Perfectly Imperfect Mine Read online

  There was a guy bent at the knees looking intently at cereals. Stone, who had made it his mission to make her want him and then walk away. He managed to make humiliating her a new sport.

  But now she was ten feet away and had no one to cover her or any place to hide. Her life was an endless amount of curveballs. Backing up her cart and turning around would cause too much noise. She could try to slide by him without notice. She walked slowly toward him, keeping her head down. A few more steps and she’d pass him. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. He grabbed a box and turned around. Now they were directly facing each other. She pushed her cart forward. She’d just ignore him. But he stepped in her path and she stopped. She looked up at his beautiful amused face. She scowled back at him. She refused to fall for his bullshit again.

  “Hey, babe,” he said easily. Someone shoot her now. Or better yet, shoot him.

  “Can you please move?”

  “You’re not even going to say hi?” He was doing that hot guy smirk thing again. She had never been a violent person. However, the cocky look she was getting from him made her want to slap him.

  “Hi,” she replied in a monotone voice. “Can you please move?”

  “Sure, I can move. But I like my view from right here so I think I’ll stay.” He looked at her chest and his eyes scanned further down. He was obviously checking her out. His eyes rose back up her body and hesitated on her breasts again before making it up to her face. Now he had a huge smile on his face.

  “Have you been avoiding me, Sadie?” He taunted her as he leaned into her.

  She immediately stepped back. “Please move,” she gritted out through clenched teeth.

  He ignored her. He raised his finger to his head and tapped. “Ever since that night in the parking lot, I can’t seem to get you alone, Sadie. Why is that?” he asked in a calm voice.

  She glared at him. “Move!”

  His smirk turned into a grin and he edged closer to her. “I think you’re afraid to be alone with me, Sadie. Is that it? Afraid I’ll get you panting and moaning, get your panties soaked, and have to leave you hanging again?” His voice lowered and he seductively inquired, “Tell me something, are you wet now, babe?”

  “Move!”

  “Make me!” he goaded.

  “You are the biggest asshole I have ever met!” Her voice was loud and irate while her body burned with hatred.

  He started to laugh. “Babe…”

  Before he could finish, a beautiful brunette came up from behind him and said cheerfully, “Ha…I got the last one. Victory!”

  She raised a box of something over her head as if it were the Hope Diamond. She was smiling at Stone before turning her gaze to Sadie. Damn. She’d never had a thing for girls but Sadie was secure enough to admit that this girl was beautiful. She had high cheekbones with a pert nose and full lips. Her eyes were an ocean blue surrounded by long thick lashes. Her hair looked like she did hair care commercials. Thick wavy brown hair hung past her waist. She looked like a brunette Barbie. Of course, he was with this girl.

  Sadie was trying to subdue her jealousy. She needed to try harder.

  Her eyes snapped to the Brunette Barbie when she said, “Who’s this?” She smiled between Stone and Sadie.

  His eyes were on Sadie’s, watching her. He remained silent as if he didn’t hear her.

  “Stone?” She pulled on his elbow to get his attention, which was solely on Sadie at the moment. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?” she asked warily.

  He leaned down to her ear and whispered something Sadie couldn’t hear. Her eyes darted to Sadie and she gave a soft smile. Looking back at Stone she giggled as a genuine smile spread across his face.

  Her heart raced and she could feel the heat on her face. She could just imagine how he described who she was. “Just some trashy slut that keeps throwing herself at me.” He probably told the girl what a pathetic idiot she was. Now they were laughing at her. She had become their inside joke. Her anger built again. She refused to stand there and be the butt of joke for Stone and one of his many bitches.

  She blurted out the only thing she thought might wipe the smiles off their faces. “I’m his side piece!”

  Their heads both whipped around to her, shock written all over their faces. Brunette Barbie’s eyes went wide and she could tell she was speechless. He was equally speechless but his eyes were not only shocked, they were furious. Sadie had an internal “Go Me” moment knowing that he might not be getting any tonight. Nothing ruined a lover’s romantic dinner like meeting the “side piece” at the grocery store.

