The Imperfections: A Forbidden Romance

by Sam Mariano

  “I’m planning to make a cutting board to match. I won’t put the resin on the main part where you’d actually cut the food, but I figured I could make a nice little handle,” I tell her, glancing up to see if I’m boring her.

  She seems genuinely interested, though, nodding her head and looking thoughtful. “I bet that would look awesome. Do you sell this stuff?”

  “Nah.” I shake my head, tucking my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “I usually just make things for people if I have the time. Obviously you’ve taken up my free time this weekend, but generally if I’m not working or out hiking with Scout, I’ve got some time to kill.”

  Looking over the coasters again, she says, “Well, consider it time well killed. These are beautiful. It looks like you do really good work.”

  I can’t help puffing up with pride. I didn’t think Alyssa would much care about my workshop or any of the stuff I do out here, but I like her approval, even if it is just over a set of coasters.

  “Wanna move on to the next part of the tour?” I ask her.

  She walks over and gently puts the coasters back where she found them, then she flashes me a smile and follows me to the door. “Let’s see the cellar beneath the shed where you keep the bodies.”

  I crack a smile at her insistence that I’m some kind of psycho. “Jesus, a man shows up in your bedroom with a gun one time and you think he’s nuts.”

  Shaking her head in mock agreement, she says, “Right? I’m such a hardass.”

  I’m glad to see her smiling again. She can make all the cracks about me she wants as long as she’s smiling instead of crying.

  I’m a little worried about how she might take the next thing, given the breakdown she had in my workshop. I don’t want to make her sad again, but I don’t know all the places I might step that will accidentally trigger that landmine. I have a hunch the next thing might be one of them. I have such a hunch, I almost consider telling her we’ll check out everything else later and just taking her on a hike instead. Then later I can bring her to the cabin.

  The place doesn’t currently have any lights, though, so if I get carried away and it starts to get late before we head back to the house, she won’t be able to see it as well as she would now.

  I guess I’ll chance it. If she gets upset, I’ll just let her get it all out, and then we’ll move on to more pleasant activities once she feels better.

  “Is this the cabin where you come to premeditate all your murders?” she teases as we walk up the little stone pathway to the small cabin on the edge of the woods behind my house.

  “I would never premeditate,” I joke. “That adds years to my sentence.”

  “Only if you get caught,” she states, like she believes I wouldn’t.

  “Ignore all the maps and red string you see pinned in various spots on the wall when we get inside, all right?”

  Alyssa grins, following me into the cabin. I don’t even keep it locked right now since I’ve never used the damn thing. I don’t know anyone with the balls to trespass on my property, let alone squat in any of my buildings, but I walk in first, just to be safe.

  “What is this?” she asks seriously, once we’re inside.

  Right when we walk in, there’s a kitchenette ahead of us, a laundry nook just beyond that, and a dated, round kitchen table with two chairs. As we step farther inside, there’s a living area to our right, then stairs leading up to two tiny bedrooms and a small but functional bathroom.

  “When I bought the property, it had this guest cabin out here, but I’ve never really had any use for it. It’s obviously on the small side, but it’s nice enough for what it is. It needs some cleaning and updating to make it more livable. I’ve never had a reason to do anything to it, which is why it doesn’t match my house on the inside. The house I did work on, but this… well, I haven’t. Not yet.”

  She nods, walking over and running her hand along the countertop. “It’s like a little apartment.”

  “But with a yard,” I offer. “Now, the inconvenient part is there’s no heat run to this thing, so you have to heat it with a woodburning stove. I have a couple of those and a fireplace in the house. I don’t use ’em much, but I keep a bunch of wood chopped outside the shed, anyway.”

  Alyssa smiles. “I want to see you chop wood. Do you do it shirtless? Wait! Don’t answer. I’m just going to pretend you do, because I like that mental image.”

  I shake my head at her. “Focus on the task at hand, would ya?”

