Page 22 of True Honey (The Hornets Nest #4)

SHORE

I t was rare that the sun woke me up but I had slept through all of my alarms and rolled over in the bed expecting to have contact with Drew but she was gone. I could still smell her on my sheets, feel her on my fingertips, and it was infuriating.

I understood why she slipped away, August couldn’t know and he was too old to hide things from. We had been stupid last night but I couldn’t help myself, she just… she took the time to recognize what I needed and it cracked something inside of my brain.

I was the helper, I didn’t need help.

But she didn’t make it feel like that, she just was there.

I was choosing to blame the whiskey and the pancakes, pushing aside the fact that I couldn’t get the taste of her out of my mouth. And I had brushed my teeth twice that morning.

Fuck me.

I made my way out into the apartment and Drew was leaning over the counter in a pair of jeans that highlighted the perfect curves of her ass. I took a deep breath in, adjusting myself in my pants before clearing my throat and wandering over to the fridge.

Drew looked up from the page she was reading and offered me a small smile. I wanted to kiss the way it softly curved to the left but shook out the feeling and grabbed a protein shake from the back shelf.

“Do you know algebra?” she asked. The question caught me off guard as I approached her. Her gentle scent hit my nose and flashes of the night before blurred across my vision as the smell of orange blossoms engulfed me.

My eyes flickered to a small hickey on her collarbone, barely exposed beneath her sweater. I reached out and pulled the sweater over her chest and she looked down, zipping it up further with a nervous chuckle.

The tingling sensation of seeing it made it hard not to tell her how much I liked it.

I rolled back my shoulders, hiding the immense emotional frustration coursing through my body that she was just pretending like it didn’t happen. We had both felt how real it was. I knew how much she enjoyed it, the sounds of her doing so were burned into my mind.

I sighed, letting the feeling pass.

“A little why?” I said, instead of telling her how I felt. Setting the drink down and angling myself to look at the paper, when I got too close she pushed the paper across to me. It shouldn’t have stung, but it did.

“Auggie is failing it,” she said, “and I don’t know how to help.”

There was a hint of despair in her voice, one I hadn’t heard since the night at the bar. I watched her carefully trying to read her expression past the hardened one she liked to use around me. The guilt flickered in her eyes and I realized then, she was blaming herself for it.

“Algebra is hard. I barely passed it in school and I’m a genius.” I smiled at her, trying to calm her down a little without giving away just how much I had figured out. “Luckily for Auggie you two gained more than one roommate,” I said.

“What exactly does that mean?” Drew asked, her hair falling over her shoulder.

I pulled out my phone and dialed a number, looking over at her as it rang, “Tonight we have some fancy dinner party to attend, if you can swing it…”

“That's the deal isn’t it?” she said, brushing over the fact that somewhere between the question and last night I had forgotten that our domestication wasn’t real. Shit.

“Yeah, I can get Cael to hang out with Auggie, if he’s okay with that?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said, straightening out.

“Hey, can you come here?” I asked over the phone, waiting a few seconds before getting an answer and then hanging up.

“Do you have a secret math genius living under your roof that I should have known about?” Drew asked, her eyes lighting up and leaving behind the sadness as Auggie's door clicked open and he joined us in the kitchen.

At the same time the basement door opened and Dean walked through. He was clearly getting ready to go down to the stadium when I’d called him, his duffle bag hanging over his shoulder.

“You needed me?” he said in a sleepy voice. “Hey Drew,” he added, realizing we weren’t alone.

“Drew, and her son August. They were at Arlo’s birthday,” I said.

“Right, Auggie?” Dean said, eyeing me weirdly.

Thankfully he didn’t say anything about the dinner last night.

“I heard he went to the stadium with them the other night… he’s quick, Cael slept like a rock that night.

We couldn’t even get him off the couch.” Drew laughed and looked over at August who nodded at him in approval before quietly padding around the intrusion and rummaging through the cupboards.

He retreated with a chocolate Pop Tart and joined his mom at the island.

“Auggie needs a tutor in Algebra. Do you think you have time to get him caught up?” I asked. Dean yawned, shaking off his sleep and held out his hand for the worksheet.

“Is this really how your teacher explained this to you?” He looked up from the sheet to August. “No wonder you’re confused. If Auggie doesn’t mind learning while I cook dinner, I can help. It’s my week on meals,” he explained, brushing his hand through his messy blond hair.

“I’m good with that,” August said with a shrug and shoved a piece of Pop Tart in his mouth. “That teacher’s been on my case all week.” He spoke with his mouth full.

“Auggie,” Drew scowled with a tiny laugh, the sound was like honey.

Dean was staring at me with a shit eating grin on his face when I broke the gaze I’d held on Drew and I just shook my head.

“Get out of my house,” I said to him.

“Ask nicely,” Dean replied, but when I shot him a dirty look he backed down like he always did and made his way back to the front door. “I’ll be home by six, meet me upstairs and bring a notebook,” he called to August before leaving .

“I have to get to the stadium for a meeting,” I said, “I’ll see you guys later.”

Drew watched me as I collected my things and August talked in her ear, her eyes thankful and soft.

I gave her a wink, knowing the implication behind it, and snuck out of the house, weirdly regretful about leaving them behind.

I would text her details later and even the thought of talking to her made me excited like a fucking school boy.

I threw my crap into my backpack in the garage and pulled my helmet over my head just praying that the vibrations from the bike and the fresh air in my lungs would clear my thoughts and give me a second to think rationally about all of this.

I just had to survive the day without tripping over my own feet, or running into Ella or Arlo.

They’d be able to smell the sex on me and if that happened, I’d be screwed.

Ella would make me talk about how my dick made a decision for me and now I was tangling in Drew and her innocent son in some sick game.

