King's Pleasure (20 page)

J
eremy didn’t bother to call, text, email or even send smoke signals to try to get a hold of his best friend Roy. This time he contacted Calvin Strozier to find out what times his boy would be at the court practicing, and then arranged it so that he could get into the gymnasium with a guest pass. He made sure to arrive toward the end of practice.

He hung outside the locker room, leaning against the concrete walls. He could hear the players laughing and joking inside, Roy being the loudest of them all. As usual, he was talking smack about the team they were going to be playing the next night. His new teammates were clearly joining in on the fun.

About forty minutes later, the locker-room door swung open and the players streamed out.

Jeremy pushed away from the wall, and then hollered out, “Yo, Roy!”

A few of the Razors turned to see who had yelled, but it was Roy DeShawn who’d whipped his head around the fastest.

Almost instantly, Roy’s jovial smile melted off his face.

“Hey, man. I need to holler at you for a minute.”

Roy hesitated, and then jutted his thumb over his shoulder. “Nah, man. Now is really not a good time. I got some business I have to take care of right now.”

“It can wait.” Jeremy stepped forward. “We need to talk.”

Roy’s teammates continued to stream out of the locker room; a few of them hung around curious about what was going on.

Calvin Strozier exited the locker room, spotted Jeremy and then gave him an encouraging nod.

Roy correctly sensed that Jeremy wasn’t about to let this go, so he huffed out a frustrated breath and started toward his childhood friend. It was clear from his body language that he didn’t want to deal with this.

Too bad.

“What is it, man? I already told you that I have a lot of stuff to do,” he said, as his voice seemed to reflect his rising irritation as he approached.

Jeremy planted his feet and thrust up his chin, and then prepared himself for what he knew was going to happen after his opening line. “You knew that I was the father.”

As expected, Roy unleashed a right hook across Jeremy’s jaw, snapping his head back.

“Whoa!” a few of the players who were left in the hallway hollered out.

One bold player stepped forward. “What’s going on over here?”

Calvin leaped in front of the crowd and ushered them back. “It’s all right. It’s all right. There’s nothing to see. Just two friends having a discussion. Everyone go on about your business.”

They stepped back but hung around to see what would happen next.

Despite the hard blow, Jeremy remained on his feet, but could taste the small trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. He slowly and calmly wiped it off with his thumb.

“I oughta…”

Jeremy held up his hand and warned. “You only get one.”

Roy hesitated. Undoubtedly, a slew of memories flooded and reminded him that Xavier wasn’t the only King who knew how to land punches. At long last, he lowered his fist, but anger still radiated off him in waves.

“Help me understand,” Jeremy said. “That night you came to The Dollhouse, breathing fire. If you knew, why?”

Roy continued to grind his back teeth for about a minute. “I wanted to—started to…but in the end, I couldn’t.” He shrugged his tight shoulders. “You’re my brother, man.”

“I didn’t know,” Jeremy informed him. “Not until that night.”

“Yeah, she said as much. Plus…” He dropped his head. “I remembered you telling me about your Baby Girl, how you two met and it matched her version of events down to a T.”

After concluding that there wasn’t going to be any more fists flying, the rest of the players drifted out of the gym until it was just Roy and Jeremy.

Roy inhaled a long breath. “When I left her place, I was steaming. I wondered why you hadn’t told me yourself. Then came the question of would you.”

“You came to The Dollhouse to test me?”

“Needed to know whether you were going to man up.”

“It was hard, I was trying…”

“I know. When I saw that you were going to go for it, suddenly I thought that I couldn’t take hearing it.”

“So you got the hell out of there?” Jeremy concluded.

Roy nodded, still having trouble maintaining eye contact.

“And all my calls?”

“Wasn’t ready, man. I was beginning to doubt that I’d ever be.”
Pause
. “I tell you what. It’s true what they say. You never know what you got until it’s gone.” Once I left your place and started driving around, I knew that between the two of us—you were the better man. She deserves someone like you. Honest. Loyal. Reliable.”

It was Jeremy’s turn to drop his head. “I don’t think I deserve such high praise, man.”

“What do you mean?”

