The Imperfections: A Forbidden Romance

by Sam Mariano

  I guess I can’t argue that Alyssa is extremely fuckable, but there’s no way I’m letting that irresponsible little bastard get his greedy hands on her. He’s already fucked half of my waitstaff. I don’t especially care about that, but Alyssa? Nope. Not fucking happening.

  That’s how I find myself storming across the lawn, searching everywhere until I find them. My blood boils at the sight of her wedged between his legs, snuggled up against him unapologetically while she enjoys her elephant ear. I know I don’t have a goddamn leg to stand on—she offered herself to me and I turned her away—but I’m still tempted to reach down and rip her away from him, to haul her off and scold her like a child caught misbehaving.

  Completely oblivious, my dishwasher smiles up at me with the same polite, bullshit smile he’d offer anyone with authority over him, and it rubs me the wrong way.

  Of course this little shit doesn’t look at me and see competition. Of course he’d never consider that I’ve been with Alyssa, but it doesn’t make me want to kick his ass any less that he’s unabashedly holding her in front of me.

  Barely containing my anger, I clench my fists at my sides. My gaze swings back to Alyssa. “I need to talk to you.”

  Confused, Dirk asks, “Me?”

  Irritated, I look at him. “Was I looking at you?”

  Alyssa scowls at me and dusts off her hands over her plate. “You don’t have to be rude to him, Brant.”

  It lights a fire right under my balls hearing her tell me how to talk to the little asshole who just had his hands all over her. “I sign his paychecks—I’ll talk to him any way I please.”

  Even more baffled, Dirk asks Alyssa, “You know Brant?”

  “Intimately,” I shoot back.

  Alyssa gasps, then abruptly stands and swats my arm. “What is wrong with you?”

  I grab hold of her arm and haul her little ass away from Dirk without another word.

  “Brant,” she objects. Over her shoulder, she calls, “I’m so sorry, I’ll be right back.”

  “Don’t fucking apologize to him,” I snap. “What the hell are you doing here with that asshole in the first place? Are you trying to piss me off by fucking my employees now?”

  Uttering a noise of disgust, she says, “Not everything is about you, Brant. I didn’t know he was your employee. He’s my neighbor. It’s a small town. And he is not an asshole.”

  That scrap of loyalty to him pisses me off more than anything else. “Yes, he is an asshole,” I inform her. “Nice to see your shitty taste in men hasn’t changed.”

  Attempting to jerk her arm from my grasp, she tells me angrily, “You think everyone is an asshole. Maybe you’re the asshole.”

  “Oh, I’m the asshole?”

  “Yes!” She tugs on her arm again, but I don’t let go. “You’re the one who just embarrassed me in front of my date. You’re the one hauling me off by my arm like a damn caveman with his misplaced property. I’m not yours, Brant. You made that clear. I can do whatever I want with whomever I want.”

  “Not with him, you can’t,” I tell her.

  “What’s so wrong with him?” she demands. “He’s my age, he’s single, he’s funny, he’s attractive. Tell me what is so awful about him, because I sure don’t see it.”

  I jerk to a stop, glaring back at her. “He plans to fuck you tonight, you know that?”

  Her eyes widen. “So? I don’t plan to fuck him on our first date, but even if I did…who cares? Most guys want to have sex with the girls they ask out, Brant. That’s kinda the point.”

  That’s…true, but I don’t care. I yank her forward and continue hauling her through the rows of people, but this time I don’t speak to her since everything she says is pissing me right off.

  As I storm across the lawn and drag her with me, I slowly begin to realize I’m angry as hell but I don’t have a right to be. My body’s responding like I caught Alyssa doing something wrong, but all she’s doing is exactly what I told her to do—moving on with her life.

  I don’t know why it feels so much like betrayal. Maybe because I damn sure haven’t done the same. Maybe because it feels like verification of fears I had while she was with me, how easily she can give her heart away. My heart’s not like that. It’s a dead weight in my chest, and once it catches someone beneath it, it never lets go.

  She gave up on me, and some selfish part of me didn’t want her to.

