She didn't resist when he walked her farther away from the building, his arms around her waist. Instead she missed the feel of his mouth on hers.
Channing guided her around the building with his heart pounding, his blood rushing. Every cell of his body was screaming for him to grab her. To take her. To have her. Right there. He turned the corner into the alley and finally alone, dug his fingers into her hair and ground his mouth on hers, again, desperately, taking what he wanted, what he needed.
With a growl that sent his pulse spiking, she grabbed the lapels of his coat and yanked her drunken self higher, meeting his mouth with a desperation of her own. 'Damn,' she muttered between kisses.
He didn't answer, he only devoured her mouth. His palms traced down the back of her dress, hesitating only for a moment before sliding up under it. He groaned and flexed his fingers in anticipation and then filled his palms with her soft cheeks.
Her body jerked against him, her arms coming around his neck, one leg bending so that her thigh rubbed against his as she struggled to get closer. She had long thrown all rational thoughts away when he kissed her again, she just knew she wanted him now. She wished they were anywhere but here. It was too public. He squeezed her and she moaned.
Fuck the public.
He nipped and licked at her throat as he grind his body against her. He could have her. Here. Now.
Her hands slicked up his chest and tugged at the buttons until she encountered bare skin, rubbing it all over while her mouth ate at his.
Her wet heat beckoned to him. He could smell her, wanted to taste her. Needed to have her. You're mine. Mine.
He plunged two fingers up into her and she went rigid, arching back with a strangled cry of pleasure that fired his blood.
'I want you,' he growled, 'now.'
'Yes.' She wanted him too, couldn't wait for him to fill her. 'Now, do it now.'
He backed her against the wall, yanking her higher against him, groaning when she hoisted both legs, encircling his waist.
She held his gaze, hers molten. She didn't look drunk anymore. 'Just do it.' She mouthed.
His control snapped and so did her panties when he ripped it. He hastily freed himself and plunged hard and deep, groaning as she tightened around him. 'Oh my God.' He plunged again, harder, faster and unable to stop. 'Taissa.' She was incredibly tight, like a virgin.
Her nails dug into his shoulders and she thrust against him, unrestrained. Then she arched back with a strangled cry, her body going rigid as she came, hard. She was beautiful. Intensely, widely beautiful.
He plunged a final time, letting himself follow.
He rested his forehead against the wall and stayed like that for a while in silence except for his uneven breathing, she wasn't uttering a thing either. Her legs had gone lax around him and her breath gone soft and even. He pressed a kiss to her jaw and slowly lowered her. His body shuddered as he withdrew. She continued going down after her feet touched the ground and he quickly caught her only to see that she'd fallen asleep and tears made two shiny tracks down her cheeks.
His breath tightened, had he hurt her? Why did it seem like he'd stolen her V card? 'Taissa,' he said, his voice thick. He gently tugged her dress back over her hips and pulled his pants up while holding her then bent down to scoop the remnants of her panties, still steadying her, and shoved them into his pocket.
Carrying her, bridal style, he headed back to the club to book them a room but paused before he reached there. It'd be suspicious carrying her in like that and, although it'd do nothing to his reputation as that's what it was, it wouldn't be the same for hers. So he headed towards his BMW and gently placed her in the passenger seat. He bent over her to press the button for adjusting the back of the seat and was immediately assaulted by the sweet scent of her. He paused midway to bury his head in her neck and take a long pull of air, letting her fill his senses. Channing felt himself grow hard again and it took all his discipline to not grab her and make love to her again. Instead, he held his breath and pressed the button.
She squirmed when the seat lowered but didn't open her eyes so he pressed a kiss to her forehead and removed her dress boots. Something he hadn't before on her wrist caught his eyes. A black and silver band. Or bracelet, since it looked like both. He reached out and trailed his fingers over it. It emitted a white light that made him jerk his hand back with a start and changed to a silver key with black handle.
'Cool,' he said as he picked it up. The BMW logo was on the handle. It was nice to know that someone shared his love for BMWs.