“That night…after I found out who she was, I still wanted her for myself.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I was angry about finding out who she was. But I still wanted her.”

Roy’s eyes narrowed.

Jeremy glanced up and saw that his boy’s fists were balling up. Shrugging his shoulders, Jeremy planted his feet and lifted his chin again. “All right, man. Go ahead.”

Roy’s fist snapped his head left.

Jeremy saw one or two stars after that one, but quickly held up his hand to make sure that it was the last one. By the time he focused his gaze back on his buddy, there was some satisfaction in seeing Roy having to wave his hand from the sting of the punch.

“So are we cool?” Jeremy asked, wiping away another dab of blood from the other side of his mouth. “Don’t tell anybody else. But I think I’m starting to miss your big knucklehead.”

The corners of Roy’s mouth twitched. “Of course you do. I’m me.”

Jeremy laughed, and then the two old friends and longtime blood brothers came together for a one-arm hug. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Thanks.” As they walked down the long hallway together, Roy cut a sheepish look over at his friend. “So how is she doing?”

After testing his jaw to make sure that it wasn’t broken, Jeremy answered the best way he could. “Fine. I guess.”

Roy’s head jerked up. “What do you mean you guess? Aren’t you two together?”

Jeremy shook his head. “No, doesn’t look like things are going to work out that way.”

Roy’s voice dipped and hardened. “What did you do?”

“What? Me? Nothing. The relationship was dead before I even got out of the gate good.”

“She’s pregnant. I think it’s safe to say that you cleared the gate,” Roy joked, pounding his hand on Jeremy’s back.

“True,” he acknowledged.

“So?”

“So nothing. I said something to upset her at the engagement party. She didn’t speak to me for a long time, and then when she did pop up, it was with her lawyer, talking to me like I was just some sperm donor with weekend visitation rights.”

“What did you say to upset her?”

“No. You’re not getting another excuse to punch me,” Jeremy said. “Though I should deck you for not telling me you’re already a father.”

Roy shrugged. “She claimed they were mine. I accepted it, though nobody in my family has green eyes. But hey, the girl is a freak in the bedroom. It’s enough to keep me happy for the moment.”

Jeremy shook his head. “I don’t think that I’ll ever understand you, man.”

“Me, either. But are you cool with your situation?”

“Honestly, no.” He hunched up his shoulders just as they reached his boy’s Range Rover. “I just don’t know what I can do about it.”

“All I know is, if you get the chance, don’t screw it up like I did. Leigh was the best thing to happen to me and I was just too blind to see it.”

“I guess she was the best thing to happen to the both of us—it’s just too bad that she doesn’t want either one of us.”

Roy shook his head, feeling sorry for his best friend. “C’mon. Pick your bottom lip off the floor. I’m sure between the two of us, we can think of something to win your baby momma back.”

L
eigh and Ariel’s morning runs through the park had now been replaced with long walks along Malibu’s sandy beach. Dolly, her Yorkie, and the one gift that she kept from Jeremy, spent most of her time barking at the waves than actually keeping up with her owner.

The sight of the small dog running toward the ocean, most likely because the lap dog thought all that barking would actually force the waves back, wasn’t nearly as amusing as seeing her tiny little legs do double time getting out of the way when the surf came crashing in.

“I think your dog is missing a few marbles,” Ariel noted, shaking her head.

“I don’t think—I know.” Leigh laughed. “But she’s funny—and she’s good company.”

Ariel cut a long look over at her friend.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Ariel said, shaking her head.

Leigh cocked her head. “So you just like staring a hole in my head for the hell of it?”

“I’m just…you know what? Never mind. It’s none of my business.”

“That’s never stopped you before—or are you turning over a new leaf eight months after New Year’s?”

“Nah. It’s just that I recognize that I’ve given you bad advice before…and I probably lack credibility on this issue.”

“
Again
—that’s never stopped you before.”

“Ha. Ha.” For a few seconds her gaze fell back to trying to figure out what the hell her dog was doing. Neither one of them had a clue. But eventually, Ariel went back to glancing over at Leigh out of the corner of her eye.

“Damn, girl. Will you just spit it out?”