  “It’s a very nice cabin,” she states obediently, thinking that’s what I mean.

  I hesitate, looking around at the place. In my head, it didn’t look so damn old, but I guess it’s been so long since anyone has stayed in here, there’s no reason it’d look updated.

  Pointing at the kitchen table, I tell her, “Obviously any of the furniture can be changed. I’d make you a better table than that one, and I’d probably even install a center island over here to give you more counter space since it doesn’t have much to work with now. Move the table back by the window over there, use the space you have a little better. Over here would make a nice play area,” I tell her, pointing behind the table, across from the living room. “I could make a small bookshelf to put against the wall there for books and toys to keep everything neat and tidy. I’m not saying the place doesn’t need some work, but it’s mostly cosmetic stuff, and it wouldn’t take too long to fix up.”

  When I look back at her, she’s frowning in confusion. “What are you talking about? You want to fix it up?”

  “I was thinking, if you don’t want to live at your house since it’s already so cramped but you’re not sure you can afford to leave, maybe you and the baby could live here.”

  Her jaw falls open, so I hurry up and keep talking.

  “It wouldn’t have anything to do with—” I gesture back at the house, lost for words to say what I mean. “I’ve got a lot of property here, and this isn’t even being used. It’s a waste. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, and I just thought maybe it could help you out a little. I wouldn’t charge you anything to live here. Maybe you could let Scout out once in a while when I’m at work, maybe pop in and cook me a meal every now and then if you want to, but my company isn’t a catch. There are no strings to this offer. I don’t want you to think you’d have to keep sleeping with me in order to live here. It’s nothing like that—you don’t have to do anything to live here. I just don’t want you to feel like you don’t have anywhere to go, and this way the baby would have a big yard to play in, and if you did want—”

  Before I can finish rambling at her, Alyssa comes back toward me, throws her arms around my neck, and hugs me.

  “Oh,” I say, a little surprised. I wrap my arms around her tiny waist snugly.

  “You’re such a good man, Brant,” she murmurs against my skin. “The best I ever met, hands down.”

  I wasn’t sure how receptive she’d be, but I’m relieved at the way she’s reacting. Holding her a bit tighter, I tell her, “I’m glad you think so.”

  “You don’t have to do all this for me, but it’s so sweet of you to offer.”

  I pull back enough to look down at her. “Well, think about it before you say no. I really wouldn’t mind, and like I said, you wouldn’t have to worry about being put into an uncomfortable situation. There’s not a single string attached. You can do whatever you want out here. The cabin would be yours. I’d just be your neighbor, more or less.”

  “You don’t make me uncomfortable,” she tells me, tilting her head and kissing my neck. “I don’t know why you’re so worried I’ll feel like I have to sleep with you for whatever reason. I don’t feel that way.”

  “That first night—”

  Pressing her finger to my lips to shut me up, she says more firmly, “I don’t feel that way.”

  Slowly, I nod my head, then that finger pressed against my lips proves too tempting and I have to kiss it. Her pretty blue-green eyes remain on mine as I do, so I get to watch them s
often with a sudden swell of desire. I saw it in her eyes a little bit ago, but then she started crying. Hopefully we don’t follow the same routine this time.

  She still has one arm draped over my shoulder, and as I start to move my kisses along her finger, across her hand, down toward the sensitive flesh along her wrist, that arm tightens and she pulls herself closer to me.

  “You said something about a bedroom?” she murmurs, peering up at me.

  I crack a smile. “Two bedrooms,” I verify. “Unfortunately, I hauled the furniture out of them when I bought the place and I never replaced it. If you wanna move in, we’ll buy you a new bed.”

  “I was thinking of something for more immediate use,” she says, dropping the hand I was kissing and rubbing it against the growing bulge in my pants. “As long as it has a floor, I bet we can make it work.”

  “I’m sorry to tell you, sweetheart, I am too old to have sex on a hardwood floor.”

