Sweet as Honey (The Seven Sisters) - By Caitlyn Robertson Page 0,49
nothing would be the same again.
Chapter Twenty
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