A Beautiful Struggle Read online

  A Beautiful Struggle

  Books by Lilliana Anderson

  Confidante: The Brothel

  A Beautiful Struggle

  Coming Soon

  Confidante: The Escort

  Confidante: The Madame

  For information on upcoming releases visit

  http://lillianaanderson.weebly.com

  A Beautiful Struggle

  Lilliana Anderson

  2013

  Copyright 2013, Lilliana Anderson

  All rights reserved

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means without the prior written permission of the author of this book.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental. Any actual places, products or events mentioned are used in a purely fictitious manner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various places/products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission and is by no way sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Ebook ISBN-13: 978-1-291-26117-2

  Print ISBN-10: 1480159344

  Design by Ember Designs

  Printed by CreateSpace Publishing USA

  Dedication –

  To Wade

  for helping me change the important things

  ‘Sticks and stones are hard on bones,

  Aimed with angry art,

  Words can sting like anything

  But silence breaks the heart.’

  Phyllis McGinley, "Ballade of Lost Objects," 1954

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Foreward

  This book started off as something very different to what it is now.

  Originally, I had planned to try my hand at writing several erotic short stories for a bit of fun. I had started this book as a document titled ‘Office Job’ and was going to simply write about co-workers romping around the office, wherever they could manage.

  However, the characters came alive in my mind and started to tell me that there was more to their story than mere sex. I would wake in the morning and the first thing I would think of would be them.

  Still tied up finishing the editing process of Confidante: The Brothel, I was unable to listen to them fully. I felt slightly tortured by them for a while as they stayed in my head and begged me to write them. When Confidante was completed, I took one week off and then entered NaNoWriMo – completing the first draft of A Beautiful Struggle in 22 days. Their story was so fluid in my mind that I just needed to sit and let my fingers flow over the key board.

  I sincerely hope you enjoy the story of Katrina, Elliot and David. I know that I enjoyed writing them.

  Acknowledgements

  First and foremost I must thank all of the Beta readers and Advanced reviewers who agreed to look over this book.

  Melissa, Bree, Mia, Jade, Rachel, Sara, Ginnie, GW, Courtney, Crystal & Vicki.

  Whether, you loved it, hated it, or just couldn’t find the time to read it – I still greatly appreciate the support you gave me, no matter how small.

  There is one more reader that I really want to thank separately and that is Pati – she is the Beta Reader Extraordinaire and provided me with invaluable feedback for this book as well as becoming the muse for a sequel idea. Pati, you are magnificent! Thank you, thank you! I hope you like the changes I made since we last conversed.

  Another thank you is of course to my editor (WS) for being tough with me and making me rework so much of this book and cut out a lot of superfluous junk.

  I also want to thank my family, especially my husband for supporting me while I write. My husband listened to my ideas and gave me great story suggestions, and held my hand while I bit my fingernails nervously while I waited for reviews to come back.

  The very last thank you is to you, the person reading right now – you are the whole entire reason that I have worked so hard to create this book. Enjoy.

  Prologue

  “Oh my god! Why are you making me sit through this girly movie?” David complained as the couple on the screen struggled with their attraction to each other yet again.

  Laughing at him, I answered, “Because it was my turn to pick – you made me sit through that horrible action movie last time, so consider us even.”

  “Fine,” David grumbled. “But I need more beer to get through this, do you want one?”

  Shaking my head no, I lifted my legs from his lap so he could stand. I didn’t think that my boyfriend Christopher would be happy if he came home from work and I was rolling around on the floor, drunk with David. Actually, David needed to be gone before Christopher got home. They weren’t exactly friendly with each other.

  I sucked in my breath as I heard the key enter the door and click it open, it was as if the thought had been enough to conjure him.

  David spun around and locked eyes with me, his own as wide as mine were. Gulping, I watched as Christopher walked through the front door and prepared myself for the verbal tirade that was sure to follow.

  “You’re early,” I pointed out, my heart thumping loudly as I flicked my worried gaze toward David in the kitchen.

  Christopher followed my line of sight, his face darkening as he spotted my friend.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” Christopher bellowed at David, giving him zero chance to respond before he marched towards him, planting the full force of his fist into the side of David’s face rocking him back on his heels before he slowly fell.

  “No!” I screamed, covering my mouth in horror as I watched David fall to the floor. “What are you doing, Christopher!? Get away from him!”

  My protests were futile. As David scrambled to get up, Christopher grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him to the door, throwing him unceremoniously out into the hallway.

  “Stay the fuck away for good this time!” he yelled at David before slamming the door and flicking the lock.

  As Christopher turned his attention to me, I stopped breathing but my heart raced.

