King's Passion (20 page)

Iris cocked her head while she continued to smile with big moon eyes. “Aww. That sounds so romantic. Is that what he told you?”

Victoria shrugged. “Well, not in so many words.” She lowered her head.

The twins looked at each other.

“C'mon. Don't do that. He loves me.”

“But he
hasn't
said the words?”

“He doesn't have to.”

The twins picked up their forks simultaneously and started picking over their meal.

Victoria watched them, wanting to continue to argue her point. But for the first time, doubt pricked her armor of confidence. So she shut up and ate her lunch.

By the time Victoria and the twins parted ways and she was headed out to her parents' estate, her mind churned with questions. She had only been in the city for a couple of hours and she could already feel herself reverting to her old ways. Outside the window of the cab, she watched the world's largest melting pot flit around like they were late in responding to a three-alarm fire. She might have missed a lot of things about New York, but its hectic pace wasn't one of them.

She missed Las Vegas's easy and laid-back atmosphere and she missed Eamon.

“Oh, there you are,” her mother, Ceyla, sang, opening her arms. She quickly pulled her daughter in for a tight hug and then rained kisses across the side of her face. “I can't tell you how much we've missed you. Your father is going to be so happy to see you.” She closed the door behind her. “I think if you stayed away another day your father and I were going to be on the next thing smoking to Las Vegas.”

Victoria laughed as she peeled out of her jacket.

“I'm not joking. Your father had mapped out an entire plan as to how to kidnap you.”

“Yes. I sensed that talking to him over the phone yesterday.”

Her mother pulled back and stared at her. “Oh, my. I hate to say it, but Las Vegas agrees with you.”

“I keep hearing that.

“Well, you look different.” Ceyla captured Victoria's face in her hands so that she could study her. “There's a certain glow about you. It couldn't be that you're in love, could it?”

Victoria blushed all over again, but this time she decided to be more cautious in bragging about the virtues of love and happiness, especially now that she had a few more questions. “Maybe it's because I'm getting a bit more sun.”

“Is that what you young people are calling it these days?” Her mother winked. “I don't know who this Eamon King is, but he already has my vote if he's making you this happy.”

Victoria hadn't realized how much she needed to hear that until the words flowed out of her mother's mouth. It instantly cleared up a lot of the damage her doubting had caused. “Thanks, Mom.” She delivered a quick peck on her cheek.

“Is that who I think it is?” Mondell Gregory thundered, strolling out of his study. “Well, I'll be damned. That woman right there looks like my little girl.” He stopped and cocked his head. “Yeah. I believe that's her, but it's been so long I'm not sure.”

“Hello, Daddy.”

“Come here, little girl.” He threw open his arms and gave her an old-fashioned bear hug. “Oh, sweetheart. Don't you ever stay away that long again.”

“I won't.”

“That better be a promise.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head and then released her. “So. Where is this Eamon King? I have a bone to pick with him for keeping my daughter away for so long.”

Victoria frowned. “Uh. There must be some misunderstanding. Eamon didn't come with me.”

Mondell's brows dipped. “And why the hell not? Is he afraid to meet me like a man or something?”

“Actually, I didn't think to invite him,” she admitted.

“Then maybe you're the one who doesn't want me to meet this gentleman.”

“Is that true, Victoria?” her mother asked.

“No. I just didn't think that you guys wanted to meet him.” Well, it wasn't
exactly
true. It was more like she didn't want to scare Eamon by suggesting that she'd like for him to meet her parents. That sort of thing tended to freak men out, especially since they technically hadn't established that they were an item.

Her parents exchanged looks much like the way the twins did during their telepathic messaging thing.

Mondell slid his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Now, that doesn't make a lick of sense, baby girl. Why wouldn't we want to meet the man that you've been shacking up with for the last six months?”

Victoria tried to smooth things over by smiling wider and leaning against his side. “Dad. This isn't the sixties. They don't call it shacking up anymore.”

“I don't care if it's the year three-thousand. You know how I feel about all that sexual liberation talk.”

“Now, Mondell. Remember your blood pressure.”

“I'm fine. I took my medicine this morning,” he said to Ceyla. “I'm trying to make a point here. A man and a woman should not live together without getting married. Excuse me if I'm old-fashioned. But what is the incentive for a man to buy a ring when he's getting all the benefits without it?”

