Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance Read online

  Collateral Damage

  A Small Town Romance

  Giulia Lagomarsino

  Copyright © 2020 by Giulia Lagomarsino

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design courtesy of T.E. Black Designs

  www.teblackdesigns.com

  Created with Vellum

  To my readers, who continually stand behind me, trusting me to give them the best story I possibly can. Your support means the world to me, and I couldn’t do this without all of you!

  Contents

  1. Anna

  2. Robert

  3. Robert

  4. Anna

  5. Robert

  6. Anna

  7. Robert

  8. Anna

  9. Robert

  10. Anna

  11. Robert

  12. Anna

  13. Robert

  14. Anna

  15. Robert

  16. Anna

  17. Robert

  18. Anna

  19. Robert

  20. Anna

  21. Robert

  22. Anna

  23. Robert

  24. Anna

  25. Robert

  26. Anna

  27. Robert

  28. Anna

  29. Robert

  30. Anna

  31. Robert

  32. Anna

  33. Robert

  34. Robert

  35. Anna

  36. Robert

  37. Anna

  38. Robert

  39. Anna

  40. Robert

  41. Anna

  42. Robert

  43. Anna

  44. Robert

  45. Anna

  46. Robert

  47. Anna

  48. Robert

  49. Anna

  50. Robert

  Also by Giulia Lagomarsino

  Anna

  13 years ago…

  I sat on my bed reading my English Lit assignment. I couldn’t concentrate though. I kept thinking about Robert. He was so cute, and I was the one he wanted. Even though I was the poor girl on the wrong side of the tracks, he still wanted me.

  A tap on the window had me jumping out of my bed. Throwing the thin curtain aside, I smiled when I saw his beautiful face outside my window. He motioned for me to come outside. I held up my finger, telling him to hold on one minute. The windows in the trailer didn’t open, so if I was going to get out, I had to slip out the front door. My bedroom was on the opposite side of the trailer as my mom’s, but if she was in the living room, I wouldn’t be able to sneak out.

  I slowly crept down the hall until I could see into the living room. She was sitting in her recliner, beer in hand as she watched TV. Shit. I walked in as if I was just going to get water. “Hey, Mama.”

  She didn’t answer. I stepped closer and noticed that her eyes were barely open. Then I saw all the cans on the floor beside her. She was passed out. Just to be sure, I snapped my fingers in front of her face twice. She didn’t move. I ran back to my room and grabbed my canvas shoes and slipped them on, grabbing my jacket on my way back. I slowly pulled the door open and closed it as quietly as possible behind me. I ran down the metal steps, just touching the bottom step when Robert slipped his hand in mine and started running with me across the yard. We were soon out of reach of the outside light, and far enough that no one would see us.

  We started laughing as we looked back and realized that we made it. Robert pulled his arms around me and pulled me in for a kiss, his hand coming up to cup my face. Then he was smiling and taking my hand in his as he raced further into the night. We were out in the middle of the neighbor’s backyard. We were far from the house where nobody would see us. All you could see were the stars filling the sky above us. It was beautiful.

  He pulled me down to lay beside him in the grass and we stared up at the sky. “It’ll be nice when I’m eighteen and you don’t have to sneak me out anymore,” I laughed.

  “It’ll be nice when we can get away from this town.”

  “Where will we go?” I asked.

  He linked our hands together and stared up at the sky. “Chicago.”

  I laughed at the absurdity of it. “How would we afford to live in Chicago?”

  “We’ll go to school there. We both have the grades to get into a good school, maybe even get a full ride.”

  “But I can’t afford all the other stuff,” I pointed out. “A full ride will only get you so far.”

  “Then I’ll get a job and cover it for you.”

  “Or,” I said with a laugh. “I could get a job while you go to school. Maybe I could just go part time and work my way through school. I don’t have to do it all at once.”

  He rolled over and looked at me. “We could get an apartment. Maybe not right away, but we could figure something out. It won’t be fancy, but after I get my degree, I’ll get a good job and I’ll work my ass off to give you anything you want.”

  I pressed my hand to his face. “Don’t you know that all I want is you? Come on, I live in a trailer with a drunk for a mom. I don’t need fancy. I need someone that just wants me.”

  “I just want you,” he whispered. “I would do anything for you.”

  I huffed out a laugh. “Until your parents find out that you’ve been sneaking out to see me in the middle of the night.”

  “My parents love you. We could probably even convince them to let you come stay with us.”

  “I’m not going to ask your parents to let me live with them.”

  “They know what your mom’s like. Trust me, they would agree in a heartbeat.”