With the key in his hand, he walked up the carpark looking out for a car of the brand. He found none. He walked down and found one, but it looked way too antique to have that kind of sophisticated key. Deciding the key must have a button, he pressed the middle slightly and was rewarded with a powerful flash of light and beep from a dark car on the second parking row.
'Ah,' he said and made to go to the car when he was stopped by a flashlight pointed at him. He blinked in the blinding light and raised his hands.
The person at the other end of the light seemed to realise whom he'd pointed the offending light at and gasped, diverting the rays to the floor. 'Mr Chevrolet.' He looked flustered in the street light. 'Didn't know 'twas you. Was just going 'round. Did you need something?'
'Nah.' Channing made sure to give him his best stare-down. 'Now if you'd excuse me, Mackey.'
'Sure, g-go 'head, 'm s-sorry, sir,' the scared valet stuttered, his heart hammering against his ribcage. If Mr Chevrolet got pissed it was automatic bye bye to parking cars and he didn't want that. He had college fees to pay. What the man was looking for was none of his beeswax. He hurriedly excused himself and went back to his station.
Channing rolled his eyes and walked towards the car. It's a lapis-lazuli blue car. He opened the car and was able to get the address of Taissa from a purse in the glove compartment. He scratched his head while staring at the card. Dang! She lived in a house, a home. Was she married? If so, he was Davy Jones' Locker deep in trouble. He never did married women — even though they were the ones usually attracted to him. God, he hoped she wasn't married.
Oddly, the emotion he now felt was jealousy, not fear. Why should he be? She had the right to be with anyone, right? Okay, he knew that sounded feeble. But whatever it was he was feeling, he was none too happy about it.
The sun was awake from its eastern cradle and was already taking its baby steps to the west when a sleek BMW pulled up at the at the curb of a two-storey house. The car occupants remained inside for some minutes drawing the attention of a young lady who had spied on the car from a room upstairs. The woman furrowed her brows wondering what the car wanted and went downstairs to find out.She'd just closed the front door after her when the car opened and a man stepped out, went around to the other side, then reappeared, bearing a woman in his arms. She gasped as she realised on closer inspection that the woman was Taissa. What had happened to her? She looked pretty dead to the world. She quickly moved forward to open the gate and made to take her but the man shook his head.'Let me,' he said in a husky voice that sounded suspicious to her. Who the heck was he? She couldn't see his face. It was cast in a shadow by the black baseball
Eleven minutes later Naima came out of her room with her pink and blue backpack slung over her right shoulder. She had on a loose, sea-crystal blue Fendi top that hit her thighs and white pantyhose with lace edging. Her pink Louis Vuitton high-tops made no sound on the floor boards as she crossed to her mommy's room. She slowly opened the door half hoping to see her awake but she was disappointed — her mommy was sprawled on the bed on her back. Naima softly stepped in and stood, watching her, then went over to her. She brushed her mommy's red hair out of her face and bent to kiss her forehead. She wrinkled her nose. Why did Mommy smell funny? Whatever it was she smelt of, Naima didn't think it was perfume and she definitely didn't like it at all. She kissed her forehead and ran out of the room and down the stairs to the dining room where Marlee was packing their lunch with her brother. The latter looked up at her and smiled brightly like the sun.
