King's Passion Read online

  Marcus Henderson sat in the chair center stage, looking like he’d died and gone to heaven. His ebony goddess backed up her beautiful, oiled, brown booty with a disappearing gold string down the middle up on him and then started bouncing her round cheeks until he was damn-near hypnotized.

  “WHOOOOOAAAA!” His friends whooped and hollered as they crowded around the stage and tossed bills of every denomination onto the stage.

  Marc’s mind spun like a pinwheel while money rained down on him and this goddess of the stripper pole like they were in their own little money globe.

  Delicious bent over at the waist, giving him a better view of just where her mysterious gold string disappeared to before effortlessly making both cheeks clap.

  The erotic applause made Marc tug at his collar. Even though the sucker was already open, it still felt as if it was choking him. Completely wiped clean from his mind were any thoughts of the woman he was going to marry tomorrow. In that moment, all that mattered was Delicious. She gave Marc an erection so hard that he swore he could feel his inseams popping.

  Marc turned his head, while his jaw elongated and his hands trembled with want.

  “Your boy is looking like Gollum up there,” Xavier chuckled.

  Jeremy turned with his fingers creeping toward Eamon’s face. “Precious. I must have the precious booty.”

  Eamon swatted Jeremy’s hands away from his face and then rolled his eyes. “Grow up.”

  That just succeeded in making Jeremy laugh. “Testy. Maybe we should arrange a private lap dance for you, as well. You need to relax.” He put his hands on Eamon’s shoulders and started rubbing. Since he didn’t know what he was doing, the shoulder rub hurt like hell.

  “Will you two just spit it out. What the hell do you want before this fool lands me on a chiropractor’s table?” He shrugged Jeremy’s hand off his shoulder, but then turned in time to catch his younger brothers sharing a look. “What?”

  Xavier sucked in a deep breath. “Maybe we should talk about this in the office?”

  Eamon frowned as a ball of anxiety picked up speed in his chest. “It’s that bad?”

  His brothers stood mute blinking at him.

  Cursing under his breath, Eamon cast a quick glance back at the stage. Delicious had Marc’s face planted in between her chests while she slapped both cheeks with her fresh-out-the-box silicon-filled breasts. When she finally pulled his head back again so that he could breathe, Marc looked like he was in love.

  “Another satisfied customer,” Eamon chuckled. But when he looked back up at his brothers that ball started rolling again. “C’mon. Let’s go to the office.”

  The three Kings exited the V.I.P room and entered the main floor of the club where it looked as if they had a full house. Prince’s old-school jam “Get Off” pumped through the mounted speakers while seven of his hottest women on seven different stages worked golden stripper poles while their customers rained money on them.

  As the Kings traveled down the glass staircase, a harem of belly-dancing strippers were coming up for the bachelor party’s next set. Eamon plastered on a smile as he glanced down at his watch. “Running late, ladies.”

  The women gave him meek apologetic smiles as they continued running up the stairs. At the bottom, Azizi, an African beauty with gorgeous coal-black skin, waited with a sly grin…and a goat.

  “Now that’s something you don’t see every day,” Xavier said with mild amusement.

  The brothers stood on the side of the staircase so that Azizi and the goat could climb up. Right behind her were a dozen dwarfish women, no more than three and a half feet tall, dressed in two-piece black cat costumes with furry ears.

  The look on Jeremy’s face was priceless. “What kind of freaks are you hosting tonight?”

  “The kind whose credit card is approved when I swipe it,” Eamon laughed while he threaded his way through the thick Saturday-night crowd. He could literally hear the ca-ching of the cash registers as he watched the army of bartenders, waitresses and dancers scurry about.

  The success of The Dollhouse defied the odds and baffled all their competitors—not only in Atlanta, but also in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. But the Kings believed, as their father had always taught them, that the fundamentals were what made success: vision, integrity, talent and communication. After that was location, location, location—marketing, marketing, marketing—and cash, cash, cash.

