King's Pleasure by Adrianne Byrd

may be hard for you, but just because I’m getting married it doesn’t mean that anything is going to change between us. We’re always going to be best buds.”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say that now, but wait until after the wedding vows. People always change after the ‘I do’s.”
    “You didn’t change.”
    Quentin frowned. “You can hardly call my six-month trip down that crazy rabbit hole a marriage. I was crazy—she was definitely crazy—and the whole thing lasted a hundred and seventy-nine days longer than it should have.”
    “Well it’s different when you do it for love instead of money.”
    Quentin set down his empty glass, leaned back and gave Xavier a small round of applause. “Wow. That must have set some type of record. What did that take—three minutes before you brought that little tidbit up again? Yes, I married to recoup my inheritance. Good thing too because that temporary lapse of judgment cost me the only woman I’ll probably ever love. But I seem to recall that my first investment with that blood money provided capital for a few ungrateful cousins sitting around this table.”
    Jeremy held up a hand. “I’m grateful.”
    “Well, apparently not this jackass,” he thundered at Xavier.
    “Whoa. Whoa,” Xavier said, getting testy himself. “Let’s take this down a notch before your mouth writes a check your ass can’t cash up in here.” He stared pointedly at Q. “Now, I know that you’re still working out whatever the hell you’re working out, but your issue is with Sterling —not us. And, frankly, I think it’s past time you handled that situation. Call him, write him or send him a damn smoke signal—but do something if we’re going to continue being boys.”
    Xavier turned his attention to his baby brother. “I know that this may be coming as a total surprise to you but—”
    “Not to me.” Quentin laughed as he signaled their waiter to bring him another whiskey sour. “I saw this coming the first time you cock-blocked me at Cheryl’s job interview.”
    “What?” Xavier twisted up his face. “I did no such thing.”
    “Oh, now you have amnesia?” Q challenged. “A’ight. Go ahead on. I remember what happened that day. What about you, Jeremy?”
    “Sorry, bro, but I’m gonna have to go with cuz on this one. There was an awful lot of cock-blocking going on.” He tossed up his hands. “Not that I blame you. I still have an image of Cheryl in those panted-on jeans emblazoned in my mind, as well.”
    “Hey, yo!” Xavier slammed his fist down on the white-linen table. “Cut it out. That’s my future wife you’re talking about. So get those painted-on jeans out of your heads.”
    Eamon cracked up. “Damn, bro. You’re going to pop a blood vessel. Maybe you need to calm down and take a deep breath.”
    Xavier tried, but the devout bachelors at the table had officially ruined the mood. “Look, I don’t ask much from either one of you, but I do know that I’ve been a faithful friend and brother. So it pisses me off that when I come here to share one of the most important decisions of my life, that I’ve found someone who truly makes me happy, you two selfish bastards can only think about how it affects you.”
    Jeremy and Quentin glanced at each other and then dropped their heads.
    “Technically,” Jeremy piped up, “I never said that I wasn’t happy for you. Look, man, if you love her and you’re happy, then hell yeah I’m happy for you. Of course, I’m not an asshole. You’re my brother, and I’ll always want what’s best for you.” He looked over at Eamon. “You too, for that matter.”
    Eamon and Xavier flashed him identical smiles. “Thanks, bro.”
    “Don’t mention it.” Jeremy reached for his beer. “Soooo I say that we officially need to make a toast to celebrate the occasion.”
    “Hear, hear,” Eamon and Xavier chimed and then tapped their bottlenecks together. The three Kings then turned their attention to their