by Tina Folsom
“About Rochelle…”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” He put some milk into the cup and stirred it, before turning to Xavier.
“She’s got feelings for you.”
“If that were really the case,” he grunted under his breath so none of the others could hear him, “then why hasn’t she contacted me?”
Xavier lifted one side of his mouth. “Because she’s probably just as stubborn as you.”
“I’m not stubborn.”
“Oh, well, I guess I must be wrong then. My mistake.”
Xavier’s casual tone riled him up.
“What the fuck do you know? This thing between me and Rochelle was complicated from the get-go. And now it’s over.”
“Is it?”
“What are you trying to say?”
With his head, Xavier motioned in the direction of his friends sitting in the uncomfortable chairs. “Wade just told me that you had him find Rochelle’s brother.”
“So?” He didn’t have to justify his actions.
“Apparently you also had some business with a loan shark, though Wade didn’t know what it was about.”
He pressed his jaw together tightly, annoyed now. “Wade talks too much. Can’t anybody here keep secrets anymore?”
“Apparently not. Anyway, I was just wondering why you’re doing all this for her brother, but you don’t have the guts to tell her how you feel about her.”
“One thing has got nothing to do with the other.” Besides, he hated it when people nosed around in his private life.
He turned away and sat down. But if he’d thought to shake Xavier off like that, he was wrong.
His friend sat down next to him. “Did you know she quit her job?”
Zach whirled to him. “What?”
“I called her office and—”
“You called her? What the fuck did you want from her?” Had Xavier wanted to ask her out on a date?
“Just wanted to see how she was doing. Anyway, her colleague told me she doesn’t work there anymore. Apparently, she quit the day your investigation closed.”
“Are you sure she quit?” Because that didn’t make any sense. Rochelle needed her job. “Or did her boss fire her?” That was much more likely. Had her boss found out about his and Rochelle’s relationship after all, and fired her despite her success in bringing in Emily Grover?
“You mean, because you and she were involved?” Xavier shrugged. “Possible, but I couldn’t really ask her colleague anything else. Even my charm only goes so far.”
“Damn it!” Was he responsible for Rochelle losing her job? He had to fix this. “I have to leave.” He placed the coffee cup on the little table next to him and rose, but didn’t get far.
Holly came running into the waiting room. “It’s here. The baby is here!” She pointed to the hallway behind her. “Come on, guys.”
Everybody rose and followed her through the double doors. Zach went with them. At the next corner, everybody stopped in front of a large window. Behind it, Daniel stood, dressed in scrubs, holding a newborn in his arms. He grinned from one ear to the other. The proud father.
The members of the Eternal Bachelors Club suddenly turned into tame lambs, tapping at the windowpane and cooing at the new life in their friend’s arms.
“What is it, a girl or a boy?” Wade asked.
“A boy,” Holly replied. “I so wanted a girl that I could spoil rotten.”
Paul laughed. “Well, don’t let Daniel hear that.” He caressed his wife’s big belly tenderly. “Maybe you and I will have the girl that you wish for.”
Holly rested her head on Paul’s shoulder, and he drew her against him.
Zach sensed his heart tighten. Daniel and Paul had both found the right women to be happy with. Could he, too, hope for such happiness, or had he already screwed everything up beyond repair?
Did he still have a chance to fix what had gone wrong with Rochelle? Oh God, he sincerely hoped so, because now, as he watched Daniel behind the window, holding his son in his arms, after overcoming so many obstacles in his relationship with Sabrina, he suddenly realized that whatever he had to do, it would be worth it.
He waved goodbye to Daniel and turned.
“Where’re you off to?” Xavier asked.
Zach looked over his shoulder. “To go get what I want.”
His friend smiled contentedly. “About time.”
27
All Rochelle had wanted to do was get milk from the small corner store before it closed at nine p.m. Of course, they’d run out of it.
She hadn’t counted on the sky opening up within ten minutes of her leaving the house without an umbrella and pelting her with rain. Not just ordinary rain. It was like a tropical downpour that now turned the narrow streets of the East Village into canals.
She wore only a thin summer dress, because it had been unbearably humid in the afternoon. And her sandals provided no protection against the water either. She felt as if she was standing in her shower, fully dressed.
“Crap!” she cursed and ran along the sidewalk, passing other pedestrians who weren’t faring any better. Only a few people had umbrellas with them.
She felt her clothes clinging to her like a second skin. She was soaked to her underwear, which everybody could probably see, unless they were as eager to get out of the rain as she and took no notice of anybody.
She reached the entrance to her apartment building and pulled on the door. But tonight of all nights, it was locked. Typical! She searched for her keys when she heard somebody call her name.
She whirled around and froze.
“Rochelle!” Zach crossed the street and headed straight for her.
In his faded jeans and light-blue polo shirt he looked younger—and even more attractive.
“Zach.” She could barely say his name. She swallowed and tried to appear normal. “What are you doing here?”
He grabbed her shoulders. “Did he fire you?”
