The Complete Irreparable Boxed Set: Irreparable #1-2

by Sam Mariano

  His fingers had drifted to her shoulder by that point. “I’m pretty fond of them myself,” he offered. “I’m only sorry we don’t have more.”

  “Me too,” she murmured, the rise and fall of her chest a little more pronounced as his fingers danced across her collar bone, dipping lower and skimming the top of one breast. Willow’s head fell back a little and she closed her eyes, exhaling shakily when his hand moved lower, lightly cupping one of her breasts through her shirt. He bent his head to place a little kiss on her shoulder.

  “Did you wear this because you thought I’d like it?” he teased.

  Biting back a smile, she replied, “No comment.”

  “You were right,” he told her, his hand moving across her stomach. He felt her body respond, the muscles in her abdomen contracting as his fingers moved down further, flirting with the hem of her skirt, teasing her thigh.

  Willow sighed, her hand moving to rest on his thigh. Desire ran right through him at the mere weight of her hand, and suddenly he didn’t care how many months it had been since he’d seen her—he wanted her, right then, right there.

  “I’ve missed you,” he murmured, leaning in closer to drop a little kiss against the sensitive skin on her neck. Needing to reposition, he dropped his arm to her waist and pulled her across his lap so she straddled him, her long hair falling in his face.

  Closing his eyes, he nuzzled against her neck, his mouth moving hungrily as one hand remained anchored on her hip, one moving over the curve of her ass.

  “Wait,” Willow said, pushing back, chewing on her lower lip. “I’m sorry.”

  “No,” he said, easing back. “I’m sorry. Too fast?”

  There was tension on her face as she looked off to the side, then back at him. “I didn’t think you’d be single.”

  “You said that already.”

  If she looked even a little more anxious, she would be wringing her hands.

  “Do you not want to…?”

  “I’m not single,” she blurted.

  That was like a splash of ice water to the face. “Oh.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, grimacing. “I should have… mentioned that before.”

  Considering she was currently straddling him and he was already aroused, he sort of wished she had.

  Honestly, he didn’t have a damn clue how to respond to that.

  “To be fair, since you checked up on me before, I actually thought you might know. I—My parents—That’s kind of how I got my car privileges back.” She grimaced. “That sounds bad, I just mean—”

  He briefly raised his hand to gesture her to stop. “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. I haven’t seen you in… I shouldn’t have assumed.”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to,” she said quickly. “It’s just… like I said, I don’t cheat.”

  “Unlike me,” he stated, nodding his head.

  “No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “That’s—I didn’t say that.”

  Ethan shifted slightly and Willow took the opportunity to climb off of his lap. She perched awkwardly on the edge of the couch, that time facing him.

  “I wasn’t talking about you, I was just…”

  “But you were thinking it,” he replied, his voice level.

  “No, I wasn’t.” She placed a hand on his thigh again, but that time it was to get him to look at her. “If I meant that, I would have said it,” she stated.

  Ethan nodded. It was difficult not to get defensive when she was saying no for some guy she had been with for a few months at most, and he hadn’t said no to her when he’d been married for years.

  Willow lowered her eyes then looked up at him, looking ridiculously innocent as she said quietly, “Please don’t be mad at me.”

  That effectively knocked the wind right out of his sails. Shaking his head with a slight smile, he said, “I couldn’t if I tried.”

  At that, her smile returned. “Good.”

  Sighing, he leaned back on the couch. It wasn’t the scenario he’d imagined, but he was still happy to see her. “So, tell me about this guy. Does he deserve you?”

  “You want to hear about him?” she asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

  He didn’t, because he already hated the little bastard, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Might as well. High schooler?”

  Willow shook her head, scooting back on the couch and curling one leg under her while the other dangled off the couch. “College. His name’s Brian. He’s… in a fraternity, actually—don’t judge me.”

  Failing to stifle his smile, he said, “I am in no position to judge you. Is he a good guy?”

