I Heard A Rumor

by Hodges, Cheris

  “It’s a little early for . . .”

  “It’s iced tea,” Chante said with a smile as she interrupted Zach’s question. “And yes, we’ll have a pitcher.”

  Peter nodded and headed to the kitchen. Chante was about to lean in and whisper something wicked to him when she heard someone call her name. Looking in the direction the voice came from, she groaned when she saw her high school nemesis, Rochelle Moore.

  “Hi,” Chante said as Rochelle and a heavyset man made their way toward her.

  “Wow,” Rochelle said when she reached the table. “You look amazing. I guess law school and all that stuff paid off.”

  Chante narrowed her eyes at the former cheerleader who looked as if she’d eaten her younger self. “Rochelle, I’m surprised to see you in Charleston. How did that modeling career work out for you?”

  Rochelle laughed uncomfortably. “Well, you know that was a childish dream. I’m actually a principal at Hanhan High School.”

  “Nice. Good for you. I remember my childhood dreams of becoming a lawyer. I did that,” Chante said smugly.

  “Is this the fiancé who cheated on you with a hooker?”

  Zach’s eyes stretched to the size of quarters.

  Chante’s smile dropped, and she narrowed her eyes at Rochelle. “Still following my every move?”

  “You want people to think you’re perfect, and you’re far from it. You’ve always been that way.”

  “And you believed it,” Chante said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here trying to make yourself feel good because I had a setback. Glad to see nothing—much—has changed about you.”

  “At least I can keep my man satisfied,” Rochelle said, then stalked off. Chante wanted to toss the bowl of cucumbers at the back of her head. Why did she fall into that high school trap of childishness?

  “You two have never been friends, huh?” Zach asked as he watched her eye the bowl of cucumbers.

  “Not at all. I should’ve known the true story of my relationship with Robert wouldn’t stay in Charlotte.”

  “So that jab was true?” Zach asked.

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yes.”

  “Then this Robert person is a fool. I don’t understand how anyone could . . .”

  “You know what,” she said, cutting him off. “I don’t even want to talk about it. I’m surprised she didn’t seek me out on social media to let me know she knew about Robert’s scandal.”

  Zach fell silent, wondering how his scandal would play out with her. She’d already dealt with her own sex scandal, and his drama in New York would only add insult to injury.

  “I tell you what: we don’t have to stay here.”

  “I’m not running from that . . . We’re here and we are not leaving.” Chante glanced in Rochelle’s direction and wasn’t surprised to see the smug heffa looking back at her.

  “What’s the deal with you and her?” Zach asked as he nodded toward Rochelle.

  “The difference between being number one and number two. When we were in high school, she and I were always either number one or number two. Mostly, I was number one, and she tried to steal my boyfriend, and it didn’t work out for her. She’s been holding it against me ever since.”

  “Tom Petty and the heartbroken.” Zach reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. “You’re still winning.”

  Chante leaned over and kissed him on the tip of his nose. “You’re sweet.”

  “Not as sweet as you are,” he whispered, then winked at her. “But you already know that.”

  Part of her wished that she and Zach had something real. Something that would develop into the relationship they were pretending to have. It felt good and it felt real.

  I have to stop this. I’m kidding myself if I think this is going to be anything more than a charade, she thought as she stared into his eyes. Before she could say a word, the waiter returned with their drinks and took their food orders. Chante wished that she’d actually ordered some wine instead of iced tea.

  “Zach, when you got that call earlier from your ex . . .”

  “Yeah. I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about that?”

  She held up her hand, “Let me finish. You were pretty upset with her, and I need to know if you’re going to take that passion and turn it around and try to get revenge, or are you going to give her a second chance?”

  “Neither of those is going to happen. I want her to be a distant memory in my life. Why do you ask?”

  Chante shrugged. “I’m just being ridiculous. I know that what we have here ends when we leave Charleston, so whatever you do or don’t do with your ex isn’t my issue.”

  “Where did that come from?”

  She took a sip of her tea. “Just over-thinking things,” Chante said. “You and I aren’t real, so it doesn’t even matter what you do when you leave.”

  Zach nodded and took his own sip of tea. He started to ask her what she meant by not being real. Did she think last night wasn’t real? Didn’t she know that she had awakened something deep inside of him that he thought his ex-wife had murdered?

  How could she question that? Maybe it was because she didn’t plan to keep things going with him and found herself getting closer to him, or was the charade of their relationship getting to her?

  “Do you think we should tell your mother that we’re over?” he asked.

  “What?” Chante pushed her glass away.

  “Did she rattle you that much?”

  She furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

  “You’re the one who just made everything serious.” Zach reached out and held her hand. “Why?”

  “I need to go to the restroom for a moment,” she said as she rose to her feet.

  He stood up and blocked her exit. “Don’t run from this. Just tell me the truth. What do you want?”

  Chante sighed. What she wanted was the fantasy. She wanted them to exist in a vacuum and wanted to go back to simply having fun. She wanted to forget that she was running from her own problems.

  “I just want to go to the bathroom,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry.” Her whisper hung in the air as she tore away from him. Once she was alone in the bathroom, Chante shut herself up in a stall and cried silently, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was a mess and had made an even bigger mess by getting involved with Zach.