  “You!” he bellowed, I felt the bile rise in my throat as he charged towards me, his face twisted with fury.

  Chapter 1

  If my life was a movie, it would have been playing Dolly Parton’s ‘nine to five’ as I entered the building in Sydney’s Martin Place that housed the law offices of Turner Barlow & Smith. It was my first day as the part-time librarian, actually it was my first job full stop, and I was nervous as hell.

  The music would have then come to a screeching halt after I had exited the lift and approached the reception area to introduce myself.

  The frosty receptionist - taking an instant disliking to me, that was made painfully obvious; gave me a look that told me I was no better than the crud under her beautifully manicured fingernails.

  I have to admit I felt a little intimidated by her looks; she was beautifully made up and very curvaceous - she looked like one of those sexy cartoon pin up girls you see from war time posters, with jet-black hair cascading down over
her shoulders and a bust daring to break through her fitted blouse that a flat chested girl like me would pay dearly for.

  Despite feeling a little ill at ease by the frostiness of her gaze bearing down on me. I took a deep breath and boldly told her who I was and why I was there. She tilted her head back and looked down her nose at me - a difficult thing to do to someone as tall as me, but she succeeded insurmountably; and told me curtly to sit and wait for the office manager.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned and looked at the reception waiting area, sighing when I saw the low-set furniture. I walked towards it wondering how the heck I was going to fold my long legs in some sort of a dignified manner, so I wouldn’t flash the office manager when he or she came out. I chose to perch on the edge of a cream leather couch with my knees angled down and legs tucked to the side, imagining that I looked a little like a daddy long legs spider but not having much choice in the matter.

  I had applied for this job in the hopes that it would be a foot in the door by the time I graduated. I was two years into studying a humanities/law degree at the University of Western Sydney, Parramatta campus - which was only half an hour's drive away from my home in Cranebrook, one of Sydney's western suburbs.

  I was originally born in Penrith (or Penriff, as a lot of people jokingly call it) but my parents had saved as much money as they could to buy a new house and move out to Cranebrook which they considered to be a step up in the world. It wasn’t – it’s the suburb right next door to Mount Pleasant, home to one of the largest public housing estates in the west.

  There was a fair bit of crime in the area, my car had been broken into numerous times, but we had been lucky and never had our house broken into. So, in the grand scheme of things, it was no big deal – petty crime was just something you dealt with when you were a blue-collar family living in an area that housed people both less and more fortunate than you.

  The best way for me to travel to work was via train, which took about an hour. I had woken up extremely early that morning as I really wanted to make a good first impression - taking an extraordinary amount of time getting ready, ensuring I looked just right.

  I had chosen a black pinstripe skirt that came to my knees with a crimson satin blouse and low heeled black maryjane shoes. I had straightened the natural wave out of my long honey blonde hair so it sat just below my shoulders, wearing enough makeup to cover a scar that ran along my hairline and to give my lips and cheeks a rosy glow.

  My goal was to look professional but be comfortable enough to climb ladders while I lugged books up and down the shelves. I thought the effect worked well and was at least feeling good about my looks despite being nervous about my job. I had even caught the earlier train in to the city from Penrith station just to make sure I had plenty of time to navigate my way from Wynyard station to my new workplace on the corner of Martin Place and Phillip St.

  I only had to sit awkwardly on the low-set chairs for a few minutes before a small woman who appeared to be in her mid-30s and of Indian origin came out to greet me. “Hello, my name is Priya. I am the office manager,” she said extending her hand in greeting. “You must be Katrina.”

  I immediately rose, dwarfing Priya with my six feet of height, smiled and shook her hand. “Yes, that’s me. It’s lovely to meet you.”

  Priya looked up at me and said the first thing most people say upon meeting me, “My, you’re a tall one aren’t you?” I smiled and nodded to be polite while inwardly rolling my eyes. “Follow me and I will show you around the office.”

  I did as I was told, following closely behind her and trying to take in as much information about my surroundings as possible.

  Priya spoke over her shoulder and pointed things out as we went along, “In here are the conference rooms, you only need to know about them for drinks on Friday nights – there is a social committee that is in charge of all that, you can join if you like. Mary runs it all and should come to talk to you about it at some point today.”

  We continued down the corridor, past different offices and cubicles. Priya explained that the corner offices were for the partners, and the middle offices were for the junior and senior solicitors. Outside the offices were the personal assistant's cubicles and then there was a row of offices inside for accounts and other support staff. Administration had a cubicle section all of its own, and in the very centre of everything were the filing room, the library and the break room.