She didn’t immediately understand his question.
“Your boss, did he fire you because he found out about you and me?” Zach repeated and looked at her with an impenetrable gaze.
She shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He knows nothing of us.”
“Then why don’t you work for the SEC anymore? What happened?”
She tried to shake off his hands, but he didn’t allow it. “Nothing happened. I quit.”
His jaw seemed to tighten. “Damn it, why? You need this job. You told me so yourself.”
The rain continued to pound down on them, but she ignored it. “I couldn’t work there any longer. That’s all.” She stepped back, and his hands fell off her shoulders. Relieved, she exhaled.
“No, that’s not everything.”
Zach’s harsh tone sent a shudder through her.
“What really happened? Please, Rochelle, tell me what’s going on, because I have the feeling this is my fault.” With his fingers he lifted her chin, so she had to look into his eyes. “Please, tell me the truth.” His voice was softer now, but not any less insistent.
A sigh tore from her breast. What did it matter if she told him her real reason for quitting?
“Yochum wanted to promote me for bringing in Emily Grover. It’s a coup for the department.”
Zach’s forehead furrowed. “But that’s excellent. A promotion. Why wouldn’t you want that?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Few people would. But tending her resignation had been the only option.
“Please explain it to me.”
She evaded his gaze. “I couldn’t continue like this. Always assuming the worst in people. It’s getting harder and harder for me to trust somebody.” She lifted her eyes to his face. “How can I continue in a job that’s destroyed so much? Don’t you see that? I couldn’t trust you, because I always saw you as the suspect. I was always looking for evidence that you were guilty. I do that with everybody. I always assume that people are lying to me. I can never see the good in people. I
t’s this damn job. It’s changed me. I can’t go on like that. I don’t want to be like that. I want to trust others. I don’t want to always see the worst in people.” Her tears mixed with the rain.
“Oh Rochelle…” Zach brushed a strand of her hair from her face.
“I didn’t trust you and that destroyed everything between us. And you? You helped my brother. You gave him a job, paid off his debts—”
“How do you know that?” he interrupted, clearly surprised.
“Steve told me the name of the company he’s working for. By chance I saw the name in documentation about Ivers International. It’s one of your subsidiaries. Oh Zach, why didn’t you tell me?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want you to be with me, because I’m helping your brother. I only wanted you to not have to worry about him anymore.”
A loud sob tore from her chest. “See… you do things that are selfless. You also paid that loan shark off, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “It’s wasn’t a big deal.”
“Not a big deal? For me and my brother, it was a huge deal. And how do I thank you for it? By accusing you!”
“You only did your job. Everybody in your situation would have done the same.”
“I don’t want to be in situations like that anymore. Because it’s the reason I lost you. And that hurts more than anything else.” She closed her eyes.
Zach’s arms pulled her closer until she found herself pressed to his chest. “You haven’t lost me. I’m still here.”
She jerked her head up and stared at him. Was she hallucinating?
He smiled. “Rochelle, I can’t just give you up because of such a trifle.”
“A trifle? I didn’t trust you.”
“Then I’ll just have to work harder so I can earn your trust.”
In disbelief, she stared at him. “Do you mean that? You forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.” He shook his head and the rainwater dripped from his hair. By now, he was as soaked as she. Zach took her head in both his hands and brought his face close to hers. “I’m in love with you, Rochelle, and love fixes everything.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Oh Zach, is that true?”
“That I love you or that everything is fine now?” He grinned.
“Both.”
Their lips met. “Yes, both.”
“I love you, Zach. I love you so much.”
~ ~ ~
He’d hoped to hear those words. And now that they echoed in his ears, all anxiety fled his body. He pressed his lips to hers and felt her mouth open in invitation. With a moan, he kissed her.
It didn’t matter that they were standing in the middle of the streaming rain on a sidewalk and that passersby were probably staring at them. All that mattered was that Rochelle was in his arms, and that he could feel that she was his and he hers. That they’d gotten a second chance.
He captured her mouth and pressed her to him. Through her rain-soaked clothing he felt every sensual curve of her body. Everything male in him awakened at that moment. He needed Rochelle the way he needed air to breathe.
She kissed him back with a passion and abandon that showed him that they would make it. That they would have a future together. He sensed with every fiber of his being that Rochelle was made for him. What had happened was the past. And the past didn’t matter any longer.
He tore his mouth from hers. “I love you. And if we don’t go into your apartment right now, then I can guarantee you that we’ll both be arrested for indecency.”
She pressed her forehead to his. “They don’t arrest people for kissing.”
He laughed. “It’s not going to be just kissing. And you know that as well as I do. So? Are you gonna invite me in?”
“Come.” She turned around and unlocked the front door.
He could barely wait until they’d reached her apartment and the door fell shut behind them. Immediately he pulled her back into his arms and went about freeing her of her wet clothes. He opened the zipper of her dress and pushed it down over her shoulders.
She didn’t seem to want to wait either and worked on opening his shirt. She pulled it over his head, before popping the button of his jeans open.