Victoria sucked in a deep breath. This looked like it was going to be a long afternoon.

“I guess it's too much to ask whether you two are sleeping in separate rooms?”

Her mother gasped. “Mondell!”

“What?”

“I'm not about to let you stand there and interrogate her about her love life.”

“She shouldn't be doing anything that she can't talk about. She keeps reminding me that she's grown.”

“Daddy, can I at least come in and sit down before you give me the third degree?”

Despite him looking like he wanted to argue his point some more, her father stepped back with his lips pressed together.

“Don't pay your father any attention. We lived together a year before we were married.”

“Ceyla!”

“What? It's true.” She wrapped her arms around Victoria's waist and led her out toward the back patio.

“You're supposed to have my back. I'm trying to make a point here.”

Victoria and her mother snickered as they walked away arm in arm. They convened out on the patio. Her parents' butler, Aaron, smiled and welcomed her back home before serving them tall glasses of lemonade.

However, it just took ten minutes before her father was ready to dive back in. “So when will we get a chance to meet this young man? Mind you that my patience is wearing thin.”

Ceyla opened her mouth, but her father cut her off.

“And don't tell me that I'm being unreasonable. You've been pacing around here, wondering the same thing yourself.”

Her mother snapped her mouth shut and then looked over at Victoria guiltily.

With her one remaining wall of defense crumbling, Victoria had to come up with some real answers. “You'll meet him, Dad. I promise.”

“When?” he pressed.

“Soon” was all she could come up with. “You'll meet him when the time is right…and we're comfortable and clear where we stand with each other.”

Mondell frowned while her mother reached for her hand again.

“Is everything all right?”

“Everything's fine. We're still just in the getting-to-know-you stage. Meeting the parents comes later when we know exactly where we're headed. That's all.”

Her father shook and grumbled under his breath. “Well, I was going to tell you this later, but I might as well go ahead and put it out there.”

“Mondell—” Ceyla warned and shook her head.

“It's all right,” he said, ignoring her warning.

Victoria frowned at the awkward pivot in conversation.

“You'll never guess who I ran into the other day,” he said with a sudden false cheerfulness in his voice.

Since it could be a million different people, Victoria shrugged.

“Marcus,” he boasted, thrusting out his chest.

At first the name didn't render a reaction. She couldn't imagine her father bringing up
that
Marcus.

“Marcus who?”

He eased on a wobbly smile. “Don't tell me that you forgot him already? Marcus Henderson.”

Did I just step into the
Twilight Zone? “And exactly why should I care that you ran into him?”

Mondell drew in a deep breath and leaned closer to her to take her other hand.
Is this an intervention?

Her father met her steady gaze. “I know that you still may be hurt…and even angry with Marcus. You know that I was, too, for a long time. But, you know, time can heal a lot, and I sat down and heard his side of the story. Did you know that he had his marriage annulled, like, days after that whole fiasco happened?”

“Good for him.”

“Well…I think that you know by now how things can get a little crazy in a place like Las Vegas. I mean with you living there and all. And when you're in that small bubble, things have a tendency to get out of hand. You do things that you don't normally do.”

Victoria eased her hand back. She didn't like where this was going. “Dad—”

“Wait. Hear me out. I was just as angry as you were for what happened. I felt that I was as much to blame for what happened.”

“Don't be ridiculous, Dad. I told you—”

“I don't like it when my little girl is hurt. And I wanted to do all I could to make it right. I wanted to find his scrawny butt and wring his neck with my bare hands.
But
—like I said, I heard him out and—”

“Daddy—”

“Please, please. Let me finish.” He took another breath. “He just had too much to drink. Somebody probably slipped something in his drink at that club.”

Victoria's back stiffened. She suddenly knew what this was about. Her father didn't just suddenly forgive Marcus. He just thought that he was a better choice than Eamon.

“Maybe if you could just talk to him?”

“No,” she said firmly.

“He still wants to marry you.”

“You're not listening to me,” she pressed. “I don't care if he's sorry. And I certainly don't like the implication that
Eamon is running some shady enterprise to make bachelors run off and marry his employees. That's insulting, and I can't believe that you actually believe that yourself.”

