The Imperfections: A Forbidden Romance

by Sam Mariano

  The Imperfections

  A Forbidden Romance

  Sam Mariano

  Contents

  The Imperfections

  Author’s Note:

  1. Brant

  2. Brant

  3. Brant

  4. Brant

  5. Brant

  6. Alyssa

  7. Brant

  8. Alyssa

  9. Brant

  10. Alyssa

  11. Brant

  12. Brant

  13. Alyssa

  14. Brant

  15. Brant

  16. Brant

  17. Brant

  18. Alyssa

  19. Brant

  20. Alyssa

  21. Alyssa

  22. Brant

  23. Alyssa

  24. Alyssa

  25. Alyssa

  26. Brant

  27. Alyssa

  28. Alyssa

  29. Alyssa

  30. Brant

  Epilogue

  Untitled

  Also By Sam Mariano

  About the Author

  The Imperfections

  A Forbidden Romance

  By Sam Mariano

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  The Imperfections Copyright © 2019 by Sam Mariano

  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. Thank you for not being a pirate!

  Created with Vellum

  For Ashley,

  You get them, and I love you for it. ♥

  Author’s Note:

  This is a full-blown Sam Mariano book.

  I am Sam Mariano, and I like my heroines with a touch of crazy (gotta damage them up a little to make them right for my guys) and my heroes with an asterisk. Are they heroes? Are they anti-heroes? Are they villains? Whatever they are, they have more than a little brutality and depravity locked up inside those sexy bodies… but they also have need of love, and I’m here to bring it to them.

  This is a FORBIDDEN ROMANCE, but it’s also a bit dark. Dark romance is my primary wheelhouse, so… I tend to enjoy weaving that into my books.

  Just a fair warning for any sweet little lambs who might have wandered in here without having ever opened one of my books: Buckle up, buttercup, I’m gonna take you for a ride! ♥ But don’t worry, when all is said and done, I’m taking you someplace really good.

  1

  Brant

  It’s the end of a long-ass day, the kind of day that makes most people long for the comfort of home—people who have some kind of comfort to go home to, anyway.

  That’s what I keep thinking about as I sit here waiting for the little asshole my sister married to show up at my bar. I don’t know how much longer this night’s gonna last, but I have a bad feeling about it.

  When my sister married a man younger than her, I had reservations. He’s only five years younger, but it’s enough. Theo wasn’t ready for marriage, but Bri’s biological clock ticked so loudly it drowned out her common sense. When he got her pregnant—before they were even fucking engaged—she was ecstatic. When he proposed to make it right, she accepted without skepticism. She saw him as her last chance to start a family before she got too old, and desperation doesn’t lead to the best decisions.

  Most of the ladies in our family start popping out babies before they can legally buy alcohol, so I understood her feeling behind, but traditional as I am sometimes, I still didn’t think she should marry this asshole.

  She did anyway.

  Now they’ve got a house in the suburbs and two boys of their own. Bri’s trying desperately for a third, wants a little girl this time. I’m not one to break up a family even if I think he wasn’t right for my sister and she could’ve done better, but when he called me yesterday afternoon and told me he needed to meet up and talk, I had the strongest feeling my sister’s dreams of having a baby girl might be about to go up in smoke.

  I have sort of a reputation in my family as the problem solver. When Bri got knocked around by the hothead she was dating in college, I was the one who knocked his teeth down his throat and reminded him how not to treat a lady. When my other sister’s daughter had some trouble with a burgeoning asshole in her first grade class, I went around and had a chat with him to let him know how my niece oughta be treated.

  Sometimes the problems I have to deal with are a bit rougher than that, but the point is, my sisters both know if there’s a problem and they come to me, there won’t be a problem anymore.

  Imagine my surprise yesterday when it was my brother-in-law to call me instead of my sister. I guess he qualifies as family since he married her and fathered both my nephews, but I have a feeling he only called to confess because he was afraid Bri would find out. Then I’d have a whole different problem to deal with, and maybe it would involve him.

  I lean back in the beat-up booth and crack my knuckles with anticipation. I hate that I offered this idiot a chance to come clean before it came to that, but the way I figure, if I can save my sister a little pain and protect her from shit like this happening in the future, I’ve done my job. It’s more important to protect Bri than to satisfy my own urge to crush some of the bones in Theo’s pretty-boy face.

  I’m sure he cheated. What the fuck else could it be? My brother-in-law’s a fucking asshole, but the kind women tend to be attracted to: physically fit, tattoos, dark looks and blue eyes my sister calls “piercing.” It was one of the reasons I objected to her marrying the cocky prick to begin with, and now here we are.

  The front door opens and I sit forward, wrapping my hand around the whiskey glass I brought over and taking a sip.

  Theo comes into view, head down, hands shoved into his pockets, all vulnerable-like. Yep, he fucked something up real bad.

