Guarding the Broken Read online

“Green,” I answered, closing my eyes and lying back on the wooden dock. I loved it out here; the way the dock rocked slightly on the water was soothing. I often came out here and just lay in the peace and quiet.

  “Favourite flower?”

  “Dandelion,” I replied, then bit my lip. “I mean roses, white roses,” I amended, frowning.

  “Dandelions? You like weeds? Why?” he asked, eyeing me curiously.

  Oh for goodness’ sake! Why does this guy want to know everything about me and always see through my lies? I sighed. “Jack gave me a big bunch of dandelions when he asked me out when we were five,” I admitted, smiling at the memory.

  He laughed. “That’s sweet. He sounds like he was a nice guy.” I nodded, and he smiled at me. “Maybe he was a bit cheap though,” he added jokingly.

  I smiled and looked at him. “He was a great guy, you’d have liked him, everyone liked him.” I rolled onto my front, putting my arms under my chin, watching the water ripple around the dock.

  There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “Favourite food? Mine’s a tuna melt baked potato because that’s about the only thing I can cook,” he laughed.

  “Seriously, you can’t cook? Do you still live with your parents? Does your mommy do everything for you? I bet she still washes your clothes,” I teased, grinning at him.

  A sad smile crossed his face. “My parents died when I was ten, I grew up in foster homes,” he replied. “And no, I can’t cook. I’m pretty good at burning stuff though.”

  I winced and looked at him apologetically because of my insensitive joke about his mom. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  He smiled and shook his head, shrugging casually. “It’s fine; it was a long time ago. Favourite food?”

  “Er, chocolate fudge cake? I’m a dessert girl,” I admitted, smiling, grateful for the change of subject.

  He laughed. “Right, I should have guessed by the size of you,” he joked, poking me in the ribs.

  “Hey, don’t make fun of a girl’s weight!” I scolded, trying to look stern. I knew he was joking though; I worked out a lot, so my figure was toned, I just hid it under baggy clothes so no one could see.

  “Whoa there, sorry, ma’am,” he replied, holding up his hands in an ‘I surrender’ fashion. My stomach fluttered when he called me ‘ma’am’. From his mouth, it actually sounded incredibly sexy.

  The questioning continued for about another hour and in that time I learnt a lot about him. He’d graduated two days ago – this was his first proper assignment. He’d never been undercover before. He was originally from Boston but moved around a lot because of the foster homes. He had no other family or siblings. His best friend from the academy was called Nate, and he was like a brother to him. They shared an apartment in LA. Apparently, he did know how to wash his own clothes. His dream job was SWAT Front Line.

  He was really easy to talk to and was actually a funny guy. We ate while we talked, and boy he can eat a lot! I’d never seen anyone pack away as much food as he did, not without feeling sick anyway.

  “How long shall we say we’ve been together?” he asked cautiously as he polished off the last pack of chips.

  I shrugged. “I don’t care.” It honestly didn’t matter how long we said we’d been together. It wasn’t like a load of people were going to be hanging around and chatting to us about our relationship.

  “I think we should go for a year. That way we won’t have to be too touchy-feely. People are usually over that first passion thing by a year, aren’t they?” he asked thoughtfully. I glanced at him and laughed as I realised why he seemed so unsure. “What?” he asked, grinning.

  “Have you never had a relationship before?” I asked curiously. It seemed impossible that a gorgeous guy like him was without a girlfriend.

  “Nope, not really. I mean, I’ve been out with girls but never seriously. You’ll be my first,” he joked, winking at me.

  I raised one eyebrow knowingly. “And by never seriously, you mean you screw girls for fun before you screw them over,” I retorted.

  He frowned, looking a little hurt. “I don’t screw girls over! I just never really met anyone I wanted to be with properly before, and even if I had met the right girl, I wouldn’t have had time, my training took up a lot of my time,” he protested, shrugging.

  “You’re a player.”

  “I am not!” he protested adamantly.

  I nodded, giving him a sarcastic expression and laughed. “Whatever! Wanna swim?” I stood up, throwing my shades down onto his pile of clothes.

  “Sure. Is the water warm?” he asked, sticking his foot in. He immediately gasped and jerked his foot out. “Holy shit! That’s freezing. We can’t swim in that,” he mumbled, shaking his foot to dry it.

  “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 b
odies 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.

  He looked at me cockily. “Take your shoes off then, we’re only practicing, I don’t wanna get hurt.”

  I smiled, knowing that he didn’t think I was going to be able to hit him. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t. I’d tried three times already and hadn’t gotten anywhere near him. I slipped off my shoes and walked over to the training mats.

  I turned back to Ashton, who was standing there looking like a cocky, arrogant Greek God. “I’m gonna attack you and I want you to fight me off. You can really hit me, it’s fine. After, I’ll tell you where you can improve, okay?” he instructed, looking like he genuinely didn’t want to do this.

  I nodded and waited for him to approach. When he moved towards me, I quickly ducked out of the way, kicking my leg out towards his stomach. His hand wrapped around my ankle, holding it still as he swept my other leg out from under me. I slammed back into the padded mat with him on top of me.

  “Holy shit!” I gasped, trying to get the air back into my lungs. That was freaking awesome!

  �
��You okay?” he asked, looking a bit concerned as he hovered above me.

  I nodded. “Again,” I instructed, pushing him up. He shook his head, frowning, but helped me to my feet regardless of his noticeable unwillingness to do this.

  Within a minute I was on the floor again. I groaned as I rolled onto my side and pushed myself to my feet. My whole body was aching from my run, but I refused to quit. I faced him, watching as he winced. “Again,” I barked, bringing my arms up to protect my face. He sighed heavily and moved to attack me.

  After the fifth time of landing flat on my back, he pinned me to the floor, his body pressing into mine. “Enough now,” he said sternly. He wasn’t even slightly out of breath, whereas I was panting and sweating like a pig.

  “No, not yet,” I whined, struggling to talk through my wheezy breath.

  “That’s enough for today, Anna. I can’t do this. Look at you! If you want, I’ll teach you, but you need to slow down, you can’t keep doing this to yourself,” he protested.

  “Just one more time. Please?” I begged, trying to wriggle my arms free.

  “Okay, one more, if you’ll tell me why you do this to your body. Why do you train so hard?” he bargained, frowning.

  I gulped, knowing I needed to tell the truth if I wanted him to train me. “I want to be able to defend myself, and if the time comes and I ever see him again, I want to be able to kill him,” I confided.

  He blinked. “It looks to me like you’re trying to kill yourself too,” he observed, concern clear across his face.

  I shrugged at his comment. “Whatever. Him, me, what’s the difference? Either way it doesn’t matter,” I retorted, turning my head away from his intense gaze.

  He sucked in a shaky breath and his grip loosened on my wrists before he pushed himself up, pulling me to my feet. A pained looked was etched on his face as he spoke, “One more then like I promised, and then that’s it for today. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” I shifted into a slight crouch, preparing for him to attack me again.