  That last part—the money—was particularly hard. When Xavier and Jeremy first approached Eamon about expanding their small adult nightclub and laid out an impressive business plan, he was skeptical. The normal movers and shakers who did what his brothers were suggesting usually came from old money. They argued about it for so long that he finally tossed up his hands and told his brothers that if they could find the money to finance their grand fantasy, then he would go along.

  He should have never underestimated Xavier and Jeremy. They could sell condoms to a nun if they set their minds to it. In this scenario, Eamon was the nun.

  Unfortunately, their new financier came straight from another branch of the family tree, the branch that Eamon didn’t particularly care for—the Hintons.

  Correction. He actually didn’t mind Jonas and Sterling so much. They were solid, hardworking men who didn’t put on airs or walk around like they were better than everyone else. However, his Uncle Roger and his cousin Quentin were his least favorite and for different reasons.

  Uncle Roger, billionaire extraordinaire, tended to walk around, thinking that everyone had a price tag on them. There was no deal too dirty and no trickery or underhanded tactic that was beneath him. In fact, the only time that Eamon had ever felt a little sorry for his cousin Quentin was when his uncle bribed him into marrying some business associate’s daughter so he could better position himself on the company’s board. It was no shock that Quentin took the money. After all he’d been cut off financially by his father in a feeble attempt to force him to grow up and support himself. But Q was accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and he was immune to the whole notion of actually working. So after about a year of roaming from one sugar momma to the next, he jumped at his father’s offer.

  It came as no surprise that the marriage didn’t last, but Q reclaimed his inheritance. So when Xavier approached him with his business proposal, a deal was struck. The Kings and one Hinton became business partners provided that Quentin Hinton remained a silent partner.

  “Hello, Eamon,” a feminine voice floated in between the music.

  He stopped and looked down just as a woman’s slim hand slid up his broad chest. When he shifted his gaze to the hand’s owner, he was pleasantly surprised to see Charelle. His lips stretched wider at the short, red number she had on. It showed off her long, lean and toned physique to perfection. “Hello, Charelle.”

  “Ah. So you do remember me?” She moved closer and pressed her small curves against him. “You know, six months is a long time not to hear from someone.”

  He laughed while his gaze dragged down her body. “If I remember correctly, you were the one who left town.”

  Charelle’s cherry-red lips curled higher. “Silly man, you were supposed to chase after me.” Her hands and arms looped around his neck. “Don’t you know when a woman is playing hard to get?”

  Behind him, Xavier and Jeremy chuckled. “Actually, I do,” Eamon said, reaching behind his neck and, gently but firmly, pulling her arms down. “And like I told you before, I don’t like playing games.”

  Charelle moaned and pushed out her bottom lip. “Then don’t think of it as a game. Think of it like a dance.”

  “Oh. A dance, huh?” He playfully rolled his eyes.

  “What?” She pushed on one of his bulging biceps and flashed her pearly whites up at him. “You’re a man who owns a strip club. Don’t tell me you that you don’t like dancing.”

  Xavier cut in. “Actually, it’s a gentlemen’s club.”

  Charelle’s gaze shifted to the brothers. “Sorry. I didn’t know that I wa
s interrupting a family reunion. Hello, boys.”

  They quickly said their hellos.

  “Then you won’t mind excusing us.” He started to move away.

  “So we’ll finish this dance later?” she asked, rocking her hips to entice him with what could be waiting for him when he was through.

  It wasn’t enough. “No. I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head and stepping away. “When I dance, I like to lead.”

  Charelle’s face fell while Xavier and Jeremy sucked in a quick breath as if Eamon had delivered a body blow. He should have known better than to do this in front of them. They had a tendency to be juvenile.

  “You’re welcome to stay. Just tell the bartender I said that the drinks are on the house tonight.” He stepped around her and then threaded through the crowd when she grabbed him by his trim waist.

  “Is that it?”