“How do I know what to believe? It's not like I've ever met the man myself. I can't vouch for someone's character by proxy. Marcus is a good man. He screwed up, but he's still a good man with a lot of potential. We both did the research and spreadsheet. It's all in black and white.”

Victoria slammed her eyes close and counted to ten. Hearing that
rational
logic being echoed back to her made her really see how ridiculous she had been. After taking several deep breaths, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Dad, I love you. You are the best father that a girl could ask for. But I don't want Marcus. I don't
love
him. I never did. Had we gotten married, I would've been miserable. Do you understand?”

Tears glossed Mondell's eyes.

“Can you explain your love for Mom on a spreadsheet?”

His eyes crept over to Ceyla. Tears streaked down his face as he shook his head. “
That
is what I feel for Eamon. He's a good man. Someone that I never really thought existed out here. But he does and he makes me feel so alive and so loved. I don't care if he never says the words or ever puts a ring on my finger. I just know that I want to be with him…always.”

Ceyla cupped her face in her hands as her tears freely flowed down her face. “Oh, that's so beautiful.”

Mondell reached for his daughter's hand again and squeezed it affectionately. “I understand. And in my biased opinion, he would be a fool to ever let you go.”

He opened his arms and she slid easily into his embrace for an old-fashioned bear hug. “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too. And I really hope that Eamon King knows what he has.”

That makes two of us.

“W
elcome to The Dollhouse, Las Vegas,” Eamon King shouted, raising his glass to the raucous bachelor party as they entered the V.I.P. section of his exclusive Las Vegas club. Trey Songz's silky smooth baritone floated over the crowd while thirty excited men whooped and hollered over the loud pulsing music like children after inhaling a bag of Halloween candy. It was the usual bachelor-party crowd of married men seizing a night to revert to behaving like drunken college kids.

After Eamon's greeting, the men let up a loud whoop and held their drinks high in the air.

“Let's get this party started!” someone shouted.

“Don't worry, that is exactly what we're about to do. And trust me, you're all going to leave with smiles on your faces,” Eamon promised.

That answer received another shout and a few fist pumps in the air.

“First, I need to know, where's the lucky groom?” Eamon asked.

“Here he is!” the men hollered and proceeded to push a young brother, who, in Eamon's opinion, looked like he was just barely of legal age to be in the club. But there was a cockiness about him as he approached Eamon with his hands held up in the victory sign.

“All right, Mr. Boykin,” he boasted. “I want to personally guarantee you as one of the owners of this establishment that tonight will definitely be one that you will
never
forget!”

“Whooooo!”

Eamon had to stick his finger in his ear and jiggle it to regain his hearing. He hadn't expected such a loud voice to come from such a small body. After that he finished his usual spiel of introducing the V.I.P. hostesses and then the dancers. He tried to muster as much enthusiasm as he could. But the truth of the matter was that his heart just wasn't really in it.

He missed Victoria. Granted, she was only going to be gone for a weekend. And so far it had only been twenty-four hours, but he couldn't stop feeling as if there was just something missing. Not to mention every five minutes, he was looking at his cell phone to check to see whether she had called. The only call he received was one letting him know that she had arrived safely.

Despite the sound being crystal clear, he felt every mile that separated them. When Victoria had first mentioned that she needed to go back to New York to see her family, he was fine with it until he realized that she hadn't extended the invitation to him to come with her. He waited a day or two and by that time he felt awkward, too awkward, to hint that he'd like to come and meet her parents. They were in this awkward place where neither of them was truly ready
to admit that they were a couple or that they were still in just a “wait-and-see” phase.

For the first couple of months that they lived together, Eamon had chalked his role up to being the rebound guy. Just something for her to pass the time with until Victoria was ready to really jump back into the dating arena. But then there was the night he'd gotten her to admit that she loved
this big jerk.
That sort of spooked him a little bit. It wasn't that he didn't feel the same way. It was that in that moment, it confirmed that what he was feeling was really real. No more speculation. This was the real thing. So why was he so scared?

Because what if it's snatched away again?

