Rough, Raw and Ready(40)
Edgard laughed.
“I ain’t been back since.”
“No contact with anyone at all?”
“Minimal. My other brother is on the circuit. Brent will do whatever Dad tells him to do. My sisters and their freeloadin’ husbands are just as bad. So I figure I ain’t out much.”
“They know Chassie?”
“About her? Yeah. Met her yet? Hell no.”
“You know I ain’t a big fan of your family, but that seems…odd.”
The muscle in Trevor’s jaw bulged. “My asshole father called me, drunk as shit, and announced I’d dropped to the bottom of the peckin’ order, except he called it the ‘totem pole’, when I married a red-skinned…shit, I can’t even repeat it.” His hands curled around the steering wheel. “Chassie heard.”
Edgard’s stomach dropped. “Oh, Jesus.”
“Tater Glanzer can be a dickhead to me all he wants, ’cause I’m used to his meanness. But when he brought my sweet wife into it? He went too far. Even if he was drunk off his ass and probably don’t remember nothin’.”
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“I can understand why you’d stay away from them.”
“Can you? I thought your family was all rainbows and butterflies and I’m-okay-you’re-okay happy shit.”
Trevor turned off the main road and they started up the long driveway.
“Maybe at one time. Things change.” Sadness, anger and grief spun in Edgard’s head. Here was his chance to come clean with Trevor about what’d gone down in his life in the last year. “Sometimes things change one helluva lot. Sometimes leaving is the only option.”
He braced himself for Trevor’s questions, but the man kept his eyes forward and he knew why Trevor hadn’t responded. Chassie’s truck was parked in front of the house.
Trevor barely put it in park before he jumped out of the truck and barreled up the steps into the house.
Edgard stared at the aluminum screen door and listened to the engine clicking as the motor cooled. “Sometimes leaving is the only option,” he repeated, knowing saying it out loud didn’t make it any easier to do.
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Rough, Raw, and Ready
Chapter Twelve
The door banged open. Chassie turned just in time to see Trevor running— running—
toward her.
He swept her into his arms, peppered her face with kisses, muttering, “Thank God you’re home. I missed you. Baby, I missed you so damn much. Don’t ever leave me again.”
She wrapped herself around him and held on. Breathing him in. Listening to his heart thundering beneath her ear. Renewing her vow to do whatever it took to keep this man she loved in her life forever.
Trevor said not one word; his actions spoke volumes. His palms smoothed over her hair and down her neck. Hands followed the contours of her shoulders, her spine, the curve of her hips and the globes of her ass, then his fingers trailed back up, starting the process all over again. Feelings of love, reverence, hope, possession, apology, passion, fear, need…all there solely in his touch.
A shuddering wiggle of her body caused Trevor to drop his arms as if he feared he’d been crowding her.
Chassie rose up on her tiptoes and brushed kisses on the sexy cleft in his chin. Once.
Twice. Three times. Her lips meandered up to his mouth, where she whispered, “I missed you too,” and she devoured him in a bruising kiss.
Trevor let her lead for a change and it felt damn good. She dragged hot, openmouthed kisses down the strong column of his throat, loving the way he tasted there, loving the scent of his sweat and really loving his soft, helpless groan when her tongue touched a sweet spot at the base of his neck.
“Chassie, we need to—ouch!”
Her lips curved into a smile after she’d bitten him.
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“What was that for?”
She blinked at him innocently. “What? That little love bite?”
“Little? Christ, woman, I think you drew blood.”
“Poor baby.” Chassie kissed the red mark. “That’s what’ll happen every time you try to talk. I don’t want to talk.”
The front door opened. She half-expected Trevor to jump back (with guilt?) but he didn’t move. She pressed her lips to the other mark before she spun around.
Edgard paused on the rug.
What was he waiting for?
For you to prove you don’t have a gun aimed at his head for being in love with your husband. Make the first move.
“Hey, Edgard.”
His smile was warm, lighting up his entire face. When the glow reached his eyes, the hazel tones were transformed into a mellow gold. “Hey, Chass.”