Chasin's Surrender (Gemini Group Book 5)

by Riley Edwards

  “You hungry?” Chasin asked when I looked in his direction.

  “Yeah, but I need to pick all this up first.”

  He glanced around the floor and my gaze followed. In my haste to find the letter, thinking that I’d misplaced it, I’d thrown everything from my suitcases around the room. Clothes and shoes were strewn everywhere.

  “Why didn’t you unpack?” Chasin asked.

  His tone was tight and I wasn’t sure if he was upset about the state of his room or if he was still mad about the showdown with Len.

  “Because I’m used to living out of a suitcase and you’re being way cool letting me take over the master. I didn’t want to invade anymore of your personal space.”

  That was the truth. But part of me didn’t think I’d be here long, and for some reason, the thought of unpacking and mingling my stuff with Chasin’s seemed too intimate. And in that vein, when it was time to leave, taking my clothes out of his dresser and closet, packing it back up, would only hurt more. So I’d left everything in my suitcases.

  “I told you I didn’t mind.”

  “But I do,” I snapped, and Chasin’s body jerked. “I’m sorry, that came harsher than I meant for it to. I’m still kinda freaked out about Len.”

  “Yeah, let’s talk about him. Honey, I hate to tell you, but you were way off-base about him. Not only was he looking at you, but he didn’t like me touching you. And I hope you understand, I did that on purpose.”

  “Did what on purpose?”

  Please be wrong. Please be wrong.

  I stood rooted, something not pleasant stealing over me. Something that felt like dread. I wanted to be wrong about why Chasin had been standing close during my showdown with Len. I wanted to be wrong about why he’d whispered in my ear and threaded our fingers together.

  But I didn’t think I was.

  “Evie—”

  “What’d you do on purpose, Chasin?”

  His head tilted to the side and he did his normal perusal. Though this time, I didn’t bother hiding that something was wrong.

  Please be wrong.

  “Why—”

  Fucking hell.

  “All of that back in your office was for show? That’s it, right? You weren’t standing close in support, you were doing it so you could get a read on Len. Am I right?”

  “Whoa!” Chasin put his hands up and took a step closer. “You’re reading way too much into what happened. I was standing there, silently supporting you. Any other time, I would’ve never touched you while you were in what was effectively a business meeting. But, yeah, I wanted to get a read on him so I touched you to see if he’d react. And, Genevieve, he did. He also didn’t hide it.”

  “Right.”

  “Baby, why do you look like I just sucker-punched you in the stomach?”

  Because you did.

  “You didn’t. I get it, I understand why you made that play. I’m gonna clean up in here then I’ll come down.”

  “No. No way. Tear ‘em down. I see you’re erecting the wall and you’ve already stacked those blocks high. Take it down.” Chasin’s tone was gruff with a liberal amount of annoyance sprinkled throughout.

  “I’m getting really tired of hearing you talk about walls,” I snapped.

  “Then stop building them.”

  God, he’s infuriating.

  “You know I just fired my manager today. It’s going to cost me a bloody fortune to fight her when she tries to sue me, and she will because I make her a shit ton of money. I’m also exhausted from having to play the part of bitchy, country music star, Vivi Rush. That shit is always draining, but after I’ve had weeks of being myself, stepping back in those shoes sucks. I also might have just fucked my career up. Never mind it’s a career I’m fairly certain I no longer want, but I still can’t afford to have it jacked up until I have something else in its place. So with all of that, is it possible you could cut me some slack?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Nope. I told you I’m not giving you the chance to hide from me. When you’re pissed and on a tear, you’ll give me these tiny pieces of you. But when you’re done ranting you immediately try to hide. The answer is no, and will continue to be no. Let’s finish our conversation from earlier. You were getting ready to tell me you weren’t sure about something.”

  I was getting emotional whiplash. Chasin was digging in—again—and I wasn’t ready to spill all of my baggage at his feet.

  “Aren’t you tired of my shit yet?”

  My mind was awhirl with a bunch of crap as it all mixed together in a battle for supremacy. It was a toss-up which part of my fucked-up life would successfully get me locked up in a nut hut. I was thinking that the crazy parts that involved Chasin were going to win.

  If I had whiplash, he had to be on the verge of drowning himself in the bathtub.

  I was behaving like a crazy person and it was to the point I was beyond embarrassed. So with all of that swirling around, I missed his approach. But I didn’t miss his arms when they went around me and pulled me close.

  “Not even a little bit.”

