King's Pleasure (19 page)

“Y
ou promised!” Quentin shook his head and fumbled to get the folded piece of paper out of his breast pocket. “I have it right here in writing. You cannot sell your shares in the business.” He smacked the agreement down and pointed to Jeremy’s signature.

“Sorry, cuz,” Jeremy said, pushing away the paper. “I guess you’re just going to have to take me to court.”

Q’s mouth fell open as a feeling of betrayal cut across his face.

“C’mon, man. Don’t look at me like that.” Jeremy slumped back in his chair. “I feel guilty as it is.”

“As you should. You’re breaking your word—and what is a man if he can’t keep his word?”

It was Jeremy’s turn to be shocked. “Damn. You’re going hardcore on me like that?”

“You damn right I am. I’m tired of everyone thinking that it’s okay to just skip out on me. You know, just because I like to joke and be the life of a party, doesn’t mean that I don’t have feelings.”

Jeremy blinked. “What? I’ve never thought anything like that.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Quentin jumped up and snatched the paper off the desk. “You know, I should’ve known this was coming. If you could do your boy dirty, then planting a knife in my back was just something you’d do before taking out the garbage.”

Jeremy had a hard time keeping up with the conversation. “What? Whoa. I didn’t do anything to Roy.”

“You slept with his girl,” Quentin charged.

“I didn’t
know
she was his girl!”

“But have you talked to him since you found out? Does he know that you’re the one that knocked her up?”

“I’ve tried. I’ve called, texted and emailed him to try to set a date to talk to him. I’ve even rolled by his place, but he’s never there. What else am I supposed to do?
Roy
won’t talk to me.
Leigh
won’t talk to me. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is when people won’t even pick up the phone?”

Quentin dropped his head. “I might know a little something about that.”

“All right, then! So what do you propose I do? I’m hoping like hell that Leigh talks to me soon because I’m not going to let her keep me from my kid—and I still have to tell Roy about the whole situation because it will eventually get out that Leigh and I have a kid together. I’m on a wire here and you’re stressing me about
this?
” Jeremy tossed up his hands. “C’mon, cuz. Does that piece of paper mean that much to you?”

Q turned away to avoid revealing his hurt and disappointment.

“It does mean a lot to you,” Jeremy said and plopped back against his chair. “All right, I won’t sell.”

Quentin shook his head, but refused to turn around. “That’s all right. Don’t do me any favors.”

Jeremy frowned. “You’re acting like this decision means I’m severing ties from
you.
We’re still cousins, man. We’re family. We don’t need a document to hold us all together.”

Quentin glanced back over his shoulder and found his cousin’s gaze.
You mean that?
He didn’t say the words, but it was the question that lingered his eyes.

Of course I mean it.
Jeremy confirmed their bond with a smile.

Q’s shoulders slumped in acceptance. “All right. But you’ve got to give me time to find another investor.”

“You got it.”

“And…” Quentin continued. “I didn’t mean any of that other stuff. Truth is, you and your brothers are some of the best men I know.”

Jeremy smiled. “Thanks. And back at you.”

His cousin gave him a look like he wasn’t buying the compliment, but it was true. Jeremy was certain that he understood Quentin more than most. Sure, he’d perfected the party-boy image, but it was a facade. His cousin was surprisingly sensitive, smart, gregarious and disarmingly charming. If Jeremy was a betting man, he’d wager that Quentin hadn’t married so that he could get his inheritance back. But instead, he believed Q had given in to his father’s demands to win his love and approval.

Only it just didn’t seem to have worked.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Come in!” Jeremy shouted.

Delilah poked her head through the door. “Are you two decent?”

Quentin laughed.

She cracked a smile, as well. “Laugh all you want, but one never knows when you are in a dick-measuring contest around here.”

“Speaking of which—” Quentin turned toward his boy “—you still owe me two hundred dollars.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to renege on that, too,” Q challenged.

“You know what? It’s time to shut you up, old man.” Jeremy hopped up out of his chair and started unbuttoning his pants.

“Bring it, Junior.” Quentin went for his zipper.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Delilah shouted with her hands up. “Let me just give you this.” She held up a set of keys. “Your real estate agent just sent them over a few minutes ago.”

“Ah, the keys to my new crib.” Jeremy perked up as she dropped them into his hand.

