Seven Sexy Sins (29 page)

Since she was old enough to go to the bar, he’d seen her nearly every Friday night, either at the bar or occasionally at a party, especially in the summer. Sometimes in the winter, they’d met at Dan’s house, huddled around the fire, and either watched rugby or some awful horror movie, which usually made Eve hide behind a cushion and Faith hoot with laughter. He was used to seeing her regularly, used to her casting her comforting, warm glow on them all like a candle in the dark.

And over the last month or two, their regular meetings with the others had included an added frisson of excitement, and it had been fun to try to get through the evening exchanging clandestine glances, or the occasional furtive brush of a hand against an arm. But now he’d lost that, and he didn’t even have her friendship to fall back on. He felt forlorn. Bereft. Like half a person, as if he’d gone into hospital to have a mole removed and they’d mistakenly amputated his left arm and leg. While he was dating her, he should have written “Not this one” on his heart in black pen. He kicked his rubbish bin, knocked it over and sent paper all over the floor, felt guilty, and spent several minutes picking it up. Time to go and mope somewhere else.

He went home, had a shower, and changed into jeans and a black T-shirt, but took it off because Faith had started to comment on the fact that black was the only colour he ever wore. Then he put it back on, annoyed that in his head he was still listening to her. Took it off. Put it on.

Eventually, in a dark green T-shirt, he sat and watched some stupid game show on the TV, trying not to think about how Faith would have made up ridiculous answers and not given a fig for the fact that her general knowledge was, quite frankly, appalling.

He went into his room and tried to read for a while—he’d recently downloaded a new, highly rated book on World War I, and he’d been looking forward to reading it, but he couldn’t concentrate. Eventually he put down the device and lay looking out of the window, watching the praying mantis on the sill and trying not to smile at the thought of how Faith would have squealed and demanded he go and remove it for her, although she would have insisted he didn’t hurt it, like a regular Francis of Assisi.

By the time Toby came around to pick him up, Rusty was desperate for someone to talk to and decided he was actually looking forward to watching some rugby—anything to take his mind off Faith. They walked around to Dan’s house shortly after seven, Toby carrying a huge pack of beer, making it clear how he was going to spend his evening.

When they got to the house, Eve opened the door and let them in. As soon as he looked at her face, Rusty could see something was wrong—she was pale, and her eyes looked scared.

“What’s up?” he asked in a low voice as Toby, oblivious as ever, went into the living room.

“I don’t know. Dan’s been weird since he spoke to Faith earlier, but he won’t tell me why.”

“Do you think he knows?”

“I don’t know.”

Rusty’s heart began to hammer, and he was tempted to turn and walk straight back out the door, but he lifted his chin and took a deep breath, forcing himself to go forward into the living room. It didn’t surprise him that Dan might have found out about him and Faith. It had only been a matter of time—he’d been certain it would come out eventually. He was just lucky to have lived as long as he had.

In the living room, Toby sat on the sofa. He started taking the top off a beer and chattered away, oblivious to the frosty atmosphere in the room. Dan stood in the middle, hands in his jeans pockets. He nodded as Rusty came in, and Rusty nodded back, standing on the opposite side of the room. So far, so good. Balls still intact.

“Hey,” Rusty said.

“Hey.” Dan’s eyes were cool.

Toby picked up the remote and started to flick over to the rugby channel, talking about the starting line-up and what injuries the All Blacks had suffered over the past week.

“Toby,” said Rusty eventually. Toby glanced at him and followed his gaze to Dan, who was studying him with a slight frown.

“What?”

Dan hunched his shoulders. “You got something you want to tell me?”

Toby looked at Rusty, then at Eve, then back at Dan. “Uh…do I?”

Dan studied him. Wariness settled over Rusty as he saw a glitter of anger in Dan’s brown eyes. What was this about?

Dan’s pose was casual, falsely friendly. “I spoke to Faith earlier.”

Toby stretched his arms out on the back of the sofa. Rusty knew him well enough to see he was starting to get irritated. “Oh. Jeez, that would be a shock if I didn’t know she was your sister.”

Dan studied him again. “I know it’s you, Toby.”

“You know what’s me?”

Shocking them all, he said, “I know you’re Beau.”

Rusty’s heart thudded, and he closed his eyes briefly. He heard Toby give a short laugh. “Er, no, I’m not.”

