“Zach!”
He responded with another lick and pressed his finger deeper inside her. Chante closed her eyes as she felt an orgasm tease her senses. If this man was about to make her come with his finger, she was going to have his tongue and hands bronzed so that she could remember this moment.
And there it was. A slow rumbling, then a huge explosion. “Zach, Zach!” she cried as she came.
“Was that good?” he whispered.
Nodding, Chante couldn’t speak at all. She hadn’t even noticed that Zach had sheathed himself with a condom. “I want you to ride me, Chante,” he said.
She smiled and almost told him she wanted to ride him all night. He eased up toward the head of the bed, and Chante placed her hands on his strong thighs. He clutched her hips and positioned her on top of his erection. She ground against him, and it felt so good. Zach sucked her nipples, alternating between the left and right as she tightened her thighs around him.
“Yes, yes!” Chante called out as he thrust his hips forward. She wound her hips as if she heard a steel drum band playing in her head. Zach fell in rhythm with her, and moments later they were collapsing against each other as they came in unison.
She expelled a satisfied sigh as Zach kissed her on the forehead. “You’re amazing, woman,” he whispered as he stroked her back.
“I had an equally amazing partner,” she replied. “Wow.”
He drummed his fingertips against her spine. Her skin was softer than silk. And when Chante wiggled her booty, he was hard again. “Umm,” she said, “looks like someone caught a second wind.”
“You’re irresistible. You think I can hold all of this and not want some more?” He squeezed her bottom, and then she shifted against his throbbing erection. “This time,” he said, “let’s take it a little slower. I want to savor every minute I’m inside you.”
And with a slower tempo and Zach on top of Chante this time, they made love until the sun started to rise over the horizon. When the couple finally drifted off to sleep, sated and happy, Chante had totally put the night before out of her mind.
Chapter 9
When the ringing of her cell phone woke her up, Chante was pleased and a tad bit surprised to find herself still wrapped in Zach’s arms. Such strong arms. He felt amazing, and that phone call was just going to wait.
She inhaled his masculine scent and started to run her tongue up and down his neck. She snaked her hands around his waist, gently stroking his hips. Her intention had been to reach down and stroke his morning erection, but the phone rang again.
“You’d better get that,” Zach said, his voice thick with sleep. “I can’t keep pretending to be sleeping while your phone is ringing.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Obviously, someone wants to talk to you pretty badly.”
Chante reluctantly climbed out of the bed and grabbed the ringing phone. She chided herself for turning the phone on again. When she saw the number on her touch screen, she groaned. It was the law firm. Maybe today was the day she’d be fired. Especially if she had talked to Taiwon the way Zach said she had.
“This is Chante,” she said when she pressed the talk button.
“Chante, I hope you’re in a better mood today,” Taiwon said.
Clearing her throat, she said, “I want to apologize for anything I said last time we spoke. I hadn’t been expecting your call and I guess I said some things that I shouldn’t have.”
“Setting your profane rant aside, I can understand why you’re upset. This suspension has been just as hard on the firm as it has been on you. Many of your clients are asking about you and when you’re coming back. You also have a few cases that are on the docket.”
“So what are you saying?”
She heard Taiwon clear his throat. “The partners and I want to lift your suspension.”
“I’ve been thinking about everything while I’ve had this time away from the firm, and maybe I don’t want to come back.”
“What do you mean? Have you taken another job?”
“What if I have? Obviously, you didn’t think I was good enough to be partner, despite the millions of dollars I made for Myrick, Lawson and Walker. I could open my own practice or walk in the front door of any law firm in the city and start as a partner.”
“You have a contract with us and if you . . .”
“My contract expired during this suspension,” Chante shot back. “And I figured that’s why it was taking so long for you to lift it. Then you could fire the distraction and not have to worry about being in breach of contract. So, no, Taiwon, I’m not coming back unless you and the other partners give me what I deserve.”
“And you think you deserve to be partner after all of the undue scrutiny you brought to the firm with your relationship?”
“When I found out . . . You should’ve listened to me, but like always, all you could hear was your own voice.” She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Zach was sitting up in the bed watching her. “I’m not doing this right now. I’m on vacation.” She shut the phone off and tossed it in the top drawer of the dresser.
“That didn’t sound much better than your other conversation,” he said as he rose from the bed and crossed over to her. “And you look great in your birthday suit, all angry and indignant.”
Chante shook her head and laughed. “I see we’re wearing matching outfits.”
He stroked her cheek. “That we are. Chante, is everything all right?”
“’You want to talk while we’re standing here naked?”
He winked at her. “I see what you’re doing, distracting me with that body. I’m all over that.” Scooping her up in his arms, he carried her over to the bed and laid her on the crumpled sheets. Chante wrapped her legs around his hips as he kissed her slowly and deeply. Feeling his erection growing against her thighs made her wet as a river.