Pushing the wet jeans down his legs wasn’t an easy undertaking, but in the end he freed himself of them and tossed them over a nearby chair in the foyer.
Before he could pull Rochelle back into his arms, she escaped and ran to the bathroom. “Towel,” she called out.
He followed her and accepted the towel she handed him. He dried himself perfunctorily, taking off his boxer briefs at the same time, before turning back to Rochelle.
Her pink bra and panties were completely transparent from the water. Zach let his eyes wander over her. “Let me help you.”
She met his eyes and stopped drying herself. Her gaze dropped to his groin and she suddenly pulled her lower lip between her teeth.
He smiled and opened the front clasp of her bra, freeing her breasts. He brushed the garment over her shoulders and let it drop to the floor, then reached for her towel. Tenderly, he patted her beautiful bosom dry.
“Your panties, too,” he prompted, and she complied and took them off.
He tossed the towel aside and laid his hand over her sex. “To dry you here would be a waste of time.” He rubbed his finger along her slit and felt the wetness that was spreading there. “You’re getting wetter by the second.”
To his surprise, she pulled away from him and pressed him against the wall behind him instead. First he didn’t understand what she was planning, but then she was already kneeling in front of him, her head at the same height as his cock, which was pumped full of blood.
A gasp escaped him. “Oh, fuck, don’t tell me you want to—”
“Shhhhh.”
Her lips touched the tip of his cock and silenced him. Slowly she licked her warm tongue over the round head, sending a bolt of white-hot pleasure through him.
“Ah, fuck!”
“I missed you,” she murmured.
Then she wrapped her lips around the tip of his shaft and descended until she’d swallowed him fully. The moist warmth that surrounded him made his knees tremble, and he had to hold on to the sink next to him in order not to collapse.
With his other hand he touched her cheek and made her look up to him. Their eyes locked.
“I missed you so much.”
At his words she let his erection slip from her mouth almost entirely, before she took him fully into her mouth again. Slowly she began to suck him as if he were the most delicious thing she’d ever had. He couldn’t get enough of the sight of her lips around his cock.
“You can never leave me again. Never. You hear me, Rochelle?”
Her eyes gave him a wordless promise. Relieved he leaned his head against the wall and moaned. Her loving caresses were getting more intense, while she wrapped her hand around his root and worked him harder. With her other hand she palmed his balls and squeezed them tenderly. Her mouth went up and down on him, while her tongue ran along the underside of his cock and sent a sensual tingling sensation through his body.
A fire ignited inside him and made his entire body burn for her. He wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer and would soon succumb to Rochelle’s erotic torture. But he couldn’t let that happen. He knew they were equals and he wanted their lovemaking to reflect that, even if it turned him on to see her on her knees in front of him. He wanted to give her the same pleasure.
With a moan, he placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away, so his cock slipped from her mouth. The damn thing jerked in disappointment, but he ignored it and pulled Rochelle up to stand instead.
“Your bed, now,” he ordered with a hoarse voice.
She pouted. “But I wasn’t done yet.”
He gave her a slap on her gorgeous ass and ushered her toward the bathroom door. “Next time. But tonight you’ll have to show mercy.”
She smiled mischievously and took h
is hand, leading him to her bedroom. In front of the bed she stopped and turned around to face him.
Her eyelashes fluttered. “What do you want now?”
He slipped his hands onto her backside and pressed her to him. “I want to look into your eyes when I make love to you. So you can see what you mean to me.”
She lowered herself onto the bed and he followed her. He rolled over her, bracing himself on his elbows and knees and adjusting himself at her center, when she reached her hand out toward the nightstand.
“Condom,” she said.
He met her gaze and shook his head. “You and I, we belong together now. I don’t want any barriers between us. I want to feel you. All of you.”
“But I’m not on the pill. You wouldn’t want to get trapped by me because of a pregnancy, would you?”
He smiled at her. “But you’ve already trapped me.”
Her eyes looked at him full of affection and love. “Zach, are you sure?”
He placed a small kiss on her nose. “I’ve never been so sure of anything else.”
He pressed his cock against her wet sex and felt Rochelle spread her legs wider.
“Do you want me?” he asked.
“As long as you want me.”
With one thrust he sealed their agreement and submerged himself in her. The feeling of her muscles as they closed around him sent a wave of pleasure through his cock and into his balls.
Zach brushed a wet strand of hair from her face and caressed her neck, let his fingers trail over her soft skin. Almost reverently he touched her, caressed her heated body, while farther below his cock plunged into her in a steady rhythm. With each thrust he went deeper as if she opened up more for him with every second.
Rochelle caressed him, explored him with her hands, while her gaze melted into his. He could see it all in her eyes: her love and the growing trust, while other things disappeared into the background. The doubts and the fear had disappeared, wiped out by the feelings between them, feelings that were stronger than anything else.
With each second, he felt his control slipping through his fingers more and more, and he let it happen, let his body take over.