  She couldn’t help but smile. It was time for payback, asshole.

  She looked over to the girl and shrugged. “Oh you didn’t know? Hmmm…don’t worry, sweetheart, no love here, just some good old fashion fucking. A man like Stone needs more than one of us to keep him sated. As Stone says, ‘Men need variety. Like snowflakes, no two pussies are the same.’ But you must be special, he never cooked me dinner.”

  She took a deep breath and watched as her eyes went even wider and her brows arched higher. The girl looked utterly stunned. She almost felt bad. Almost.

  “Well I have to run but you two enjoy the rest of your night.”

  She ripped past them only to have Stone grab her arm before her getaway. His hand gripped her wrist so tight it felt like it might break. Fear spiked in her chest. He was livid.

  However, there wasn’t much he could do in front of his girl and a store filled with people. Sadie peered down at her wrist and smirked. She looked directly into his enraged eyes. “Baby, I know you like it rough but I didn’t think public was your thing.”

  Brunette Barbie gasped and his hold tightened. Her confidence wavered and she realized she might have taken it a little too far with that comment. He released her wrist. She had been pulling back against him. When he let her go she started to tumble and landed on her knees. Ouch! Brunette Barbie took a few steps but Stone stepped in front of her. When she looked up, his face was blank.

  “Public isn’t my thing so you can get off your knees.” He turned around, grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. Neither of them looked back.

  She slowly got to her feet and thankfully she was the only one in the aisle. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone there to bear witness to her mortification, which she created herself. She should have just kept her mouth shut. She could have just grabbed her cart and bypassed them when Barbie showed up. She would have had a great way out with Barbie as a distraction. Instead Sadie chose to be brazen and this was where it got her. She was now a self-proclaimed slut to a man she barely knew.

  Grabbing her cart she continued getting what was left on her list. She didn’t run into them again. She considered ditching her cart and running out, but what was the point? She was already humiliated and a girl had to eat. She did the self-check-out and headed to her car. She stopped three cars down from hers as a big gray shiny truck began to reverse. It backed up slowly and as the windows came into sight she saw familiar green eyes blazing into hers. The truck never stopped as it backed out and his eyes never left hers. She broke eye contact when his front end cleared her path. She did a walk-run to her car, opened the trunk, threw her bags in and slammed it down. She wanted to just leave the cart by her car. But it was a pet peeve of hers, people who didn’t return their carts. Sadie swung her cart around to see the silver truck in the middle of the parking lot.

  He knew she had to pass him. She took a deep breath and started to walk across when a horn blasted from her right. She whipped her head and gasped in shock. A minivan was inches from hitting her. Shit! She wasn’t even paying attention. She could have been flattened by a family of five. The driver was throwing up his hands yelling but she couldn’t hear him. She did hear car doors and feet pounding on the pavement.

  “Oh my God, are you okay?” It was a female voice. She thought it was Barbie.

  Then a loud and mad as hell boom. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Are yo
u trying to kill someone?” His voice knocked Sadie out of her shock and suddenly his arms were around her and she was being backed up to her car. She was aware of Barbie on her left as Stone crowded her front. Her eyes were planted on his chest as her body started to shake. She breathed heavily as her heart raced. The van had been inches away from running her down. Oh God!

  “Jeez, girl, you could have been killed. I thought for sure he was going to hit you the way he came speeding up and you kept walking and…” She never finished because Stone interrupted.

  “Rox! Enough. Shut up!”

  “Sorry, I just can’t believe…”

  “Just go move the truck for me.”

  “Oh right. Okay. That was crazy, I think that guy was going about fifty miles an hour…”

  “Roxanne! Shut the fuck up and move my fucking truck!” He was so loud that Sadie jumped back a bit but she had nowhere to go with his arms caged around her. His whole body was pushed into hers with one arm around her waist and his other hand on her neck.