Eamon's heart tightened in his chest so painfully that he almost missed a step coming off the stage as Delicious made her grand entrance. Of course, he played it off and eased his way through the V.I.P. crowd while they cheered on their good buddy as his best dancer put them all in a trance. As he neared the exit of the V.I.P. room, he caught sight of his brother Xavier propped up against the wall.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to check to see how you were doing. What do you think?” he said, pushing away from the wall. “I haven't received any more threatening phone calls so I hopped on a plane to make sure that you hadn't killed our charming cousin. You're too good-looking to end up in jail.”

Eamon rolled his eyes. “Yeah. I should sock you in the mouth on general principle, but I might break my hand on that brick you call a head.”

Xavier held up his fist and pretended to bob and weave. “You're more than welcome to try, but I still got a few good moves left in me.”

“Whatever, man.” Eamon waved him off and then took another glance around the loud room.

On the stage, Delicious was twirling the tassels on her nipples while a few brothers stuffed dollar bills wherever they could in her skimpy outfit. Before he knew it he was heaving out a sigh. He really missed Victoria.

“Sooo,” Xavier said, drawing his attention. “What's up with you, big bro? How are things going?”

Eamon managed a shrug while he reached into his pocket and scooped out his cell phone.
No calls.
What was she doing? Why hadn't she called back? Eamon couldn't ignore this underlying fear that once Victoria was home, she'd start to miss her old life. After all, her family and friends were there, her job and her own apartment. Who's to say that she wouldn't walk in the door and decide to stay in New York? The only thing that was tying her to Vegas was him. Was he enough?

“Yo, man,” Xavier said, snapping his fingers in front of his face. “Am I boring you or something?”

“Nah. Nah. It's just I was seeing if anyone called.” He put the phone back into his pocket and sighed again.

“Ah…because you look really preoccupied.”

“Nah. Nah. I just got a lot on my mind right now.” He breathed out a heavy sigh. “You know how it is.”

“A lot of work and everything?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Eamon scooped up the phone again and looked at it.
Is this damn thing even working?

“It's funny that you mention work,” Xavier said. “I called here a few times looking for you and you have hardly been here.”

“I was probably at the restaurant or something.” Eamon turned and headed down the club's stairway and then onto the main floor. One glance and he knew that it was at nearly full capacity.

“We're running low on Grey Goose,” Hayley informed him as she threaded her way through the crowd.

“What? We should've just gotten a few new cases.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “You have been a little preoccupied lately.” She cocked her head. But then she noticed Eamon's brother. “Oh, Xavier! I didn't see you come in.”

Xavier smiled. “Hey, Hayley. How have you been?”

“Same old, same old. Which one of you do I need to hit up for a raise?”

Eamon and Xavier pointed at each other.

“Whatever,” Hayley laughed. “Eamon, could you double-check on whether you made that order? It might be time to look into getting a new distributor. Those guys are always forgetting something.”

“That will make the fifth distributor this month.” He huffed out a frustrated breath. “I'm on it,” Eamon said, sliding the phone out of his pocket again to check his screen.

“It's good seeing you again, Xavier.” She smiled and winked. “If I wasn't married, I'd swear the three of us would make a good T-Bone sandwich.”

Xavier was not the one to tease. “What does your man have to do with me?”

Hayley laughed and sauntered off with her tray.

“I wasn't joking,” Xavier called after her, but then turned back around, laughing. “She's a mess. Whoa!” He stopped suddenly. “Is that Q?” Xavier asked, pointing across the club to the third station bar.

“Yep.” Eamon's smile stretched.

“He's actually working? How in the hell did you manage that?” he asked, stunned.

“It wasn't me. It seems like he just naturally found his calling in life,” Eamon laughed.

“You're telling me. Look at him go.” Xavier started toward their cousin's station.

Quentin, smiling and laughing with the crowd, was putting on quite a show. “What's your pleasure? What's your pleasure?” he asked, picking up a bottle and spinning it around his hand before pouring the liquor into the glass and topping it with another spinning bottle of mixer.

Xavier stopped just before the bar and stared openmouthed. “I feel like I'm seeing a miracle or something.”

