Imperfect Love: One-Night Stand-In (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by T Gephart

  “Fine, answers.” She huffed into the phone. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?”

  I could have easily told Keely that Sarah was just a girl who had spent the night. It would have still invited more questions because I didn’t usually let my female friends answer my phone, but I was confident it would have appeased her.

  Of course, what I had in front of me was an opportunity that I found too good to pass up.

  “Sarah’s not my girlfriend.” My eyes shifted to her, watching her reaction as I smiled. “She’s the woman I married in Vegas.”

  There was a sharp intake of air on either side of the phone, one from my sister, the other from Sarah, her eyes peeled back to maximum capacity.

  You’d think it would get old, but I secretly loved watching her on edge. Sarah I meant. I guess, Keely as well. Perhaps I was just an all-around bastard. And if I was, it wouldn’t be changing soon.

  “What are you doing?” Sarah whispered, the fire in her eyes making my cock twitch. “Stop telling people that.”

  It was ridiculous how much her reaction excited me. I was probably never going to stop.

  “Kyle!” Keely finding her words as she launched into what I assumed would be one of her epic tongue-lashings. “I swear on Mom and Dad’s grave, if you’re telling the truth . . . If you got married . . . And if this is a joke . . . What the hell?”

  “I tried to tell you, you didn’t listen.” I smirked, Sarah’s brow knitting in confusion. “In any case, this should alleviate your concerns about me needing a wife. I have one, she’s wonderful and I need to be at work in two hours, so I have husbandly duties I need to perform. Talk soon.”

  I hung up, tossing the phone on the bed beside me. After all, I was a man of my word and the clock was ticking.

  “Are you insane? Who the hell are you telling we’re married?” She pushed roughly against my chest as I moved in to kiss her. “I’m not going to be used as an excuse for you to ward off an old girlfriend. I’m going to kill you.”

  Yeah, it never got old.

  Her annoyance was like an aphrodisiac. More so because I knew I brought it out in her. No other man had got that, I was sure of it. This was just for me.

  “It’s probably unhealthy how turned on I get when you’re angry, but she’s not my ex-girlfriend. She’s my sister.”

  “Then why would you tell her that?” She continued to swat at my chest, her anger showing no signs of receding.

  She was hot as hell, her face wild, with eyes full of fury and untamed hair.

  “Because she needs to stop meddling in my personal life, and I already told you, it gets me hard.”

  I grabbed her hand and moved it to my cock. She seemed like she’d appreciate the visual cue, and I liked her hand there. “Like that.”

  “You probably woke up like that.” I removed my hand, but she kept hers against my shaft, palming me as she spoke. “Probably had nothing to do with me.”

  “You know it did.” I leaned back allowing her a better angle. “And more importantly, you like that it did.”

  It was useless to argue. Whether she liked to admit it or not, I knew her better than she knew herself.

  “I need to go home and change before work, I don’t have time for this.” She continued to stroke me.

  “I can be quick, give you time to go home and change.” I moved in closer, my lips owning hers. “Or I can be slow and we can be late.”

  The choice was hers because I knew that she needed it. But make no mistake, we weren’t leaving my apartment until I’d made her come at least once.

  And with a smile she said the word I was hoping for.

  “Slow.”

  * * *

  We arrived thirty minutes late.

  I drove us to her place so she could change, which meant now I had her address too.

  Her apartment was exactly how I expected it to be, neat, well-decorated and in a decent part of town. I also knew she lived alone, her limp-dick ex fiancé—her last roommate. Pity about his legal troubles, not my doing but I can’t say it didn’t make me smile.

  And while it was tempting to see how her mattress compared to mine, I was conscious we were on the clock. So I let her get dressed, confident I would get to undress her later.

  No one noticed we were either late or had arrived together, something I knew she had been concerned about. We were discussing the latest financials as we exited the elevator so to the untrained eye it looked like we had arrived from a meeting. Ironically it hadn’t been choreographed, she’d pulled up one of the files after she’d gotten home from the bar in an effort to distract her from the should-I-stay-or-should-I-go argument. And while she was stalling the inevitable she’d noticed a discrepancy in the numbers. The shared car ride to the office gave her the opportunity to bring it to my attention. And what worked out to be the perfect cover also meant we had saved our client about fifteen percent. Even better was that she asked for my input. Something she would never have done the day before.

  We didn’t discuss sex at work.

  She was the consummate professional, driving through the days with very precise objections. And I didn’t want to admit I was thinking about her as much as I did.

  When it was time to go, we walked out together. Again, no eyebrows were raised on account we’d been working so closely together.

  She didn’t ask where I was driving when I took her back to my apartment. No objections were raised when I pulled up her skirt, like I’d been dying to do all day, and fucked her on my dining room table. And it was with enthusiasm that she sucked my dick in the shower, my absolute pleasure returning the favor an hour later.

  Wash.

  Rinse.

  Repeat.

  And the week came to a close with no real discussion on what we were doing.