  “Here is where you will be working,” said Priya. I looked at the large room lined with built-in bookcases that reached the ceiling, as well as two rows of smaller bookcases lining the centre. There were two desks against the outer wall with a reference computer on one, and a microfiche reader on the other, in between those was a photocopier.

  My own desk was in the corner. It had a low cubicle divider around it with a computer and an in/out tray that was piled high with mail, law journal updates and microfiche slides.

  “Wow, this is bigger than I expected,” I stated.

  “Not too big I hope,” Priya smiled before launching into the next part of my orientation. “Now, you will be responsible for making sure all the books are in the correct place of course, as well fetching any books that people have removed. They have to check the book out, but sometimes they just take it, so you may have to do some hunting at times.

  “You will need to stocktake once a fortnight to make sure you have a list of any missing books. Most importantly, you need to keep the law journals up to date; new updates come in regularly.”

  She pulled an update from my in tray and showed me the instruction sheet that told me what pages to add and take away, I couldn’t see myself having difficulties with it. “Also, you have to sort these microfiche into order and then give them to one of our junior solicitors, Elliot; he is responsible for updating the system with those.”

  “Oh, I thought the microfiche would be in here because the readers are here,” I interrupted.

  “No, they are kept with the files, but you will get people leaving them in here, sometimes in the reader itself. Just sort them and return them all to Elliot, he will deal with them. He also catalogues the law magazines that get sent to us. I will take you to meet him now so you know where his office is.”

  Priya led me down the corridor and into an open area, where a group of PA desks were clustered, surrounded by window offices. She came to a stop outside a small windowed office right next to the Partner’s, and tapped on the door before opening it. A man in his early 20s looked up from his work revealing the most vivid blue eyes I had ever seen. My breath caught a little as I drank him in. Even through his dress shirt I could see how well muscled he was, his face showing that smattering of stubble I loved on a man. I don’t know how else to describe him except to say that he was beautiful; those blue eyes, that full mouth, his light golden-brown hair and those broad shoulders! I felt myself swoon a little but came back to reality when I noticed him arch one of those perfect eyebrows of his at us in question.

  “Sorry to interrupt Elliot but I just wanted to introduce you to our new librarian Kat,” Priya said.

  “Um, Katrina,” I said, hating having my name shortened to that of a furry animal.

  “Sorry – Katrina,” Priya corrected with a slight eye roll.

  Elliot didn’t speak at first; he just sat there studying me.

  My cheeks flushed involuntarily and the discomfort of being stared at caused me to start nervously looking around the room, out of the door; anywhere but at him.

  My apparent unease seemed to make him realise he was staring. He quickly cleared his throat and said, “Hello Katrina.” His voice was as beautiful as the rest of him, it had a deep rumble to it that sent chills up my spine.

  I was trying desperately to be cool, so he didn’t notice my immediate attraction. A guy like this must have women swooning all over him, and I wasn’t going to let myself be one of them – despite his hotness. I had met guys like him before, and it never ended well.

  Despite my efforts, I d
idn’t manage much more than a tight smile, a small nod and a, “Hi, um, uh, Elliot.” You sound like an idiot! my mind told me. There was a silence after that; nobody said a word and this awkwardness enveloped us like a thick woolen blanket while we all tried not to make eye contact.

  I felt like I needed to say something to break the silence, “Ah…I didn’t think a junior would get a window office,” I observed, regretting the comment the moment it left my mouth.

  Elliot looked over his shoulder at the window behind him and shrugged, “Every solicitor gets one. It comes with the office. Mine is a very small one though.” His blue eyes met mine but revealed no emotion. I could imagine that he must have thought I was a complete ditz! I could feel the heat as it rose in my cheeks while moths of embarrassment churned through my stomach.

  Priya raised her eyebrows at the exchange, smiled and commented, “Well; this was fun.” She ushered me out of his office as she told Elliot, “Just thought you should meet Katrina so you knew what she is doing leaving things on your desk. Enjoy your day Elliot,” she gently closed his door and led me back towards the library. “So, your bright-red face tells me you noticed he’s a bit of spunk huh?” she said quietly to me when we were far enough away. I tried to act nonchalant and just shrugged my shoulders a little. “Don’t get any ideas though, all the girls are after him but he doesn’t show interest in any of them. There’s a strict no dating policy here and he adheres to it; there’s a list of junior solicitors a mile long wanting to work here and I really don’t think he is going to risk his job.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, mentally kicking myself for feeling a little disappointed.

  “Someone nice to look at though huh? Stops the office being so boring.”

  “I suppose it does,” I answered carefully.

  “Well, here we are, back at your new home away from home,” she said stopping in front of the library’s entrance, “If you need anything today, don’t hesitate to call me.”