  I don’t know where I’m going until I get there. Alyssa doesn’t question me, even though she’s pissy as hell. We finally stop walking in the dirt and gravel parking lot, right beside my truck. I let go of her arm and turn to face her.

  Alyssa glares at me, then rubs her arm like I hurt her. “What do you want, Brant?” she asks tiredly.

  I want to tell her I look at her picture every night before I go to bed. I want to tell her she’s right and I am an asshole, but she shouldn’t have listened to me because I want her in my bed every night, even if it’s a million kinds of wrong.

  When I open my mouth, all I manage is a low, aggravated, “You deserve better than him.”

  Alyssa sighs, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at me like, for once, she’s not buying my bullshit. “You can’t keep doing this to me. It’s not fair. Either be in my life or stay out of it, but you don’t get to come and go as you please.”

  I’m glad to hear her standing up for herself. I’m sorry I’m the one she has to stand up to. “You’re right,” I admit, bowing my head slightly. “I’m sorry.”

  We stand there for a moment in the silence, the faint sounds of the carnival merriment serving as sufficient background noise so it doesn’t turn awkward. Not that the silence ever turns awkward with her.

  I don’t know what to say to her. I am behaving like a jealous asshole, because I am jealous. I miss her. I’m flooded with thoughts and feelings, I just don’t know how to put them into words, especially with all I know is still in the way.

  Just because I feel a certain way doesn’t mean anything has changed, but damn if I don’t still feel it.

  “You’re better at moving on than I am,” I finally say, glancing up at her.

  Some of her impatience melts away and she lowers her arms just a little, along with her defenses. Not entirely, since she can’t be sure I won’t still attack her, but a little, because she senses some vulnerability in me. “What do you mean?”

  “I hold onto things,” I say simply. “You let go. Your way’s healthier, I’m just…I can’t relate, and it makes me angry. It makes me feel… insignificant to you.”

  She inhales sharply when I say that, then drops her arms completely and closes the distance between us, grabbing my shoulders and looking up at me. “How can you say that?” she demands. “How can you think it?”

  “You’re here with someone else, like we never even…”

  Staring up at me, Alyssa reminds me, “I tried everything to be with you, Brant. I was willing to bend over backwards for you, and you told me I’d make some man very happy someday, but not you—never you. What was I supposed to do after that? Where was I supposed to go from there, if not on to someone new?”

  “You said you don’t even like to date that much,” I remind her.

  “I don’t.”

  “No, I don’t,” I tell her, jabbing a finger in the direction of the fairgrounds. “That’s why you don’t see me here with some random woman, but you’re certainly not here alone.”

  Shrugging, she says, “I met a guy I thought I could like. What do you want me to say? You made it crystal clear you didn’t want me. I don’t know why you’re so mad. I don’t know why you get so jealous over someone you don’t even want.”

  Her words piss me off, but what pisses me off more is that they’re a result of the way I’ve treated her. She’s not saying it to be spiteful; she really believes that.

  Reaching out and sliding my fingers along her jaw, I cup her face in my hand, even though I know it’s a bad idea. “I do want you, Alyssa.”

  Her b
lue-green eyes sparkle, but with something closer to sadness than any kind of joy. “You have a funny way of showing it.”

  My gaze wanders over her face, and even though I know I’m making a mistake and causing further damage, I can’t bring myself to do the right thing this time.

  I wrap my other arm around her waist and draw her closer until her body is pressed right up against mine, until the gleam in those pretty eyes comes from vulnerability I don’t deserve.

  She should push me away or slap me. She should storm off and tell me to go fuck myself for jerking her around the way I have, but as I draw her face closer, she wraps her arms around my neck instead. She closes her eyes and leans the rest of the way, and when my lips brush hers, she kisses me back.

  Lust roars through my veins as her soft lips give under mine. It’s a slow, soft kiss, but I don’t take my time deepening it. My tongue darts out to push between her lips, demanding entrance. She grants it, opening up as she arches into me. My hand slides from her waist down to her ass. I grab it, pulling her against the hard bulge in my jeans.