“You bought a new place?” Q asked.

“Yep. I bought Dylan’s old Malibu pad.” Quentin smirked.

“What? It’s a great place. I was just out there yesterday doing a final walk-through. It’s perfect.”

“Uh-huh.” The twinkle in his cousin’s eyes told Jeremy that he was on to him. “Maybe you should give her your Porsche, too?”

Delilah’s brows dipped in confusion. “Give who his Porsche?”

“Nobody,” Jeremy said, signaling to his cousin that he didn’t want his employees all up in his business. “Thanks for bringing this to me, Dee.”

“All right. Fine, then.” She jabbed a fist into her hip as she headed back toward the door. “By the way, there’s someone out here on the main floor to see you.”

“Oh?” Jeremy plopped the keys down on his desk. “Who is it?”

“Some pregnant chick named Leigh Matthews.”

J
ust stay calm. Breathe. And try to avoid making eye contact—or any contact.
Leigh nodded at the instructions from the voice in the back of her head. However, it was already growing increasingly difficult to remember them since she’d started shaking like a leaf the moment she and Ariel strolled into the near-empty club.

She and Ariel opted to arrive two hours before the club opened for this very reason. There were still a number of employees around scrubbing, cleaning, stocking and waxing. The Dollhouse operated like a well-oiled machine. She was actually quite impressed.

“How much do you think this place pulls in?” Ariel asked, sounding equally impressed as she glanced around, while they waited.

“No clue,” Leigh said, unconcerned. At the moment, she wanted to concentrate on getting through this meeting.

Ariel shook her head. “I think you’re making a big mistake by not going through the courts to ensure—”

“Ariel,
please.
” Leigh slammed her eyes shut and counted to three.

“All right,” Ariel said, shaking her head. “I still think that you’re making a big mistake. There. I said it.”

“Fine! You’ve said it,
again.
So can we just focus on doing what we came here to do?” Leigh opened her eyes.
“Please?”
she added one more time.

“Fine!” Ariel tossed up her hands.

“Great.” Leigh sucked in another breath and then pressed a hand against her growing baby bump.

The door leading to the back of the club swung open and the hostess Leigh met earlier strolled out with a thin smile. At first seeing the woman alone made Leigh’s heart drop.
Did this mean that he wasn’t coming out to talk to her? Had she waited too long to come and talk to him?

“Let’s go.” Leigh popped out of her chair and grabbed her purse.

“What?”

“He’s not coming.” But the moment she made that pronouncement, Jeremy’s tall, muscular frame strolled onto the main floor. At the sight of him, Leigh’s heart sprang from her stomach clear up to her throat, where it got stuck.

When his gaze landed on her, his full lips kicked up into a smile, which apparently detonated a switch attached to her knees given how fast they folded and made her butt plop back down into the chair. The rules that she spent all morning reciting flew right out of her head. Her pulse hammered and her breathing sounded like she’d just completed a triathlon. As for that no-eyecontact thing, Leigh couldn’t have pulled her eyes away if someone had held a gun to her head.

It seemed as if his leisurely stroll over to their small table was happening in slow motion. If he had just been stripped naked and doused in some baby oil, he would have been the perfect romance-cover model.

Jeremy stopped at the table and tilted his head. “Hello, Leigh.” He broke eye contact so that his warm gaze could roam over the rest of her body. “You look beautiful today.”

The compliment disarmed her completely. “Thank you.” It was on the tip of her tongue to return the compliment—because he, too, was a beautiful sight to see—but reality kicked in and saved her from herself.

Jeremy pulled out a chair as his gaze swung over to Ariel. “Ms. Brooks.”

“Mr. King,” Ariel said, responding in her professional lawyer voice.

It was the first time that his brows dipped in concern. “So what brings you ladies by today?” He braided his strong fingers together.

“My client here wants to formally notify you that she’s pregnant.”

Jeremy’s gaze swung back to Leigh and she read in his eyes what she had long suspected he knew. “Congratulations,” he said warmly.

“And that you are the father of the child,” Ariel added, and then waited for a response.

He waited a beat and said, “I guess it’s up to me to congratulate myself.”

Leigh almost smiled.

