She wrapped her arms around my neck as a slow song came on, her hips swaying seductively to the music. I never saw this side of Anna before, and perhaps she wasn’t normally like this, but I was going to enjoy it for tonight. My hand held her steady as I swung her to the beat of Sixteen Tons. I may have stepped on her toes once or twice. And I know for certain that she was stepping on my feet too, but it was the most fun I had ever had. Just her and me, and the music. Everything else was just background noise as I stared into those beautiful blue eyes.
By the time the music switched to a faster tempo, we were both sweating and ready for another drink. “Why don’t you get a seat and I’ll go to the bar and get us some drinks.”
“Sure,” she smiled.
I grabbed our drinks and was back by her side just a few minutes later. “Thanks. This is a lot of fun.”
“Better than the beef tongue?” I asked with a grimace.
She laughed, staring down at her drink. “I’m sorry for the way I reacted. This is all a little much.”
“What is?”
“Everything. The apartment, the fancy dinner, the wardrobe waiting outside the bathroom door…It’s just not who I am.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. “I just wanted a fun night. And as for the wardrobe, only wear what you like, but I want to be able to buy things for you. As your boyfriend, I should be allowed that privilege.”
“Boyfriend, huh?”
“Well, I haven’t had a girlfriend since I was in high school, and she was pretty great, so I figured I should give it another try.”
“What if I’m not cut out for all this?”
I glanced around the room and then back to her. “For what? A fun night out?”
“You know what I mean, Robert.”
“Actually, I don’t. It’s not like this is something that would happen every night. Neither of us has the time for that. But I wanted tonight to be special. I guess I failed on that account.”
“Robert-“
But I’d heard enough. I stood and buttoned my suit jacket, holding out my hand for her. If she didn’t want to be here, we wouldn’t stay. What I thought would be a lot of fun just turned out to be a bust. Just a half hour ago, she was laughing as I twirled her on the dance floor, but now she was questioning everything about our evening.
She placed her hand in mine and we silently headed for the door. I called the driver to pick us up, and helped her with her wrap. It was silent the entire short drive back to my place. I didn’t know what to say to her. Did she not want what I could give her? Or did she not actually want to give me a chance? I didn’t have the answers and I wasn’t about to discuss it in a car with a stranger.
I stepped out and helped her out of the car, then walked with her through the door, nodding to the night doorman.
“How are you, Ed?”
“Couldn’t be better, sir. There’s nothing like a beautiful Chicago night.”
“Except for a beautiful Chicago day,” I retorted with a grin.
He laughed and slapped me on the shoulder. “You’ve got me there.”
He smiled and said hello to Anna, but she only smiled uncomfortably back.
“Have a good night, Ed.”
“You too, Mister Cortell.”
We walked to the elevator and made our way up in silence. I was fuming. I hadn’t expected her to be rude to the doorman of all people. When I unlocked the door and we were inside, I finally lost it.
“So, what’s the problem? Is the doorman not good enough either? Did he do something to you too?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You couldn’t say hi?”
“Robert, I don’t know him. And frankly, I’m a little uncomfortable having someone open my door for me like a servant.”
“It’s his job, Anna. He gets paid to do it, and he’s one of the nicest guys I know.”
“Fine, I get it. I was being rude. I wasn’t trying to be, but I don’t fit in here. I don’t know what the protocols are around here. This isn’t my life!”
“Would you stop it!” I shouted. “I’m not asking you to transform into some Stepford wife. I asked you out to dinner, not to a gala that caters to the rich and famous.”
“No, but you expect me to dress up like one. Is that what this whole parade of dresses was about? You want me to look a certain way when we go out?”
“No,” I exploded. “I wanted to treat you to something nice. I wanted to spoil you. I wanted to give you just one fucking nice night! Is that really so hard to swallow? You can’t accept something from me because I’m the evil bastard that left you?”
She stood there staring at me, her jaw hanging open in surprise. “Is that what you think this is about?” she asked quietly. “Robert, this isn’t about me blaming you. I just…” She sighed and ran a hand across her forehead. “This is a lot to take in. I’ve never lived with all of this. I live on a budget and the nicest thing in my closet is laying on my bedroom floor in a ball. And I’m okay with that. I don’t want all the nice stuff and to be dressed up pretty. It’s not who I am. And I understand that you just wanted to take me out for a nice night, but you have to give a girl some warning. You’re throwing all this at me and I don’t know how to handle it. I need time to adjust to the way you live, and if we’re going to take a shot at this, then you have to give me that.”
“You’re right,” I nodded. “I moved too fast on all this.”
“I’m not saying that I don’t want this,” she said, walking over and wrapping her arms around my waist. “I do want to try, but maybe with a little less glamour. I just want to spend time with you right now.”
As hard as it was to hear, I could understand. Anna had never been about what money could buy her, so me shoving all this in her face, wanting her to dress up and taking her to that fancy restaurant was probably way too much for her. I should have known how uncomfortable she would be, but I was more worried about impressing her and giving her the things I wanted her to have.
“I’m sorry,” I said, kissing her on the lips.
“Me too. I should have behaved better.”