  I have got to stop leading with my thighs, she thought as she wiped her eyes with a rough piece of toilet paper. That wasn’t the problem with Robert; he just embarrassed me, and I’m still suffering from it. Now this thing with Zach. I need to get back to who I am and stop acting like a man is going to make things better.

  Emerging from the stall, Chante forced herself to put on a face that said she was fine. She forced herself to believe she was fine playing in this game, but if she was honest with herself, she would admit that the life she’d run from—husband and kids—was something that she wanted. Perhaps she’d spent such a long time rebelling against her mother’s expectations that she’d squandered the chance to have just what her heart desired.

  Wiping her face again, she headed out of the bathroom and ran into Rochelle as she walked in. The two women eyed each other with contempt. “Chante,” Rochelle said with a saccharin tone, “I hope I didn’t cause you any problems.”

  “Not at all,” Chante said with a smile that was just as fake as Rochelle’s concern. “We are just as fine as we were before your interruption.”

  “I know what your problem is,” she said. “You’ve always thought you were better than me.”

  Chante laughed. “You thought I was better than you, and you wanted to be better than me. Rochelle, we’ve been out of high school for a long time, and you’re still acting as if we’re running for student body president.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Grow up.” Chante strutted away from her. When she reached Zach, her smile was genuine.

  “Feeling better?” he asked as he rose to
his feet.

  Chante closed the space between them and wrapped her arms around his neck. She brought her lips to his and gently brushed them with her tongue. “Much.”

  Zach smiled as he slid his hands down her back. “I don’t know what kind of hand soap you used in there, but I like the effect it had on you.”

  “I say we order our food and then go break a law and have sex on Folly Beach,” she whispered.

  “Whoa!” Zach took a step back from Chante. “You know if we get caught, you have a lot more to lose than I do.”

  “Then I guess you better be creative.” She winked at him, then took her seat.

  “Oh, just me?” he quipped.

  “I’ve actually thought about this for a long time, so yes, just you.”

  Zach wished he could make their food magically appear because he was tired of talking. Placing his hand on top of Chante’s, he stroked her smooth skin with his thumb. “Seriously, I need to know what happened in the bathroom.”

  Her smile faded a bit as she stared into his eyes. “I’ve always allowed what other people think of me to dictate how I live my life. Everything was about proving someone wrong, proving that I could do everything that someone else could do, only better, and then there’s my mother. It just hit me when I saw a grown woman still carrying a high school grudge that my life is mine. And it’s time to live it for me.”

  “Hallelujah. See, that’s why you walked into the bar looking so uptight. I knew it was inside you all along,” he said.

  Chante snorted. “You sure stared hard enough to see everything inside.”

  Leaning back in his seat, Zach folded his arms across his chest. “We just aren’t going to let that go, are we?”

  She shook her head, and before she could tell him why, the waiter returned with their entrées. The delicious aroma of the food rendered them both speechless for a moment. It was now time to eat.

  Nic burst into Taiwon’s office, catching the attorney off guard as he hung up the phone. “What in the hell,” Taiwon gritted.

  “Where is she?” Nic demanded.

  “How did you get up here, and why do you think I . . . ?”

  “We had a deal, Myrick! You were supposed to get Chante Britt back here and I’d keep your secret from your partners. Time is running out!”

  Taiwon leaned back in his massive leather chair. “I can’t force her to come back. Even after I dangled the partnership carrot in her face, Miss Britt is remaining hidden away where she is. So if you want to act on your threats, then go ahead. I’m getting sick of your bullshit and seeing your face.”

  “Don’t think I won’t act,” Nic said. “You have two more days.”

  Taiwon rose to his feet and stood toe-to-toe with Nic. Glaring at the politico, he grabbed him by his lapels and slammed him against the door. “I don’t work for you, and I don’t give a damn about Chante and your candidate. My concern is this law firm; not having her here while this idiot tries to run for mayor is the best thing for us. Do you think this fool has a chance to win when everyone knows he seeks the comfort of hookers?” Taiwon pushed Nic to the floor. “Get the hell out of my office.”

  “You’re going to regret this!” Nic said as he scrambled to his feet and stumbled out of Taiwon’s office. As he went down in the elevator, Nic started to wonder if he should abandon Robert’s ship. It wasn’t as if he believed in him; it was just losing to Teresa, of all people, that left a bad taste in his mouth.

  Besides, he’d helped worse people than Robert get elected. He planned to show that relic bitch that he was still in charge. And the only way to do that was to win this seat for Robert. She’d see that his influence still shaped this city, and that no matter who she thought she was, he still had the power.

  As he headed out of the building, he knew he had to find Chante Britt by any means and force her to stand by Robert until he was elected mayor of Charlotte.

  “Well, if it isn’t Dominic Hall,” a female voice said. Gritting his teeth, Nic turned around and faced the very woman he wanted to destroy.

  “Stalking me, Teresa?”

  “No, but I knew you’d be sniffing around here looking for Chante Britt because of this madness you and Robert are trying to accomplish. Mayor of Charlotte? Really?” She laughed and shook her head.

  “He will win.”

  “Keep dreaming,” she said as she walked into the law office.

  What is she up to? Nic thought as he turned and followed her inside.

  Chapter 12

  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 c
ouldn’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.”