I Heard A Rumor (12 page)

Chante was in total bliss as Zach licked and kissed her womanly core. She stroked his head as his tongue lashed her throbbing bud. Clenching the beach towel, she muffled her screams as he sucked her slowly. Their eyes locked as she lifted her thighs to his shoulders. She arched her back a bit, pushing her sweetness deeper into his mouth. “Yes,” she said quietly, happy for the sand dune that hid their tryst. One more lash of his tongue and Chante exploded. He smiled as she leaned back on the towel with a look of satisfaction on her face.

Zach covered her body with his and lifted one of her legs, wrapping it around his waist. “You're so sweet,” he said.

“Mmm, you know how to make a woman feel good.”

He thrust forward, allowing her to feel his arousal. “I can make you feel better, but I don't know how much more we want to press our luck with sex on the beach in the middle of the day.”

Reality trumped her desire because as much as she wanted him to take her right then, the risk of getting caught was just too much. “Okay,” she moaned, “let's go inside.”

Zach leapt to his feet and, in an even swifter motion, lifted Chante into his arms. Before heading for the hotel, he covered her mouth with his and kissed her slow, deep, and long. Chante moaned as his hands roamed her back. Pulling her lips away from his, Chante gazed at Zach for a beat. “You have to stop.”

“What if I don't want to?”

“Then we're going to get arrested,” she quipped.

“Jail is the last place we need to be.” He nearly ran up the steps leading to the hotel. Dashing through the lobby and to the elevator, he pressed the UP button several times in succession, as if his urgency for Chante would make the car come faster. She laughed at him as he pressed the button again.

“The elevator is on the twelfth floor. You're going to have to wait.”

Zach looked to his left. “Or take the stairs.” Chante was about to tell him that he could put her down, but he headed for the staircase and took the steps two at a time. When they reached the fourth floor, where his room was, Zach stopped. “All right, we have to go to my room,” he panted.

“I was wondering when He-Man would lose his strength,” she giggled. He placed Chante on her feet and opened the door leading to the hotel suites. She patted him on his shoulder.

“I think I'll walk from here,” she said.

“I like the way you move,” he said as he stared at her shapely backside. Chante put a little extra twist in her hips, and as he thought about her riding him and his hands on those hips, he was harder than Charleston cobblestone.

He couldn't open the door to the room fast enough. Once he did, Chante sauntered inside and stripped out of her suit. Zach drank in her image, then stepped out of his trunks. Closing the space between them, he pulled her against his chest. The feel of her smooth skin made his heart beat like a bass drum. “So soft,” he whispered as he leaned into her and kissed her neck. He could feel her tremble against him. Zach slipped his hands between her thighs, seeking her wetness. And she was so wet. As he slid his finger between her wet folds of flesh, Chante moaned and ground against it as her flesh thickened with desire and yearning.

He threw his head back as she got wetter and wetter at his touch. “Zach,” she cried out as waves of pleasure washed over her senses. “Need. You.”

“Not as much as I need you,” he said. His fingers toyed with her feminine core, and she could feel herself puckering at his touch. He'd primed her for his hardness, and Chante couldn't wait to feel him deep inside her. He brushed his lips across hers as he pressed his finger deeper inside her. Chante cried out in pleasure, on the brink of her release. Throwing her head back, she moaned as he made ripples of wanton desire wave over her.

“Please!” she moaned.

Unable to prolong her pleasure, Zach rubbed the tip of his erection against her wetness, and it took everything inside him not to plunge into her. But somehow he found the willpower not to enter without protecting them, no matter how hard he was.

Gently pushing Chante back on the bed, he spread her thighs apart. With his right hand, he stroked her wetness as he reached for a condom with his other hand.

“Zach!” she exclaimed as his strokes deepened. Shivering, she felt as if she was about to explode from need and desire. Sheathed and ready, Zach removed his hand and positioned himself on top of her. Chante wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer. “Need you,” she moaned.

Zach thrust forward, diving into her. She gripped his neck as she ground against him. He reveled in her grip on his erection, following her rhythm as she tightened her thighs around him.

“Chante, Chante,” he whispered like a mantra. “You feel so good.”

“Umm, you feel even better.” She thrust forward, and he gripped her hips as he rolled over on his back.

“Ride me, babe,” he commanded.

Holding on to his shoulders, she heeded his call, slowly bouncing up and down as he stroked her bottom. She arched her back, and he matched her stroke for stroke. Fast. Slow. Up. Down. Chante shivered as the first waves of her orgasm hit her. Feeling her tighten herself around him, Zach slowed his movements, wanting to hold back his own climax as he watched her give in to hers.

But when she took him deeper into her valley and gave him a slow roll, he couldn't help but explode. “Oh Chante, damn, baby!” he cried as she collapsed against his chest.

“Wow,” she whispered as she buried her face in his chest. “That was so worth the wait.”

Zach kissed her on the forehead. “Tell me about it. But we're not waiting that long again.”

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around him. “This has been a crazy week,” she said. “Thanks for being a part of it.”

“The week isn't over yet,” he said with a wink.

Chante sighed as she thought about the reason she ran to Charleston in the first place. “Being here has given me so much clarity. I have to thank you for that.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “My ex was making my life a living hell. Rochelle was right about him; he cheated on me with a hooker. At the time he was running for state senate, and when it came out, I was beyond embarrassed. My best friend tried to warn me, but I was blinded by the very thing I claimed I didn't want.”

“Which was?” he asked.

“The status of being married and having my mother's approval.” The admission shook her to the core. She hadn't even told Liza how she really felt about Robert and why she'd accepted his marriage proposal so quickly.

