Page 37 of King of Temptation

And while I’m playing Mason, I’m going to have to decide how to be at Temptation more the next few weeks while Kim is dancing. Because I don’t want her on stage when I’m not there.

Which means being at the other clubs less. She lets out a soft sigh in my arms as I graze her head with another kiss. I’ll get reports from the other club managers sent to Temptation and then I’ll rework my schedule to visit the less successful clubs on Kim’s days off. She’s on Temptation’s schedule on the busiest days anyway so it’s justifiable I’d want to be at the highest-earning club on the weekends.

She goes back to sleep, and I hold her for a few more minutes before I slip from the bed, almost hating to leave her. But a workout helps me stay focused, driven, and level-headed so I make my way down to the gym.

Luke and Roman are there already, both pumping iron.

I sit on the rower, wanting to work up a good sweat before I start lifting, and rowing is my favorite way to do cardio. It works every muscle in my body.

Jake walks in and my brows go up. I’ve never seen him at the gym before. I do notice that he’s got a stogie in his pocket, that he takes out and gives a sniff.

“He’s quitting,” Roman murmurs low as he walks by. “Cut him a wide path.”

Jake not smoking? I shake my head. “I bet its worse than giving up booze.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Jake answers, having overheard me. “You’ll have to pry the bourbon from my cold, dead hands.”

I smile and keep rowing, pretty content to mind my own business. But the guys have other plans.

They’re all working out, but I notice they keep glancing my way…

I can feel my temper flaring. I hate this tiptoe shit. It pisses me off. If they want to ask something, ask it.

“What?” I finally say as I stop the rower, standing. “What is it you want to say?”

“Chill, Leo, we’re just curious…” It’s Roman who sets down his barbell that he’s been lifting. “What’s going on with you and Kim?”

My mouth twitches with irritation as my chest puffs, ready for a fight. “What makes you think something is going on?”

“Oh please.” Luke drops his dumbbells, a loud thunk echoing through the room. “You’ve been in a shit mood for a month and now you’re all happy this morning? Smiling to yourself while you work out. You got laid. And considering you hired Kim like three days ago, it’s pretty easy math.”

“I did not get laid.” And that is the truth. But Luke’s words take some of the sting out of my temper. No one is accusing me of rattling Mason’s cage or ruining the business with my crazy schemes.

“So I wouldn’t find a naked woman in your bed?” Jake asks with a grin, lifting the smallest dumbbell on the rack. How does he look so fit drinking, smoking, and lifting baby weights?

But I’m back to being pissed. “Try to go in my apartment and find out what happens.” I pick up a much larger weight, lifting it with enough menace to let him know he’s been warned.

I’ve made some pretty big mistakes since my father’s death. I know that. I probably should have gone off and made them away from the family, processed my anger on my own. Then again, if I’d done that, I might be dead.

But just because I know I’ve fucked up, doesn’t mean these guys can tell me what to do.

“The gym might have been a bad choice for this conversation,” Roman says with a sigh before he lifts his hands. “But the truth is…”

“The truth is that Kim is an adult,” I say. “And so am I.”

“Who you are employing and who is the most important person in the world to Mason’s wife other than Mason.”

Both true. Not that I didn’t know this conversation was about Mason. I shake my head. I’ve got to stop losing my temper and do what Mason would actually do. He’d reason. He’d win them over with logic rather than try to beat them into submission. I’m working on it. “Fine. I concede both points. But…” I curl the weight, sinking deeper into this idea of winning the guys over. “I am letting her completely run the show.”

“You?” Roman asks.

“You?” Luke says at the same time.

“How?” Jake follows.

“She says we can’t actually sleep together while she works at the club. It’s her rule, not mine.”

The guys are all staring at me, so I continue. “And I wouldn’t have hired her at all, but she wants to go to New York in January, and she won’t take money from me or Mason. I had to hire her to help finance her move.”

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