“Great. Just great!” Cheryl tossed up her hands and then threw out her best card. “Then maybe I should just look for another job.” Or more like, get myself pulled from the case.
“Whoa. Whoa,” he said again, grabbing her arm. “Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be serious?”
He cocked his head. “This has happened to you before, hasn’t it?”
She tried to pull her arm away, but he wasn’t having it this time.
“You had a relationship with a coworker…or a boss before?”
“That’s none of your business,” she snapped, and finally managed to jerk her arm free from his grasp.
“It may be none of my business, but it’s completely relevant to this situation. Just because you were burned once doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again.”
“Yeah, right. Next you’re going to tell me that you’re the settling-down type.”
Xavier nearly choked on air.
Cheryl smirked. “I thought so.” She dropped to her knees and then looked under the bed. “There it is.” She reached and dragged out her shoe.
“Cheryl, I don’t want you to quit,” Xavier said quietly as she jammed her foot into her shoe.
“Great. I don’t want to quit. I like my job.”
“But I don’t want to stop seeing you, either.”
“I’m sure that you’ll see me around the club,” she said, combing her hair with her hand.
“You know what I mean.”
“Well…” She tossed up her hands. “We can’t always get what we want.”
“Stop pushing me away,” he thundered. “We both enjoyed last night. It was…nice.”
She laughed. “Nice?”
“Pleasurable…enjoyable…earth-shattering…take your pick.”
“I’ll take nice. Thanks.” She flashed him a sarcastic smile and started for the door, but once again, Xavier grabbed her by the arm.
“Why are you being such a…”
Cheryl’s brows lifted while she waited for him to finish the sentence.
“I just don’t understand what happened,” he corrected. “Last night—”
“Last night was last night,” she said. “Look around. It’s morning.”
He released her arm and then just stared at her. Either he was still confused or no one had ever talked to him like this before—or it was a combination of both. Yeah. He was used to being the one who gave the “let’s be friends” speech.
“Look. I’m sure that there are plenty of women who’d love to have—or continue to have—sex with you. I’m just not one of them.”
“I see.” His jaw clenched. “So all that moaning and groaning and scratching up my back was just my imagination? Is that what you’re telling me?”
She sighed.
“Or maybe you have a split personality.” He nodded as if he liked that answer best. “Is that it? Because, if so, I’d really like to talk to that Cheryl right now. She was a lot more fun.”
“Exactly,” she praised in a hallelujah voice. “Fun. That’s all it was. Just fun. I don’t see what the big deal is that we can’t just put it behind us. It’s over. I enjoyed the carnival ride, now it’s time to go home.”
“Why do you insist on demeaning what happened last night?”
“Why are you insisting that it was more than it was?” Realizing that she was going to have to be more brutal, she took a deep breath and then met his confused gaze head-on. “All right. You want to know what I felt last night?”
“That would be a nice place to start.” Xavier folded his arms and looked like he was bracing himself for anything.
“I felt like I was with a man who definitely knew his way around a woman’s body. I was with a man who takes extremely good care of his body and knows how to work the tools the Man up above has blessed him with. Did I come last night? More times than I can count and harder than with anyone I’ve ever been with before.”
Xavier’s expression started to soften with the barrage of compliments.
“Does that satisfy your ego?” she asked calmly.
Just like that, his eyes narrowed again. “It’s not about my ego.”
She laughed. “It’s always about a man’s ego. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Then clearly you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” he said. “Have I slept with a lot of women? I’m not going to lie. I’ve had more than my fair share. But I’d like to think that I’ve always been respectful. I’ve always been kind. And I’ve never lied or pretended that my relationships were something that they weren’t. Out of all the words that can be used to describe me, the one that means the most to me is honest. I’m an honest man, Cheryl. What you see is what you get.” He stepped closer to her. “And if I tell you that I felt something between us last night, it’s because I did. And if I’m standing here looking you in the eye and telling you that I still feel something for you, it’s because I do.”
Cheryl swallowed hard at the intense scrutiny of his stare.
“Now if this whole tough-girl act is just some routine that you need to go through in order to protect yourself from me, baby girl, it’s not necessary. I’m not going to hurt you. But if you honestly believe that you need to cut this off, then I’m going to let you do what you need to do, because I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m feeling you. I want to get to know you. That’s all.” He let the words hang in the air while their eyes remained locked.
Cheryl definitely felt as if the ball had been snatched out of her court.
He stepped back. “So what’s it going to be?”
She eyed the door and then swung her gaze back to him. Why did this feel like a Sophie’s Choice moment? Her eyes swung back and forth a few more times before she reached deep down to summon the strength to walk to the door. As she passed by Xavier, she caught the look of disappointment in his face. By the time she reached for the doorknob, it felt as if her eyes were swimming in pools of acid. Pulling the door open, she half hoped that he would stop her. She bargained with her conscience that if he did, then she would stop and just give in to the emotions sloshing around inside her.
He didn’t say anything.
