Kitabı oku: «King's Promise», sayfa 3

A wave of disappointment and regret started rolling inside him again, but he ignored it and plastered on another smile. Somehow, over the years, he’d become the brother that everyone brought their problems to without anyone ever really asking whether he had any of his own.

For the record, he had quite a few of them.

He suspected that most people thought that because he could take and land a hard punch, and that he could handle just about anything. For the most part, they were right. He knew how to duck and dodge most of life’s problems. But the death of a dream…is something very few ever get over.

In 2002, he was on top of the world after becoming a national Golden Gloves champion with his eye toward the Olympics, the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association and the World Boxing Council heavyweight titles. He wanted it all, like his heroes Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, who once had the world at their feet. He wasn’t inspired so much because of the money and endorsements—though those were nice, too—but it was the recognition that came with being the best, being number one.

Then came the fight that changed everything…

“Hello.” Quentin snapped his fingers in front of Xavier’s face and brought him back from his ruminations. “There he is.” Q smiled as their plates were being set on the table. “Still thinking about that hot bartender?”

Xavier rolled his eyes. “No.”

“Riiiight.” Quentin picked up his fork and knife and started cutting his steak. “The only time a man drifts off like that is because he’s thinking about a woman.”

Xavier laughed as he unrolled his linen napkin and started in on his baked potato. “Believe it or not, not all men spend their every waking moment thinking about women.”

Jeremy and Quentin stopped eating and looked at him. “They don’t?” they said in unison.

“Since when?” Jeremy added.

Xavier’s laughter deepened. “You two aren’t serious, are you?”

They looked at each other and then back at Xavier, their expressions unchanged.

“You both need psychiatric help,” he said, and took the first bite of his steak. He immediately moaned as he savored the cut of meat.

“Well, since you’re not interested in Ms. Got Milk, then you won’t mind if I stick around and see what the deal is with her. Hell, I can give her a run for her money behind the bar.” Quentin smirked.

Xavier’s frown returned. “Weren’t you just betting on who would get our hostess in bed a few minutes ago? Now you want to try to move in on my new bartender?”

“What? A man can’t multitask?”

Xavier shook his head. “I hope that you’re donating your brain to science because something is seriously wrong with you.”

“What? Aren’t you at least happy that I’m not drinking myself to death and getting into bar fights anymore?”

“Newsflash—you’re not going to be able to screw Alyssa out of your system, either,” Xavier schooled.

“Ouch. Harsh,” Jeremy mumbled under his breath.

Q nodded. “I wasn’t ready for that sucker punch.”

“Sorry,” Xavier said, and meant it. “That was uncalled for.”

“No. But it’s probably true, too,” Quentin said.

Xavier’s brows rose in surprise. “It was?”

Quentin shrugged as he pretended to think about it. “I said probably. I’ll get back to you with my findings.”

Xavier and Jeremy had to laugh. At the end of the day, Q was doing whatever he had or needed to do to get over his broken heart. The only thing was, Xavier questioned who really broke it—Alyssa or Q’s older brother Sterling.

Xavier counted himself lucky for never having gone through anything remotely similar—since he’d never been in love.

And God willing, he never would be.

Chapter 4

As her first day at The Dollhouse approached, Cheryl delved deeper and deeper into Xavier King’s background, almost to the point of making it a miniobsession. Her eyes pored over his family’s history like it was the latest Dennis Lehane bestseller. On paper, the King brothers’ parents struggled to raise them on a city bus driver and substitute teacher’s salary in a low-income section of Atlanta. There was no record of any of the brothers getting into any real trouble growing up—just a single missing person’s report for Jeremy King when he was six years old. Apparently, the kid had run away from home after finding a box of puppies in the woods and had become upset when his father told him that they couldn’t afford to keep them and would have to take them to the pound. Two days later, Jeremy’s childhood friend broke down and confessed that Jeremy was living in their backyard in his tree house.

Cheryl smiled every time she read the old newspaper story. Not to mention, Jeremy was an adorable kid. But even looking at those old articles, her eyes would eventually drift to a frowning Xavier standing in the background. The other material Cheryl dug up on Xavier included spelling-bee championships, high school football accolades and scholarships. At nineteen, the football accolades turned to success in the boxing ring. Xavier won the national Golden Gloves heavyweight championship in ’02 and ’03 and even made the Olympic team in ’04. But his career abruptly ended with a near-perfect 21-1 record without any real explanation as to why he left boxing.