Quentin continued to juggle, toss and spin the bottles around—all without wasting a drop of liquor anywhere. He drew a big crowd with all the patrons shouting different drinks, trying to stump him. But so far there wasn't a drink that Quentin didn't know how to make. The waitresses loved Quentin. His performances made for a dramatic hike in tips, and the tip jar he had was turned over to the girls to split among themselves.

“I'm speechless,” Xavier said.

“I was, too, the first time I saw it. Goes to show you, everyone has some kind of talent.”

“I gotta get him back out to Atlanta.”

“Oh.
Now
you want to take him.”

“Well, I didn't know that he would actually be useful.” Xavier laughed.

“And what if I say that you can't have him?”

“Then I'll just have to play the best-friend card. He's coming back to Atlanta.”

“That is so wrong in so many ways.” Eamon shook his head and pulled out his phone again.

“Man, who on earth are you waiting to hear from, the President of the United States?”

“Huh?” Eamon glanced up.

Xavier crossed his arms and stared at him. “What's really going on with you, bro? You're definitely not acting like yourself.”

“Uh, nothing. Nothing. Like I said, I just got a lot on my mind.”

“Like a certain woman that you have stashed at your crib for the past six months that you haven't told me or Jeremy about?”

Eamon started to give another flimsy excuse when Xavier stopped him with a look.

“C'mon, man. It's me. Tell me what's really up with you.”

Eamon's large shoulders deflated a bit. “All right. Let's go into the office.”

“I'm right behind you,” Xavier said, pushing ahead so that he could go first.

A few minutes later, the brothers entered Eamon's office and collapsed into the appropriate chairs.

“All right. I'm all ears,” Xavier said. “Lay it on me. Who's the woman that's got you looking at the phone every five minutes?”

“Her name is Victoria Gregory.”

“Local chick?”

“Nah. She's out of New York. She's an investment analyst, very smart…very beautiful.” He smiled. “But she's a lousy,
lousy
cook.”

Xavier's brows hitched up. “Damn. She must really have got you twisted. I haven't seen you smile like that since…”

Eamon nodded. “Yeah. Since Karen.”

A silence drifted over them for a moment before Xavier said, “Then I'm happy for you, big bro. Truly. And if you don't mind me saying so, it's about time.”

“What do you mean ‘about time'? I'm a year older than you and you have never been in a serious relationship.”

“True. But I'm not wired that way. I've always enjoyed the single life—me and Jeremy. You, on the other hand, are
like Pops. I've known that since Karen passed away. You've been trying to be something that you're not—all because you're trying your best not to get hurt again. Remember, I was there. I know how much it crushed you to lose her and I saw how you changed. You've always been driven, but…after that situation it was like you just doubled down on the workload.”

“Expanding the club was your idea.”

“But then you opened a restaurant. Trying to just run one big business would work the average person into the ground. I didn't expect you to run around here like you were Superman.”

“Well, you'd be pleased to know I've cut back my hours considerably.”

“Because of this Victoria?”

Eamon nodded.

“Then I already love her. In fact, I can't wait to meet her.”

“Well, right now she's back in New York, visiting family.” He pulled the phone out again. “She left yesterday.”

Xavier laughed. “Ah. So
that's
why you're checking your phone like a teenage girl? Ha! Classic.”

Eamon just listened.

“Between you and me, I've been counting the days until you stepped up to me and Jeremy telling us that you want us to buy you out or something.”

Eamon's eyes widened in surprise. His brother had hit the nail on the head.

“Now, the restaurant—that's you. And even your music, especially your music. You're a one man, one woman kind of brother. You should be married to a nice woman producing me some nieces and nephews somewhere. And if some of the things that I've been hearing about and
seeing for myself—” he gestured toward the phone “—is true, then it looks like you've already found her.”

Eamon stared down at the phone. His brother made it sound so easy.

Xavier leaned forward and whispered, “Here's an idea. Why don't
you
call her?”

“She's probably busy.”

Xavier cocked his head. “You're scared.”

“Man.” Eamon cocked an awkward smile and shook his head. But that act wasn't fooling anyone.

Xavier stood up. His large frame monopolized half of the office. “I'm going to leave you with this: Quentin waited too long to make his move and another brother stepped in. You don't want to make that same mistake. It looks like you've been given a second chance with love. Take my advice and don't screw it up.”