“She told me she’d finished it with Beau. She said she missed him. I tried to get her to tell me who it was, but she wouldn’t. But when I asked her if it was someone I knew, she hesitated. Only for a second, but enough to confirm it to me.”

“And so you decided to pick on me?” Toby seemed amused rather than angry. “I’m flattered you think Faith would be the tiniest bit interested in me, but you couldn’t be more wrong.”

“You asked her, that day by the pool. You offered your services.” Dan’s voice was sarcastic.

“Er…yeah.” Toby looked at Dan as if he’d grown horns. “I was joking. Jeez, Dan, I wouldn’t date Faith. You know I wouldn’t. I think too much of you and her for that.”

Oh, fuck. Cheers, Toby
.

Dan was breathing more quickly. “I saw you kiss her that day she was supposed to have got back from seeing Beau. You kissed her on the cheek, and she blushed.”

Toby glanced up at Rusty, clearly starting to get alarmed. Toby held up his hands. “I swear, Dan. I haven’t touched her.”

Eve was looking at Rusty now, tears in her eyes. He could feel the inevitability of the moment approaching like a speeding train, with him standing on the edge of the platform.

“I know you’re lying,” Dan said, his voice rising.

Toby looked indignant. “I’m not!”

“You fucking are!” Dan yelled.

“He’s not,” said Rusty, stepping out in front of the train.

“How do you know?” Dan snapped, glancing over at him.

“Because it was me.” Rusty met Dan’s eyes. “I’m Beau.”
Crash
. The train hit him with the full weight of the knowledge of what he’d done behind it, almost making him reel.

All three of them turned to look at him. He tried to remember to breathe in and out, and forced himself to stay still and not leg it out the door.

“What?” Dan couldn’t have looked more confused if Rusty had said he was about to climb Mount Everest. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Beau’s short for Beaujolais. Young red.” He gestured at his hair. “It’s what she calls me.”

Eve had gone white. Toby leaned his head on the back of the sofa. “Oh Christ.”

Dan walked slowly up to Rusty until he stood a foot away. “You?” He studied him for a moment. “You’re the one Faith’s been seeing?”

“Yeah.” Rusty forced himself to meet Dan’s eyes, but inside he was slowly curling into a ball like a spider poked with a stick.
Yeah. And you’re the spider, boyo. Deal with it.

Dan gave a short, sharp laugh. “I thought it might be Toby. I never thought it would be you.”

“Hey,” said Toby, indignant at Dan’s low opinion of him, but they both ignored him.

“All this time,” said Dan. “When I’ve been sick with worry, you’ve sat there saying ‘Don’t worry Dan, don’t overreact’, and all along you’ve been screwing her behind my back.”

“It wasn’t like that.” Rusty’s protest was half-hearted, because it
was
like that, and he knew it.

“I thought you had more respect for me than that.” Dan’s voice was rough.

Rusty heaved an impatient sigh. “We’re not in the mafia, Dan. Faith and I—it had nothing to do with you.”

Dan gave a humourless laugh. “Right. So that’s why you didn’t tell me when you were dragging her off to some cheap hotel.” His voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “Showing her porn. Making her strip for you.” He went suddenly still. Anger lit his eyes. “A fucking Mars Bar?” His voice rose by about fifty decibels.

“Oh no.” Eve closed her eyes.

Why does everyone focus on the bloody Mars Bar?
Rusty gritted his teeth. He’d gone through this moment a hundred times in his head, had played out what Dan would say, and how he would respond. He’d thought he would feel panic and guilt at betraying his best friend. But although initially he’d felt ashamed, to his surprise, all of a sudden he felt none of those things. Instead, he felt a sweep of anger. “It wasn’t like that,” he repeated, his voice stronger.

Dan stepped closer, his eyes glittering. “You fucking bastard.”

Rusty held his ground. “Easy, tiger.”

“You going to explain yourself to me, boy?”

Rusty laughed. “Boy?”

“I’m older than you.”

“By about three weeks.” He frowned as Dan moved forward and forced him to take a step back. “Back off, Dan.”

“You gonna make me?”

“Oh jeez,” said Toby.

“Guys.” There were tears in Eve’s eyes. “Don’t do this.”

Dan’s eyes were taunting, challenging. “Did you laugh about big brother Dan getting all protective while you screwed her, Rusty?