“All right. But you have me on record saying that I know that sometimes my advice has been a little suspect.”

“Duly noted.” Leigh combed her fingers through her hair.

“All right. Here goes.” Ariel stopped walking and turned to her friend. “Are you crazy?”

“
That
is what has been bugging you?”

“I think it’s a question that deserves an answer, especially in the cold way that you turned that man down yesterday. Hell, I was struggling to keep it together. I don’t know what you did to that man or all that went down between you two that night, but, honey, it has definitely left a mark on that man.”

“You just like him because he’s rich and probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash if you ordered extra cheese for your taco.”

“Nooo…well, that
is
still an added plus. But it has more to do with how he looked at you.”

“You mean when the steam was rising out of his ears?”

“No, before that.”

Leigh dropped her eyes.

Ariel smirked and shook her head. “Yeah, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re just trying to play crazy.”

“No. It’s not that. It’s…”

“What?” Ariel pressed, but Leigh didn’t immediately answer. She started shaking her head. “You know, I’ve always talked to you about how hard it is to get a decent date or how hard it is to find a man to act even half-right. But before yesterday, I’d never seen a man look at a woman the way Jeremy looked at you when he came out of that office—and it had nothing to do with just a physical attraction. That man is feeling you on a deeper level, girl. And I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t jealous. I was—extremely jealous.”

Leigh’s gaze found its way back to her friend, but her eyes were trying to hold back as much water as the ocean they stood next to.

“At the end of the day, Leigh, I want you to get more than just your fair share of cheese on a taco. I want us both to find men who look at us—and truly see and love us in a way that Jeremy desperately wants to do with you.”

A tear escaped through her lashes and had even made it halfway down her face before Leigh swiped it away. “What if I’m just scared?”

“Of?”

“Of being hurt—of being cheated on—of giving my all and then getting nothing but lies in return. It’s all too much.”

“None of us likes to lose at love because, you’re right, it hurts like hell. But if you fall down and stay down, soon you’ll
forget
how to get up. I don’t want you to stay down. I’m not going to stay down—especially now that I know what love truly looks like.”

Woof! Woof! Woof!

Dolly continued arguing with the ocean.

Ariel cocked her head while she stared at her friend. “At least think about giving him a chance? Please?”

“Okay.” Leigh nodded. “I’ll think it over.”

Jeremy shielded his eyes as he stared down the beach. Two women caught his eyes, including the small dog, racing in and out of the water about a hundred yards out. One was pregnant but still rocked a black bikini under a sheer poncho.
Is that…?
He squinted harder but nearly fell off his deck.

He could always go check them out. But given Leigh’s behavior toward him, he hesitated. Maybe it was just time to give up—just concentrate on hammering out a custody agreement with their child and call it a day.

All of Roy’s suggestions that sounded like begging and pleading weren’t going to work for him. He lowered his hands and inhaled a deep breath. She wanted him to leave her alone.

So he was going to do just that.

L
eigh rose with the sun, but she was far from being cheerful. In fact, if she was being honest with herself she was downright depressed. Her memories of splashing around in the moonlight had been replaced with images of Jeremy’s angry face and hurt reaction two days before. She had promised Ariel that she’d think more about taking a chance with Jeremy.

Once upon a time, she thought she knew what she wanted and how to get it. But once she put her plan in motion, she discovered that there were several potholes in the road.

Dolly started barking the moment her foot hit the floor. “C’mon, girl. Let’s get you something to eat.”

Today she was going to sit out on the deck and actually get started writing again. After a four-month self-imposed hiatus she thought her brain would be teeming with ideas. However, after an hour, she still stared at a blank page on her laptop.

“Maybe we should just take a walk along the beach?” she said, glancing down at the dog. But Dolly had long ago stopped paying attention to her and had gotten down to the business of chasing her tail. It was an adorable sight and it put a smile on her face, as she absently rubbed her belly.

Boy or girl?

She really didn’t care. Her mother was right. As long as it had ten fingers and ten toes, she’d be happy. But before she knew it she found herself daydreaming about all the various traits her child might inherit. Would she have Jeremy’s intense dark eyes? How about his adorable dimples? Would she be tall like him? She wondered what rich complexion her child would inherit. Would it be his milk-chocolate skin color? Or her cinnamon brown? Or somewhere in between? By the time she had finished painting a picture in her mind, she was smiling so hard her face hurt.

