question. “No? How come?”

He sat up,
running a hand over his face. “You fucking snore like an elephant
with the flu!”

I recoiled,
shaking my head and rolling my eyes. “Let me guess, Anna told you
to tell me that, right?” She was always trying to make out that I
snored; now she obviously had Dean in on it too.

He blinked a
couple of times, not answering as he swung his legs out of the bed
and trudged into the bathroom, sighing tiredly. My gaze fell on my
cell on the side, so I sat on the edge of it, bringing up her
number and debating whether I could call her or not. I decided
against it, she was probably still sleeping anyway. Our flight
wasn’t until twelve, so she could have a longer lie-in. I flopped
back onto the bed, playing around with the apps on my phone as I
tried not to clock watch. Just as Dean walked out of the bathroom
fully dressed, there was a soft knock on the door.

“I’ll get it,”
he muttered, already heading over there and pulling the door open.
“Oh, good morning, Annabelle.”

My heart leapt
in my chest as I shoved myself up quickly and headed over there,
practically pushing Dean out of the way as I wrenched the door open
further. There she stood. My frayed nerves finally settled as I
laid eyes on her beautiful face. Stepping closer to her, I wrapped
my arm around her shoulders, pressing my face into her hair and
breathing her in. I’d missed her so much that it was actually
painful.

She hugged me
back immediately. From the corner of my eye, I saw Mike standing in
the hall behind her. His posture was awkward as if he was trying
not to watch or felt like he was intruding. I forced myself to pull
back and smiled down at her. “Hey, how did you sleep? Okay?” I put
my hands on either side of her face, and felt my eyebrows knit
together. She looked extremely tired. Her eyes were bloodshot,
either from lack of sleep or she’d been crying. My jaw tightened as
I glared at Mike. We would have words later.

“Fine,” she
answered, shrugging as she dropped her gaze to the floor.

I shook my head
and sighed as I gave her a little tug into my room and closed the
door. I didn’t know why she bothered trying to lie to me, I could
always tell. “No you didn’t, Anna.”

She groaned and
shook her head. “Whatever, doesn’t matter now,” she replied.
“Anyway, I have something that you need to see. Don’t freak out,
alright?” she raised her hand, holding out a newspaper to me.

I frowned,
confused as I took it from her hands. My mouth popped open when I
saw the two photographs that were splashed across the front page.
“Fuck me, there’s a picture of us there!”

She sighed and
flopped down onto the little sofa in our room. “More than one.
There’s a whole two page spread just dedicated to us,” she
muttered.

My mouth had
gone dry. I couldn’t take my eyes off the photo on the front page.
Anna looked just as incredible as I remembered. But then my mind
was back on business again. Carter. He could see this and make a
move against her in anger. Of course, her father and I had already
pre-empted this kind of thing happening, and he’d arranged for a
heavy duty block to be put on information going in and out of the
prison, limiting the number of magazines and papers going in if she
was featured or mentioned at all. Also,
all
personal letters
going into the prison, not just Carter’s, were being screened in a
bid to keep this information away from him for as long as possible.
It wasn’t an indefinite thing, but hopefully it would hold for a
few weeks at least until all the attention around Senator Spencer
and his family died down. The trouble was, we had anticipated that
Anna would be featured, but not us as a couple. Anna posing with me
and claiming me as her boyfriend was sure to anger him.

I didn’t take
my eyes from the paper as I sat on the sofa next to her, scanning
the words for anything important. It all seemed to be trivial stuff
about the party. I bypassed the second and third pages of the
article too because they all seemed to be more about fashion
successes for the night and who should fire their stylists. I could
feel Anna staring at me, clearly waiting for some sort of reaction
to all of it.

I forced a
smile. “Apparently you should keep your stylist,” I muttered
weakly.

She chuckled
and nodded. “Keep reading. Did you get to the body language bit
yet?”

I shook my head
in answer as I turned to the last two pages. My heart stuttered in
my chest. Lining a whole two pages were various photographs of me
and Anna. The headline insinuated a new hot couple. My eyes flitted
over the photos, loving every single one of them. Deciding I should
read the article because there was clearly something that Anna
didn’t like in here, I folded one leg over the other and set to
work.

Apparently they
thought that Anna would be the hottest ‘First Daughter’ that there
ever had been. I wholeheartedly agreed with that statement. There
was a mention of me and my joke about being intimidated to meet her
parents. The journalist thought I was adorable.