She walked out the door and refused to look back.
The Bigger They Are…the Harder They Fall
Chapter 12
“Xavier King sounds like a real stand-up guy,” Dr. Turner said, swiveling around in her chair. “He doesn’t mince words. Says what he means and means what he says.”
Quentin’s lips curled upward. “Careful. It almost sounds like you want to ask how it is that we’re best friends.”
“I would never ask something like that,” she said.
“No?” He glanced over his shoulder to see that she had removed her glasses, but held the tip of the temple bar between her teeth. That helped draw his attention to the beautiful shade of red lipstick she wore today. “Are you sure?”
She looked up and smiled. “I’m sure.”
Their eyes locked for a moment, until a pair of fingers snapped in front of his face. Q jumped before his gaze shot over to Alyssa shaking her head.
“I swear some things never change with you.”
“Do you ever stop butting your nose into other people’s business?” he asked, annoyed.
Dr. Turner frowned. “You came to me, Mr. Hinton. Remember?”
“Not—oh, never mind.” He waved his comment off. What was the point?
“Okay.” Dr. Turner slid her glasses back on. “In the beginning you said that Xavier had his own issues with trust. But just now it sounded as if he has no problem putting himself out there. By his own declaration, he’s an honest broker when it comes to relationships.”
“And he is—in relationships, and in business. Now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his fair share of secrets. But there’s always an argument as to whether omission is the same as lying. One thing’s for sure, a lie is a lie. And our sexy bartender was spinning a whole lot of lies around The Dollhouse�
��and to herself.”
“Do you like Cheryl Shepherd?”
“I like anyone with a shape like hers. Hell, I thought that was the only reason my man Xavier couldn’t let things go with her. I mean, he was miserable….”
Chapter 13
Two weeks later…
“I just don’t understand women,” Xavier complained to Ricky as he unleashed a steady barrage of punches to the speed bag. “I mean, all you ever hear about from them is how hard it is to find a good man. But when one is standing in front of them, jumping and waving and screaming, ‘Hey, here I am,’ what happens?”
“You get punched in the gut,” Ricky said flatly.
“You get punched in the gut!” Xavier answered without acknowledging Ricky’s response. “And what’s worse is now every evening she’s working at the club, she talks to everyone but me. It’s like I don’t even exist except when it comes to signing her checks. How insane is that?”
“Completely insane,” Ricky droned.
“Completely insane!”
Ricky rolled his eyes. “Look, Xavier. I get the whole brokenhearted, kicked-in-the-gut blues thing. Believe me, I do. But you’re going to have to at least change up the material a little bit, because you’re starting to sound like a broken record.”
One punch missed the speed bag and threw Xavier’s rhythm off. “What are you talking about? I don’t have a broken heart. How can I? I was only with the girl one time. That’s hardly enough to call it a broken heart.”
“I stand corrected.” Ricky sighed. “You’re just whining about how this Cheryl lady just hit it and quit it.”
“No. That’s not it,” Xavier said indignantly.
“No? You’re not just sitting by the phone or waiting for her to flash you that look that says she wants another round with the big X-Man in the bedroom? Surely if you could just get her in between the sheets one more time, you could really get her to fall in love with you.”
Xavier missed another punch and turned to his ex-trainer. “No. That’s not it, either.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” he mumbled under his breath, and then glanced down at his watch. “Now where in the hell is this kid at?”
“I just want some answers,” Xavier complained. “And I don’t think that what she told me was the truth. I swear I can see it in her eyes—the few times I can get her to look at me.”
Ricky frowned as he looked over at him. “See, this is why men should stay away from those damn girly workout DVDs. Men should only discuss their feelings over meat or alcohol. All this wishy-washy, mushy stuff is just too much. Have you ever thought maybe she’s just not that into you?”
“You got jokes.”
Ricky laughed. “A whole bag of them.”
The door to the gym swung open and My’kael rushed inside and flashed Ricky an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Got here as fast as I could. My baby Tiana has been running a fever and I had to try and get an advance on my paycheck down at Oscar’s.”
“I understand. I understand. Go and get changed,” Ricky said, glancing at his watch again.
“Thanks, Coach.” My’kael turned and gave Xavier a quick nod.
Xavier smiled back and then watched as the young boxer raced off to the locker room.
“Aw…I don’t know,” Ricky said, shaking his head sadly. “He might have potential, but he might have too much baggage dragging him down.”
“He said that his little girl is sick,” Xavier said, shrugging. “Surely you’re not that heartless to cut him off because of that.”
“According to him, his little girl is always sick. And that restaurant he’s talking about, Oscar’s? He got fired from that place about a month back. I know because one of my many legions of nephews sweeps the floor there.”
Xavier frowned. “Why would he lie about where he works?”
“Why do people lie in general?”
“Because they’re trying to hide the truth?”
“That—or they lie just because they can.”
Xavier’s frown turned into a half smile. “So which do you think it is with My’kael?”