  “A pretty good guy, yeah,” she said with a nod.

  A little more carefully, he asked, “Does he know about… everything?”

  “No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “He knows I had a complicated senior year and that I had some issues with my parents, but… no, he doesn’t know what happened. It’s not a super serious thing, he’s kind of… just fun and… nothing heavy.”

  “Probably a nice change of pace,” Ethan offered a touch sardonically.

  She nodded wordlessly, looking at his shoulder instead of his face.

  “Well, good,” he said, forcing a smile he hoped passed for convincing. “I’m happy for you.”

  Willow shrugged, her brow furrowing very slightly, as if displeased. “We’re not, like, engaged or anything. It’s just, you know… a normal—It doesn’t warrant an ‘I’m happy for you,’ in my opinion.”

  That time he offered a real smile. “You deserve some normalcy after everything that happened.”

  “If I would’ve known you were an option…”

  He cut her off. “Nah, it’s… like I said, things are still complicated. I’m not dating again anyway. You made the right choice.”

  She nodded, but couldn’t quite look at him. “I should probably go.”

  “You don’t have to,” he told her. “We could just… watch a movie or something.”

  “Yeah?” she asked, her eyes making their way back to his.

  “Yeah. I mean,” he began, teasingly rolling his eyes, “if your boyfriend’s okay with it.”

  Willow grinned, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the couch. “Please, I do what I want. What movie do you want to watch?”

  “You can pick,” he replied, handing her the remote control.

  “That’s dangerous,” she said lightly. “You don’t know what kind of movies I like. I could be an avid chick flick fan. We could spend the next 6 hours watching nothing but Katherine Heigl movies.”

  “You’re staying for the next six hours? Maybe we should move this to the bedroom, at least get comfortable first. Plus, that way if you have awful taste, I can go to sleep.”

  Willow reached over and lightly socked him in the stomach, causing him to laugh.

  Willow shook her head. “You’re lucky I like you.”

  Willow and Ethan watched two movies together, but the longer she stayed, the more she regretted being curled up on opposite ends of the couch.

  When the last movie ended, she was tempted to stay for another just to prolong her time with him. She was also tired and didn’t want to risk falling asleep, lest she have to explain that to her mothers.

  Especially since they would probably grow worried and call Brian to check on her. Since he was her cover story for the evening, that wouldn’t go over well.

  Ethan walked her out since she still wasn’t comfortable in the dark. They lingered outside her car, exchanging light-hearted comments and pretending they were only friends.

  At least, that’s what she was doing.

  Her gaze kept drifting back to his beautiful mouth. Her imagination stirred, conjuring fantasies of him pushing her right up against that car, reminding her of the magic that coursed through her entire body when he kissed her.

  Dammit.

  She’d anticipated the risk—especially when she found herself changing clothes before she
went to see him—but she hadn’t imagined he would actually make a move so fast, even if he was mostly single.

  Dammit, dammit, dammit.

  Once Ethan stopped lingering and went back inside, she checked her phone. Three guilt-inducing messages from Brian, asking if she still planned to stop by the party like she said she would earlier.

  Despite it being nearly midnight, she said she would stop by to say hi.

  The whole way there she thought about Ethan. Couldn’t stop, even when she tried. His manly scent when her body was pressed up against his, the feel of his lips on her neck, the sound of his voice when he talked to her, his straight white teeth when he gave her that fond little smile that made her light up inside.

  As she made her way inside her boyfriend’s house, she brainstormed ways to go back to being just friends with Brian, but friendly enough that she didn’t have to tell her parents they broke up.

  She hoped with enough time Lauren and Ashlynn might open their minds about Ethan, but she knew better. She’d never seen either of her parents dig in so firmly about anything before, but no matter her argument or the toll it took on their own relationships, her mothers refused to budge.