“Sorry to deflate you, Dan, but actually you weren’t uppermost in my mind while I was getting off
with your sister
.”

Dan pushed him hard. Rusty stumbled back but immediately took a step forward. “If you’re going to hit me, then hit me,” he snapped. “Don’t push me like a fucking girl.”

“I can’t believe you did it,” Dan said through his teeth, breathing hard. “Not to Faith. I can’t believe you’d do that to her.”

“Do it
to
her?” Rusty gave a harsh laugh, glaring at his best friend, fury and pain making him reckless. “
She
handcuffed
me
to the bed. And she wasn’t complaining too hard when she asked me to
fuck her up the arse
.”

“You fucking
cunt!
”

“Oh shit.” Toby leaped to his feet, but it was too late.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Dan swung at Rusty, who moved back quickly and returned with a right hook of his own. It connected soundly with Dan’s jaw, and Dan stumbled back and fell to the floor with a crash.

“
That’s
for her eighteenth birthday,” Rusty yelled.

If he’d thought that would finish Dan, however, he’d been sorely mistaken. Dan grabbed Rusty’s feet and brought him to the floor like a felled tree, and then he was on top of him. Fists flew, and Rusty felt Dan’s knuckles connect with his eye.
Again?
White-hot anger surged through him, the full measure of fury and frustration of the past week flooding in his veins, as well as Dan’s assumption that he’d taken advantage of Faith.
It wasn’t just me.
The thought burned in his stomach.
She loved me back. She wanted it as much as I did.

The two of them rolled, and, in the distance, he could hear Eve screaming at them to stop. He couldn’t have cared less at that moment, however. He finally managed to get on top of Dan and drew back his arm for another punch, but suddenly Toby hauled him up—and, three inches taller, thirty pounds heavier, and a whole lot stronger from all his building work, Toby was easily able to pull him back.

“Rusty!” Toby bellowed.

Rusty shook him off. He could feel his eye swelling. Dan struggled to his feet. His lip had split, and blood trickled down his chin. He took a step toward Rusty, but Toby immediately stepped in the middle. “Stop it, for Christ’s sake!”

Rusty felt the fury drain out of him. He wasn’t angry at Dan, not really. He loved these guys more than anything in the world. They were his real family, and here he was, trying to destroy it. “Dan…”

“Was she worth it?” Dan was so angry he was near to tears. “You’ve destroyed her, Rusty. She’s so upset she could barely speak to me.”

“Don’t…” His chest hurt.

“Was it worth destroying our friendship for a quick shag?”

“Stop saying that! It was more than that.”

Dan tipped his head in exasperation. “You going to tell me you love her now?”

The room fell silent. Rusty’s legs gave out, and he sank onto the sofa and put his head in his hands.

Eve came forward to stand beside Toby. “He does love her, Dan. He told me.”

He turned on her, eyes blazing. “You knew about this?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“No, and I wonder why!” She took a deep breath. “I know you think you’ve let Faith go, but you haven’t yet, not really. Rusty’s not completely to blame for this. He shouldn’t have slept with her behind your back, but she wanted him to—Dan, she’s loved him since she was twelve, didn’t you ever guess?”

Rusty looked up at her, shocked. She glanced at him and then back at Dan. “Oh for fuck’s sake, don’t tell me neither of you realised.”

“I knew,” said Toby. They all looked at him, stunned. “What?” he said. “I’ve got eyes, haven’t I? I saw her face after you kissed her in the garden that night on her eighteenth. She looked like Johnny Depp had ridden up and whisked her off for a snog.”

Rusty put his head back in his hands. His eye was throbbing.

Dan looked down at him. “Is it true? Do you love her?”

Rusty didn’t look up. “Yes.”

Dan was silent for a moment. He sat into the nearby armchair and leaned back heavily. Toby heaved a sigh of relief and sat in the chair opposite. Eve perched on the arm of Dan’s chair and stroked his hair.

Dan kissed her hand, but continued to look at Rusty. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to find another job, as soon as I can.”

To his surprise, Dan laughed. “What sort of answer’s that?”

Rusty looked up at him warily. “What do you mean?”

“I meant, what are you going to do to fix it? Are you going to tell her you love her?”

“I already have.”

Dan frowned. “So…what’s the problem?”