King's Promise

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King's Promise Page 20

by Adrianne Byrd


  Jeremy cocked his head. “You want to get back into the ring?”

  Q just blinked at him. “Color me shocked. Hell, I never knew why you stopped boxing in the first place.”

  “Guys, guys. Pay attention. I didn’t say anything about me climbing back into the ring. I said I wanted to train. And hell, I think that I have a lot to bring to the table.” He glanced around, looking for his amen chorus. Instead, he got a couple of head nods.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys.” That just earned him some low grumbling. “Please. Please. Don’t extend yourself.”

  Jeremy tossed up his hands. “You couldn’t have thought that we were going to be happy about this?”

  “I knew that you would initially take it hard, but I thought for my sake you would at least put your personal feelings aside and just be happy for me.” He suffered through another round of grumbling. “Or not.” He shrugged.

  “All right. All right. Go and run your gym. Follow your bliss. Find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

  Quentin snickered and poured himself another drink while Xavier rolled his eyes. “Are you finished?”

  “I had a few more, but I can stop now if you want.” Jeremy shrugged. His disappointment was evident.

  “Please don’t guilt-trip me. I really want to do this.”

  Jeremy and Quentin sighed at the same time, but Xavier could tell that he was making headway when his baby brother changed the subject. “Sooo…you said that you haven’t proposed yet. Does that mean that you’re going to?”

  Xavier smiled. “You caught that, huh?”

  Quentin groaned.

  “All right,” Jeremy said, wrapping up. “We’ll get the paperwork drawn up.” He turned to look toward Q. “I guess this means it’s just me and you, old man.”

  “All right, junior. Enough with that old-man crap. And while we’re drawing up new partnership papers, we might have to add another clause.”

  “And what is that?”

  “A no-marriage clause.”

  Jeremy smiled slyly. “You got yourself a deal.”

  Let’s Make a Deal

  Chapter 24

  “You were making marriage deals?” Dr. Turner piped up.

  Quentin smiled. “Sounded perfectly reasonable to me—especially since this whole love thing was slowly causing my one successful enterprise to fall like a house of cards. I think that I had a legitimate reason and a financial one to put in some added insurance.”

  “With Eamon and Xavier leaving your boys’ club, did that end up financially compromising your business?” Quentin coughed.

  “Tell her the truth,” Alyssa said, suddenly appearing in the large window.

  Quentin frowned. “I thought that you were gone?”

  “Seems like I don’t have any real control over when I leave. That’s up to you,” Alyssa said evenly as she glanced over at Dr. Turner. “Your doctor is looking at you strangely.”

  Quentin jerked his head around to face Dr. Turner, only to find that she was indeed looking at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head.

  “And just where did you think I had gone?” Dr. Turner asked.

  “I wasn’t referring to you,” Q said, and then touched his left temple. “I was talking about a particular headache that I can’t seem to get rid of.”

  “Oh. I see.” Dr. Turner eased back in her chair, but her scrutiny only intensified.

  “Not bad,” Alyssa said. “But I don’t think that she bought it.”

  Quentin drew in a deep breath. “Maybe these sessions aren’t working,” he said. “If anything, I think I’m getting closer to being locked up in a psychiatric ward than I am figuring anything out about love.”

  Dr. Turner snickered. “Please. You are a long way from that.”

  He smiled and relaxed. “Wait. Far from which one?”

  Dr. Turner changed the subject. “So you struck this deal with Jeremy King, but what happened with Xavier and Cheryl? How did it all work out?”

  “It’s love.” He shrugged. “It tends to work out…for everyone but me….”

  Chapter 25

  Everything was lining up just as Xavier had planned. He had a new career, one that, in hindsight, seemed so obvious that he didn’t know why he’d never thought of it before. And tonight, he and Cheryl were going to have their first official date. It seemed odd, given the amount of time they’d actually spent together between work and their secret rendezvous. But with any luck, this brand-new business venture would give them a whole lot more free time.

