King's Promise

“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.