  Lauren no longer acknowledged what happened, but Ashlynn would never forgive him. No matter how many times Willow pointed out that he hadn’t been a willing participant, Ashlynn refused to listen. Since Ethan was also inconveniently married, even on days she was flexible enough to consider Willow’s position on the rape, there was always the fact that he’d made her the other woman and cheated on his wife with her. Not exactly something he would’ve done if he was the stand-up guy Willow tried to convince them he was.

  Eventually Willow gave up trying to convince them. They didn’t want to see it as anything but sordid, so they wouldn’t. Maybe they couldn’t.

  When she started talking to Brian, Lauren had been so pleased and Ashlynn even liked him more than she would have pre-Ethan, simply because he was more age-appropriate. Willow was just glad for the reprieve. Her once harmonious parental relationships had become fraught with stubborn dissension, and Brian’s presence was like a fresh ocean breeze cutting through walls of hellfire.

  At the start, she never intended to use Brian; he was a fun guy to be around and he was willing to pick her up get her out of the house. It wasn’t until Ashlynn started letting her use the car to go see him when he couldn’t drive to get her that she realized she could get more of her privileges back if her parents thought the threat of Ethan had been lifted.

  She even liked Brian… just not nearly as much as she liked Ethan.

  The fact that she was the one that had to stop him when he was clearly ready to bring a frequent dream of hers to fruition made her incredibly sad.

  As soon as she stepped inside Brian’s rented house, Willow nearly collided with a lip-locked couple groping each other against the counter.

  “Cool,” she muttered, averting her gaze and passing the couple, unnoticed, to head into the living room where all the noise was coming from.

  They had a table—well, something like a table, constructed of rough lumber and able to support the weight of half-filled red Solo cups—in front of the television set. The couch was full of people, more than a little drunk, and one shaggy haired kid was face-down in the floor behind the couch.

  Willow turned to Brian, who grasped a bottle of vodka in one hand. His other hand was occupied with an attempt to shove a shot in the face of a giggling blonde girl. While she laughed, she shoved his arm and turned away from the alcohol.

  “You guys start early or what?” Willow asked.

  Brian perked up, his blue-green eyes brightening and a grin splitting his face. “Hey, you made it!”

  Willow offered a little smile, and the blonde turned around curiously.

  “Oh, hey, Willow.”

  “Hey, Candace,” Willow returned. She had met nearly all of Brian’s many, many friends by that point, and made a point of remembering most of their names.

  Brian put down the alcohol and headed over to Willow, wrapping her in a bear hug. “Damn, you look good.”

  “Thanks. You… smell like you’ve had a lot to drink.”

  He gave a short laugh. “Did you have fun at your friend’s house?”

  “Yep. Obviously you have also been having fun.”

  “We have. I was bummed you didn’t come earlier though, this was supposed to be our grad party for you.” Then, looking over his shoulder at his assembled, still-conscious friends, he said, “Willow just graduated high school, isn’t that badass?”

  Candace was just drunk enough to think that was, in fact, badass, and she came over to offer Willow a hug. Still in Brian’s embrace, it turned into a claustrophobic group hug.

  “Yay! That’s so exciting. Are you excited? Or did you love high school? You probably loved high school, didn’t you?”

  Smiling a little as she tried to untangle herself, she said, “I love breathing—high school, not so much.”

  Taking the hint, Brian let go and Candace stumbled, but caught herself. “I hated high school. It was so boring. College is a lot better. You’ll like college.”

  “High school wasn’t bad,” Brian disagreed, but without much conviction. “You guys were probably doing it wrong.”

  “Were you a cheerleader?” Candace asked, her gaze raking over Willow’s outfit.

  “Nope.”

  “Babe, I’m about to make some Hot Top—Hot Pot—dammit, Hot Pockets. Do you want one?”

  “Do I want a Hot Pocket? No, thank you,” Willow said, smiling slightly. “Also, there’s a couple blocking the microwave, and they’re… pretty busy at the moment.”

  He frowned momentarily before his expression cleared and he said, “Oh yeah, Eddie and what’s-her-nuts went in there, didn’t they?” Turning to Candace, he asked, “Do you want a Hot Pocket?”