  There was heat from Keely, which I expected. A barrage of text and voice messages demanding to know the truth. So I eventually put her out of her misery and confirmed that we weren’t married, but we had met in Vegas and I was seeing her. And that as much as I loved my sister, she was informed that my love life was out of bounds. I didn’t expect for her to listen, but figured it would give me at least a week or two before I got the third degree.

  I assumed Sarah had told Kennedy because she was more skittish than usual. She also didn’t come into my office with offers of being friendly either. But my suspicions were confirmed on Friday night when I was about to drive Sarah home and the three of us were riding the elevator to the underground garage.

  “So, I know you have this thing happening.” Kennedy punctuated with air quotes. “But it’s Friday and Sarah and I always go out. Just so you know.”

  It was clear that I was the you in question.

  “Sarah can do what she likes, when she likes and with who she likes,” I fired back, a little annoyed that Kennedy felt she needed to speak for Sarah.

  The woman I was spending my days and my nights with was more than capable of speaking for herself, and I wished the people around her would see her in the same light.

  And another thing, I’d obviously not given much thought about the statement until after it had come out of my mouth. Because I was very particular about whom she did certain things with.

  “Ok-ay.” Kennedy tapped her foot awkwardly as the elevator opened to the garage. “Looks like we’re set for tonight then.”

  “Can you give us a minute?” Sarah turned to Kennedy as she stepped out. “I’ll get a ride home with Kyle and meet you back at my place.”

  “Sure.” Kennedy shrugged. “Don’t punk out on me though, all right?”

  “I won’t.” Sarah smiled and watched as Kennedy hit the keyless entry to her blue Mazda hatch and climbed inside.

  “So you think I should see other people?” She didn’t give me a chance to start. “I wasn’t really sure how this was going to work.”

  “That’s not what I said, and not what I meant.”

  We waited until Kennedy drove off before continuing.


  “I meant generally.” I was careful with my word choice; I wanted to be clear without sounding like a complete asshole. “This week I’ve seen you go toe to toe with CEOs and not bat an eye. You don’t need to ask permission.”

  “So are you going to see other people?” she asked, the little line at the bridge of her nose crinkling like it did when she was deep in thought.

  “No. I’m not. And I don’t want you to either.”

  I didn’t want there to be any other interpretation. While I happily celebrated the version of herself that was more assertive, I wasn’t willing to share her with anyone else either.

  “But you just said I didn’t need to ask permission. And you don’t usually date anyway, so . . .”

  “Things change.” And it wasn’t a point I could see myself conceding on.

  The parking garage wasn’t an ideal place for a discussion—too many eyes and ears—so I tipped my head to my Audi, which at least gave us some privacy.

  “I’ll drive you home, let’s talk in the car.”

  “Yeah, we should definitely talk.”

  Chapter 10

  Sarah

  I was a planner.

  I always had been.

  So, how I ended up in an undefined relationship with a man I was supposed to be destroying was beyond me.

  It was a catastrophe.

  Sure, I could pretend like this had been my plan all a long. Sleep with the enemy, find his weakness and then use whatever it was to destroy him. But it would be complete bullshit to assume my head had any input into this decision.

  No. I slept with him because he basically got me wetter than any man and or machine had ever got me before and I couldn’t say no. It was primal, an urge that, for the first time in my life, told my brain to “sit the hell down and chill the hell out” and let my hormones take the wheel.

  Which they had.

  Which was why I was sleeping with a man I was technically not dating, who I was working with, and who I was supposed to hate.

  All my excellent and careful prior planning didn’t count for shit.

  I was a moron.

  Shit.

  My eyes darted across to him, his hands locked on the steering wheel as we exited the garage and onto the street.

  “Sooooooo.” What the hell did I want or even need to say?

  “You want to fuck other people?” he asked. Unlike me, not having any problems at all articulating his feelings.

  “No.” I choked back a laugh. Me, the serial relationship-er have more than one casual whatever this was? “I mean, you know that I suck at random . . .”

  “Fucking.” That word against those lips was positively obscene. “I’ve heard you say the word before, and it’s a favorite of mine. You should say it more often.”

  “I have no problem saying fuck when necessary.” I rolled my eyes. Sure, I didn’t pepper my conversation with it, but I wasn’t averse to swearing.

  “Fuck,” he glanced over to me, “is always necessary.”

  See how easy it was to tumble down the rabbit hole? He started talking like that, looking like that and I forgot everything and started wondering why I wasn’t undressing already.

  “No, I don’t want to fuck other people,” I shot back, still mostly confused.

  “Good.” He nodded, his smile spreading across his lips. “Just me then.”

  “Well, I should probably stop that too,” I heard myself say, the words surprising myself.

  “No. You shouldn’t,” he answered casually, keeping his eyes on the road.

  “Look, it’s obvious I’m attracted to you.” Considering it was like twenty-four hours from vowing to ruin him to jumping into to bed with him, I think that was stating the obvious. “But my job is the most important thing to me right now. I don’t want to do anything that will jeopardize it. And if Noah and Olivia found out we are—”

  “Fucking,” he added before I could finish.

  “Fucking,” I repeated. “Then I’m almost positive one of us, if not both of us, would lose our jobs.”