  Of course, she still had the crazy medical school schedule during the day and working the club at night, but they could work through all of that later. He hummed to himself in the shower. He added lyrics while he got dressed and when he headed out to his SUV to go pick up Cheryl for their big date, he damn near broke out into a dance.

  He felt good. Damn good.

  Then again, that might have more to do with the diamond ring he also had in his pocket. Did it matter that he had only known Cheryl for a little over two months? No. In fact, it was one of the facts that he marveled over—that he could be this crazy in love and totally convinced she was the one that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with had to be a great sign.

  Xavier climbed into his SUV and started up the engine. To make sure that she was ready when he showed up, he pulled out his cell phone and typed a quick text message that he was on his way. Before he slid the phone back into his chest pocket, he noticed that his battery was low and then reached over to hook the phone up into the charger. Then he noticed something on the floorboard.

  Curious, Xavier leaned over and picked up a small white packet. “What the hell is this?” He knew what it looked like, but there was no reason in hell why there would be drugs in his vehicle. But as he turned the small bag over in his hands, he knew that that was exactly what it was.

  “Who on earth…?” His mind quickly scrambled over who had been in his car recently. And he could only come up with one name. Oh, God.

  Cheryl had never in her life taken three hours to get dressed. Being a jock for most of her life, she considered herself low maintenance. Give her a couple of daubs of cocoa butter and a once-over with lip gloss and she was good to go. But tonight, she fussed about everything. Her hair, her makeup and most certainly which dress to wear. Somehow she had convinced herself that the better she looked, the easier and more forgiving Xavier would be when she told him that she’d been lying about who she was for the past couple of months.

  Ding dong.

  “Oh, God. This is it.” She glanced at herself in the mirror and loved the way the short red dress hugged her curves. I just hope that he likes it.

  Ding dong.

  Now she regretted asking her sister and nephew not to be there when Xavier arrived. She could’ve used some moral support right about now. Breathing in a deep breath, she rushed to go open the door.

  Every time Cheryl saw Xavier, he seemed more handsome than the time before. Tonight was no different. Dressed to kill in simple black, he walked through the door, looking like he was about to walk the runway of a Milan fashion show. Cheryl’s smile was instant and easy as it slid across her face.

  “Hello.”

  His smile was nice, but not quite so wide.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked. If he wasn’t in a good mood, then maybe tonight was not the time to spring her news on him. At that realization, she started to relax a bit. Of course, she would’ve taken any excuse to put off telling him the truth.

  “No. Everything is fine,” he said, though it was an obvious lie.

  That surprised her. She had always known Xavier to be an open book.

  “Are you ready to go?”

  Her frown deepened. He hadn’t said anything about her dress. Maybe she needed to go and make a quick change.

  His brows dipped when she hadn’t answered him. “Cheryl?”

  “Oh, huh. Yes. I’m ready.”

  He nodded. “Then we better g
et going if we’re going to keep our reservation.”

  “All right. Let me just get a jacket.”

  At least he walked over and helped her slide into it, and when they started out the door, he finally said, “You look beautiful, by the way.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled and glanced back over her shoulder at him. Seeing his genuine smile and the familiar softness return to his eyes, the knots in her belly relaxed again. Maybe he’d just been distracted.

  However, after he opened his passenger door and helped her climb inside, she felt that shift again. On the drive to Le Roi, a small French restaurant in a corner of Buckhead, it was as quiet as a tomb. This was going to be a long night.

  Xavier wrestled with how he was going to handle this sudden realization. How did one handle finding out that someone you loved had a drug problem? He snuck a few glances in her direction and he still couldn’t believe that Cheryl did drugs. It just didn’t make sense with what he knew about her.

  And what was that exactly?