Arlo would remind me that I could get sex from anyone and that the fact that I had slipped so easily into Drew’s arms only meant that I was letting myself catch feelings for a woman I barely knew.

I didn’t need their speeches to know that I was acting like my father and screwing this entire fucking thing up because I couldn’t control myself. But I closed my eyes as the bike rumbled to life and a flash of her red hair crossed my mind, coupled with the sound of her giggles and moans.

Maybe I wanted to lose control with her.

“Fuck,” I swore and pulled from the garage to start my day.

By the time I got home Auggie was shoving homemade quesadillas in his mouth at the kitchen table while Dean and Van argued over the notes spread out across it. I watched them for a moment, almost choking up as I remembered when that used to be Arlo and I trying to help Cael with his schoolwork.

I slipped out and downstairs to get changed before the dinner party just hoping that I wasn’t going to have to convince Drew that we were strictly business partners and last night hadn’t ruined anything. Except for maybe every ounce of my resolve surrounding her and that guarded heart.

But I didn’t have to convince her of anything.

She was standing in the kitchen pushing earrings into her ears, her hair cascading down the back of one of the dark blue dresses she had chosen. It showed off her back, cutting low on her spine to reveal her perfect skin. She turned to look at me and scowled.

“Why aren’t you changed?” She asked.

“Going, going!” I raised my hands in the air and shuffled past her, pausing briefly to get my fix of her smell and to admire the high halter satin neckline that covered the hickey I had given her.

“It was the only one I picked that covered it other than the black one, but I wore that to dinner last time…” she started to explain and I stopped her.

“You’re beautiful,” I said and watched the pale complexion on her cheek turn rosy.

“We’re going to be late,” she whispered when I stopped moving, looking over my dirty hornets polo and pants. “Shower,” she added, “you stink.”

“Trust me where we're going tonight they won’t notice how I smell.” I laughed before jogging back to my room to get changed. I pulled on a clean black suit with a black shirt buttoning it to the top and shrugging into a matching jacket.

I pushed my hair back, freshened up my cologne and rejoined Drew in the living room. Her legs had been elongated by the dark heels she’d slipped on and my breath caught in my throat as she looked over her bare shoulder at me.

“Better?” I asked her.

“Better,” she practically purred.

“What did you tell Auggie?” I asked her.

“I just told him that I started doing assistant work at the stadium and it requires me to join you at events for the team,” she explained. “No tie?”

“Not tonight,” I said, reaching my hand out to her.

She eyed it for a moment before stepping forward when I rolled the diamond ring between my fingers.

I slipped it onto her hand, lingering a little too long and giving her reason to pull back with a scowl on her pretty face.

“You’re going to be pissed though,” I said to her.

“Why?” Drew cocked her head to the side, exposing the length of her neck and I fought to keep myself in place when what I really wanted to do was put my lips on her throat.

“We have to take the bike.”

“You’re seriously making me ride that death trap…” she looked down at herself, “in this?”

“We’re not going far,” I assured her.

In reality, Arlo had offered me the keys to the fast back, but I selfishly wanted Drew wrapped around me, even for ten minutes. I needed it.

“Fine,” she agreed, collecting her things and following me out to the garage. I helped her with the helmet, tucking her hair behind her ears before sliding it over her head. Fighting the urge to be a mindless idiot with every glance and touch.

The ride over was exactly as expected, a balm to my frayed nerves with her arms wrapped around me and her body pressed to my back. I handed the keys over to the valet as she straightened herself out.

“Still beautiful,” I whispered, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her close as we ascended the stairs into the museum. It had been rented out for the evening so we could host a collection of shareholders and investors from across the country.

I had given Drew basic details but kept the pressure of everything going exactly right off her shoulders.

Tonight was about convincing those men that I was responsible and had my life on track for a wife, a future.

That I could be the stable and trustworthy primary shareholder they were looking for.

Everything had to go perfectly tonight and I knew that Drew wouldn’t be the issue.

It was me they were watching.

“Silas.” My Grandfather's voice boomed across the marble floors and I felt Drew turn it on beside me. A bright smile pulled against her cheeks and she tucked herself against me, small, unthreatening, perfectly poised .

I hated every second of it.

“Seymour,” Drew said, holding out her hand to him. He was already into the scotch and the overwhelming cigar smell seeped out of his clothing and into the air.

“You look lovely tonight,” he said to her, his demeanor very different in public. He looked over at me and I could feel his icy, judgemental gaze. He was going to make tonight hell. “Come, I want to introduce you to some people.”

“I’ll go get us drinks,” I said to her, not quite ready to release my grip around her but knowing I had to. She could handle my grandfather on her own, I knew she could. She had spent the week handling me and I had far more issues sober than he did drunk.

“Whiskey?” I asked her and she offered a small, polite chuckle that was filled with annoyance before nodding and allowing my grandfather to pull her from my grasp.

My side was cold without her and I watched them disappear across the room to a group of men I recognized.

The Harbor Six. Every single one of them were legends in their own right, business men now but once they were all elite athletes that had gone through school at Harbor and came home to watch the town flourish.

Evan Poly was the most notable of them all.

Harbor’s most prolific hockey player in the last fifty years.

The only person that’s ever come close to his statistics was Kenji Carter.

He held investments all over town but the majority of his riches came from real estate holdings.

The man to his left was a concerning addition, Darby William, who had been a heavy hitter for the Hornets in the sixties.

He was a racist, homophobic asshole who treated everyone worse than the dirt beneath his feet.

I watched from the bar, my hand finding the highball glass without taking my eyes off Drew as she was led like a lamb to the slaughter. She introduced herself and stayed close to my grandfather, but I could tell by her body language that she was uncomfortable beneath all that show.