You’re Mine (Crave and Claimed #6)

Chapter Four

The following day, George hadn’t been expecting Malcolm to visit. His friend had called earlier and asked to meet at a restaurant. George refused and insisted on his friend coming to his home. Anna-Beth wasn’t aware her brother was here, and if she was, she’d made herself scarce.

She had avoided him since last night in the weight room, and he didn’t quite know why. He’d wanted to break this impasse between them, and Malcolm suddenly turning up out of the blue didn’t help. His friend needed to leave.

Malcolm had never asked him to not touch his little sister. There was no agreement between them, to be … he didn’t even know what the fuck it was.

“What couldn’t wait?” George asked.

“First, how is my sister doing?” Malcolm asked.

“You’ve come to check up on your sister?”

“No, no, no, of course not. I figured if she wasn’t doing the job properly, you’d have already gotten rid of her. How is she doing, though? You know, in your professional opinion.”

George took a deep breath and he wanted to remove Malcolm from his home. “She’s amazing.”

“What?” Malcolm asked.

“Yes, your sister is an incredible housekeeper. I’ve got no complaints and if you’re here to take her from me, then I’m going to say no.”

Malcolm smiled. “That is awesome news. I knew she worked hard. I never had any complaints from the HR department. She just kind of irritated Dad, and my uncle, and a few other people.”

George wasn’t interested in hearing what she did, unless Anna-Beth wanted to tell him. He knew how the business world worked, and what irritated her parents he had a feeling was justified in their minds. He also didn’t want to get in the way of family.

He needed Malcolm to leave, so that he could come up with his own plan of seducing Anna-Beth. That’s what he had decided to do. He couldn’t get her out of his mind, and being near her was making him want things he didn’t even realize he wanted, but he did—with her.

“I love catching up and stuff, but if you want to see your sister, then I need to get back to work.”

“Actually, this has to do with Anna-Beth, but I want your advice,” Malcolm said.

This did make George stop. He and Malcolm were close, but they’d never talked about how to deal with his sister. This was completely new to him.

“I’m listening.”

“Dad is pissed. There’s no point in denying it. He’s not happy with how Anna-Beth has been, and he thinks the best way to keep her out of trouble is to find a man for her.”

“What?” George asked.

“Yeah, Dad intends to find a suitable husband for her to marry. I was hoping you could help us out and start talking to Anna-Beth about settling down.”

“You’re not going to ask for her input?” George asked.

“It’s not important. For her own safety, and you know, to keep her out of trouble.”

George sat back and couldn’t believe he was sitting opposite his friend. “You do realize what you’re saying to me?”

“I care about my sister and I want what’s best for her,” Malcolm said.

“No, you’re not saying that at all. What you’re really saying is that you want Anna-Beth to be kept busy. Marrying her off keeps her from being your problem.” George got to his feet. He’d heard enough and now, he felt like he might have even heard too much.

“Dad is not going to let this go, George. You know what he’s like.”

“I don’t want to talk to you about this,” he said.

George hated the thought of Anna-Beth being sold off to one of their associates. Another wealthy man, who would make money from the deal. Taking the annoying Knight girl and forcing her to become the wife she needs to be. George knew that was exactly what would happen. Her smile would be gone, as would her dancing and her horrible taste in music. She wouldn’t be doing yoga on the back lawn.

He could see her future now—being forced into etiquette classes, having children, endless charity galas, and her being the butt of the joke at who she used to be.

“Will you at least think about it?” Malcolm asked as they got to the front door.

Before George could respond, Anna-Beth came around the corner, carrying a basket of laundry. So, she did the laundry as well, which explained how his clothes were done and no bill was presented to him. George had never seen her doing it, but his clothes were always cleaned and neatly pressed each night when he got to his room. She also put them away in his closet.

“Malcolm, I had no idea you were here,” Anna-Beth said, pulling her earbuds out of her ears and moving toward her brother. She put the laundry basket down, and then went to her brother to hug him.

“I, uh, yeah, it was just a quick trip to come and see George. You know, talking about a hunting trip.”

Anna-Beth pulled away and frowned. “Hunting trip? You guys never went hunting.”

George was not going to help his friend out of this one. He was still pretty pissed at him for what he was asking him to do.

“There is always a first time for everything,” Malcolm said.

“True. Do you want to stay a while?” she asked.

“Nah, I’ve got to head back to work.” Malcolm kissed her head. “I’ll see you soon, kiddo.”

****

Something was going on.

Ever since Malcolm had left just before lunch, George had locked himself away in his office. He’d taken his lunch in there alone, as well as his dinner. He was avoiding her.