He just stopped fighting.

As far as Cheryl could tell, Xavier just disappeared from the spotlight for two years and then reappeared as a gentlemen’s club owner, where accusations and suspicions of drug trafficking continued to swirl.

Cheryl’s gaze settled once again on the department’s black-and-white photographs of the sexy club owners. And try as she might, she just didn’t or couldn’t see them as criminals. Maybe it was something about Xavier’s dark soulful eyes. They struck her as being too honest…and playful. Now since she’d had the pleasure of being in the same room with the man, she would testify on a stack of Bibles that Xavier King did indeed dominate a room. The power of his gaze, the line of his shoulders and the unmistakable strength in his bulging arms… “Whew!” She reached for her cold bottled water and downed most of its twenty ounces, trying to put out the fire of her own making.

Something creaked and Cheryl’s head whipped around to her bedroom door. There standing at the threshold, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, was her six-year-old nephew, Thaddeus. A smile spread across her face again. “Heeey, li’l man. Whatcha doin’ up?”

“There’s a monster in my closet,” he whined. His footed pajamas shuffled across the hardwood floor of her bedroom as he made his way over to her.

“A monster?” she responded with wide-eyed shock. She circled her arm around his tiny shoulders. “Are you sure?”

Thaddeus poked out his bottom lip and nodded.

“Oh, no. That just won’t do.”

“Will you come in my room and shoot it with your police gun?” he asked hopefully.

“How about I just go in there and check it out for myself?” she suggested. “I’m tough. I’m sure that I’ll be able to handle that monster with my bare hands.”

Her bravery made his eyes grow wider. “You sure? What if it hurts you?”

“Are you kidding me?” Cheryl curled her right arm. “Check out these muscles,” she said, and waited for her nephew to give her Michelle Obama–like arms a good squeeze.

“Wow. You are strong,” he said, awestruck.

“I sure am.” She winked at him and stood. “Now let me at that monster hiding in that closet. We don’t have time for none of this foolishness, do we?”

Thaddeus shook his head and then fell in line behind his aunt as she strolled out of her bedroom and headed into his room. “That monster is going to get it,” he declared confidently.

“He sure is,” Cheryl agreed. “Just let me at him.”

They stormed into his Spider-Man–themed bedroom together. Cheryl flipped on the light switch and made a beeline to the closet. At the last second before touching the doorknob, Thaddeus gave her a quick last warning, “Be careful, Aunt Cheryl.”

She tossed him a confident wink and then threw open the door.

Thaddeus gasped and covered his eyes. But when he didn’t hear any hissing, growling or Lord knows what else his active imagination had anticipated, he slowly peeked through his small fingers.

“Huh.” Cheryl settled her hands onto her hips and looked around. “There’s no monster in here.”

Frowning, Thaddeus raced over to the closet and mimicked his aunt’s stance. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know.” Cheryl pretended to be dumbfounded before suggesting, “Maybe he heard you going to get me and he got scared?”

Her nephew nodded at the explanation. “Yeah.”

“Well, he better run. I was really going to put a hurting on him,” Cheryl bragged as she dusted off her hands.

“Were you going to use karate on him?” He shifted his gaze from the monsterless closet and stared up at her.

“You know it.” She tried to run her fingers through his thick blondish-brown hair, but as usual it was a bit tangled with its wayward curls. “When is your mother going to fix your hair?”

“She was supposed to do it tonight, but she fell asleep.”

Cheryl shook her head. “All right. Back in the bed you go, li’l man. You have school in the morning.”

Thaddeus poked out his bottom lip, but shuffled his way over to his twin-size bed where Cheryl peeled back the top sheet and waited for him. When he got close to the bed, he launched himself onto the mattress and laid his head on his cartoon-character pillow.

Cheryl couldn’t resist tickling his side to elicit one of his hilarious, funny-sounding giggles. Once she got it, she leaned down and planted a wet kiss on his chubby cheek. “Good night, li’l man.”

“Night, Auntie. When I grow up, I’m going to be a police officer just like you.”

Cheryl’s heart squeezed as tears quickly flooded her eyes. “And I’m sure that you’ll make an excellent police officer.” She stole another kiss and then tucked him into bed. “Sweet dreams,” she said at the door before turning off the light switch.

