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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.”
Don’t you dare stop! She shoved open the glass front door and marched like a soldier headed off to war. Xavier chuckled.
When she realized that the deep rumble sounded entirely too close, it was a nanosecond before his hand locked around her wrist. Cheryl gasped aloud as an electric charge surged through her body. Unfortunately for Xavier, it also activated her self-defense reflexes and before either of them could process what was happening, she’d turned and flipped his large frame over on the asphalt. Once reality settled in, Xavier was lying on his back on the pavement with Cheryl still holding his hand and her right foot planted squarely in the center of his chest.
He blinked. “I just wanted to see if you were interested in grabbing something at the Waffle House, but, uh, I can take a rain check.”
Realizing what she had done, she released his hand and removed her foot from his chest. “I’m sooooo sorry. You just startled me.” She dropped down and then tried to help him up.
Still dazed and confused, Xavier sat up and looked around. “How in the hell…?”
“I, uh, took some self-defense classes a while back.” She waved off the question and gave him a nervous smile.
“You took classes or you taught classes?” He stood up. “I don’t know whether to be embarrassed right now or impressed.”
Cheryl smiled and stepped back. “Well, I did have the element of surprise on my side,” she offered as a way for him to save face.
He nodded as he proceeded to dust himself off. “Good point. I’ll add that to my version of events when I’m nursing my pride over a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.”
“Don’t beat yourself up too bad. I’ve taken down men a lot bigger than you.”
A singular brow arched in the center of Xavier’s forehead.
“Really? Care to tell me about it over waffles?”
“Uh, maybe another time,” she said, clinging to the leather strap of her duffel bag and stepping backward toward her car. “I’m really beat and just want to fall into bed.”
An effortless smile eased across his face, and though he didn’t say the words, his eyes asked, Want company?
“See you tomorrow night,” Cheryl said, continuing to walk backward to her car.
“Yeah.” He started walking backward himself. “See you.”
Cheryl bumped into the front of her car and then turned around so that she could go to the driver’s side and climb in as soon as possible. After getting behind the wheel and starting the car, she was still a bundle of nerves. When she pulled out of the parking lot, Xavier, still standing at the front door of the club, lifted his hand to wave goodbye.
She smiled sheepishly and waved, then quickly jammed her foot on the accelerator and peeled off. Not until she was twenty minutes down the road did her heart rate return to normal and she felt like herself again.
“This case is definitely going to be a lot harder than I thought.”
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