Page 38 of Honey Sugar
“No,” she answered. Ivy leaned down and kissed me again.
“Damn, your lips are so sweet.” I caressed her chin and then pulled my fingers down her slender neck. I smelled her pussy in the air and it was just as fragrant as Sugar Bayou honeysuckles blowing in the wind.
“I’m so wet,” she spoke between our heated kisses.
“Oh, trust me. I can smell it. Never smelled anything so fucking sweet before.” I flipped her over so she was flat on her back with her thighs hugging my sides. She was so hot between her legs that I had to fight to keep my composure.
I leaned down and kissed her again while she touched my chest and slid her fingers down my stomach. I thrust against her pussy and my dick begged to be free from my basketball shorts.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
I shut my eyes against the voice in my head because even though it was vanishing quickly, I could still hear it. When I opened my eyes again, Ivy was peering up at me, her bottom lip squeezed between perfect white teeth.
“Ivy…” my voice was pained and distorted from confusion. I never got the chance to finish my disjointed thought because the door downstairs slammed shut. We jumped away from each other so fast I almost fell to the floor.
“Ivy! I know you’re here because that damn cousin of yours has his car in my fucking driveway!” Uncle Beau’s words were slurred. His uncoordinated footsteps were clunky and heavy marching up the steps. Ivy and I shared a glance. Hers was panicked and mine was apathetic.
She scrambled to her feet and opened the bedroom door before her father reached the top landing. “You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to,” I told her while she stood in the doorway, waiting for him to reach her. She looked over her shoulder at me. Her curls were a wild mess all over her head like an ochre halo. She shrugged and pushed her lips up into not quite a smile but a look that said she would do what she had to do.
I stood right beside her to let her know she was never alone.
Right then, I was the superhero.
Uncle Beau came into view as he staggered around the corner and glared at us from the opposite end of the hall. He looked like a bloated version of himself. He was probably filled up to his eyes with moonshine and there was no doubt in my mind that he was high. If he wasn’t, then he was coming back here to get money to fix that problem.
“You two been running Honey Sugar for the past two days and I ain’t seen no moonshine sales.” He jabbed his pointer finger at us as he took one labored step after the other. When he got close enough for me to smell the honey moonshine seeping out of his pores, I stood in front of Ivy. I didn’t want him to think that just because I was mourning, I somehow wouldn’t fuck him up if he got out of line.
“We’ve had plenty of moonshine sales, Daddy.”
“I ain’t seen no money from that or the candy. What have y’all been doing with it? Two days worth of sales should be about four grand. I might be drunk but I’m not stupid. More than I can say for both of you.” Uncle Beau’s green eyes bored into me like he wanted a reason to accuse me of stealing money.
“You wanna say something to me, Uncle Beau?” I asked with a sigh.
“I know you sell drugs.”
“Yeah. Not the kind you put up your nose though.”
“Watch your fucking mouth, boy. You been stealing money from Honey Sugar?”
“Why the fuck would I do that? I have my own money and I make enough not to need money from my aunt’s shop. Let’s not forget who Honey Sugar belongs to.” I hadn’t had a chance to dig deep into the paperwork for the sweet shop but I knew for an irrefutable fact that it was in Aunt Liv’s name. Beau’s name was nowhere to be found.
He looked at me like he hated the air I breathed.
“She’s gone now so whose name is on the building doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” I countered.
“Stop it. We’re not stealing money from Honey Sugar. We’re putting it in the business account. That’s where it’s supposed to go. Mama always did it like that,” Ivy said, stepping around me. She might not have felt like it but she was brave. It took guts standing toe-to-toe with the man who abused your mother so badly she felt the only escape was death.
I admired her.
I wouldn’t have been so collected. I would have shed my superhero cape for a pair of horns or fangs or whatever would rip him to shreds.
“Goddammit! You stupid little girl. You don’t know anything about how that shop was run! You’re so goddamn stupid!” He took one too many steps and ended up in Ivy’s face, leaning down and spewing hatred at her as if she were immune to his words because she hated him. I watched each insult as it crashed into her, denting and damaging the tiny bit of reserve she’d built up over the past two days.
I slid Ivy behind me and shoved Uncle Beau back hard. He stumbled then slammed into the wall with a thud. “You’re too fucking close to her. She’s not Aunt Liv. You’re not going to put your hands on her ever again. You’re not even going to get close to putting your hands on her.”
“I-I didn’t even touch the girl! You telling me I can’t fuss at my own child?”
