Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Did she have any idea what she was doing to him? All he wanted to do was to reach out, grab her, and take her to his bedroom. Actually, he didn’t even need a bedroom, he’d gladly take her out here, in the open. His property was secure. No one would bother them.
“You’re dancing because it’s Friday?” he asked.
“No one needs a reason to dance, duh. You can dance just because you’re feeling happy, or because you did something awesome. I don’t need a reason to dance. Sometimes I dance if I add an herb or spice to a sauce, and it works.” She gave a little fist pump.
He didn’t know why her family was so irritated by her presence. He found her utterly refreshing.
****
Anna-Beth was always terrified of saying stupid stuff when it came to George Butterworth. Since she was ten years old, she had the biggest crush on this man. She hadn’t told a soul, not even her brother, and normally she told him everything, but he wasn’t to be trusted. Not with this kind of secret.
She already knew where her last secret had gotten her. She finally admitted to her brother that she didn’t want to be part of the family business, and that she hated all of it. He’d gone straight to Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa, uncles and aunts, and all of them had been so disappointed in her.
There was no way she was going to forget that weekend of ranting, finger-pointing, disapproving looks, and of course the constant disappointment. She was kind of used to disappointment.
She couldn’t believe she had just said “duh” in front of George. It was so stupid of her. She was a thirty-year-old woman, and yet she was still living with a twenty-year-old crush. This was insane.
The only thing she could do was try not to think about it. When Malcolm dropped her off, he warned her that George was a grumpy bastard. She didn’t know exactly what had happened to make him withdraw and become more of a recluse. Either way, he didn’t appear to be like the cutthroat and cruel people her own family were happy to be.
“You want me to dance?” he asked.
Anna-Beth smiled. “No, I don’t want you to dance, unless of course you want to dance. I’m not here to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.” Like fall in love with me, and love me the same way I do you. There was no way she was going to tell him her feelings.
He was her boss, and she was trying to keep it professional. In fact, she suddenly realized that asking her boss to dance with her was not professional. She couldn’t help but drop the smile, and then understood what a fool she must have looked like.
“Anna-Beth, what’s going on?” George asked.
“It’s nothing. You’re totally right. I shouldn’t be asking you to dance.” She clasped her hands together, as she had memories of all the times she’d not been a simple employee.
Malcolm had dumped her here, because he had nowhere else to put her. Also, she knew he’d chosen his friend’s place specifically to keep her out of the line of gossip. Dancing, doing yoga, singing, cooking, cleaning, actually having fun, was not part of the Knight handbook.
Firing people, being cruel, manipulation to get what they wanted—they were all traits she refused to use.
“Dinner will be ready at five,” she said, brushing past him.
Dancing on the grass like a lunatic was not a good idea. Even though she was completely and totally in love with George, and had been since she was young, that didn’t give her cause to act like an idiot.
She walked into the kitchen and went straight to the fridge where the brisket waited. She’d gotten it out of the freezer yesterday as there were a couple of recipes she wanted to try.
George always ordered his meat from the local butcher, in bulk, and then froze it. He’d then use it throughout each month, leaving the final piece of meat until he ordered another one.
She tried not to think about her family and what they were capable of. She’d never gotten along with them. Not even when she was a kid and had seen their antics up close. Of course, they didn’t realize she’d been watching. To her parents, kids were to be seen and not heard, and seeing as she was a surprise child ten years after Malcolm was born, she’d been raised by mostly nannies. Nannies she had loved.
There were one or two who’d been strict and cruel, but they hadn’t lasted long. She remembered when one nanny had gotten angry with her for not understanding math at a young age, and she’d smacked her bottom with a belt. Malcolm had come to see her, and instantly fired the nanny. She did love her brother, as she did her parents and the rest of her family. She just wasn’t like them.