  Laughing, she tells me, “You are not old—stop that.” Letting her arm skate along my shoulder and down my arm, her gaze follows appreciatively. “Besides, you’re in great shape.”

  “I promise to fuck you later, when we’re in bed or you’re bent over my couch, or even on a blanket spread out on the grass, but not on hardwood floor.”

  Her hand slides down until it’s entwined with mine. “Mm, picnic sex. I like it.”

  “Or we could fuck on the couch while we watch Pretty Woman—then I don’t have to pay attention to the movie. I can fuck you and go right to sleep with you snuggled up on top of me. It’ll work out great.”

  “Hey,” she says, wrinkling her nose up at me. “If you don’t want to watch my movie, you could just say so. We can watch something else.”

  “Nah. You want to watch that, so that’s what we’ll watch.”

  “I want you to enjoy my last night here,” she insists.

  “I will definitely enjoy your last night here. What’s on the television won’t impact that.”

  I don’t like thinking about it being her last night here, and I especially don’t like that I care one way or the other. This weekend sure has not gone the way I thought it would. On one hand, I can’t complain, because it has been nice having her here. On the other hand, now the weekend’s almost over and I’m not sure what happens next.

  Not only is she still alive and breathing, and still carrying Theo’s baby, I just invited her to move onto my property so she has somewhere to raise the little rugrat. It’s bound to make my life harder if she says yes, but to hell with it.

  I reach down and grab her hand. She naturally falls into step beside me as I walk her back toward the door. “We better go catch up to Scout or he’ll go down to the lake without us.”

  8

  Alyssa

  After a long, wonderful day exploring Brant’s property, we head back to the house and he fires up the grill to cook our steaks. I go inside to make sides and feed Scout, then we come together at the table to eat what might be our last dinner together.

  I hope it’s not our last dinner together, but I have no idea if it will be or not. All day I’ve been hoping he’d ease my confusion about what it is we’re actually doing here, but he hasn’t.

  It feels a lot like dating to me, but he still hasn’t kissed me. Not at the lake when we were sitting on the ground, playing with Scout. Not when he hauled me off his ATV, his hands lingering on my body longer than they needed to as he helped me get down. Not even when he spread me out on that picnic blanket he’d had me fantasizing about, pushed up my skirt, pulled down my panties, and licked my pussy until I cried out with abandon, all alone with him in the woods.

  Well, I guess he kissed me then, just not on my mouth.

  It’s so weird how he’s okay with kissing literally everywhere else, but not there.

  He hasn’t said what’ll happen once I leave, so I’m hoping he addresses it at dinner—at least, I’m hoping for it until it happens.

  “I need to know you’re gonna stay away from Theo once I take you home,” he says, not looking up from his plate.

  His words send a ball of discomfort tumbling around inside my belly. Maybe it shouldn’t, given it’s only been a couple days we’ve been together, but it feels like longer to me, and I feel like he knows me better than that now.

  “Alyssa,” he says more firmly, looking at me across the table.

  Stiffening, I bring my gaze to his. “I can’t believe you even have to ask me that.”

  Sighing heavily, he says, “I know we’ve had a nice few days, regardless of all the reasons we shouldn’t have, but tomorrow you go back to your life and maybe the spell breaks. People have a tendency to fall back into old habits when they’re back in the same old environment. I’m gonna be pissed as hell if you fall right back—”

  “I won’t,” I snap, not even letting him finish. I stab a piece of broccoli like it’s his face and put it in my mouth, chewing more aggressively than I need to. I glare at him so he knows it’s his head I’d like to chew off instead.

  “You better not,” he warns me, not even cowed by my glare. “If you do, I’ll kidnap your little ass again, and this time I will lock you up and not let you leave.”

  I huff, stabbing another vegetable and popping it in my mouth, glaring at him real good while he threatens me. “Maybe if you think I’m so untrustworthy, you shouldn’t even let me go home.”

