Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters) (17 page)

Cathryn stood and placed the cup in its
saucer with a rattle. “You’re fucking crazy. What woman in her right mind
wouldn’t get jealous at the thought of her fiancée kissing someone else?”

“That’s between me and Dex,” Honey said,
wondering where Lily was. Had she been able to contact Koru? Where the hell was
her brother when she needed him?

Cathryn walked around the sofa to stand a few
feet in front of her. “I don’t get it. What the hell does he see in you? You’re
cold as a fish. How does he cope with that? You really think you’re going to be
able to keep him interested?” She looked genuinely puzzled.

“Oh don’t worry about us,” Honey said with
more confidence than she felt. “We’ll be fine.”

“Perhaps you have an open relationship?”
Cathryn looked intrigued. “Maybe you expect him to go off with other women?
Would it really not bother you?”

The thought made her want to punch
Cathryn’s teeth down her throat, but Honey clenched her fists and fought for
control. “My life is of no concern to you.”

Cathryn moistened her red lips. “He told me
you hadn’t slept together yet.”

For the first time, anger rather than panic
and hurt rose to the fore at the thought that Dex had discussed their private
life with his ex-girlfriend. “What of it?”

“You’re not…oh my God, you’re not a virgin,
are you?” She looked highly amused.

At least Dex hadn’t told her about Ian and
her past, thought Honey, but it was scant consolation. At that moment, she
hated him for sharing something so personal, especially with the woman who’d
once been a part of his life. How could he have done that? Obviously, he’d
thought to keep it a secret from her. Maybe he just didn’t want to hurt her,
but that didn’t make it better.

She didn’t know what it meant for their
future. She would have to sit down and think about it all, and then she’d have
to talk to him. But that was a problem for later. For now, she wanted this
woman out of her house, and fast. “That’s absolutely none of your business.
Please leave.”

Cathryn ignored her. “Holy heck, you have
absolutely no idea what you’re letting yourself in for, do you?”

What the hell did that mean? “Please leave
now, before I call the police.” She didn’t miss the irony that it might be Dex
who received the call.

Cathryn grinned. “Perhaps I should give you
a few ideas, you know, girl to girl?”

Honey started walking to the door, but
Cathryn put her arm across to the wall, halting her exit.

“Would you like a list of everything we did
in the bedroom?” she said huskily. “Every dirty little thing we got up to, so
you know what to expect?”

Honey was shaking now. “Get out of my way.”

“I never knew before I met Dex just how
many different positions a couple could have sex in, and how many times in one
night a man could manage it!”

Galled at the thought of the two of them
swinging from the chandeliers and screwing like bunnies, and incensed that a
small part of her wanted to ask what Cathryn had meant by the comment
You
have absolutely no idea what you’re letting yourself in for, do you?
Honey
pushed the woman’s arm. “Get out!”

“I had no idea how many types of sex toys
there were either. Or where he could put them. He’s very inventive.”

Honey finally shoved the woman’s arm aside
and walked out to the front door. She wrenched it open and stood back. “Get
out.”

Cathryn stopped before her. “He likes oral.”
She licked her red lips. “Want me to tell you what he tastes like?”

“Get out!” Honey yelled.

“Got any lube?” Cathryn’s eyes looked
feverish, taunting. “If not, you’d better get some because you’re going to need
it. He likes to fuck a girl hard every which way, including—”

Her words ended with a crack as Honey
slapped her across the face. Cathryn stumbled, but before she could draw
breath, Honey pushed her out and shut the door behind her.

Cathryn pounded on the door. “Open it,
bitch
!”

Honey backed away, shaking and breaking out
in a cold sweat. Where the hell was Lily?

Cathryn stopped, obviously realising Honey
wasn’t going to open the door. “He’s already left one woman at the altar,” she
yelled, her voice muffled through the wood. “Aren’t you worried he’s going to
do it again?”

The sound of smashing glass filled the
air—her windscreen probably, Honey thought wildly. A car started and reversed
up the drive. She could still hear the engine roaring as it sped off toward the
state highway.

She ran to the bathroom and barely made it
to the toilet before she vomited. Again and again she retched, throwing up the
contents of her stomach until only bile remained.

Finally, she sank onto the floor. Tears
poured down her cheeks. Conscious of the fact that she was losing it—that she
was dissolving like a painting caught in the rain—she sank her hands into her
hair and said over and over again, “It’s not the end of the world. It’s not the
end of the world.”

But it felt like it. And she knew nothing
would be the same again.

Dex finished work at five thirty and walked
down to
Matariki
. The café had closed, but when he knocked on the door,
Koru—who had been sitting at one of the tables working on some paperwork—came
over and unlatched it.

The two men stared at each other across the
threshold of the shop.

“I think we need to talk,” Dex said. It had
taken him all day to work up the courage to face Honey’s brother.

“You think?” Koru stepped out and indicated
one of the wooden tables on the tiles outside the café. “Have a seat.”

Dex sat, thankful that Koru hadn’t
immediately tried to knock his teeth down his throat. That boded well. Didn’t
it?

Koru sat opposite him and leaned back in
his chair, one arm hooked over the back, playing with a pen with his other
hand. He didn’t say anything.

Dex placed his police officer’s hat on the
table and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Cam said you wanted to cut off
my dick and stuff it down my throat.”

That brought a wry smile to Koru’s face. “I
may have said that.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I’m
sorry.”

Koru’s smile turned to a frown. “I don’t
get why you did it. I thought you loved Honey.”

“I do. Christ I do.” Dex rested his head in
his hands. “It was stupid. It wasn’t a loving kiss—I was mad. Cathryn kept
talking and saying awful things, and I wanted to shut her up.”

“You could have just said ‘please shut the
fuck up.’”