  The moan that slips out of her seals her fate. Before I can think better of it, I’m opening the driver side door and hoisting her inside.

  Wordlessly, Alyssa scoots back to make room for me. She’s so fucking pretty lying there, propped up on her elbows, legs spread just enough to make me want more.

  Before I climb in and get on top of her, I push up her flirty little dress and pull down her panties, flinging them over into the passenger side floorboard.

  Fire rages through my veins knowing her pussy is uncovered now. I want to look at it and taste it and fuck it, and I don’t have time to do all of that during a parking lot quickie while her fucking date waits with her elephant ear and lemonade.

  That’s so fucking twisted. Just thinking about it that way, I should stop, but it only makes me yearn harder to mark my territory. Let that little fuck hold her elephant ear while I’m driving my cock into her pussy and making her cry out my name.

  I let my cock out to play and climb on top of Alyssa, pulling the door shut behind me. She looks up at me like she knows this is wrong, too, but she wants me enough to do it anyway, and for the first time, I can imagine how Theo ended up between her pretty legs. Convinced as I am that I’m better than he is, there’s not a goddamn thing that could stop me from fucking this girl right now.

  This isn’t the time for tenderness and foreplay, so I shove her dress up, pry open her thighs, and sink a finger inside her to make sure she’s ready to take my cock.

  Alyssa moans and writhes, her eyes drifting closed as she gives herself up to the pleasure of my touch.

  The memory of her nestled between someone else’s legs just a few minutes ago makes me more territorial. I lean down to kiss her hard while I push a second finger in and tell her, “This is mine, you understand me? You don’t let anyone else play with it.”

  Her eyes open and she narrows them at me. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, you know that?”

  I rub my thumb across her clit and she gasps. Catching that delightful little sound on my lips, I tell her, “Yes, I do.”

  “You told me to move on,” she reminds me.

  “I was wrong,” I state, pulling my fingers out of her and grabbing my cock. “Turns out, I don’t want you going anywhere.”

  “Sure, you think that now because you saw me here with somebody else and got jealous. What are you going to think two days from now when I’m in your bed and you actually have me? Will you be hit by another burst of fucking nobility and decide I deserve better?”

  “Can’t say for sure,” I tell her truthfully, guiding my cock to her pussy and then shoving in without warning.

  Alyssa groans, arching up off the seat and grabbing my sides as I sink deeper inside her. “You’re impossible,” she tells me breathlessly.

  “Now you see why I’m single.” I’m feeling all sorts of relief now that she’s back where she’s supposed to be—under me, and full of my cock.

  “The mystery is solved,” she agrees, even as she locks her legs around my hips to take me deeper into her body.

  The time for talking is about to pass, so I let her know without a word, dipping my head and crushing my lips against hers. She responds to the hardness and hunger in my kiss with softness and nourishment of her own, offering and offering to me even though she knows I keep taking and taking.

  I’m so goddamn grateful, I can’t help gathering her in my arms and holding her as close as I can while I pump all my territorial aggression into her sweet, receptive body.

  “Fuck, Alyssa. Your pussy is something heavenly, you know that?”

  Locking one arm around my shoulder, she tilts her head and starts kissing the side of my neck. “I’m rather fond of your cock, too.”

  I crack a smile. “Rather fond of it, huh?”

  “We’re close, personal friends,” she informs me. “I didn’t want to tell you and hurt your feelings, but it likes me more than you.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” I tell her before catching her lips in a hard, ravenous kiss.

  She loses her humor as she loses herself to my passion, and before long, we’re so tangled together, we might as well not be two separate people anymore.

  Her slim fingers tangle in my hair as she lifts her hips to meet me thrust for thrust. Her eyes keep drifting closed as she’s swept up in the pleasure of being together. Like always, her lips are soft and sweet, and tonight they’re swollen from receiving so many of my kisses. She moans and fuels my desire more enthusiastically with every thrust. I fuck her like I’m trying to break her, even though that’s the last thing I’d ever want to do.

  “Brant,” she cries, a broken little exclamation as her body strains against mine. “God, I love how it feels to have you inside me.”