“In his case, I’d say you’re right. Times are tough, and the young men around here may not be so concerned about how they make their money.”
Xavier let that sink in as he glanced back toward the locker room. He felt a strong sense of disappointment, even though he hardly knew the young man. But he did see what Ricky saw in him—a diamond in the rough. “Do you want me to talk to him?”
“Humph. No offense, Xavier—but you didn’t exactly hang in there yourself. You could’ve gone all the way.”
“Then maybe that’s what I should tell him.”
Ricky considered Xavier’s offer. “You’d do that for me?”
“Of course I would.” He winked. “What are friends for?” Xavier reached over for his towel and quickly swiped the sweat from his face. “I’ll be right back.”
Ricky smiled and slapped him on the back as he passed by. “Thanks, X-Man. I really appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it. That’s what friends are for.” He strolled across the gym toward the locker room and quickly found My’kael lacing up his boxing shoes. When he looked up, there was an awkward exchange of stiff smiles. “What’s up, man?”
My’kael shrugged.
Not much of a talker.
“Getting ready to put in a good workout?”
“Why? Are you writing a book?”
Xavier lifted a brow. “A bit defensive, aren’t you?”
“Nah. I just don’t like a whole lot of questions.” He shifted his feet. “Especially from brothers I don’t know. You feel me?”
“A’ight,” Xavier said, nodding. “Then I guess there’s no other way to come at you than to give it to you straight. My man Ricky out there is worried about you. Should he be?”
My’kael swore under his breath. “So what? He sent you in here to talk to me?”
“No. I offered,” Xavier said, trying to remain cool. He never cared for the whole brother-with-a-chip-on-his-shoulder routine, anyway. “So why don’t you just cut the BS and tell me whether you’re taking this whole boxing thing seriously or if you’re just wasting an old man’s time?”
“Please. I don’t believe in wasting time. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be.”
“So what’s with all the excuses?”
My’kael finished lacing his boot and stood. If he was trying to be intimidating, it didn’t work. Xavier was taller, stronger and more ripped than he was. There was a quick calculation in the young man’s eye and clearly he came to the same conclusion. “Man, why the hell do you care?”
“Because I happen to care about Ricky. He’s a good man. And when I first walked into this place, boasting about how I was going to dominate the world of boxing, he was the first one who didn’t laugh. He took one look at me. Told me to show him what I had and then just…poured everything he had into me. And in return, I tried my best to make both of our dreams come true.”
My’kael nodded his head. “So why didn’t you go all the way?”
Their eyes met for a long time and Xavier warred with himself as to whether he should tell the young man something that he’d never even confessed to his own family. But at the last moment, he realized that he really wasn’t ready to do that just yet. “Because I gave up. Because I stopped trying.”
There was a ripple of disappointment on My’kael’s face like he’d sensed that Xavier was holding out on him. “Still, everything worked out for you, right? I know about you. You’re making mad loot down there at that big strip club downtown. You gotta be pulling at least seven figures. So it’s all good, right?”
“Not quite,” Xavier said, lowering his voice and his gaze. “Eventually, everybody learns that money doesn’t buy happiness.”
“But it pays the bills, right?”
He nodded. “It does. But bills never go away. Dreams…unfilled. They’ll chase after you until the day you die, especially when you give up o
n them. Even the ones you give up on for the right reasons. Giving them up for the wrong ones…well, that’s just a hell of your own making.”
My’kael’s gaze fell. “It ain’t easy being out here chasing a dream and not getting paid, man. I sound like a fool standing in front of my old lady and little girl and can’t pay the bills.”
“You need a job—just say the word.”
“Man, I ain’t looking for no handout.”
“Who said anything about a handout? You work for me you need to be prepared to work. Do a good job, you make good money. But if you work for me, then I expect you to work hard at the club and in this gym. You got potential, man. And now that you got me in your face, I’m not going to just stand back and watch you waste it. You feel me?”
A slow smile hooked the corners of My’kael’s lips and then at last he started nodding. “A’ight, then. When do I start?”
“Tonight. Be at the club by seven.” He held out his hand and the two brothers shook on it.
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” Johnnie asked, following Cheryl to her desk.
“What? What are you talking about?” Cheryl dropped down into her chair and turned toward her computer to look up a few names to see if there were any hits.
“See. You can’t even look at me,” Johnnie said. “When and where? That’s all I want to know.”
“Don’t you have some work to do?” Cheryl snapped at her partner.
“When and where?”
“I made one mistake and now you think that I’m some morally corrupt cop? I’m offended.”
“You are riddled with guilt. I said nothing about being morally corrupt. I just happen to know that if I wrote down a checklist of all the things that you like in a man, Xavier King would match up perfectly. Handsome, athletic, successful, smooth, cool—come on. You’d have to be Superwoman not fall for that brother. And now that this investigation is going on longer than we thought, we’re talking about the laws of attraction and a numbers game.”
“I’m not sleeping with him.”
King's Promise Page 12