“But I thought you didn't care what your mother thought and the plan was to live your life for you.”

She stroked his cheek. “That was the liquor talking. As much as we try to act like we don't care what our mothers think, we do. Part of me will always want my mother to be proud of me.”

Zach kissed her cheek. “If she can't be proud of the woman that you are, then there comes a time when you stop turning yourself inside out to make her feel good about your life. I'm sure law school wasn't easy. I'm sure finding a job at a huge law firm in the South, as a woman, was a struggle.”

Chante nodded. Everything he said was true, and if her mother didn't see that, would Chante ever gain her mother's approval? “Why don't we take a shower and go get some ice cream, bourbon, and brownies?”

Zach looked up and down her naked body and let out a low whistle. “How do you eat all of that and still look like this?” He ran his hand across her sculptured abs.

“That's why I don't come to Charleston often. And I've been running a lot lately to counteract my wine drinking.”

“Whoa, you have been going through hell,” he said.

She gripped his arm. “I'm suspended from that law firm that I worked so hard to be a part of because Robert's sins were my fault and I became a distraction.”

“Damn.”

Slipping out of his arms, Chante rose from the bed. “So about that shower?”

Zach was up on his feet in a flash. “Let's do it.”

 

 

Robert glared at Nic after he finished reading the latest polls for the mayor's race. He was way behind, and the election was about two months away. “I thought you said you had this handled,” Robert demanded as he tossed the papers in Nic's face. “This is not what we planned.”

“Is it my fault that you couldn't charm Chante into standing by your side or that you paid a woman for sex? That's all people think about when they see you, and the fact that we have one former mayor in prison . . .”

“I was never charged! My record is clear. You're supposed to be the man who can get results! I haven't seen any.”

“You selfish bastard. I've been working my ass off to get you elected, and what have you done? You've been sleeping with staffers and pissing them off. Your girl, Gabby, told me about what's going on with the two of you and how you said she wasn't good enough to meet your parents or go to a political party. Have you forgotten that your mother was a crackhead, and God knows who your father is?”

Robert launched out of his seat and punched Nic in the face, knocking him to the floor. “Don't you ever mention my mother again!”

Holding his jaw, Nic slowly rose to his feet. “You're on your own. Good luck trying to win this seat now!”

“Fuck you, Nic. Now get the hell out of here!”

As Nic slammed out of the office, Robert knew he was on his own, and if he was going to be mayor of Charlotte, he had to step up his game. First on the agenda was finding Chante.

Then a light bulb went off in his head. Chante used to talk about her grandmother a lot, and her grandmother lived in Charleston. If he could find where she lived, he'd probably find Chante there playing the victim. Victim! He was the true victim because of her and that bitch Liza. If Liza had kept her damn mouth shut, he and Chante would be married and he'd be the one in the General Assembly. It was his seat and Liza stole it from him. He was going to take back what was his, the route to power. Picking up his phone, he dialed Liza's number.

“Liza Franklin.”

“Where is Chante? And you've given up your identity for a man?” Robert laughed.

“Why do you keep calling me, you pompous jackass?”

“Because you owe me, and you should've kept your promise to me.”

“Oh please, I'm sick and tired of this and you. Don't call me again, or I will file a report for harassment.”

“I don't understand why you turned your back on me,” he said.

“Why I turned my back on you? This is so funny to me. You and Nic tried to destroy my reputation and spread the rumor that I was a call girl. Is it my fault that people saw what a fraud you were before Election Day? I don't think so! Stop calling me, and leave Chante alone.”

When the dial tone sounded in his ear, Robert seethed with anger. All those years she claimed to have his back, and she lied! Typical woman. Just like his mother. Just like any tramp who'd ever claimed to give a damn about him. That's why Chante was going to pay what she owed. She was going to give one interview that would put him in the mayor's seat. If the public believed she had forgiven him, then they would as well.

And if she was in Charleston, he'd find her and have a camera crew in tow. Maybe after he explained to her how his being mayor of Charlotte would help her get back on a good footing with her law firm, she'd go along with what he needed.

Typing her grandmother's name into the Google search bar, Robert knew it was time to head south.

 

 

Zach would've paid money to watch Chante eat her ice cream cone. The way her tongue moved around the cold cream made his crotch swell with memories of how she had licked and sucked him to climax. Her lips were simply amazing.

“What?” she asked as she caught his eye.

“I'd tell you, but if someone heard me, they would be scandalized,” he said, then kissed her on the tip of her nose. “I just know how magical those lips and tongue are, and I'm jealous of that cone right now.”

“If you play your cards right, maybe I'll treat you like this.” She slowly licked the cream. “Later.”

“Your wish is my command, darling,” he said with a mock bow. Zach turned to his banana split and wondered how open Chante would be to him drizzling chocolate all over her body and licking it off.

“How's your banana split?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” he said. “I see why Charleston is a foodie's dream. We haven't been to a bad restaurant yet.”

“What brought you to Charleston? You don't seem like a foodie, and I've been taking up a lot of your time, so I don't know what kind of business you've been doing.”

Zach offered a smile. She'd been honest about his ex, maybe it was time for him to tell her the truth about his.

“Well,” he said, “I'm probably going to start looking into some real estate opportunities soon, but I needed a break first. My ex has been in the news because of some illegal activities. A lot of people in New York are trying to link me to her misdeeds.”

“What did she do?” Chante asked as she lowered her waffle cone.

Zach shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He wanted to tell her everything, wanted to be open with her. But he was still having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that he had been married to a pimp.

“Fraud, tax evasion,” he said, then stopped speaking. “It's pretty complicated.”

“Wow. So how is that affecting your business?”