  I practically growl, tilting my head and hungrily kissing my way along the curve of her shoulder as I pump into her again and again. She already knows how fucking much I love being buried inside her, and I don’t have the capacity for language to express it again right now.

  It’s not much longer before her cries grow more desperate, her hard breaths coming in short bursts, her fingers digging into my upper back. “Brant,” she cries out, holding on to me tight as her eyes drift shut.

  She cries out with release, her already tight pussy squeezing the life out of me until I let go. Groaning with abandon, I pump into her convulsing heat a couple more times as I release myself inside her, pleasure erupting within me in a blinding, deafening burst of intensity.

  With a soft, satisfied moan, Alyssa goes limp in my arms. I hold her against me, resting my head against her breast as all the strength but what it takes to hold her up drains out of my body.

  Ahead of us, fireworks light up the night sky in loud, colorful bursts. Alyssa carefully shifts and settles in beside me, wrapping her arms around my midsection and looking out the windshield at the fireworks.

  As soon as I get the use of my limbs back, I’ll at least roll down the window so she can hear them a little better and we can get some air circulating. I wasn’t thinking about the heat of this late June evening when I needed to have her, but now that I’ve finished, I’m aware of the stifling heat, the sweat on her soft skin that’s not just from fucking.

  Not wanting her to overheat, I force myself to actually go about rolling down the window. Casually, I glance outside as I reach into my pocket for the keys, and what I see steals just about all the breath from my lungs.

  My sister is standing outside between my truck and her SUV, a red and white checkered picnic blanket hanging over her arm. Her jaw is slack and her eyes are about as wide as saucers as she stares back at me.

  “Oh, shit.”

  Alyssa tilts her head back and looks up at me. “What’s wrong?”

  I don’t have to answer, because then she follows my gaze and I hear her fearful gasp in response.

  “Oh, no,” she says faintly. “What do we do?”

  I don’t have the first fuckin
g idea, but it doesn’t seem like I can just sit here and pretend I didn’t see her. Leaning my head against the back of my seat, I shift and tuck my cock away, pulling my jeans back up and buttoning them.

  Since there’s not much else I can do at this point, I open the door and climb out, then I turn and grab Alyssa, helping her out after me.

  Bri finally looks away from me, her gaze drifting to Alyssa. I look over to see what my sister is seeing and observe a contrite schoolgirl. Alyssa’s blonde head is bowed and she’s looking down at her sandals to avoid eye contact.

  Finally, Bri breaks the tense silence. “What the fuck is going on here?”

  “I guess my answer depends on how long you’ve been standing there,” I offer, trying to lighten the mood a little.

  Not taking the bait, she jams an accusatory finger in Alyssa’s direction. “You’re fucking my babysitter? She’s a baby! And how the hell did this happen? What the fuck, Brant? You sat at the table with us while I told you she wouldn’t call me back and pretended you didn’t even know her.”

  “I didn’t pretend I didn’t know her,” I mutter, even though that’s obviously not the relevant part of her complaint.

  Her eyes widening in a mix of anger and disbelief, she yells, “She’s barely 18! You’re old enough to be her father!”

  Hiking up an eyebrow, I tell her, “Why don’t you take a breath and calm your ass down. She’s young, yes, but she’s legal.”

  “I’m less concerned about the legality and more concerned with her being my babysitter.” Looking back at Alyssa, she demands, “Is this why you haven’t been taking my calls? I was worried about other families stealing you away, and here it was my own damn brother. How did this happen? How did you two even meet?”

  “I’m sorry,” Alyssa says, shaking her head. “I didn’t want to avoid your calls, I just thought it would be weird, and I… I tend to avoid awkwardness when possible.”

  Bri finally takes a breath, but I get the feeling it’s more to appease Alyssa’s need not to be in an awkward situation than because I told her to. “All right. I’m sorry, I guess I overreacted, I was just completely floored to catch you and my brother…” Bri shakes her head, pasting on an attempt at a smile. “Well, he’s here with us tonight. I was just coming out to the car to grab another blanket so we had a little extra room to stretch out. Why don’t you come watch the fireworks with us?”