  “Did you need anything else?” he asked benignly.

  “Hey, Eamon.” A woman walked behind him and gave his firm butt a good squeeze.

  He turned his head in time to see Hayley, one of his waitresses, sashay away. “Hey, I require dinner and a few drinks before I allow a woman to have her way with me.” He laughed.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Hayley teased and continued to navigate her way through the crowd with her tray of drinks.

  Laughing, Eamon turned back toward Charelle whose face was twisted in annoyance.

  “Well, no wonder you’ve been M.I.A., you’ve already moved on to the next trick.”

  Unfazed and, quite frankly, bored by Charelle’s penchant for drama, Eamon folded his arms. “You do realize that you just called yourself a trick, right?”

  “No. I’m calling you a flea-infested, roaming dog.”

  “Then you were smart to leave me when you did,” he agreed. No matter what she said, he was not going to indulge her by fighting. What was the point? Hayley meant nothing to him. It was harmless flirtation between good friends and not out of the ordinary for colleagues who worked in their type of establishment. “It was good seeing you again, Charelle.”

  Making a clean break this time, Eamon finally maneuvered the rest of the way through the club to his private sanctuary: the office. “Shut the door behind you,” he instructed and then opted for the leather couch instead of the executive chair behind his desk.

  “Yes, boss. Right away, boss,” Jeremy joked before closing the door behind him. In doing so, he lowered the volume at least fifty percent from the loud music bumping in the club.

  “All right,” Eamon said, stretching back on the couch and kicking up his feet. “Lay it on me. What’s so important that it takes both of you to fly in to talk to me?”

  His younger brothers looked at each other again as if waging a silent battle as to which one of them should drop the bomb.

  “You guys are really trying my patience,” he warned. “Spill it.”

  Xavier sucked in a deep breath. “It’s Quentin.”

  Dropping his head back, Eamon groaned. “I should’ve known. What has he done now—tear up the Atlanta club again?” he asked, referring to a drunken brawl Q had gotten into about six months back.

  “No. It’s nothing like that,” Xavier rushed.

  “But?” Eamon asked. “Why do I hear a ‘but’ coming?”

  “But…he’s driving me—”

  “Us,” Jeremy corrected and then nodded for Xavier to finish.

  “Yes. He’s driving us crazy. We thought—”

  “Actually it was Xavier’s idea,” Jeremy cut in again and then rolled his hand at Xavier. “Go ahead. Tell him your idea.”

  Xavier looked like he was two seconds from going for Jeremy’s jugular.

  “Anyway,” Xavier said, cutting his eyes back to Eamon. “We were thinking that he could come out here and work with you for a little while. This is our biggest club. Surely there’s plenty for him to do around here.”

  Eamon was already springing back up from the couch before Xavier could finish his sentence. “No. No. And, oh hell no!”

  Jeremy slapped his hand against his forehead. “C’mon, Eamon. It’s your turn. He’s already spent time at our clubs, drinking and chasing women. It’s like having a kid around that we have to babysit twenty-four hours a day.”

  “So when you say put him to work you meant that in the loosest terms possible, right?”

  Xavier sighed. He and Quentin were actually best friends though Eamon never understood why. They couldn’t be more opposite than the North and South Poles.

  “I don’t understand,” Eamon said. “Why do we have to do anything? Quentin is a silent partner. Kick him to the curb and tell him to take a trip or something?”

  Xavier raked his fingers across his finely shaved head. “Well…let’s just say that he’s going through a little emotional crisis at the moment.”

  Eamon frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “He has a broken heart,” Jeremy answered. “And it’s bad.”

  “Real bad,” Xavier agreed, nodding. “Sterling married the woman Q thinks he was in love with.”

  “Quentin is always in love,” Eamon dismissed. “Give him a couple of weeks and he’ll be fine.”

  “It’s been six months,” Xavier said.

  “It’s getting worse not better,” Jeremy added.