  The rogue question caught him off guard, but he was determined to answer it. He knew what he needed to know—that Cheryl Shepherd was a warm, kind person, but also a spitfire, a strong, no-nonsense, fiercely independent woman. Clearly, she loved family—though hers was considerably smaller than his own. Still, he believed that she would fit in nicely with the Kings.

  His smile widened. Okay. So she has a little problem. Was it enough for him to just toss up his hands and walk away? When you love someone you don’t just walk away at the first sign of trouble. He could help her with this. Atlanta had some good drug rehabilitation facilities. He could help her beat this problem.

  Xavier straightened in his seat and glanced over at Cheryl again. At her timid smile, he slid his arm over and reached around the back of her headrest. She relaxed and leaned against his arm. Yeah. He could do this…if she would be willing to let him help her.

  At Le Roi, they were quickly led to a small table in the back of the restaurant as he had requested. It was perfect. The table was adorned with rose petals, and the minute they sat down, a chilled bottle of champagne was produced.

  “Wow. This is nice,” Cheryl said, and heard her own voice quiver. She cleared her throat and tried again. “You really didn’t have to go to so much trouble.”

  “It was no trouble at all. Besides, I like doing nice things for you. I hope to be doing a lot more in the future.”

  She sighed and relaxed with his talk of the future. “I hope that we will be able to do a lot of nice things for each other in the future.”

  The waiter popped the cork of their champagne and she jumped in her seat.

  Xavier laughed. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah.” She covered a hand over her heart. Hell, she couldn’t remember if she had ever been this jittery—not even when she’d had to make her first arrest. “I guess I’m just a little nervous.”

  He laughed. “It is a little odd. A first date, after all we’ve, uh, shared.”

  “We’ve shared a lot in some ways.”

  His gaze locked on to her as she bobbed her head. “Some ways.”

  Cheryl reached over for her champagne and inhaled the whole glass in one sip.

  Xavier’s brows rose in surprise. “A little thirsty?”

  “Something like that.” She flashed him a nervous smile.

  Then, in sync, they blurted out, “We need to talk.” They jumped and blinked at each other. Once again, they said at the same time, “You go first.” Smiling. “No. You go first.”

  Cheryl held up her hands. “Okay. We’re not getting anywhere like this. Why don’t you go first?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Please. I insist.”

  “All righty.” But before he could get started, their waiter appeared and asked whether they were ready to order.

  “Just give us a few more minutes,” Xavier told him. When they were alone again, he drew a deep breath and reached across the table for her hand. “I know that we’ve only known each other for a short time.” He started rubbing the backs of her fingers. “But I have to tell you that, in some ways, it feels like I’ve known you my entire life. I don’t know why, but I just do. And I don’t want you to think that it’s just sex because it’s not. What I feel when I’m around you…is much deeper and more complicated than that. I felt it the first time I turned and saw you standing in the club with that crazy Got Milk T-shirt. There’s a connection here. And I’m convinced that you feel it, too.”

  Cheryl bobbed her head while her eyes filled with tears.

  “But I also know that there…are a few things that we haven’t talked about—a few secrets.”

  Oh, my God. He knows.

  His grip on her hand tightened. “I want you to know that you can tell me anything. I’m not going anywhere. I care and love you too much…to just walk away.” Cheryl blinked.

  He reached for her other hand. “I’m not one of those guys that just takes off the minute things get rough. No one is perfect. Lord knows I’m not.”

  She didn’t think that being a cop was some kind of fatal flaw, especially since running a strip club was hardly something that made one a pillar of the community. Her smile fluttered weakly on her lips. “I agree. Neither one of us is perfect.”

  The waiter returned and refilled Cheryl’s empty glass. “Have you two decided?”

  “A couple more minutes,” Xavier said.

  Cheryl slid her hands from Xavier’s grasp so that she could take another shot of bubbly courage.

  Xavier noted her nervousness and took heart in the fact that he was getting to her. He didn’t know much about addiction, but he did know that the first step was getting the addict to acknowledge that they had a problem. If this relationship was going to move forward, then he needed for Cheryl to come clean with him, and maybe in order for her to do that, he needed to do the same.