  “That’s sweet, but I can’t leave my mom. Who would look after her?”

  “Who’s looking after you?” he asked softly. “You’re not supposed to be the one taking care of your mom. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

  A lump formed in my throat at his words. There were so many days that I just wished that someone would take care of me. I was tired of being the one to make sure that groceries were in the house and the bills were paid. I hated that I had to have an after school job instead of playing sports like my friends. It was my job to clean up the house, and my job to collect the numerous beer cans from around her chair every morning. I wanted to hate my mom, but alcoholism was a sickness. I had done a lot of research on it.

  After my dad died, she just stopped caring. I wasn’t enough for her. She started drinking to feel better, and it wasn’t long before drinking was the only thing that brought her comfort. The bartenders had my phone number pinned to the wall at the bar, knowing when to call me, which happened at least once a week. But two weeks ago, she stopped going to work. She just gave up. We were running out of money, but I couldn’t tell Robert that. He was already angry at my mom for the way she treated me. I couldn’t tell him that we were about to lose everything. For one night, I wanted to escape. I wanted to feel like a normal teenager. I wanted to feel loved by someone with no expectations.

  I rolled toward him and rested my hand on his chest. “Robert, I want…I mean…I want to go all the way with you.”

  His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Anna, we already talked about this. We agreed we should wait.”

  Tears filled my eyes at his rejection. Damnit, just once I wanted to feel loved. “Please,” I whispered tearfully. “Just tonight. I just want you. I need you.”

  He slowly slid his hand through my hair and kissed me lightly. His hand
shook as he slid it over my body. I was scared. We hadn’t done that much. He had touched my breasts a few times, but we never took it further. I was asking him for so much more now, and I wasn’t completely sure that I was ready, but I was desperate to feel something else.

  His hand hovered over my jeans and he released a shaky breath. “Are you sure about this?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  His fingers fumbled as he tried to undo my buttons. “I’ll do it,” I said, taking over for him. I slowly pushed down my pants and my underwear, then pulled my shirt over my head. He stared at me, his eyes wide as he took everything in. I was nervous and immediately covered myself, sure that I wasn’t quite what he had imagined. He swallowed hard and quickly pulled off his pants and then his shirt. He fumbled in his wallet for a condom and quickly rolled it on.

  I leaned back in the grass, resting on my elbows as he climbed on top of me. We were both shaking, neither of us knowing what to do. His cock wedged itself between my legs and I widened them, accommodating him as best I could. He let out a shaky breath and laughed.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he confessed.

  “Neither do I.”

  “Okay,” he said, nodding slightly. “We’ll just…take this slowly.”

  “Okay.”

  He leaned down and kissed me, his warm skin pressing against mine as his hands started moving over my body. I was feeling so many things, but I had no idea what was normal and what was crazy. Then I felt his cock at my entrance.

  “Are you ready?”

  I nodded, unable to speak. He slowly started pushing in and I tightened in response. Tears filled my eyes with every move he made.

  “Oh, God, are you okay?” he said, completely panicked. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”

  “No, I want this.”

  He nodded and pushed forward some more. I could tell he was holding back. His whole body was shaking hard. In one hard thrust, he ripped through me, making me cry out in pain. He stopped immediately and pressed kisses to my lips, apologizing for hurting me. Eventually, he started moving again. His thrusts were jerky and unsure, but he never stopped kissing me. I didn’t come that time. I was just glad that it was over, that I had taken that step with him. When he came just minutes later, he looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. He kissed me softly and brushed my hair back from my face.

  “I love you, Anna.”

  I smiled, my body still shaking. “I love you too.”

  Robert

  “I’m heading upstairs to finish up my homework.”

  My mom raised an eyebrow at me. “I thought you finished that hours ago.”

  “Uh…I did, but I have this paper due next week. I just want to get a head start on it.”

  She didn’t believe me, and the way she was pursing her lips together told me she knew exactly what I was doing. I headed for the stairs when my dad called out to me from the living room.

  “Yeah?” I asked, taking a step toward him.

  “Come sit down.”

  Shit. I walked over and sat across from him on the couch. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Anna Richards.”

  “Yeah, we’re friends.”

  He nodded as he set his book down on the table. “You know, I remember what it was like when I met your mother. I couldn’t stay away from her. I had to be around her all the time. We were inseparable.”

  I shrugged, acting like it wasn’t a big deal. “We’re just good friends.”

  He nodded again. “You know that her family isn’t like ours.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? You think she’s not good enough for me?”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m saying that you should be careful. You’re in high school. You have this whole world waiting for you, but I want you to realize that your lives may not be heading in the same direction. Just be sure she’s the one you want before you toss in everything to be with her.”