Her smile was still stretched across her lips as she walked from her nephew’s bedroom and headed toward the kitchen. There, her younger sister, Larissa, was slumped over her biology textbook and snoring softly into the pages.

Cheryl stopped at the entry to the kitchen and shook her head. She couldn’t help but be sympathetic to her sister’s hectic schedule. She worked full-time in a clothing store, while juggling being a single mom and going to college at night to become a nurse. It was a lot, and Cheryl was extremely proud of her sister. Because Larissa had her son so young, she could’ve continued her life making bad decisions. But when Thaddeus’s father decided not to be a part of his biracial son’s life—along with his well-to-do family—Larissa didn’t fall apart. She picked herself up, dusted herself off and got busy trying to ensure a better life for her and her son. A lot of times that meant having to lean on family members, but everyone in the Grier family was more than willing to help as long as Larissa was committed to doing what was right.

Cheryl was no different.

Three years after Thaddeus was born, the Grier sisters were thrown a major curveball when their parents were killed in an electrical fire in their family home. The fire occurred in the middle of the night. Larissa managed to save herself and Thaddeus, and their mother did manage to get out, but she later died in the hospital. Their father never made it out of bed. The fire department report said that there had been some bad wiring in one of the upstairs bedrooms—the room where their father had installed a ceiling fan two days earlier.

After such a devastating blow, Cheryl and Larissa relied on each other more than ever. As a result, Larissa and Thaddeus moved into Cheryl’s single-family ranch in the small Atlanta suburb of Marietta. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but the sisters were doing all they could to make the living arrangement work.

Cheryl placed a gentle hand on Larissa’s back and spoke just loud enough to break through her snoring. “Rissa, why don’t you go to bed?”

“Hmm?” Larissa lifted her head, but didn’t open her eyes.

“Go to bed,” Cheryl said, using the opportunity to close her sister’s schoolbooks.

“Can’t,” Larissa moaned. “I have a big test tomorrow and I’m not prepared.” She sat up and stretched.

“You’re not going to learn anything by drooling on your textbook. I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“I knooooooow.” She dropped her head into the palms of her hands for a second and almost immediately drifted off to sleep again.

Cheryl put her sister’s book back on the table and chuckled when her sister jumped. “I’ll put on some coffee for you.”

“Thanks.” Larissa grabbed her book again and opened it up. “I can’t wait until this quarter is over with. It’s really kicking my butt.”

“Didn’t it just start?” Cheryl asked as she shoveled Folgers grinds into the coffee filter.

“What’s your point?”

“Hang in there. Next year this time, you’ll be holding that degree.”

“More like I’ll be falling out and crying, and calling out for Jesus,” Larissa corrected.

“Whatever. You just make sure that you get that degree, too.” Cheryl hit the brew button and then turned back toward the table. “About Thaddeus’s hair…”

Larissa groaned. “Oh. I’ll take care of it this weekend. Drae recommended this great barbershop in Atlanta and I’ll take him there.”

“Do you want me to take him?”

Larissa’s eyes widened with hope. “Will you have time? I thought that you were starting some new super-duper secret case tomorrow?”

“I am. But I can take Thaddeus Saturday morning, if you want.”

“If I want? Girl, if I had the energy I would jump up and kiss you. That means I can sleep late for once.”

“Not a problem.” Cheryl pulled out a chair and sat down while she waited for the coffee to finish brewing.

“I know that you probably can’t wait for me and Thaddeus to finally move out and find our own place.”

Cheryl frowned. “I never said that.”

“Oh, please. You don’t have to.” Larissa eased back in her chair. “Any sane single woman would love to have her place back—child-free, so that you can do what single women do with the opposite sex.”

“Give it a rest.” Cheryl stood and went to the cabinet for two coffee mugs. “I like having you and my Energizer Bunny nephew around. We’re a family.”

“True. But I imagine that one day—maybe one day soon—you’d like to start your own family.”

Cheryl glanced over her shoulder.

“Maybe with a certain lieutenant?”

“Oh, God, please. Just say you’re kidding.”

“What?” Larissa shrugged. “You know Jason still has the hots for you. He still calls—”

“What?”

“C’mon. Don’t play coy. You know that man is like a puppy dog around you.” Larissa laughed. “I don’t know what you put on him, but it’s clearly something that he can’t shake or take a pill for.”