  “Bring that bottle with you,” I tell him, nodding at the bar.

  He stops and turns back, grabbing my bottle of whiskey and bringing it with him. He sets it down on the table in front of me, then takes a seat across from me and sighs. He’s got his hands clasped on the table, head down, the picture of remorse.

  “Thanks for meeting me here,” he says.

  I don’t want to waste time with pleasantries, so I grab the bottle, pour myself a little more, and lean back in my side of the booth. “So, what’d you fuck up?”

  He shakes his head, looking real pitiful. “I’m afraid to tell you,” he says, trying to pretend he’s joking, throwing in a nervous laugh.

  I shake my head, throwing back my drink and setting the glass back down on the scarred wooden tabletop. “Don’t waste my time, Theo. It’s been a long day. You need to tell me what you fucked up so we can figure out what to do about it and then I can go home.”

  Looking a little more focused, he nods his head. “All right.”

  “You’re gonna be brutally honest,” I state, pointing at him. “You’re not gonna fucking lie to me and give me some apologetic half-truths, either. Whatever you did, be a man and own it. I find out you’ve left shit out trying to cover your ass, you’re going to be the problem I take care of. Only way I fix this for you and send you back to my sister is if you can be a man worth having, and that means no fucking lying. It’s cowardly, and my sister deserves better than a fucking coward.”

  Theo swallows and nods. I can see the color rising in his cheeks, ei
ther anger or embarrassment. Frankly, I don’t care which.

  I lean back. “Now, tell me what’s going on.”

  He sits there for a second, trying to figure out how to begin. I can see him weighing what he wants to admit against what I’ve demanded. He doesn’t want to come out on the wrong side of me, but he must be smart enough to realize he’s more likely to end up there by wasting my time than by fucking some other bitch.

  He’s right. Not much pisses me off more than having my goddamn time wasted.

  “All right, so, I guess I should start—” He stops and clears his throat. “About a year ago—well, it was a year ago. A year and couple days,” he amends nervously.

  “Calm the fuck down,” I tell him, keeping my voice even.

  Nodding too quickly, he says, “For our anniversary last year, I hired this babysitter. This 17-year-old had gone door to door, passing out flyers advertising her babysitting business. Anyway, her name was Alyssa and I had her come watch the boys so I could take Bri out for the evening.”

  “All right,” I say, showing him I’m still calm.

  “And it worked out really well. She was great, and the boys loved her right away, so we kept hiring her any time we needed a sitter. Then about six months ago, Bri and I were both working late one night, so we had Alyssa come over and watch the boys in the evening. I got home first, and it had been a long day, just a long, miserable fucking day. So I get home, walk through the front door, and the house smells so good I instantly feel just a little bit better. Alyssa’s a great cook, and sometimes if she’d watch the boys in the evening, she’d make dinner if she knew Bri wouldn’t be home to do it herself.”

  “What’d she make?”

  Caught off guard by my conversational tone, he hesitates. “Uh, spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. She made the garlic bread homemade. It was real good.” He clears his throat and goes on. “Anyway, I haven’t eaten since lunch so I figure I’ll eat. She hasn’t had a chance to eat, so I tell her to grab a plate, you know? She made it—she shouldn’t have to go home hungry.”

  “Mm-hmm,” I murmur noncommittally.

  His dread grows, so we must be getting to the good part. “The boys—you know how they are, can’t sit still. They ate some but then ran off and started playing in the other room. Me and Alyssa kept eating, and I can’t say how it happened, I guess I just needed to blow off steam and she’s—she’s not what you’ll think she is. She’s not some sexed-up high school slut. She’s really sweet and a great listener, just… easygoing and friendly, and I don’t know, somehow the conversation got flirty.” He stops and darts a glance in my direction. “I turned it flirty. It was me. I don’t know why. I didn’t think anything would come of it, I just started teasing her, and she started blushing.” He cradles his forehead in his hand and sighs. “I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I didn’t even think she’d—but I took her to show her something on the computer in the spare bedroom. We were in there alone and the door was closed and she was leaning over my shoulder to look, and then before I knew it, I was kissing her and backing her up against the bed. Then we were on it and I was taking all her clothes off, and before I fucking knew it…”

  I narrow my eyes slightly at the way he trails off. “Say it,” I snap.

  He swallows audibly. “Before I know it, I’m balls-deep inside the tightest hole I’ve ever fucked,” he finishes miserably. “She was a fucking virgin. I didn’t know. It happened so fast, Brant, I don’t—I wasn’t even nice, didn’t even get her ready. I didn’t eat her pussy, barely fingered her. I was a fucking animal, devouring her like she was the first morsel of food I’d come across in ages. It felt so fucking good, I didn’t even feel like myself while I was with her. I came inside her, and I didn’t wear a condom or anything since it was so spontaneous.”

  Of course. Leave it to Theo to be reckless enough to not even use a fucking condom while he’s cheating on my sister—with a teenager.