“I know. I can’t excuse it.” Dex decided
the best course of action was to tell the truth rather than pussyfoot around.
Koru was a good mate and he felt almost as devastated that he’d upset him and
his father as that he’d upset Honey. Almost. “I don’t know what happened. I let
it slip that Honey and I haven’t slept together yet.”

“Jeez, why?”

“I don’t know. I think I wanted to prove to
Cathryn that we—Honey and I—are special. That it goes beyond sex, you know?
Because that’s all Cathryn and I were about. And it was good—I can’t deny it.
Or bad, depending on how you look at it. Bad, bad sex.” He sank his fingers
into his hair. “And she started taunting me about it, asking me what I’d do if
Honey doesn’t want to do the sort of things I like…” His voice tailed off, and
he sighed. “It’s been such a long time—six months since I met Honey. I’m so
keyed up, and nervous about the weekend. I just…snapped, I guess. Maybe I
wanted to remind myself why I left her. Or maybe I’m just an evil bastard deep
down, I don’t know. It was wrong and I wish I hadn’t done it. And I am sorry.”

He fell quiet. A brief shower pattered on
the roofs of the shops in the tiny mall, and every now and again one found its
way through the latticework of flowers above their heads and landed on his
skin. The air smelled of autumn, of dying leaves from the trees lining the
north side of the mall, of the end of summer.

He leaned back in his chair, exhausted,
wishing it was Saturday and he was married, and he could just whisk Honey away to
their honeymoon destination alone.

“I always thought waiting until the wedding
night was a crazy idea,” Koru said. To Dex’s relief, Koru’s lips curved up at
the corner. “But I admired you both for it—and especially you. It’s not easy
for a guy to go so long, but I knew you wanted to do it because of your ex, and
also that you understood Honey better in two weeks than Mc-Fucking-Idiot did in
two years. All women like to be treasured, to feel special, but Honey
especially after what happened to her, and the fact that you were willing to
wait rated you highly in my book.”

Dex picked at flaking skin on his knuckles.
“I do love her.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re not evil, Dex. You’re
just a guy. We’re all led by our dicks, and sometimes it feels like we don’t
even have a choice, you know? Women think that’s a get out clause and that
we’re weak, but I don’t think it’s that. Hormones are powerful things.”

“Your dad said women are like sirens,” Dex murmured,
remembering what Cam had told him about the girl who’d refused to accept her
relationship with Koru was over. “He said they call out to your soul and you go
running whether you want to or not.”

“He’s right. Did Honey tell you that Mum
was married when Dad met her?”

Dex’s eyes widened. “No!”

“We don’t talk about it much now—she
probably forgot. Mum got married at seventeen, here in New Zealand, to an older
guy. She was unhappy at home with her parents and I think she just wanted to
escape. A year later Dad came on holiday here with a mate who was visiting his
folks. He said he just walked in a café one day and
Wham!
That was it.
He knew she was married, but he couldn’t keep away from her. He persuaded her
to leave her husband and fly back with him. It was the scandal of the year in
the small English town he lived in. But he didn’t care. He said he had no
choice in the matter. She was his the moment he saw her whether she wanted to
be his or not.”

Dex shook his head. “I never knew.”

“Yeah. That’s what women do to us. And
look, not that I know anything—or want to know anything—about my sister’s sex
life,” Koru continued, “but I don’t think you should worry too much about Honey
in bed. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. She lights up like a candle every
time you’re near. And that’s the reason I’ll let it this go—this time.”

Dex met Koru’s brown-eyed gaze and let out
a slow, shaky breath of relief.

“On one condition,” Koru said. “That you
don’t tell her out of some fucking do-gooder need to absolve yourself.”

“I won’t.”

“She won’t be able to cope with it, Dex.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Koru nodded. “All right. Let’s forget about
it. Are you going over there now?”

“Yeah. Any chance of a coffee before I go?”

“I’ve just cleaned the machine…” He sighed.
“Yeah, I guess.”

The two men walked into the shop, talking
about the rugby game that night, and Dex’s heart felt a little lighter for the
first time in days. He was going to get through this. He’d take it as a warning
shot across his bow. He couldn’t think that his past would ever be over and
done—it would always be there, buried like an archaeological artefact, waiting
to be uncovered. And maybe one day the winds of time would blow the surface
dust away and it would rear its ugly head again, but he’d deal with it then.

Deep inside, a little voice reminded him
that Cathryn could still be in Kerikeri, but he squashed it like a bug and
refused to listen.

Koru set to making him a latte, grinding
the coffee beans and steaming the milk. As he waited for the espresso to pour
into the takeaway cup, his mobile rang where he’d left it on the table with his
paperwork.

“Hello? Hey. Oh, sorry, it was on the table
and I was outside with Dex. Yeah—about ten minutes probably. Er…” He glanced
over his shoulder and looked through the window to the kitchen where Cam was
tidying up. “Yeah, he’s still here. Why? What’s happened?” He listened for a
moment, and then his eyes widened and he looked up at Dex. “Where is she now?
And where’s Honey?”

An ice cube slid down Dex’s spine.

Koru banged the milk jug furiously on the
table and turned off the coffee machine. “I’ll be right over.” He clipped his
phone shut.

Dex stood. “What’s going on?”

“That was Lily. Your ex showed up at the
house. Lily let her in—she didn’t realise who she was. The fucking bitch told
her she was a friend of yours.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure, but Honey’s had a meltdown.”
Koru grabbed his keys. “I’ll just tell Dad.”

Dex stood there, boiling with frustration
and desperation as Koru marched into the kitchen to tell his father. Cam gave a
loud expletive and then the men came through the door.

“Lock up behind us,” Cam said curtly to his
son.