“Let’s just forget about it. Let’s start over tomorrow and just have a nice day together.”
“I’d like that.”
“Good. Now,” I said, swooping her off her feet. “We’re going to finally get to see what makeup sex is all about.”
Anna
I woke up in luxury, but I still wasn’t used to it. There was some magical keyboard that controlled all the electronics in the house. He had one in every room, but I didn’t understand any of it. It was like when I got in his car and he asked me to hook up his bluetooth. First, what the hell was bluetooth? Second, I was excited that my car had a tape deck. He had all these fancy touchless buttons on his car and I didn’t have the first clue how to use them. Okay, fine, I knew what bluetooth was, but as far as the rest, I was clueless.
I grabbed the keyboard, sure that I could figure this out based on the graphics. It couldn’t be that hard, right? I saw three vertical lines and underneath a plus and minus sign. Okay, so that must be curtains and they could be raised or lowered? Curtains usually went side to side, but what the hell? I hit the plus sign over and over, hoping something would happen. I heard yelling in the bathroom and then a crash. I sat up and quickly rushed to the bathroom door, flinging it open. Robert was lying on the floor, panting and kicking at the shower door to close it.
“What’s going on?”
“The temperature shot up. It was scalding.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Wow, that’s dangerous. You should have that looked at.”
“Did you touch the controls?”
I looked at him funny. “I was in bed. How would I have touched the controls?”
“On the touchpad,” he said, standing and grabbing a towel off the towel rack. I watched his abs flex as he wrapped the towel around himself, covering up his insanely hot body. I sighed when it was covered.
“What?” I asked,
remembering that he asked me a question.
“Did you use the touchpad?”
“In the bedroom? Uh, yeah, I was trying to get the blinds to go up.”
He sighed and grabbed my wrist, dragging me behind him. He picked up the control panel thing and held it in front of me. “Show me what you touched.”
I searched for the button again and then pointed to it. “That one.”
“That’s for the shower,” he said irritatedly.
“Really?” I looked at it closer, tilting my head to the side. “It looks like a curtain.”
“Do you see any curtains in here?”
“Um…no, but why would you have a button for the shower on a control thingy out here?” I asked, waving the keyboard around.
“Because I can set the temperature before I get into the shower.”
I stared blankly at him. “You have too much money on your hands if you can’t even adjust the water temperature manually.”
“It’s a luxury that I happen to like. I won’t apologize for that.”
“I’m not asking you to, but I also won’t hesitate to call you a dumbass for having a control panel for your shower. What’s next? Do you have a preset for the oven on here also?”
He glared and snatched the keyboard out of my hands. “I thought we were supposed to be getting to know each other better.”
I snorted. “I am, trust me, I’m getting to know a lot about you, and from what I can tell, you’ve lost the ability to do even the simplest tasks without a computer guiding you. I bet you even have a timer telling you when it’s time to get laid.”
He tossed the keyboard on the bed and pulled me against him. “No, but my dick tells me just fine.”
He tossed me down on the bed and climbed on top of me, ripping my nightshirt over my head. His lips latched onto my nipple as his fingers moved down my body.
“You’re so damn mouthy,” he grumbled, skimming his lips over my body.
“Did your keyboard tell you to say that?” I said, breathing heavily as I yanked his head back up to my mouth. I rolled him and climbed on top, rubbing my pussy against his cock.
“What happened to the sweet, innocent girl that I used to make love to under the stars?”
I grabbed his cock and slowly sank down on him. “She grew up and realized that if you let people walk all over you, they always will.”
He thrust up inside me and I hissed at the burn. He was big and I was still sore from the last time we fucked. “That’s what you think I’m doing?”
“I don’t know. “ I started riding him harder, lifting my hair off my shoulders to thrust my chest out. He sat up and took a nipple in his mouth, sucking hard. “I don’t know anything about you anymore.”
“I’m still the same man. The packaging is just different.”
“I liked the old packaging,” I gasped, clenching down hard as he started pumping inside me harder and harder. It was so much better than I remembered, but having great sex with a man I no longer knew wasn’t as good as making love to a boy that understood everything about me.
He rolled me over, lifting a leg over his shoulder and started pounding into me. His eyes watched mine as they drifted closed with every thrust. I came hard, squeezing around him until he pumped one final time into me and collapsed on top of me.
I stared up at the ceiling as my heart continued racing. I was stuck. I wanted the man I used to know, but he didn’t exist. This harder, more expensive version had come in and taken over, and I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted. Nothing about us fit anymore. We didn’t have the same dreams or ambitions, and I had a feeling that I was the only one that was seeing that. Robert had blinders on. He thought we could recreate what we once had. But he hadn’t been there. He didn’t sit with me after I gave up our son. He didn’t see the years of depression that I went through, not just because my mom had overdosed, but because I had done something no teenager should have to do, and I did it alone. No one was there for me, and the one person I thought I could count on had disappeared. It had taken me years to realize that no one was coming to rescue me from the hell I was in. I had to do that myself. And when I was finally able to do it, I decided that I wouldn’t be the pushover I once was. I would be strong enough and know my own mind enough that I would never make decisions based on what someone else wanted.