“Umm,” she moaned as his finger slipped between her folds. Chante needed him inside her. She wanted to feel good underneath his touch. “Protection,” she said.
Though he wanted to dive into her wetness raw, he knew better. Unwrapping her legs from his waist, he reached for his discarded slacks and cursed when he came up empty.
“What?” she asked.
“No protection. Do you have any?”
Chante shook her head. Disappointment clouded her face. Zach crossed over to her. “I have an idea.” He parted her thighs then dove between her legs. Burying his face in her wetness, he lapped her sweetness, making her scream his name out over and over. After her third orgasm, she lost count. And Zach didn’t stop. It was if he was addicted to her taste. Looking into her eyes as he licked the last of her desire away, Zach felt almost as satisfied as Chante looked.
“That was a hell of a breakfast,” he said, then winked at her.
“So what are we going to do for lunch?” she asked once she caught her breath.
Taiwon stalked back and forth in his office. He couldn’t believe Chante hadn’t jumped at the chance to come back to the firm. Even without Nic breathing down his neck, the other partners wanted her back. They were losing money, and now he had to tell them she was going to quit.
And then there was Nic. If he leaked Taiwon’s criminal record, he’d be ruined. “I guess I’m going to have to make that bitch a partner,” he muttered as he dialed her number again. The call went directly to voice mail. Hanging up and tossing his phone across the office, Taiwon knew he had to fight fire with fire. Maybe he could get Nic and Robert before they got him.
Those fools picked a fight with the wrong person, he thought as he crossed over to his computer.
Meanwhile, across town, Robert woke up to another positive news story about his mayoral rival and his wife. Pushing Gabby’s head away from his semi-erect penis, he grabbed the remote and turned the television up.
“Mayoral candidate David Clemmons and his wife, Courtney, have teamed up with A Child’s Place to provide an ice cream social for the foster children who have made the honor
roll at several Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools,” the anchor said before the camera cut to the smiling couple scooping ice cream for kids in school uniforms.
“Son of a bitch!” Robert muttered as he pounded the mattress. “That should be me!”
Gabby jumped in with her opinion. “Why couldn’t we do something like that together?”
Robert glared at her. “Because what we already do together is enough. I need to project an image like that. I need class and elegance. People need to look at me and my wife the way they look at Michelle and Barack!”
Gabby frowned. “So what are you trying to say about me?”
Robert patted her head dismissively, treating her like a playful puppy that had peed on his suede boots. “Gabby. You’re not the kind of girl a man takes home to his mother or to a political event.”
She pulled away from him and hopped out of the bed. “You know what, you’re a fucking fraud! That’s why no one wants to support you. Everyone knows this act of yours is just that—an act. You want power, a title. I’ve heard your little power meetings with Nic. I hope Chante is smart enough to stay away from you.”
Lunging over to her, Robert grabbed Gabby by the throat. “I’ll be damned if I let another bitch ruin me. Nobody forced you to be here, and you knew from the start that all I needed you for was to get my rocks off.” He let her go, and she fell to the floor. “Why don’t you get dressed and get out of here. By the back door.”
Gabby rubbed her throat and glared at him. “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m the last man you want to mess with. If you try to stand in the way of me and the mayor’s office, I’ll make you suffer like I should’ve done to Liza. So get out, and don’t show your face here or at the campaign office.”
She dressed quickly, actually feeling a bit of fear because of the way Robert glared at her. He didn’t have to worry about seeing her ever again.
Alone in his house, Robert sat in the corner by the bay window in the living room. Had he been honest with himself, he would give up politics. But his loss of the senate seat had been so public and so embarrassing, like having a mother who’d left him at a fire station because her next high had been more important than taking care of her son.
He judged all women by the sins of his mother. When he’d been eight, he’d learned of his adoption. And since it was an open adoption, his parents—Selah and Patrick Montgomery—knew who his mother was.
Two years later, he’d seen the woman who’d given birth to him. She’d been in an alley with her head buried between some man’s legs as he called her all kinds of dirty names and slapped her. When the man had had his release, he pulled his penis from her mouth and spilled his seed on her face. Robert had been so disgusted and embarrassed that he rode off on his bike and tried to forget about her and what he’d seen.
Three years later, his mother had cleaned herself up and tried to have a relationship with him. But all Robert ever saw her as was the whore in the alley. He hated thinking about her, hated being reminded that he was a crackhead’s son. Maybe that’s why he’d taken the loss to Jackson Franklin so hard. Here was a golden boy winning again, and he was on the outside looking in. Pounding his fist against his thigh, he thought about how Chante owed him, and he was going to make sure she paid him back for helping Liza humiliate him.
When the phone rang, he immediately knew who was on the other end.
“Yes, Nic,” he said when he answered.
“We have to get some kind of press,” Nic said, forgoing a hello. “Clemmons has the press sniffing his ass. Feeding kids ice cream—so damned clichéd. We need to do something that matters.”
“Like what?”