Channing hurriedly clambered out of his car and made his way to the private elevator leading to his pent office. Just as his PA, Leighton, stepped out of it. The latter looked relieved as he sighted his boss, as if the weight of the world had been placed solely on his shoulders and was just lifted. Channing rolled his eyes and tossed his key at him which he caught. 'Finally,' his PA said. 'I was beginning to think you'd disappeared from the surface of Earth.' 'What's on the agenda for this morning?' Channing said curtly, getting into the elevator. His PA quickly did the same. Channing wasn't in the best of moods today, so he had to be careful. The PA knew when to back off, although Channing was just a few years older than him he was still his boss and the one who paid his salary. 'You were supposed to be at the board meeting forty-two minut
It was a miracle Taissa had managed to reach the kids' school without getting herself into a road accident. She was sure she'd have, had there been no snarl-up on the way. Her mind had been preoccupied — was still — with the thoughts and emotions trampling over her like an outraged herd of elephants. Heck, she'd even forgotten to turn the car to selfdrive mode.She parked the car and rested her head on the wheel. What to do? she asked herself that question for the nth time that day. She'd had a roll in the hay with Channing Chevrolet. Up an alley. She palmed her face.This is very bad.If she was going to get drunk, why did it have to be with him? Why couldn't she have been with another person, at least then she wouldn't be feeling this down in the dumps. For fucks sake, he was a playboy! He probably saw her as nothing but a tool to satiate his manly needs for the night. Fuck, he was probably in b
'Mommy, please don't go out tonight, Mommy.'Taissa slowly turned her head from the couch to Yannis. 'Okay,' she consented. Like she was planning to go back to De Grande after what happened last night. God help her, she wasn't going back to any night club again, ever. She needed to catch up with her kids on their life, the way they used to do.Before, it used to be the three of them together, after school and work they'd chat and gist and have fun, but the increasing stress at work had put an abrupt end to that. She had to take on herculean tasks discarded by the others just so to earn extra to pay bills and stuff. So, most often than nought she turned to drowning her sorrows at the bar, getting Marlee or a babysitter to watch over her kids.Remembering all that, she couldn't help but think she was an irresponsible mother to her kids. Take for example what happened earlier today. But, thankfully, the kids had
Chevrolet tried to sit up in the bed but the girl pulled him back down beside her, her mouth going back to his ears. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Instead he looked down at her with a smile and buried his face in her breasts, earning a moan from her.Funny, the girl wasn't even on his mind; a certain redhead was. He hadn't stopped thinking of her since that night, no matter how hard he tried, she was already stuck to his brain. He'd hooked up with this one yesternight to get his mind off her but it failed to work. As he had plunged into her his thoughts had turned to a mess and all he'd seen was Taissa. Every thrust into the girl had been reliving the ones with Taissa up the alley. For a moment he'd even believed she had been the one right beneath him till they both came and he looked down. He'd fallen out of his castle in the air hard, knocking the air out of him, leaving him cold as reality slapped him right in the face. It wasn't Taissa and it'd neve
Naima hugged her mommy as she got out of the car.'Be good, okay.'Naima rolled her eyes. 'Aren't I always?'Taissa chuckled and passed her her school bag and a few wads of money. 'For munchies and souvenirs and whatnot,' she said.'Okay, thanks, Mommy. You want me to get you something?'Taissa pretended to chew over this for a moment. 'Anything will do,' she said finally just as the son came out from the other side of the car.'What of me?!' he asked loudly as he bounded over to his sister. He held her right hand and made puppy eyes at her, sticking out his bottom lip. 'Aren't you gonna get me something, Naima?''Oh, why would I ever forget you? I'd get the best anything for you.''Can I get a Jag model, please.''No way, man. It's way too high-priced. 'Sides they might not have that.'
'Ring-a-ring o' roses,A pocket full of poises,A-tissue! A-tissue,We all fall down.'Naima's eardrums were starting to pain her. It was just that Annoying Thing Adolf and the boys singing wouldn't make it in a singing career. Annoying Thing's voice was a high-pitched nasal whine, like his passages were clogged — they most probably were.'Clive, Anointing, this isn't exactly the kinda song that gives you an architectural firm vibe,' Ms. McCullough said.'Oh, we were just tryna cheer up the bus,' a nasal whine answered.'Oh, I know, let's sing a Mason song,' another boy said.'How about you don't see any song at all,' Thelma, a girl from the other class said and almost everybody unanimously agreed with her.This shut the boys up and fast.So, Naima sat back and cracked the window shut some to reduce the wind blowing in on her face then she sat back and watched the city fly by.This is so baw-ring!