So, as I laid there in Robert’s arms, I knew that when the weekend was over, so were we. I knew that I wanted to live in that small town with those simple people. I didn’t want fancy cars, clothes, meals, or even the fancy apartment. I wanted something that was mine, that no one could take from me. And I also knew that there was no way Robert would understand any of that.
Robert
I ordered food tonight since last night was a bust. I had wanted to show her a good time, but it didn’t really turn out the way I hoped. I knew she enjoyed the dancing, but it just wasn’t her thing. I had stupidly thought that I could bring her into my world and show her a side of me that could spoil her rotten. It turned out that she didn’t want to be spoiled rotten. But to me, it was more than that. When I walked away from her, I left her to years of doing things the hard way. I wanted to make up for that. Maybe it was guilt, or maybe it was just wanting her to be able to take it easy, but it seemed like no matter what I tried, I always got it wrong. So, tonight we were doing things low key. I ordered pizza and rented some movies, and that’s all we were doing.
“So, what movie are we watching?” I asked as I closed the front door and brought the pizza inside. I set the box on the kitchen table and brought out plates, setting them at the table. She looked at me funny.
“Are we not eating while we watch TV?”
“Uh…no. That’s what a kitchen table is for.”
“Right, but we’re having pizza and watching a movie. Why wouldn’t we do those together?”
I glanced in the other room. “We can see the TV from here.”
She looked in the other room and then smirked at me. “You’re afraid I’ll spill on your white carpet.”
I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. This has nothing to do with spilling. It’s about sitting at the table, where food belongs.”
“Except, you were willing to eat in front of the TV so you could watch the game on Thanksgiving.”
“Yeah, but that was different. That was my brother’s house.”
She nodded ruefully. “And he lives in the country, whereas you live in the city and you have all this really nice stuff that you don’t want to get dirty.”
“You make me sound like a clean freak or something.”
“No, just neurotic about your white carpet, and your white walls, and your white decorations,” she smiled.
“It’s not like I designed this stuff. Someone came in and did it for me.”
“Uh-huh,” she grinned. “I totally believe you.”
“I have the number of the designer. I could call her right now and prove it.”
“Oh, I’m sure. I don’t doubt you for a second.”
“But you still don’t believe me.”
“I believe you. I just think that you also like how expensive everything looks.”
“I don’t care about that stuff,” I said irritatedly.
“Are you sure?”
She picked up her glass of red wine and walked into the living room, taking a sip. “So, if I were to accidentally spill red wine on your very white carpet, you wouldn’t freak out about that?”
I clenched my jaw in irritation. “Of course, I would be upset. You’re doing it on purpose. I don’t go into your place and trash it just for fun.”
“But if it were an accident…”
I huffed in irritation. “I mean, I guess it’s not that big of a deal. I can have the carpet replaced.”
Her jaw dropped. “Replaced? You would replace your carpet before trying to get the stain out?”
I ran my hand over my eyes, already irritated with this conversation. “What does it matter?” I walked over and snatched the g
lass from her hand. “You’re talking about things that haven’t happened, nor will they happen because you’re not eating pizza or drinking red wine in my living room.”
My phone rang and I pulled it out, sighing when I saw it was my boss. “Mr. Mosley,” I answered with more enthusiasm than I felt. I watched as Anna walked back over to me and snatched her wine glass.
“Robert, I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time.”
Like I could tell him he was. Jameson Mosley didn’t care what time of day or night it was. If he wanted you for something, you answered the damn phone and you did it happily.
“Of course not, sir.”
“Good, good. I know it’s a holiday weekend, but I just heard from a discreet source that Rebecca Morrison is getting divorced. Apparently, she caught Chadwick cheating on her with the nanny.”
My jaw dropped. “Rebecca Morrison, as in…”
“The woman that owns half of Chicago,” he said. I could hear the grin in his voice.
“Sir, I’m not sure what you want me to do. I can represent her, but Illinois is no fault and-“
“I’m well aware of that. Tell me, did you file that application for reciprocity in New Hampshire?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We’ll look into that immediately. I need you to come into the office now. Rebecca is on her way in to discuss moving forward with the divorce.”
I glanced over at Anna, who had taken her pizza to the living room and was smirking at me as she pretended to spill her drink on my carpet. I didn’t want to leave her. I promised her three days. If I left now, how was I going to convince her to stay with me?
“Sir, perhaps you should get Chelsea to take this case. Rebecca might be more comfortable with a woman representing her.”
“Chelsea isn’t a shark. She doesn’t have that killer instinct like you do. We need to land this case, Robert. Are you coming in or do I need to assume that you don’t want to become a senior partner in the firm?”
I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I had been working toward partner since I joined the firm. I was one of the best attorneys in the best firm in Chicago. This offer had been dangling in front of me for the past year, but they refused to go through with it, wanting to keep me on my toes until some of the senior partners retired. If the rumors were correct, Davidson was retiring at the end of the year. That was only a little over a month away. If I landed this case, I would be a senior partner in the firm, and finally achieve what I had been trying for years.
Collateral Damage: A Small Town Romance Page 12