  “I’m so hungry, I would eat lead.”

  Brian nodded and headed into the kitchen, Candace following behind him. Brian’s roomie, Cliff, came over to say hi and congratulate Willow on being a graduate.

  “Are you gonna go to Disneyland?” he asked.

  Frowning slightly, she said, “Um, not that I’m aware.”

  “Isn’t that something you’re supposed to do?”

  “I think that’s when you win the SuperBowl,” Willow suggested.

  “Well still, you should do something to celebrate your freedom. Once you join the workforce, it’s all over.”

  “I’ve already joined the workforce, so I guess it’s too late.”

  “Aw, really? What do you do? Are you going to college with Brian?”

  “I will be, yeah. I’m waiting tables right now, paying the bills, saving up.”

  Pointing at her in the brazen manner drunk people do, he said, “Now that’s smart, I wish I did that.”

  Brian peered around the corner and asked if anyone else wanted a Hot Pocket. A girl half-lying on one end of the couch glanced up, but made no further attempt to move. Cliff, on the other hand, realized how hungry he was and headed for the kitchen.

  Willow sighed, glancing around the room. Across from the couch, a blue fold-up lawn chair was unoccupied, so she claimed it before anyone else came back in and beat her to it.

  The difference between spending time with Ethan and spending time with Brian was glaring. Typically she enjoyed Brian’s lightness, but it wasn’t what she craved after a more adult evening at Ethan’s.

  Pulling out her phone, she checked for new text messages, but had none. If she felt vaguely disappointed, she didn’t admit it.

  It didn’t help that the song that was currently playing was some sad ballad whose female vocalist was lamenting the loss of her love.

  Willow’s fingers automatically found her messages, opening up the string of texts she and Ethan had exchanged earlier.

  Candace suddenly appeared at her side, thrusting a red Solo cup at her.

  Willow started, jerking her phone to her chest, and looked up at Candace.


  “Brian told me to bring you this. It’s the punch you like.”

  “Oh. Thank you,” Willow said, accepting it as she eyed the other girl cautiously. Had she looked at Willow’s phone? Even if she hadn’t, hiding it from view was pretty suspicious behavior.

  But Candace didn’t give her any funny looks or even linger, she headed back into the kitchen.

  Lowering her phone to her lap, Willow glanced at the messages, but the inky rush she got when she thought Candace caught her convinced her to put her phone away.

  By the time Cliff, Candace and Brian came back into the living room, Willow had downed a few sips of the punch, but that batch was especially strong, so she decided to nurse it.

  Pulling her phone back out, she texted her mom to tell her she was still at Brian’s so they shouldn’t wait up.

  Candace plopped down in the floor in front of Willow’s seat and turned sideways so she could look at her while she ate her Hot Pocket. “So, who are you texting?”

  Willow’s gaze snapped the other girl’s, but there seemed to be no guile in the question. “My parents. Just letting them know where I am.”

  “I’m so tired,” Candace stated, dropping her pastry onto the foam plate, then lying back and balancing the plate on her flat stomach.

  Cracking a smile at the drunk girl, Willow said, “Maybe you should sleep. Are you staying here tonight?”

  “Yeah, I was gonna crash with Brian.”

  “Oh.”

  “Unless you’re staying?” she asked, turning her head to look at Willow.

  “Uh… no, not planning on staying.” Brian walked in the room, so Willow sat her Solo cup down and stood, stepping over Candace and catching his arm. “Hey, can I steal you for a minute?”

  “’Course,” he said, flashing her a little smile, but he made no move to leave the room.

  “Privately?”

  “Oh. Sure.”

  Brian put his food and drink down on the table and warned everyone else away from it. Taking Willow by the hand, he led her up the stairs toward his bedroom.

  As soon as they made it upstairs, he started touching her face, gazing down at her, and leaned in to kiss her.