Nic sighed. “I’m working on Myrick to get Chante back here so that you can counteract Clemmons and that wench of his. Last year, they were on the verge of divorce; now they want to be Charlotte’s Michelle and Barack.”
“Well, it’s working,” Robert growled.
“You need to get your head together. We’re going to win this race. At least we don’t have to worry about Liza Palmer inserting herself in this situation.”
A light bulb when off in his head. Liza knew where Chante was. “Nic,” Robert said, “I’m going to have to call you back.”
Chante and Zach laughed as they sat on the balcony eating the cold leftovers from the night before as their breakfast. “We’re worse than teenagers,” she said.
“I didn’t expect to meet a sultry sexpot while I was in Charleston.”
“So why did you have one condom?”
He shrugged as he bit into a cold wing. “I believe in being prepared, and I was just setting up for a one-night stand.”
Chante wiped the edges of her mouth. “And what’s changed? I want you to know that last night and this morning didn’t put you under any obligation to spend the rest of your time in Charleston with me.”
“Whoa. That’s not your decision to make, counselor. Then again, I could be stopping you from hooking up with your geechie boy toy.”
Chante laughed. “That’s funny. I came home, and you came to a place where people don’t know your name. For all I know, I could be the fifth girl this week.”
Zach leaned over the edge of his seat and reached for Chante’s chin. Forcing her to look into his eyes, he said, “Trust and believe me. You’re the only woman I’ve wanted to be with in a long time. And when we make love again, I’m going to be prepared.”
“And you’re just assuming you’re going to get a second chance.” She winked at him.
“’Cause you like screaming my name. And I damned sure like screaming yours.” Zach stroked her cheek. “Besides, we have a charade to continue, my betrothed.”
“Ugh, how about we just avoid my mother for the rest of the time we’re here?”
“And how much longer do you plan to stay here? Seems as if they want you back in Charlotte.”
“You’re pretty nosy, huh?”
“You weren’t very quiet. What’s going on? Because you sound like someone who’s either throwing her career away or having an epiphany.”
Chante leaned back in her chair and looked out over the ocean. “I guess I’m finally taking my life back. I let a man use me as a tool, and even though I was the one who got played, I’m the one who’s suffering. You know what he’s doing? Running for mayor and spreading the rumor that I’ve forgiven him and we’re a couple.”
“Damn. That’s cold.”
“No, that’s insane. He had the unmitigated gall to show up at my house with the press.”
“Wow, and I thought Natalie was the ex from hell. Your guy might have her beat.”
Chante rolled her eyes. “I’m not trying to compare the two. I just want my damned life back, you know?”
“Weren’t you offered your life back with that phone call this morning?”
She shook her head. “If I’m honest with myself, my life hasn’t belonged to me in a long time. It’s time for me to take it back. The problem is, I don’t know how.”
Zach studied her for a moment. He would never believe that about her for a minute. Chante Britt wasn’t the type of woman who allowed people to tell her how she was supposed to live.
“I’d say you’ve gotten off on the right foot with that. You’ve come to Charleston, relaxed a little. Dare I even say you’re having fun?”
“Some people would call this running away.”
Zach shrugged, knowing that he had run away himself. The feds were still trying to connect him to Natalie’s bullshit. Then there was the money he was losing while trying to establish himself in the South, where no one knew of his connection to Natalie’s crimes. But in the age of Google Alerts, how long would it be before everyone in Charleston knew of his ties to the New York sex scandal?
“I guess we needed this distraction.”
“You could call it that, but I prefer a sweeter term,” she said with a smile.
“Which is?”
“Haven’t thought of one yet. I know one thing, thou
gh. The water looks great. We should get in it.”
“Good idea. I’m going to go to my room and get my trunks,” he said as he rose to his feet. Chante stood and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.
“Thank you for listening to me.”
“You trusted me, and I get the feeling that isn’t something you do easily.”
She kissed his chin and let him go. “You’re right. I’ve learned my lesson about trusting the wrong people.”
As she looked into his eyes with a melancholy expression, Zach wondered if she’d forgive him for not being totally honest about his real reason for being in Charleston.
“See you in a little bit,” he said, then headed inside.
Chapter 10
Liza Palmer-Franklin yawned as she read her Twitter timeline. It was good that she was bored with what she saw. That meant all of her clients had been behaving themselves on social media.
She actually felt as if she could unplug for a few hours and be ready to have dinner with her husband when the day’s session of the General Assembly ended. It was still hard to wrap her mind around the fact that she was a state senator’s wife. Smiling, she thought about how he woke her up to an exciting quickie because he knew he’d been neglecting her while fighting for the state Veteran’s Employment Act. This was the first bill that Jackson had authored, and as a freshman senator, a lot was riding on this for him. Liza understood all of that, and as hard as it was, she didn’t try to get involved. She simply did everything her husband asked her to do. Stay out of it and don’t call Teresa, their biggest political ally.
I Heard A Rumor Page 9