  I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but I nodded anyway. Anything to end this conversation. “Right, well, I have homework to do.”

  “Just be careful, son. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

  I couldn’t think of anything that I could possibly do with Anna that I would regret. She was everything to me. I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life. A girl like her, someone with so much love in her heart, beautiful, smart, and thoughtful…that was all I really wanted or needed. She was always thinking about others. Everything revolved around making others happy. I’d never met someone like her before, and I never wanted to let her go.

  I went upstairs and waited the dreaded hour for everyone to go to bed. Then I waited another half hour before I climbed out my window and ran across the fields to get to her house. All the lights were off, but I knew she was awake. She always waited up for me. Out of breath, I ran up to her window and tapped gently, waiting for her to come to the window. When she appeared, a brilliant smile filled her face and she gave me the usual signal to wait. I hated that she had to sneak around her mom so much. I did it too, but she did it because her mom was an angry drunk. We were lucky that she hadn’t caught us yet.

  Three minutes later, her front door opened and she ran down the steps, throwing herself in my arms. I kissed her hard, feeling rejuvenated just from that one kiss. I took her hand in mine, and together, we ran off to our spot under the stars. Once we were in our spot, my hands started tearing at her clothes, desperate to feel her body against mine. I was just a kid. I wasn’t as smooth as I hoped I looked, but she didn’t seem to care. She just wanted me.

  We fell down to the grass where we kissed and touched. Everything was perfect. It had been for the last two months since I first made love to her. We laid in the grass, panting heavily as we held each other.

  “What are we going to do after the summer?” she asked quietly.

  I swallowed hard. I had plans, but those plans included her. I just hoped we were still on the same page with that. “I’m going to the University of Chicago, so I won’t be far.”

  She couldn’t afford to go to a big school, so she was going to a community college. I knew it would be hard on us, but we’d make it work. There was nothing that could keep me from my girl.

  “I’ve been saving up to get a car,” I told her. “Then I can come home every weekend and see you.”

  She smiled, but it was forced. I could tell she didn’t believe me. “Things are gonna be hard. College is going to be a lot of work. What if you can’t come home?”

  “Hey,” I said, pulling her closer. “I’ll always have time for you. There’s nothing that could keep me from you.”

  She snuggled in deeper and rested her head on my chest. We laid under the stars that night, and I prayed that she had enough faith in me to make this work. There was no one like Anna, and I wasn’t leaving her behind. She was mine forever.

  Robert

  13 years later…

  I pulled at the black bowtie strung around my neck and grimaced. I wanted to get the hell out of here. This was not how I wanted to spend my Saturday night. I glanced around the ballroom at all the other lawyers and stuffy assholes that congratulated each other on being the best in their field. Most of them were sleazy lawyers only out to make money. They didn’t give a shit about anyone’s problems. They cared about their bottom line.

  Not that I was much better. I was a divorce lawyer. One of the best in Chicago, and my rates reflected that. I worked my ass off to get where I was today and I was proud of that, but I really hated all the people I worked with. I couldn’t think of a single person in my firm that I respected. Blood-sucking parasites, all of them.

  I lifted my glass of scotch to my lips and swallowed the last of my drink. If only I hadn’t wrapped up that case yesterday. I would have had an excuse to get out of this damn event. It wouldn’t be long before the MC took the stage and started handing out awards. Fletcher Scott would get up on stage and congratulate himself for being the biggest dickhead on the
planet. Then Stephanie Sievers would go up and brag about the amazing charity work she did, all the while sucking the dick of the chairman of the board. That last part she would leave out. It wouldn’t be good for her image if people found out that she was sleeping with the chairman in exchange for favors.

  Like I said, blood-sucking lawyers. I was a blood-sucker too, but I used my powers in a different way. I collected information and then I used that information to win my way in court. Of course, that kind of stuff had to be saved for the right time. I didn’t waste that information on people that weren’t worth it, and I always saved it for cases that were particularly difficult. Yes, I blackmailed people to get my way. It was part of the job, and while I didn’t particularly like that I had become this way, there wasn’t much point in trying to change my ways now.

  “Hey,” a woman said, walking up to me with a come-hither look. She was beautiful in an obvious sort of way. She had long, dark hair that hung in huge Hollywood waves over her shoulder. A diamond clip shimmered on one side of her head, pulling back her hair. Her makeup was overdone in a classy way and her breasts were pushing up out of her dress. Enticing? Definitely. But as I stared at her, all I could think about was the girl that I left behind after high school.