Cheryl huffed out a long frustrated breath and poured their coffee. “I tell you what. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I hooked up with that man. Maybe I bumped my head or something.”

“You mean to tell me that you don’t feel anything for him?”

“Zip….nada….nothing.” She quickly added French-vanilla creamer and sugar to their mugs and headed back to the table. “You know it all happened so soon after Mom and Dad died and… Maybe I was just weak. He caught me at a vulnerable time. Insert standard cliché here.”

“Sounds like it makes life real interesting around the department,” said Larissa as she carefully picked up her coffee mug. “Was he at least good in bed?”

“Excuse you.”

Larissa shrugged and refused to retract the question. “Hey, I can’t remember the last time I even had sex. So you’re going to have to forgive me for getting all up in your Kool-Aid. I have to get my jollies off some kind of way.”

“You know…if you want to go out sometime, I can babysit Thaddeus.”

“Ughh. The last thing I need in my life right now is the complications of a man.” Larissa shook her head. “Maybe after I get at least one thing off my plate.”

“So does that mean that you’re going to take a rain check?”

“Is the offer good until next summer?”

“As a matter of fact it is.”

“Then, yes, ma’am. I will.” Larissa straightened up in her chair and flashed her sister a silly grin as she thought about a potential date she might have…a year from now. “Now all we have to do is find you a new man.”

Instantly, Xavier’s face popped into Cheryl’s head, and less than a second later, her body was flush with a tingling warm sensation.

“Ooooh. Looks like you already have a new man in mind,” Larissa said, easily reading her sister.

“What? No.” Cheryl shook her head but the damage had already been done. She popped out of her seat. “You want some cake?”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire!” Larissa wagged her finger. “Who is he? And where did you meet him?”

“It’s no one. Stop it.” Despite her protests, Cheryl couldn’t look her sister in the eye. She made a living deceiving criminals when she went undercover, and yet she was unable to get a simple lie past her sister. So she did the next best thing, she sliced them both two huge pieces of lemon cake.

“Pathetic.” Larissa laughed as she accepted her late-night snack. “Go ahead. Keep your secrets. Deny your only sister the pleasure of living vicariously through you.”

“Oh, God. Someone please give Ms. Larissa Grier her hard-earned Academy Award.”

“I’m still waiting for a name.”

“Then you’re going to be waiting for a long time,” Cheryl said, still struggling to push Xavier’s image out of her head.

Larissa’s laserlike gaze studied Cheryl as she shoved the first bite of cake into her mouth. “Uh-huh. We’ll see.”

Chapter 5

“Five…four…three…two…one. Welcome to The Dollhouse!” the staff yelled the moment the gentlemen’s club’s doors opened for business.

Given the amount of money that Xavier had spent on advertising for the grand reopening of the club, there was a large crowd on the other side of the door and they were as hyped as the staff was as they streamed inside. While the music pumped at an unbelievable decibel, the customers crowded around the tables near the main stages first and then around the bars.

Xavier experienced a wave of nervousness not unlike what he’d felt before a big fight. It was time to bring his A-game. This was a night to impress and he wanted nothing but happy customers.

Dressed to kill in a black double-breasted blazer, a classic white dress shirt and reflective aviators, Xavier made sure that when his guests saw him, they saw a well-groomed, stylish and confident man. He was the man of the hour and this was his playground.

At exactly 9:00 p.m., the Dolls descended the stairs of the main stage and strolled around for a parade revue and table dance. The crowd went wild at the sight of the first gorgeous beauties Xavier had lined up for them that evening. If he could, he probably would’ve broken his arm trying to pat himself on the back as he watched everyone’s reaction.

“Two minutes in and I’d say that tonight’s reopening is a raving success,” Q said, standing to his right. “You might be a genius, after all.”

“I’m glad that you finally recognize,” Xavier said, swinging his arm around his cousin’s neck and then strolling deeper into the jubilant crowd.

Immediately, guests started hailing the cousins to stop by their tables so that they could congratulate them on the renovations. Everyone from the governor to local celebrities wanted a few minutes of their time. Before long, the Dolls were sliding down their golden poles and his smiling waitresses and bartenders kept the drinks flowing.

No doubt about it, the reopening was a hit.

