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)
After their whirlwind wedding, they had a short honeymoon, and then work took over. Not only did she want to prove her family wrong, but she wanted to make this work for George. The press had been all over this new division within George’s company. There were a lot of people who were critical and wanted to see it fail.
In the past three months, she’d watched it grow stronger.
Of course, George nearly had a panic attack when he learned she was pregnant. They hadn’t exactly been careful all the times they had sex, not that she had a problem with that. George had been the only man she had ever wanted to be with. Her love for him had never diminished in the twenty years she had known him, and had only gotten stronger, just as she knew it would.
“It’s nothing. Either digestion, which sounds gross to me, or our baby is moving.”
George rushed over and placed his hand on her stomach. She couldn’t help but smile as he always did this while pulling her into an embrace. She wasn’t going to complain with him holding her.
She loved it when he wrapped his arms around her, breathed her in, and she could just close her eyes and fall into him. That was all she wanted to do.
“I don’t even know if after three months our baby can kick,” she said.
George kissed her head. “Let me call the doctor.” He’d already pulled out his cell phone and Anna-Beth took it from him.
“Let’s not.”
“Anna-Beth, don’t you want to know? And I’m not doing any of those crazy Internet searches either.”
Yeah, they had ended up at the hospital after he did one of those as he felt she was hiccupping too much. After that, she and the doctor agreed to keep George in check. She did her best, but the man was a machine.
“We’re not going to do Internet searches, and we’re going to enjoy this together.” She cupped his face and pulled him in close for a kiss. “Have I told you today how much I love you?”
“Yes, but I don’t have a problem hearing it.”
“Have I ever told you that when I was ten years old, the first moment I saw you, I knew I wanted to marry you?” she asked, trying to distract him.
“No, you’ve never told me that.”
It was so much easier to distract him with the truth.
She ran her hands over his chest, playing with the lapel of his shirt.
“You’re lying?” he asked.
“No, I’m not lying. I’m telling you the truth.” She went onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. “I loved you then.”
“Anna-Beth, I was twenty years old.”
“I know, and my young heart didn’t care. I knew what I wanted, and I wanted to be with you. I loved you then and every time Malcolm brought you around, I tried to think of stuff to say to you.”
“We never talked,” he said.
“Exactly. I had no idea what to say to you, but now I know what I want to say.” She kissed him again.
“I didn’t love you as a ten-year-old girl,” George said.
“That’s good to know.”
“But the moment Malcolm brought you to my house, I couldn’t stop watching you. I was drawn to you. When he told me he was looking for men to marry you off to, I couldn’t stand it.” He pulled her in close, banding his arms around her. She stared into his possessive eyes, and George didn’t disappoint. “You’re mine,” he said.
“I’m yours.”
“Don’t forget it.”
This time, she slid her hands down toward his ass, in the same way he held onto her. She gave his ass a squeeze and nearly burst out laughing. “And you’re mine?”
“Always, Anna-Beth.”
The moment his lips touched hers, Anna-Beth knew she was no longer dreaming. This was real, so very real.
This was her life, and she loved every second of it.
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
“I’m not letting her date,” George said.
“She’s ten,” Anna-Beth said.
“I don’t care if she’s fifteen or eighteen, or twenty-one, I know how to shoot. I’m going to buy a gun.”
He loved hearing Anna-Beth’s laugh, but not at a moment like this.
“Tania is not dating the Cooper boy. They’re friends, honey, and besides, that boy idolizes you. He wouldn’t do anything to upset you.” Anna-Beth put her book down and crawled across the bed to wrap her arms around him.
George needed it. None of the books even began to talk about what it was like to be a father to ten-year-olds, or soon-to-be teenage girls. He’d been a teenage boy, he knew what kind of assholes his daughter faced, and they were not fun, happy ones. They were horny, only after one thing.
“Do you think I could talk to his parents?” George asked.
“You’re not going to do anything of the sort. Remember when Tania was first born, and you held her in your arms, and you said, ‘please don’t turn me into one of those dads that are not cool’?”