  I hope this isn’t going where I think it’s going.

  Theo continues, “Well, right about the time I was coming inside our babysitter, I hear Bri calling my name down the hall. I panicked and we jumped off the bed and started throwing our clothes back on. I was sweating bullets. I was terrified Alyssa might—I wasn’t sure, so I grabbed her and gave her a kiss, sort of silently pleading with her not to say anything, then we went back to the kitchen. Bri didn’t know why Alyssa was still there if I was home, so I told her Alyssa was cleaning up after she made dinner, and I fucking made this teenage girl I just fucked who was still full of my cum clean up while I kissed my wife hello. These are not my finest moments, Brant.”

  “That’s pretty fucked up,” I agree.

  He nods then looks off and says, “It didn’t happen again after that for a long time. I didn’t even ask her to come babysit again because… you know, I hoped it would just go away and no one would ever have to find out. But Bri likes Alyssa and she didn’t know, obviously. She didn’t suspect anything. Again, Alyssa isn’t the kind of girl you think would do something like that.”

  I’m getting worried about the fact that he keeps trying to protect this babysitter in the telling of this story, like he cares about her. Before I ask any questions, though, I give him a chance to finish.

  “So Bri surprised me one night. When I got home, Alyssa was there to watch the boys so we could go out. It was weird for me, obviously, but Alyssa kept her mouth shut and did a good job acting normal, so we started having her come over again. I was nervous the first time I got home before Bri, but she seemed to get the message that I didn’t want to talk about what had happened, so she just told me what the boys had for lunch and left. I thought it was over.”

  “But it wasn’t,” I surmise.

  He looks at me and hangs his head. “One night we were working late again. I got home first and the boys were already in bed. Alyssa was sitting on the couch with a book and when I got there, she just looked up at me, and… I don’t know, Brant. The look in her eye… I got hard as a fucking rock. I asked her if she had to get right home and she said no, and then before I knew it, I was grabbing her and unzipping my pants and then my cock was in her mouth. She gave lousy head and I was so fucking hard, so I pushed her back on the couch and fucked her again. When we were finished I got a message from Bri telling me she was sorry but she wouldn’t be home for a couple more hours. This is where it gets real bad,” he tells me, like a warning.

  “Now is when it gets bad?” I ask, shaking my head as I cross my arms over my chest. “All right. Go ahead.”

  “Since the boys were in bed and I knew Bri would still be a while, I took Alyssa in to the shower. I told her I wanted to clean her up, but… you know. In the shower I had my hands all over her and by the time we got out, I was hard again. I guess I was talking dirty to her in the shower, telling her all the things I fantasized about doing to her. When we got out and she saw how hard I was, she asked me if I wanted to do any of that stuff to her before she left.”

  “Jesus,” I mutter, trying to shake off the image of a teenage temptress my mind keeps conjuring.

  Eyes widening, he nods. “Right? I know I should have sent her home, but there was this one thing I’d always wanted to do that Bri didn’t want any part of.”

  “Oh, now you’re gonna be discreet. After telling me you were balls-deep inside the tightest hole you’ve ever fucked, now you’re gonna get precious?”

  “I wanted her ass,” he says a little sheepishly. “I thought she’d say no, but she thought about it for a minute and then said okay. I couldn’t turn that down. I should have, I know, but I didn’t. I took her back to the spare bedroom, bent her over the bed, and fucked her sweet virgin ass.”

  My cock starts to respond to the vulgar mental image he’s concocting. Of course it’s not him in my mind’s eye; it’s me with my cock buried deep inside some nice little almost-virgin who cooks like a wife and fucks like a whore.

  “What’s she look like?” I murmur, looking up at him.
>
  “Alyssa?” He pushes out a breath, like he’s tempted just thinking about her. “She’s cute as hell. Blonde hair, blue-green eyes. She’s got a tight little ass, nice figure. Her tits are a little on the small side, but damn, they’re nice. She’s sweet, though. She dresses kinda modest, a lot of dresses and cardigans, but… she let me do anything to her.”

  I shift, trying not to concentrate on things that get my cock hard when my dumbass brother-in-law is confessing his sins. “All right, get back to the story.”

  Theo clears his throat, then he says, “All right, so when she let me have her ass… Christ, it was so good I wanted to do it again. She went home. I didn’t want to risk getting caught, but it was all I could think about for a while. I started asking Bri—” He stops, remembering he’s talking about my sister. “Shit, sorry. Anyway, I wanted to experience it again, just not outside my marriage.”

  “That’s fucking gross,” I tell him, reaching for the whiskey bottle and pouring some more in my glass.

  “I know, sorry, it’s just part of the story. Anyway, this was shortly before our most recent anniversary. Bri said she was gonna give me… a good anniversary present,” he says, grimacing, trying to talk around telling me my sister offered him her ass.