In all honesty, Cheryl didn’t know what to expect her first night on the job. She had been in her fair share of nightclubs and she had indeed bartended in her uncle’s sports bar back in the day. But the over-the-top numbers from The Dollhouse strippers, or rather dancers, had her blushing for the first couple of hours of her shift. How in the world the women were able to dance, slide and shimmy—forget the poles—in those incredibly high heels was clearly above her pay grade.

Between the music and the dancing her senses were on overload, and she struggled like hell to hear the drink orders that were being yelled at her from patrons and the waitresses. It was damn near one o’clock in the morning before she remembered that she was also supposed to be keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.

This is going to be much harder than I thought.

“So how are you holding up?”

When Xavier’s warm baritone wrapped around her ears, Cheryl’s hand slipped on the bottle of vodka and she had to make a desperate second grab to hold it. Luckily, she caught it before it hit the floor.

“Nice catch,” Xavier praised.

She turned to see him leaning in between two patrons who had been nursing the same beer for the past hour. “Thanks. And I’m doing okay…I think.”

“I haven’t heard any complaints. That’s a good thing.”

Cheryl appreciated the praise but was suddenly having a difficult time concentrating when he started smiling and looking at her like she was a T-bone steak. “Thanks.”

A few more drinks were yelled out at her and she immediately got to work. However, she was very aware of her new boss’s gaze following her every move. Butterflies flooded her belly and there was a visible tremor of her hands. Could he see it, too? After passing a pair of drinks to Lexus, Cheryl stole a glance to her left only to have her gaze crash into Xavier’s again. Again, her fingers slipped on another bottle.

“I hope that I’m not making you nervous,” he said, amusement clearly dancing in his voice as well as his eyes.

“I’m only trying to impress the boss.”

“Then consider me very impressed.”

That damn bottle slipped again, but this time hit the floor with a loud crash. Cheryl jumped back but caught the reflexive curse word before it flew out of her mouth. Embarrassed, she looked back up, but Xavier was gone.

Cheryl, get it together.

For the next two hours that is exactly what she did. By the time the doors closed at three in the morning, Cheryl felt as if she’d just completed a triathlon and she needed someone to wring her out and put her on a shelf away somewhere. The night flew by with the onslaught of customers. The club officially closed at 3:00 a.m., but at three-thirty there were still patrons lingering around at the tables and bar, taking their sweet time nursing their drinks.

One thing for sure, Cheryl was more than impressed with the tips she’d made for the evening. She wouldn’t know the final tally until she went home and counted it all, but she made a mental note that bartending could be her second career if she ever decided to turn in her shield.

At 4:00 a.m., the last dregs started drifting toward the front door and Cheryl rushed to finish cleaning up her station so that she could get out of there. She wasn’t the only one. The two remaining waitresses couldn’t wait to plop down on the bar stools and pull off their high heels.

“Good Lawd, my dogs are barking up a storm,” Lexus complained, rubbing her painted toes and sighing like she was starring in a Calgon commercial.

“I hear you,” Cheryl said, flashing a smile and welcoming an opportunity to start bonding with the staff. If she was ever going to know the ins and outs of everything that went on in the club, she was going to need to connect with The Dollhouse grapevine.

Lexus pulled out her wad of cash and immediately started counting. “You’re really good behind that bar,” Lexus complimented. “You certainly held your own.”

Cheryl laughed. “It was either that or give everyone a real show when I set my head on fire.”

Lexus laughed, but clearly she was a master at multitasking because she had yet to stop counting her cash during their brief conversation. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it—and you might even start having a good time.”

“Advice from a veteran?”

“After you get a week under your belt, you’ll be considered a veteran, too.” Lexus finished counting and her smile grew wider. “Definitely a good night. You’re now my official bartender. You were working rings around Randy on the third station bar. The waitresses over there spent half the night threatening to lynch him. Frankly, I’d be surprised if he comes back tomorrow.”

Cheryl’s chest expanded with pride.

As Cheryl waltzed from behind the bar, stuffing the night’s booty into the side pockets of her black leather duffel bag, she opened her mouth to bid Lexus a good-night. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Xavier and Quentin talking and laughing together as they descended the main staircase.

Lexus looked up at Cheryl and then over to see what had captured her attention. “Uh-oh.”

Cheryl blinked and then jerked her head away. “Uh-oh, what?”