Anna-Beth lay in bed and stared up at her ceiling, trying to figure out what it could be. She didn’t know what was going on between her brother and George. Her ceiling wasn’t giving her the answers, and tossing and turning all night wasn’t going to help.

This was why she avoided shows with cliffhanger endings. She couldn’t stand not knowing what was going to happen next, and it drove her crazy.

She shoved her blankets off and put on some slippers, before leaving her room to head downstairs to the kitchen.

Opening the fridge, she looked inside to see milk, and nothing else tickled her fancy. So, she opened the freezer, and there were several cartons of ice cream. This would help. She tried to avoid ice cream to snack. She’d never had a sweet tooth, but when it came to ice cream, she couldn’t resist. Mint chocolate was her favorite, and taking the lid off, she dug a spoon inside and began to eat. She’d taken several scoops when the light turned on. Spinning around, she saw George standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“You know, it’s not ideal to sneak around.”

She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t sneaking around,” she said.

“Ice cream?”

Anna-Beth held out the carton. “Want some?”

She saw him hesitate and shoving the spoon into her mouth, she grabbed a second spoon. There was no way she was sharing her spoon. George took the spoon, and they sat on each end of the counter.

“Do you want to tell me what has kept you up?” he asked.

She thought about it and then shook her head. “I don’t know if you can help me or not.”

“A problem shared is a problem halved, right?”

“I guess. It’s about Malcolm.” It was subtle, but she saw him tense up. Also, it was kind of easy to see, as he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she was doing her best not to ogle his body.

“What about him?”

“He was acting strange, so normally when he acts like that, it means he has to do something he doesn’t want to do.”

“You know your brother well,” George said.

“Yeah, but normally that means it has to do with me, which also means Dad has come to a decision and I’m not going to like it. Boarding school is out of the question, and I don’t know if they would send me back to school for business.”

He wasn’t meeting her eyes.

“George, do you know why my brother was uncomfortable this afternoon?”

He shoved some chocolate ice cream into his mouth and then looked at her. She loved his dark-brown eyes. “No, but I am curious, what would you do if your dad … was, uh … thinking about finding you a husband?”

At first, his words didn’t register, but when they did, Anna-Beth’s mouth opened and then closed. “Oh. I don’t know, I guess I’d have to consider who he wanted me to marry.”

She couldn’t look at George. So that was what they were going to do with her, or at least, that’s what they were hinting at. They had threatened many times to find her a husband, but they never actually did it. Looking at her empty spoon, she felt sick to her stomach. This couldn’t be happening. This was unfair, and she didn’t even know for certain if that was what they were going to do.

“Anna-Beth?” George asked.

“It’s fine. Of course it’s going to be fine.” She felt tears spring to her eyes. She got to her feet.

There was no way she was going to marry a husband that they chose. This was horrible. This was worse than what she thought they might do.

She should have seen this coming. Sending her to a friend’s house to work was one thing, but she must have really pissed them off for them to consider marrying her off, for real this time.

Anna-Beth didn’t know when she had stood, or that she was freaking out, but all too soon, strong arms grabbed her hard. She stared into George’s brown eyes. They were strong, confident, and she knew no one was going to mess with him. Those hands that had grabbed her arms suddenly cupped her face.

“Look at me, breathe. That’s it, breathe.”

In freaking out, she had forgotten to breathe, and now, watching George, she followed his movements, taking several deep breaths, and slowly expelling them. She breathed in and out, and then George pulled her into his arms and held onto her tightly.

“I don’t want to get married,” Anna-Beth said.

“I’ve got you.”

Did he have her? She didn’t belong to George. Her family was going to marry her off, to become someone else’s problem, because they could no longer stand for her to be their problem.

Tears prickled at her eyes, and were ready to fall again. She loved her family, but this wasn’t fair, which made her feel like a child.

George tilted her head back and he looked into her eyes. “I’m not going to let them do anything to you, okay?”

She nodded her head, but she didn’t quite believe it. They were her parents, and she knew they didn’t know the meaning of failing. They always got what they wanted. Always. No one had been able to win against them.

She couldn’t help but look at George’s lips. She had thought about kissing him so many times.

You’re a virgin.

About to be forced to marry a man you don’t love.

Your parents don’t know you’re a virgin.

Kiss him.

Anna-Beth didn’t know what happened, she was pretty sure George was leaning toward her as she closed the distance at the same time. One moment, they were staring at one another, and then in the next moment, his lips were on hers and she lost all sense of thought.

For twenty years, she’d been thinking about this kiss, and it was even better than anything she had ever imagined.