“I can’t wait to meet you—and teach you so many things.” Jeremy’s image surfaced. “I also can’t wait for you to meet your father. I think you’re going to like him,” she said. “I know it’s odd for me to be making such predictions, but I have a feeling that your father is going to adore you. Spoil you. Don’t ask me how I know these things, I just do.”

He would do those things for you, as well,
the voice in the back of her head insisted.

Her eyes swam in a vat of tears because just as she was sure of Jeremy King being an excellent father, she was sure that he could be so much more than that.

So why are you pushing him away?

“Because I’m scared,” she answered herself, and then opened her eyes as the morning breeze swept her tears away.

Jeremy decided that it would be best for him to get to know his new beachfront community. Sure, he knew the beach well, but Malibu also had a host of treasures tucked along the Pacific Coast Highway. One place he’d heard of many times was an Italian restaurant called Giovanni.

He doubted that the place would be as good as his brother’s place in Vegas, but he’d give it a shot. The moment he walked into the place, he knew that he’d found the restaurant where he’d be eating a lot of lunches and dinners. Today he chose to eat outside where he could look out onto the beautiful scenic view of the deep blue ocean and an even bluer sky.

Leigh had cravings.

And since she’d been staying at her girlfriend’s summer place this past week, she’d been craving Italian food nearly every day. Giovanni was such a short drive from the house that she usually didn’t bother grabbing Dolly when she made her way to the famous restaurant.

“Ah, Ms. Matthews,” the hostess greeted, smiling the moment she walked through the door.

A warm flush burned Leigh’s cheeks. She hoped that the staff wasn’t beginning to think of her as a little piggy. Four months pregnant was a little soon to be saying that she was eating for two.

“Would you like to be seated or will you be ordering take-out again?”

“It’ll be…” Leigh’s gaze swept over the room, and suddenly spied the large figure sitting and watching the waves on the back deck. Her pulse quickened and that flush had now blanketed her body.

“Ms. Matthews?”

“Actually, I, uh—see my party out on the deck,” she informed the hostess.

“Oh, okay.” The woman brightened. “Enjoy your meal.”

“Thanks.” Leigh swallowed hard and put one foot in front of the other. Despite her entire body doing the whole quivering-and-tingling thing, she was slowly transforming into that daring and determined woman she was on the first night she laid eyes on Jeremy King.

When she stepped out onto the deck and approached the bar, it was just sheer luck that the gentleman that was sitting next to Jeremy paid his tab and strolled off. For a few seconds, she lingered back and asked herself one last time if she truly wanted to do this.

Yes!

The answer came back so fast and forcefully that her lips curled up into a smile as she approached.

Please let him look at me the same way.

“Is anyone sitting here?”

Jeremy glanced to his side. “No.” And then over his shoulder, “It’s all yo…” He blinked.

“Thanks,” she said, ignoring his shock and making herself comfortable. “Bartender, I’ll just have some club soda. Thanks.”

Jeremy slowly pulled out of his shock. “What are you doing here?” His gaze raced up and down her body.

Leigh looked over at him and hoped that she wouldn’t be ensnared in his eyes. “Actually…” She leaned toward him and hoped that he would get what she was doing. “I’m here on a blind date.”

His brows leaped to his hairline. “Is that right?”

“I know. I know. They can turn into some real horror stories. But I have a good feeling about this one.”

Jeremy started to respond, paused and then turned his entire body toward her. Finally, that glowing warmth returned to his eyes and he looked at her the way a man does when he loves a woman. “You know, it’s kind of funny that you say you’re on a blind date.”

Leigh smiled. “Oh? Why?”

“I happen to be on a blind date myself.”

Her eyes lit up as she thrust out her hand. “You don’t say? Well, I’m Leigh Matthews, and you are…?”

Jeremy’s sexy lips exploded with a smile. “Well, Ms. Matthews, you happen to be looking at your date. The name is Jeremy King. I’m pleased to meet you…”