  Eyeing me, he says, “It’s not that I think you’re untrustworthy. I just know you’re young and impressionable, and consequences aren’t always the first thing you think about when you’re deciding whether or not to do something. I put a gun to your head and you quietly packed your things and followed me to my truck to be taken God knows where and have God knows what done to you. In less than a day, I was able to bring you to my side without even trying. As much as I’d like to think I’m special, your past actions and the things he told me himself make me think Theo had it just as easy when you were with him before. If he decides to pivot and play nice, I need to know you’re not gonna fall for it and go back to him.”

  My face feels like a space heater, burning up with flames of shame, embarrassment, and anger. “So, not untrustworthy because I’m a bad person, just unreliable because you think I’m easy and I don’t think about the consequences of any of my actions. That’s nice. Thank you for that.”

  “I’m not trying to insult you,” he states. “This is a necessary conversation, unfortunately, and I need to make sure you’re not gonna backslide.”

  I don’t even dignify his words with a response this time, putting a big bite of steak in my mouth so he won’t expect me to talk.

  “I may not be willing to squeeze the life out of you, but make no mistake, I won’t sit back and watch you keep making the same damn mistake again, either—especially because my sister’s married to that goddamn mistake and had two of his babies.”

  “I’m so mad at you for continuing to say this stupid shit,” I inform him.

  “It’s not stupid. Your behavior changed along with your environment and your company. I have to make sure you’re prepared to go back to real life and still make better decisions when I’m not around anymore. And it’s not just that, either. Like I told you before, worthless as he is, if Theo looks at you and sees a threat to his family, he could be dangerous. He did send me to kill you, after all.”

  “I am quite aware of that fact, but thank you for beating me over the head with it.”

  “He’s not a good guy,” Brant states, as if I’m some kind of idiot.

  “I know,” I reply coolly. “Can we please stop talking about him?”

  “I’m not trying to piss you off.”

  “Well, you have.”

  “Well, I’m sorry,” he says, not sounding sorry at all. “I’d rather be clear about this beforehand than send you home and have another mess to clean up before long.”

  Still, I shake my head. That he thinks I’d sleep with Theo again drives home the point that whatever we’re doing here, it must not
be anything romantic in nature. I guess I should have figured that when he told me I could move into the empty cabin on his property and ‘do whatever I want’ there. He might as well have told me he’s not interested in anything serious so I can fuck whoever I want, and of course he’s not interested in anything serious—he thinks I’m some young idiot he has to fuck to keep off his brother-in-law’s dick.

  I like how when he’s calling me easy and putting down my ability to comprehend consequences, he only says the things that make me look bad. I got in the truck with an armed stranger because he threatened to hurt my family—because of the consequences. Not because I thought a trip to potentially be murdered sounded like fun, and not because it didn’t cross my mind that there might be any unpleasant consequences.

  After he watched that video and pressed his cock against me in my bed, I pretty much assumed I would be raped at the very least if I went with him; I made the conscious choice to go anyway because the alternative was worse.

  He doesn’t give me credit for anything.

  Well, this night has taken an unpleasant turn. I didn’t know if Brant was interested in dating me, but I did think he at least respected me more than this.

  I don’t have much left to say to him now, and I’m so disappointed while also telling myself I don’t have a right to be.

  It’s not like Brant ever asked me out or anything. This feels intimate to me because we’ve slept together, but he’s more or less been telling me not to make too much of that the whole time. I let myself get confused because when you’re living in a man’s house, taking care of his dog, keeping him fed, and taking his dick every night… well, it just tends to feel relationship-like.

  My mistake.

  No wonder he never kissed me.

  Brant says a little more about Bri and Theo and how I’m supposed to handle that going forward, but I stop listening. I don’t care anymore. I feel so stupid for thinking I was more than a problem he was solving that just conveniently came with sex. I feel so stupid for the times over these past couple of days I thought maybe he really liked me. I definitely feel stupid for all the times it’s crossed my mind how much I’m starting to like him.