  He waited for her to finish draining her second glass of champagne before reaching over and reclaiming her hand. “I want to share something with you,” he said solemnly.

  Okay. This sounds serious. Cheryl swallowed a huge boulder that was suddenly clogging her throat. “What is it?” He paused for so long that Cheryl wondered whether he’d changed his mind.

  “I miss boxing,” he said softly, but earnestly. “All my life I knew what I wanted, I knew how to go about getting it. And that’s exactly what I did. I was lucky enough to have a family that not only loved me, but encouraged me to follow my heart. As long as I put in the hard work and dedicated myself to the sport…and my schoolwork, the sky was the limit.”

  He fell silent again and it was Cheryl who switched their hands around so that she was comforting and supporting him. Clearly, there was something heavy on his mind. For now, she would have to put her own bombshell on the back burner.

  Suddenly a low rumble of laughter shook Xavier’s large frame while his expression grew distant. “I wanted to be the best. I wanted Muhammad Ali to wag a finger at the world and say, ‘Now, Xavier King is truly the greatest.’”

  Cheryl laughed, but started to feel and even bask in the incredible warmth emanating from their connected hands.

  “All right. So I was a bit of a goofy kid.”

  “You just sound like you were ambitious. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it’s adorable.”

  His grin stretched wider, turning him into an adorable man, as well. Why couldn’t she have met him under better circumstances?

  “Anyway,” he continued. “My obsession with boxing meant that I put in very little time doing teenage things. Like dating and hanging out with the boys.”

  “Please. You’re not going to try and sell me the line that you were unpopular in school or something, are you?”

  “No. Actually, I excelled in sports and academics. But I considered myself a late bloomer as far as the opposite sex. I mean, I’ve done my fair share of dating and, uh—”

  “Sowing wild oats?”

  His face actually darkened with
embarrassment. “Yeah. Let’s roll with that. Anyway, my whole point is that it was really hard for me to walk away from all of that, especially when it seemed like I was well on my way. I had one hell of a support team. My trainer, Ricky…” He shook his head. “That man sacrificed a lot for me and my dream. He believed in me from the beginning. We worked tirelessly around the clock. If we weren’t training, we were reviewing boxing matches—mine or upcoming opponents’. It was draining and exhilarating all at the same time.”

  As Cheryl watched his face, one nagging question kept circling in her mind. “Then why did you give it all up?”

  Xavier’s reminiscent smile faded. “I guess you can say that I did it…for love.”

  Cheryl cocked her head in confusion.

  Xavier lowered his gaze. “Love for a man who is like my second father.”

  Their eyes connected and suddenly she knew. “You threw a fight?”

  His eyes dropped again. “See. Mr. Honesty has a big dent in his record.”

  Shock colored her entire face as her grip tightened and she leaned halfway over the table. “But why?”

  Xavier sucked in a long, deep breath. “It was spring of ’04, Las Vegas….”

  Xavier listened to the thunderous chants, cheers and jeers that easily permeated the walls of his designated locker room. His fight with Tyrone Forster wasn’t the main headline for the night. In fact, the boxing world was abuzz about this fighter Manny Pacquiao. That was all right with him because a year from now Xavier was convinced that his name would be the one on everyone’s lips. At least, that was what Ricky was pumping into his head while he wrapped his hands and wrists in preparation for the fight.

  “How are you feeling, X-Man?” Ricky asked, bright-eyed and just as pumped as his fighter.

  “I feel like kicking some ass, old man,” Xavier answered, stretching his neck from side to side.

  “You’re going to get your chance in just a few minutes. Remember, the best way to take Forster down is to keep going through his gloves and landing those upper cuts. I ain’t saying it’s gonna be easy, but on the tapes, clearly the man has a problem with moving that right side.”

 

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