“Congratulations,” Ariel said stiffly and resumed her prepared spiel. “Ms. Matthews prefers for us, and your lawyer, if you’d like, to hammer out an agreement without involving the court system.”

“Is that right?” he said, easing back in his chair as his jawline seemed to stiffen.

“Ms. Matthews would prefer that you’d stay involved in the child’s life, but will respect your wishes if you choose not to.”

“If I choose not…” He cut himself off, and then sucked in a deep breath. “Of course I want to be involved in my kid’s life.” His gaze narrowed on her. “That goes without question.”

“Good. So that just leaves our working out support and visitation,” Leigh said. “Visit…”

Another deep breath.
If Leigh wasn’t mistaken, his eyes began to glisten.

“Let me guess. You expect me to just be a weekend dad now?”

“We’re open to something like every other weekend, or once a month?”

His leg started bouncing and shaking the whole table. “Is that right?”

“Yes. And—”

“Excuse me,” he said to Ariel. “Would you mind giving us a few minutes?”

Leigh started to panic.

“Well, I—”

“I’m sure that my cousin at the bar wouldn’t mind keeping you company for a few minutes. Just a few.”

Ariel glanced over at her girl again. Time stood still until Leigh gave her the signal that it was okay for her to go.

Unfortunately, the moment Leigh gave the signal she started having second thoughts.

“All right. I’ll give you five minutes.” She stood up from the table and gave Jeremy a look that said she would be watching him.

While she strolled away, Jeremy took several deep breaths. Judging by his stiff body language the exercise wasn’t working.

“What is this, Leigh? Why are you coming at me like this?”

“Like what?” She coughed. “I just want us to come to some kind of arrangement.”

“I want to be a part of
my
child’s life. Weekend babysitting? Is this your idea of an arrangement?”

Silence.

“All right. So you hate me that much?”

“I never said I hated you,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“You just act like it,” Jeremy said.

She didn’t have a response to that either.

“How did we get to this?” he asked, leaning over the table. “There was something there in the beginning, wasn’t there? Or was it just me? Am I the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about that night, dreaming about that night?” He cocked his head and studied her face even harder. “And when you came here and we went into the back office, wasn’t that fire still there the minute we touched?”

To prove his point, he reached for her hand. At the instant connection, a spark shot up her arm.

Leigh jerked her hand back. Her eyes brimmed with tears. “All right. I admit it. It was a great night—a perfect night. But then the sun rose the next morning and it was over.”

“It doesn’t have to be over. Look where we are, look at what we’re about to do. We’re going to have a child together. Shouldn’t we at least see whether there’s a chance for more? I don’t know you, but I love you. How crazy is that? And I readily admit that most of my anger in that freezer that night wasn’t
just
because I found out you were my best friend’s fiancée, but because I still wanted you anyway. That knowledge was eating me up inside.”

Leigh shook her head as tears trickled down her face. “It could never work. Look. You’re probably a really nice guy. But you and men like DeShawn are not the settling-down type. You could never be what I need you to be.”

“That’s not fair. You’ve never even given me a chance. I haven’t settled down because I’ve never met a woman I ever contemplated settling down with—until I met you. Roy and I are friends, but we are
not
the same person. I’m an honest man and I’m just asking for an honest chance here.”

“An honest chance to do what? Build a relationship off a one-night stand?” She shook her head faster, unaware that she was ripping his heart out. “You know what else I think about all the time?”

“What’s that?”

“I think about what it would have been like if we could’ve met under different circumstances. If I wasn’t out trying to prove something to myself and you weren’t a guy who was just looking for a good time. Maybe we were a blind date, and you took me to a nice restaurant and we talked all night and learned everything there is to know about each other. We’d stay until the restaurant employees had to ask us to leave and then we’d still find some other place to go and just talk and talk until the sun came up.” Tears streamed down her face. “I better go,” she said, pushing back her chair.

“No. Wait.” He grabbed her by the arm again. “We can’t leave it like this.”

“We can hammer out the details about the baby another time. I’m sorry—for everything. Probably for screwing up your life, ruining your friendship with DeShawn…”

“
Ruin?
What are you talking about?”

She paused as confusion filled her eyes. “I thought DeShawn was the one to tell you about the baby.”

“He did but, wait…” Jeremy cocked his head. “You told him it was mine?”

“Of course I did.”