When I got to
the part she was referring to, I felt my back stiffen in shock. The
paper had a body language expert analyse some of the photographs
that had been taken. His findings were printed next to each one.
The first was of future President Spencer shaking my hand. The
expert had analysed his smile and the way he was leaning in towards
me. He concluded that it meant he liked me and trusted me with his
daughter. The caption was that I was ‘already well in with the
future in-laws’. Pride swelled in my chest as I read it. If only I
could get Anna to actually date me, I’d already be in good standing
with the family. The next one they looked at was of me and Anna
dancing and laughing. According to the professional, the way that
one of her hands was loosely placed in mine and the other tangled
into the back of my hair, how close our bodies were, and the ‘small
knowing smile’ that lined our lips all meant one thing in his
opinion – we were very in love.

Shock resonated
through my body, making me jerk in my seat. I couldn’t breathe.
They actually thought she was in love with me? I flicked my eyes up
to hers, seeing her furiously chewing on her nails.
Is she in
love with me?
I wondered. I would give anything for it to be
true. I knew she was starting to get over Jack, and I was certainly
in love with her, but according to this expert, she loved me too.
Maybe she didn’t even know it herself. That revelation wouldn’t
have surprised me in the least; Anna’s brain might be refusing to
even contemplate it. If she even was in love with me, then she
wouldn’t want to be, I knew that for a fact. Anna didn’t like to
feel vulnerable and didn’t want to get hurt again. I knew that she
hated the fact that she even cared about me; if she loved me, then
it would be a whole new ball game and one that would probably
terrify her to the very core.

I knew I
couldn’t push it at all because it would probably frighten her and
make her retreat back inside herself and shut me out again. I tried
desperately not to react as I forced myself to carry on reading the
article.

The body
language expert wasn’t done with us yet apparently. He analysed
another photo and came to the conclusion that I was fiercely
protective over her and that she trusted me completely. A small
smile crept onto my lips at that last part. Then the part that made
an excited shiver tickle down my spine. He stated that ours was a
serious long term relationship that would continue to blossom. He
predicted wedding bells within the next three years. I gulped and
blinked a couple of times. Wedding bells. If I had my way, I would
marry her tomorrow if I had the chance.

Apparently, we
were the hottest couple that attended the party – outshining even
the A list celebs that had attended. The paper had already come up
with a trashy couple name too.

I laughed
incredulously, shaking my head. I hated couple names. “Annaton?
That is lame,” I muttered. Nate was going to ridicule me about this
forever; I could already see it happening.

Anna groaned
and leant forward putting her head in her hands. “I’m so sorry. I
can’t believe they’ve printed all of that. Everything is going to
be so much harder for you now.”

I smiled weakly
and scooted closer to her, slipping my arm around her shoulder.
“Everything will be fine. It’ll settle down in a couple of days.
It’s not like they’re going to be following us around college or
anything.” At least, I prayed that wouldn’t happen. Clearly I’d
already underestimated the reaction to us. I figured it would just
be a photo of her with her father, they would name her, and that
would be it. I hadn’t expected her to be highlighted this much at
all. “Of course, it’ll be a little harder at school now that people
know who you are. But it’s not that bad. The boyfriend cover still
held so no one will know I’m an agent,” I squeezed her shoulder
gently and she looked up at me with apologetic eyes. “Everything is
fine. Don’t stress.”

She sighed and
nodded, chewing on her bottom lip. “You’re not going to request a
reassignment now then?”

I raised one
eyebrow. Was there something I was missing? “Why would I?”

She shrugged,
still gnawing on her bottom lip.

I sighed and
rolled my eyes. “I’m not leaving you. I promised, didn’t I?”

She blew out a
big breath and nodded as the corner of her mouth twitched with an
unwanted smile. “I know you did. I just wondered if your player
instincts were going to make you run away screaming like a little
girl now that the papers are insinuating that I’m in love with
you.”

I laughed as
realisation washed over me. She thought I was a commitment-phobe
and would leave because of what they’d printed. She had no idea. “I
don’t scream,” I replied, winking at her playfully. “Besides, I
kinda like our apartment.”

She chuckled;
her eyes sparkled as her tense posture seemed to relax. “Glad to
hear it.”

I smiled,
knowing I needed to change the subject quickly. There was only so
much teasing she could take before she started to freak out or
panic and overthink things like she usually did. I didn’t want her
getting upset because, in some dark recesses of her mind, she
thought that Jack would disapprove of a tabloid rumour.

“Some of these
photos are great. We should try to get some of these and put them
up in our apartment,” I mused and held the paper out to Dean
because he was trying to read it over my shoulder.

Anna nodded. “I
love the one on the first page, the one of us on the red
carpet.”

“I like the
dancing ones too. And the one with your dad in it,” I replied,
grinning proudly.

She giggled and
slapped my stomach gently with the back of her hand. “Don’t start
getting all high and mighty just because the future President likes
you.”

I grinned. I
couldn’t care less if the President liked me or not, I cared that
the father of the love of my life liked me. There was a vast
difference in those two things in my eyes. “I’m allowed to brag a
little, surely?” I joked.