A dreadful feeling lay heavy in the pit of his stomach, it had lain there all day. His father, Chauncey Chevrolet the Third was arriving today. And now that he was on his way to the airport to pick him up, the feeling slowly mushroomed.He managed a sad smile as he merged into the interstate. One wouldn't believe Ice King Channing Chevrolet could let himself be rattled by anything, but then his father solely had that power over him, had always. He let out a shaky breath and concentrated on the road he was driving on."What, uncle? Aren't you excited about meeting Grandpa?" Racquelle asked from the passenger seat, where she was busy on her tablet.Channing scoffed. Excited? That was the last word to describe how he felt. He was going to do this alone, Racquelle didn't count, she loved Dad to a fault even though she had met him in person pretty much just twice or thrice and only gets to video call him once or twice a year. He silently swore at his selfish brother. The recreant had dumpe
Channing Chevrolet was outside an event centre on the other side of the city. He had been seated in his car outside for a bit over an hour now. A friend of Racquelle's who also happened to be a family friend was having her ninth birthday party and Racquelle had insisted he bring her to the venue himself.Today, he was in a silver-red Lexus, contrary to the black Tesla he had taken to work this morning. He had been going for the don't-notice-me look, but he might have missed as people kept staring at the car as they pulled up for the party. Thankfully, the windows were smoked, so they couldn't possibly see him inside.A thought struck him that he should get a chaffeur, being a busy businessman and all. Leighton usually took the wheels or he put the car on autopilot.On arriving at the party, he had tried to kill time by video calling Chauncey. But the call had ended in a heated row when it was obvious his elder brother was having the time of his life and felt no remorse whatsoever fo
Channing watched as she moved away from him. What had he done wrong? He closed his eyes and the memory of her moaning like an animal in heat came to him. He was powerfully aroused.She was so sweet he could still taste her mouth on his. The hot swollen ache that bulged between his legs threatened to unbalance him. But the inexplicable tenderness he felt for her was way more dangerous than his desire.'Please, let me go,' she said sidling along the wall, looking so scared and uncertain he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss away her fears. Her tears shimmered pain lingering in her eyes. He glimpsed regret and sorrow in those shining eyes.'Taissa,' he reached out to her, 'you don't have to be scared of me.'She stabbed him with her hot eyes. 'I have every reason to be, Channing Chevrolet. You're way too dangerous for me. I don't know you and—' I'm carrying your baby. But she couldn't say that. He'd laugh at her and tell her to look well for the father of her baby, hell, at worst h
She put a hand to her throat where her pulse was fluttering madly.What did he want from her? Her only offence had been to call out to him. What if he was a murderer?The breath caught in her throat at the thought. Sweet God, she was pregnant, she had two kids and they'd be orphans if she died. Her mouth dried. She looked around for any object with which to defend herself, but she saw, to her dismay, nothing within reach. Why did it have to be in a quiet corner where no one would hear her die? She prepared to scream when his hand closed over her shoulder a second before his mouth descended to claim hers. Taissa thought she heard him mutter her name at that second but she didn't give much mind to it as her mind was on another alarming thought. He was kissing her! She wasn't being murdered, she was being plundered. Crazily, she didn't fight him. It almost felt familiar, the kiss that is. But she hadn't kissed anyone in ages, well, save for Channing Chevrolet. There was nothing she cou