  “And what am I supposed to do? Babysit? Does it looks like I have time to babysit a cousin I don’t even like?”

  “You mean the same cousin that has made us all rich?” Xavier asked.

  Here comes the guilt. “No.”

  “Just for a little while,” Xavier continued. “He’s excommunicated himself from his family.”

  “No.”

  “He’s a broken man. We’re all he has,” Jeremy added. “Just keep him for a couple of months and then you can send him back to…Xavier in Atlanta.”

  “Me?” Xavier turned. “What about you? You’re his cousin, too.”

  “I just had him.”

  Eamon and Xavier stared at Jeremy.

  “Fine.” He tossed his hands. “He stays out here with Eamon first, then Xavier and then me. We’ll just keep him in rotation until he gets back onto his feet again.” Jeremy glanced around. “Deal?”

  Xavier smiled. “Deal.”

  They looked toward Eamon.

  “I don’t believe this.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead, trying to get ahead of the stress headache that was coming his way.

  “Is that a yes?” Xavier asked.

  “All right. All right. I’ll do it.”

  Xavier clapped his hands. “Great! He’s staying at the Bellagio.”

  “What?”

  “C’mon, Jeremy. Let’s hit the road before we miss our flights.”

  Before Eamon could get another word out, his brothers damn near disappeared like a couple of ghosts. One thing was clear. He’d been set up…again.

  Chapter 2

  In the penthouse suite in the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Victoria Gregory stood looking as regal as a queen in her Versace French-vanilla-and-gold empire wedding gown. The sweetheart neckline, gold Cinderella tiara and Harry Winston diamonds dripping from her ears, neck and wrist were the result of hours of deliberation by a committee of family and friends. The wedding planner, location, caterer, florist, musicians and guest list had all been handled with Victoria’s usual meticulous eye for detail. Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, the sky was a crisp blue without a single cloud in sight.

  “A perfect day for a wedding,” she finally said wistfully, taking in the scenery one last time. After that, she drew in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and then whipped around toward her five bridesmaids. “Are you absolutely positive that they missed their flights? Maybe the limousine driver was late and missed them? They probably took a cab or something.”

  Her twin cousins, Grace and Iris, cut a strange look toward each other that instantly piqued Victoria’s hackles a few more inches.

  “What is it?” she asked, her voice lowering to a lethal level. If Victori
a was known for anything, it most certainly was for her quick temper. It was something that she had inherited from her father and she made no apologies for it. “Tell me,” she snapped with a stomp of her foot.

  Lolita, another cousin of hers on her mother’s side of the family, cleared her throat since it was obvious that the twins were too afraid to speak. “We called Cole’s cell phone a few minutes ago.”

  Victoria didn’t like the smirk that crept across Lolita’s face. “And?”

  “And…after threatening him within an inch of his life, he gave us some slurred statement about how he didn’t think that Marcus was going to make it.” Lolita’s smirk continued curling up until it reached the corners of her mouth. “Sorry.”

  Victoria’s hands balled at her sides while the room around her started turning a vibrant shade of red. “What do you mean he’s not going to make it?” she hissed. “I have over three hundred guests waiting downstairs.”

  In sync, Grace and Iris stepped back while Lolita’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

  This wasn’t the first time Victoria regretted asking her cousin-slash-arch nemesis to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, but after her mother pleaded and begged, she gave in. Since then, the heifer had been like a steel thorn in her butt. She bitched and complained and seriously thought that she had a vote on every aspect of the wedding. Every time Victoria came close to catching a case, her mother would step in and reel her back down to earth.

  Still smiling, Lolita shrugged her shoulders. “I could go down there and tell everyone that Marcus has just dumped you.”

  The twins gasped.

  “I’m sure that they’ll understand,” Lolita added. “Lord knows I do.”

  Before the bitch could bat her faux mink eyelashes, Victoria launched and snatched the girl’s lace-front wig clean off her head, exposing her thin edges and mini afro-puff of hair underneath.