  Roxanne, aka Barbie, muttered something which sounded like “dickhead” and then she was gone. Her mind was still racing when a hand reached under her chin and her head was lifted.

  “You okay?” he quietly asked. They were so close together their bodies touched. Yet she managed to move into him another inch which he welcomed with a gripping tug on her waist.

  She swallowed hard and nodded. She was pretty sure she was in shock. He was hovering over her and rubbed a hand against her back. It felt nice and soothing. She wasn’t accustomed to having others soothe her. She liked it, especially coming from him. This man confused her to no end. One minute he was insulting her and being cruel, the next he was sweet, protective, and comforting. It was almost as if he was having an internal struggle with who he should be around her. Or maybe he just had multiple personalities.

  His left hand at her jaw caressed her neck. She liked that, too. She leaned into his hand. The moment was so intimate. She breathed him in. She knew deep down inside he could turn at any time and become an asshole but for now she was just going to pretend this was the real Stone. She’d never felt safer than she did at this moment. She was going to let herself have this.

  When he asked for her keys, she handed them over without a second thought. They walked over with his body hovered around her. He opened the passenger side door and motioned for her to get in. She slid into her seat. It was a strange view. She couldn’t remember ever sitting in the passenger seat of her own car. She placed her bag on the floor and looked around the car she’d had for years. It really was a piece of shit. It had blue stained fabric. There were cigarette burns throughout the back and the top liner had a rip. It was functional but ugly.

  Why was she in the passenger seat? Did he expect her to climb over the console?

  Before she could ask, she heard him speaking over the roof. “You drive the truck and follow me. And don’t change my station, I mean it, Rox. No country!” There was a small threat in his voice but mostly tenderness. A surge of jealousy came from inside Sadie again. He sounded playful with Roxanne. Even in the store, when he whispered in her ear, they seemed so comfortable together. She didn’t quite know why but that thought made her sad. Maybe because she knew he wasn’t for her, but somehow, seeing him with Roxanne, it was confirmed.

  A few seconds passed and he got in. He adjusted the seat and started up the car. He looked like a giant in her car. It was really silly for him to drive her home. Sadie knew he just pitied her. She had always despised pity.

  “I’m really okay to drive.” She turned to face him. “Seriously, I’m good, I can get myself home. You don’t need to do this. Really,” she said, with all the confidence she could muster. She needed to get away from him.

  He was backing up and pulling out of the spot while ignoring her.

  Let me try this again. “I appreciate you doing this but it’s really not necessary. Thanks for your help and thank your girlfriend for me!”

  He continued to ignore her. What the hell!

  When he pulled up to the stop, she noticed his truck pulled up behind them. She looked back at Roxanne. She couldn’t see her face well but her hand went up and she waved enthusiastically. She awkwardly waved back and turned in her seat. Roxanne seemed too happy for someone whose man was helping another girl, Sadie thought. She probably didn’t see her as competition. However, she was the girl who claimed to be his “side piece” and vulgarly described that they were just fuck buddies. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. Way to go, Sadie!

  She glanced over at Stone who had just pulled out of the parking lot. In the daylight his hair wasn’t as dark as she originally thought. It was dark brown, shiny, and a little long around the ears. He looked like a model for a biker magazine. She bet he had a motorcycle. She couldn’t see his scar from where she sat but she knew it was there. She wondered how he got it. He probably got it in a bar fight. He looked like a bar fight kind of guy.

  They continued west toward her trailer. She always hated that saying silence is deafening. It never made sense to her until now. The silence was deafening. He had blatantly ignored her since he’d gotten into the car. His left arm was on the door while his right steered. The music was low.

  During the ride she stared out the window. Cedar Bluff, Nebraska. It sounded pretty but it really wasn’t. Lots of dirt, land, corn, and cows. At one time, there were a lot of small family farms but they had since been bought out by larger farms. It had become a non-producing small town. It was just another casualty of the American dream. Sadie always thought she’d get out of there. She used to dream about packing up and heading somewhere exciting. But dreams cost money. She may have had the dreams but she didn’t have the money. Just another small town girl stuck in Cedar Bluff.