Lexus’s smile turned into a smirk. “Which one has caught your eye?”

“What? Neither one,” Cheryl quickly blurted out, and shook her head.

Lexus laughed. “Yeah, right. And I have a swamp for sale in the Louisiana bayou that you’re just going to love.”

“Please. They’re not all that,” Cheryl continued to lie, though she didn’t know why she bothered. Her face was hot and once again she was having trouble meeting Lexus’s gaze. What in the hell had happened to her lying skills?

“Look…what’s your name again?”

“Cheryl…Shepherd.” She reached out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Lexus accepted her handshake but with a condescending smile. “Honey, the only way that you’re going to convince me that you’re not feeling Quentin or Xavier is if you’re about to tell me that you’re gay. And since there is nothing wrong with my gaydar, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’re as straight as an arrow.”

Cheryl finally met the woman’s eyes and then, a second later, a smile eased across her lips. “All right, so they’re cute. Big deal. I’m sure that there isn’t a day or an hour that they don’t have some woman throwing themselves at them.”

“An hour?” Lexus glanced over her shoulder and sure enough there were now three women giggling and flirting shamelessly with the cousins. “Honey, if two minutes passes without some chick throwing themselves at them, then it means that there aren’t any women within a three-mile radius. Believe that.”

Lexus’s words drifted over Cheryl while she continued to watch the three women she recognized as Dolls who had spent half the night sliding and gyrating on the club’s golden poles. Cheryl self-consciously straightened her back and puffed out her chest. They ain’t all that!

“It’s Xavier, isn’t it?”

Cheryl’s head whipped back around and her face was scorching hot from having been busted. “I, uh—”

“Save it.” Lexus waved off Cheryl’s stuttering and shoved her wad of tips in her bra. “Trust me when I tell you that it’s normal. There’s isn’t a woman who’s worked with the Kings and Sir Quentin who hasn’t at one time or another been in love with one of them or all of them. My ass included.”

Cheryl hadn’t meant to, but she gave the waitress a cursory glance and mentally compared their bodies.

“Hell, I’m not too sure that we all haven’t slept with them at one time or another.”

“What?”

Still laughing, Lexus pulled herself out of the chair. “C’mon. You can’t be surprised. They’re men…who own a gentlemen’s club that is filled with naked girls. Surely you don’t think they sleep alone.”

Cheryl forced her lips to smile again. “Of course not. I’m not stupid.”

Lexus shook her head. “Honey, sleeping with Xavier King may make you a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.” With that, she winked and strolled off. “See you tomorrow night.”

While the waitress’s words slowly sunk in, Cheryl’s gaze once again drifted back to the handsome cousins and their small clique of groupies. But this time Xavier looked up, smiled and winked at her.

More heat than she knew what to do with flooded her entire body and there had to be something wrong with her knees. At any second she was sure they were going to buckle and her ass would drop to the floor.

Get it together.

At last, Cheryl shook herself out of her stupor, gave Xavier a departing nod and then forced one leg in front of the other. But in order to leave the club, she had to walk in his direction. Turned out the closer she got, the weaker her knees became and the wider his smile stretched.

“Excuse me, ladies,” she said, and waited for two of the girls to step aside so that she could pass.

During what took about two seconds tops, Cheryl could feel Xavier’s gaze as though it was a feathery touch stroking the sides of her face. She even quivered and darted her eyes away.

“Good night, Cheryl,” Xavier said.

There was something about the way he said good night that sounded familiar, though it was the first time he’d ever said it to her. How easy it was to imagine him saying, “Good night, Cheryl,” every night for the rest of their lives before curling up together and going to sleep.

What in the hell is wrong with me? Snap out of it!

“Good night, Xavier,” she responded softly, and maneuvered past him and his laughing clique. Cheryl didn’t know why she thought that there would be some kind of relief once she passed him on the stairs. There wasn’t.

None.

She knew he turned, not because she saw him, but because she could feel that feathery caress now floating down the back of her head and then lingering on her butt. All right. That knowledge did make her smile a bit. One thing for sure, none of the girls that she saw dancing tonight even came close to what the good Lord and her mama blessed her with.

“Excuse me, guys. I’ll be right back,” Xavier said.

Cheryl’s eyes bulged while her brain screamed for her legs to move faster. And that was just what the hell they did. Then that magical baritone said, “Cheryl, wait up.”