King's Promise. Adrianne Byrd

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.