  She saw the dirty cracked sign coming up on the right. The Bluff Carriage Homes. She rolled her eyes. Carriage Home was a fancy way of saying trailer park. She lived in the back section. There were about sixty trailers. Most were owned. The others were rentals like hers. Stone pulled into her spot and the truck pulled up behind them. Home at last.

  She opened her door to get out but she was stopped by a large hand grabbing hers. Not rough or hard but stern. “I’ll get your bags. You just go inside.”

  She stumbled a bit with her words. “Oh no, you don’t have to…”

  He interrupted with a grin on his face. “Babe, I said I’ll get them. Now get your sweet ass inside.”

  Her jaw dropped. Did he just call her ass sweet? She should be offended. She should be outraged. But she was not. All she could think was that Stone thought she had a sweet ass. She could see it in her head, feminists everywhere were shaking their heads. But she didn’t care.

  She slowly got out, walked up her small deck, and unlocked the door. She always locked her door although it was pointless. The lock was broken. Just a wiggle and a hard shove and anyone could get in. Someone did, three months ago. Nothing was taken, there was nothing to take. The manager had promised her a new lock. She was still waiting.

  Home.

  “Hey, let’s get inside, girl,” Sadie heard from behind her.

  A light touch to her back pushed her through the door. She walked in and turned on the kitchen light to find Roxanne. She refused to call her Brunette Barbie anymore. She seemed really nice and genuinely concerned back at the store.

  “Hey, uh, thanks for helping me out back there. I don’t know if it was shock or what…” Sadie felt embarrassed about the situation. “…but I appreciate it. So, thanks.”

  She smiled big. “You’re welcome. We didn’t formally meet in the store, I’m Roxanne Barrett.”

  She smiled back. “Sadie Wallace.”

  She had a glint in her eye as she let out a chuckle. “Oh, I know.”

  Stone came in with the bags and laid them on the counter. She watched as Roxanne looked around. She could only see the kitchen and living room combo from where she stood. There wasn’t much to her place. All used furniture and some trinkets her
e and there. Sadie wondered what she saw. She expected to see disgust in Roxanne’s face but she didn’t, all she saw was curiosity.

  “Rox, give me a minute here, will ya?” Stone asked.

  She looked over to Stone and then to Sadie. She had a small smile on her lips.

  “Yeah, sure thing.” She walked over to Sadie and grabbed her for a hug. Sadie immediately froze. She couldn’t remember the last time a stranger hugged her, if ever. It was so awkward.

  “It was awesome meeting you, Sadie. Wish it had been under different circumstances.” She leaned back out of the hug and grinned at Sadie. “Let’s get together soon. Maybe we can meet up for lunch and do some shopping.”

  One of Stone’s girlfriends wanted to hang out with her. This was so strange. She looked over at Stone to find an amused look. Well, she wouldn’t be rude.

  “Uh yeah…okay?” It was a statement posed as a question. She was so confused.

  “Great! I’ll be in the truck. Take your time, Stone.” She winked at him as she walked out the front door.

  She was planted in the kitchen, near the counter, not moving, trying to roll over everything that just happened when Stone came closer. She stepped back against the counter. He reached around and gripped the counter behind.

  She inhaled. “So, well, thanks again. I don’t want to keep you and Roxanne. She’s great by the way. She’s really nice.” Sadie continued to ramble. “I’m sorry for what I said back there. You know, about being your side piece.” She cringed when she said it. “You guys, uh…make a, umm…good couple.” She sounded like a complete idiot. Hopefully, she sounded believable.

  His lips came close to her ear. “We’re not a couple, Sadie.”

  “Oh, I just thought she was one of your girlfriends the way you guys were together and everything.” She was back to blundering words.

  He pulled back from her ear and leaned down until they were eye level, still whispering. “I’ve known Rox since she was five. She’s Ethan’s little sister, and mine in every way except blood. We grew up together, all of us.”