  “I disagree.” He shook his head. “T&C’s fraternization policy specifies only relationships where either party is in the chain of command that it becomes a problem. We’re exempt by that definition.”

  “You know the fraternization policy?”

  I wasn’t sure if I was impressed or horrified. And don’t even get me started on the fact that part of me was secretly thrilled it wouldn’t be something I’d lose my job over. No. Horrified. Be horrified, I tried to tell myself. Who even does that?

  “Don’t be so surprised.” He laughed, his coolness rolling off in a wave of self-assurance. “I assumed you knew the policy too, considering your attention to detail.”

  See, evidence right there that I had dropped the ball.

  He turned to look at me, those green eyes of his boring into mine. “I wouldn’t have laid a finger on you—or in you as the case may be—if I thought there was a chance it would get us fired.”

  “It’s still a bad idea. And you’re right, I should have known that and the fact I didn’t proves what a distraction this is. It was fun, and sex with you is probably the best I have ever had. But we both know this has no future considering how different we are. Honestly, it was stupid to even start.”

  My thoughts came out in a rush.

  It had been incredibly stupid. Yes, the week working along side him had been outstanding, and going to bed with him was an excitement I’d never experienced before. But it wasn’t who I was and it wasn’t who he was, and the last thing I needed was to throw away the only thing that worked in my life. My job.

  “I told you. Things change,” he responded calmly. “Obviously I don’t have the time or the interest in seeing someone else. It’s been a while, but I know how these things work. So, why don’t we wait and see what happens between the two of us before you assume the worst-case scenario.”

  What did that even mean?

  If he was suggesting we attempt a regular boyfriend/girlfriend relationship then that was the most vague attempt at commitment I’d ever heard.

  I didn’t do maybes.

  I needed a plan.

  That was the way I worked. And he knew that. And I’d already flown by the seat of my pants more than I had ever done in my life. I couldn’t hang my hopes on a possibility. I wouldn’t do that.

  “I need to concentrate on my job. And the promotion. And prove that I deserve to be there. Not waste time on sex with a man I know I have zero future with.” The words were harsher than I’d intended them to be, rushing out before I had a chance to soften them.

  He was quiet.

  Too quiet.

  I had basically told him he was a waste of my time and I was no longer interested, and he didn’t say a word.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quickly knowing it didn’t make a difference.

  I hated the way it felt and I just wished he would lash out. Call me a bitch, or a whore, or a cock tease. Anything would have been better than the silence.

  “Well, that changes things,” he finally said, his tone so devoid of emotion it scared me. “Like you said, it was fun, but there’s no point continuing if you feel you’re wasting your time.”

  Ok, so maybe it wasn’t completely devoid of emotion and the truth was I deserved a lot worse than that.

  We drove the rest of the way in silence. I wasn’t really sure what to say and I had no idea what was going on in his head. If he’d been less decent he might have pulled over to the curb and told me to get out. But he didn’t, and deep down I wasn’t surprised.

  He was a good person, and other than an inaccurate job description, he’d never lied to me. Maybe under different circumstances this might have worked out. But as it were now. We were too different.

  His car stopped at the front of my apartment building, the engine continued to idle as I opened my door.

  “I’m sorry.” I forced myself to look at him, determined that I owed him at least that.

  “No. D
o not apologize.” He shook his head. “What I said before still stands. You are an incredible and strong woman. Do not ask for permission and don’t say sorry if you are doing what you want.”

  Call me a bitch, please internally I begged.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” His hand reached over and thumbed my lip and I struggled not to lean into it.

  “Yes. It is.” I tried to put as much confidence as I could behind it even though part of me was having second thoughts.

  “Okay, then. I’ll see you next week.” He dropped his hand and returned it to the steering wheel.

  “Okay.” I nodded, unsure if I should say something more even though I had no idea what to say. It felt unfinished and yet so final.

  “It’s not going to be weird on Monday,” he said suddenly, as if reading my thoughts. “We were able to segregate before, so it won’t change now. Work is work.”

  “Thank you.” My heart swelled with gratitude. “You have been . . . really wonderful.”

  “Don’t mention it.” He shrugged. “You should get going, Kennedy will be waiting.”

  For a second I hesitated, wanting to kiss him. Maybe because I knew that after this it would no longer be acceptable and I would miss it. I didn’t love him. It was too soon to feel anything like that. But there was something there that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

  I pushed myself out of the car before I changed my mind.

  “Goodbye.”

  Chapter 11

  Kyle

  I’d never missed a woman.

  Not one in particular.

  There wasn’t time.

  Women walked in and out of my life with as much regularity as I allowed. If I liked one, she’d usually stay awhile and if she didn’t then I’d move onto another. I hadn’t found one who made me mourn the loss.

  That didn’t mean I didn’t know what love was.

  I was incredibly close to my family. The folks were both gone, both of them dying younger than they should. It wasn’t anything tragic or noteworthy like a plane crash. Nope, they just didn’t take care of themselves. So my apathy to being in love wasn’t about not getting hugged enough as a child.