The Honeymoon Trap by Kelly Hunter

watched resolve bleed into the mirror woman’s eyes. Time to cover up the blue, brush some color into her cheeks and show people what she was made of. Not Zoey the fragile, not Zoey the ill. Zoey the conqueror, in splendiferous fancy dress. Resilient. Above all, she was that, and if – no – when Eli came back he wasn’t going to see the sick girl. He was going to see a vibrant, loving woman who was easy to love and damn hard to resist.
    Tapping her hands restlessly on the mantelpiece, Zoey thought her way through the contents of her suitcases. She needed a statement costume today. Nothing too formal. Definitely something heroic. Heroic but prone to mistakes. But not too many mistakes. A noble villain with a raggedy edge. Oh, yeah.
    Hello, Captain. You’ll do.
    Walking didn’t help. Eli could walk to Sydney and the thick rope of anger and remorse would still be there. She’d lied to him, goddammit, by omission if nothing else. Presenting herself as whole and loving and fearless and funny and… no!
    He couldn’t be in love with her already. He couldn’t.
    It was just lust. Walk away when the weekend was over, no promises and no regrets. She’d said as much, several times over and he’d agreed to it. He could do this. Other people hooked up casually all the time.
    Have fun at the con and take her out fishing on the way home if that was what she wanted, and… no!
    No goddamn way was he putting her on the boats. Wasn’t going to happen. Ever. All the wonder, energy and forthrightness in the world wasn’t going to make him change his mind on that.
    He fished out his phone. He damn well needed to talk to someone; it was either that or go quietly insane. Caleb or Cutter? Or his mother? Caleb would listen and at least try to understand. Cutter would mock him and realize his mistake about two minutes later, but by then Eli would be in no mood to share. As far as talking to his mother about what he’d been up to last night…
    Caleb it was.
    ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Caleb asked when he heard Eli’s voice.
    ‘Yeah, convention’s good. Lots of people. Met a few. Made friends.’ He felt like a second grader reporting his school day… which, now he thought about it, was something he’d always done to Caleb as a kid.
    ‘How’s the dressmaker?’
    ‘Zoey.’
    The way Eli said her name was enough to give Caleb a heads up. ‘Trouble in the honeymoon suite?’
    ‘I like her.’
    ‘And this is a bad thing?’
    ‘She has a heart condition.’
    He could almost hear Caleb thinking. ‘How bad?’
    He’d half drowned her, made her orgasm in the shower, hadn’t let her finish her sweets and then screwed her senseless. She was still breathing. That was good, right? ‘I don’t know. I like her a lot and she has a heart problem and if you tell me that a person can get killed while walking across the road I’m going to kill you .’
    ‘Easy, Eli. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not as if you’re in love with he—oh, hell . No.’
    Finally, they were on the same wavelength.
    ‘How? How can you be in love with her? You’ve only known her two days!’
    ‘Three. And two years’ worth of Friday afternoon computer games.’
    ‘What about Simone, your one true love? Remember her?’
    ‘I do remember her. I remember the way she smiled and the sun in her hair and I remember listening to her goddamn eulogy. What if it happens again? What if Zoey dies too?’
    ‘Okay, putting aside the fact that you left here three days ago still pining for your one dead love, you can’t think like that, man. If that’s what’s in your head you need to get gone and leave the goddamn sick girl alone. Sounds like she has enough on her plate without you and your emo bullshit making it worse.’
    He’d forgotten that Caleb could be just as ruthless as Cutter when it came to ripping a person apart.
    ‘ If. If you plan on letting this girl stick around, you need to come to terms with her not being as healthy as she could be.’