Chevrolet never knew deciding what to get for your niece could be such a big job. He wished again that he hadn't promised to get her a present. But she'd been so forlorn for so long that he'd feared she'd die of sadness, so his plan to cheer her up had been to promise her anything she wanted, but Racquelle wasn't inclined.It was on his way driving back home from a stressful day at work that he'd seen the bright pink and green neon signs of the store. Rock n' Bike.The perfect place to get a gift. So he'd pulled off the A1 into the parking area. Rock n' Bike stood beside the channel and the occasional sounds of the sluicing river and vessels coupled with the noise of the traffic overhead created a somewhat perfect symphony for the store setting.He paused to dig for a camouflage. He didn't wanna find out what'd happen if a crazy fan ran into him at the store. He couldn't find anything in the glove compartment. He uttered profanities and pulled a latch inside the compartment that slid
The kids had seemed okay by it, but Taissa wasn't convinced one bit about her daughter. It was obvious from the girl's expression that she had a million questions to ask.But Naima had always been a reasonable kid. She must have seen that her mother was going through struggles of her own at the moment and had decided to file her questions away for another time.After Taissa had made them promise not to tell anyone about it, for the time being, she kissed them and tucked them into bed. It was bad enough that she was single, broke and had two and a half other mouths to feed. If people knew she was pregnant, the onslaught of questions and pity and ridicule would be too much for her to bear.Taissa made up her mind to stay as clear-headed as she could be. She couldn't fool herself into thinking things would get better, but she could welcome the thought that things wouldn't get worse. She wouldn't let it. Not on her life.She sighed deeply as she shut the door to Naima's room, having just
Taissa slapped her knee and laughed out loud. 'That's the best joke I've heard today, Marlee.'Marlee Ransom pursed her lips and sat down beside her friend, her face revealed no hint of comedy. 'It's no joke, Taissa. You're preggy.'Waves of shock, alarm and stark terror crashed over her Taissa like an angry tide. Her open mouth went dry and it felt like something had stuck in her tonsils. She was fairly sure her heart had missed the next few scheduled beat. She unconsciously flexed her suddenly numb fingers and searched for her voice. 'Pregn-nant?' she finally echoed.'I'm afraid so, babes.''How is that pos—' Taissa suddenly blanched. 'Oh my God, no. Oh my God, no. No, no, this did not happen,' Taissa said softly, hanging her head.Marlee sighed and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. 'I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this. But you gonna be okay.' Even though she had bad news, she tried to wind up her speech on a positive note.Taissa shut her eyes and swallowed painf
'Wakey, wakey.'Still pretty much asleep, Taissa slapped the tickling thing away. The giggle that followed broke her dreamy haze and she pried open her eyes, sitting up to shake out the cobwebs of sleep from her eyes.A smiling messy-haired blonde stood taller beside a grinning boy whose red hair looked like he'd stuck his hand in a toaster.'Happy birthday!' Yannis shouted. That got her full attention.'Birthday?' Naima frowned, turning to him.'Birthday?' Taissa said.Yannis sucked in his lips as though he'd just realized the meaning of his utterance. 'Um, is that not what you say when you bring me breakfast in bed?'For the first time, Taissa noticed the covered tray on the nightstand. 'Oh.'Naima palmed her face. 'No duh. That's because you mostly get breakfast in bed "on your birthdays"! ''Sorry, guess I'm just too used to that.' The little boy hung his head.'Sheesh!' Naima scolded. 'Mommy was supposed to guess the reason we were in her room.''Sorry.' His head couldn't go any
Taissa Allendale barely managed to slip the two glass flutes unto the coffee table before she collapsed into the sofa, her right arm hitting Marlee. 'Sorry,' she mumbled.'With your damn work taking it out of you you're really gon' kill yourself before your time, girlfriend.' Marlee's nagging voice made her feel worse.'Oh, for fuck's sake, Marlee!' she grumbled out loud.'Okay, okay.' Marlee seemed amused.Taissa sighed in relief and waved to the liquid in flutes. 'Make yourself at home.'Marlee picked up a flute and sipped from it rather daintily. 'Since when did you start having liquor in the house?''It's only margarita, Marlee. I got one at a c-store on the way home.''I didn't know they had this kind of stuff at c-stores.'Taissa sighed and said, 'This particular one had. Marlee, I've got a headache building up.' So stop yanking my chain. But she didn't voice that. Instead, she glared at her best friend meaningfully.'So, you thought the best thing to do was buy a drink on yo