  “And here I was worried that I was the one on the verge of being committed. But now I see you’re the one that’s nuts. No sane, rational person would…” I trailed off when I felt his body start to shake. “Are you laughing?”

  “Fuck, yeah.” He chuckled.

  “What’s funny?”

  “You are.”

  “I’m being serious. I’m completely ridiculous.”

  One of Chasin’s arms unwrapped from around my waist, trailed up my back, then curled around the back of my neck. His other stayed where it was and tightened. His lips crashed onto mine, his tongue pushed in. Wet, deep, and hard.

  Just like the first time he kissed me and all the ones that followed, I was swept away in a maelstrom of sensations. Kissing Chasin was a full-body experience. I tingled everywhere—from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, I was on fire.

  Branded.

  Claimed.

  I guess Chasin didn’t think I was all that ridiculous.

  Good to know.

  19

  Fucking finally.

  That was Chasin’s first thought when his mouth hit Genevieve’s. Then all thoughts fled as his hand on the back of her neck moved and fisted her hair, taking an already deep kiss deeper. He couldn’t get enough. She gave and he took, until his dick trapped between them jerked when she started to hum. He was familiar with that sound, loved hearing it, feeling the vibration as it worked its way from her chest until he could taste the tremor of excitement. As much as he loved her taste, her feel, that sound told Chasin she was nearing her tipping point. Clothes would start disappearing and she’d find herself on her back in his bed if he didn’t end the kiss.

  With a slow glide of his tongue over her bottom lip, he pulled back and opened his eyes just in time to watch her do the same. Dazed, languid, hungry. Christ, she was beautiful.

  His hand moved to cup her cheek, his thumb brushed her bruised lip, wiping away the evidence of their kiss.

  “Chasin.”

  His hips automatically flexed when he heard the needy whine.

  “Later, Evie.”

  “Now.”

  Chasin dropped his lips back to hers, the feather-light brush pulled another low hum from Genevieve and he smiled.

  “Later, baby. Bobby’s downstairs.”

  And as if uttering Bobby’s name was magic, there she was.

  “Oopsie,” Bobby muttered, and his eyes sliced to her. “Um. I’m really sorry. Your phone’s been vibrating like crazy and there’s people downstairs who’d like to talk to you.”

  That was all it took for the sex-fueled haze to dissipate and alarm to seep in.

  “You let someone in the house?” he asked.

  “Yeah…”

  “Fuck!” He pulled away from Genevieve.

  Chasin wasn’t sure who he was pissed at more; himself for leaving his phone on the kitchen table then g
etting so lost in Genevieve he didn’t hear the door, or at Bobby for stupidly opening it.

  “You shouldn’t have answered it,” he barked and started for the door. “Both of you, stay up here.”

  “I’m not dumb,” Bobby defended herself. “I only opened it because they’re old as the hills, and seriously—”

  “Come again?”

  “They’re old.”

  Dread hit Chasin’s chest.

  Goddammit.

  He knew before he hit the bottom of the stairs who’d come calling.

  And when his eyes landed on his mother, that dread turned to ice.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he growled.

  His father flinched, his mother went straight to smug.

  “We thought since our only son has been too busy to come visit us, we’d come to him.”

  Chasin heard his phone clattering on the table, and moved in that direction, ignoring his mother’s complaint that he was being rude.

  “Yeah,” he answered.

  “Fucking hell,” Nixon complained. “Been trying to warn you those two parasites were coming up the lane.”

  “Oh my God. Are you Vivi Rush?” Chasin heard his mother’s excited shout.

  Fucking, fucking, hell.

  “Guess I’m too late,” Nix surmised.

  “My fault. I didn’t have my phone on me,” Chasin answered as he watched Genevieve and Bobby walk down the stairs.

  After he got rid of his parents, he was having a chat with Genevieve about following directions.

  “I’m on my way,” Nix said.

  “No need. They’ll be gone before you get here.”

  At his words, Genevieve’s gaze came to him, and for the second time in one day, his woman was gone and the shutters were up. She’d already admitted she was exhausted from dealing with Len; she needed this latest drama like she needed a round drilled in her head. And it would be a drama. Chasin’s mother was the queen of theatrics and bitch-fits.

  Though if she’d listened to him and stayed the fuck upstairs, she wouldn’t have needed to bring Vivi Rush out.

  Goddammit.

  “Gotta go.” He disconnected the call, shoved his phone in his pocket, and moved to Genevieve to head his mother off, who even now was closing in on her.

  “Back up,” he told his mother.

  “What?” Nancy whined.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I told you why. Last time we spoke—”

  “Last time we spoke, I made it clear I wasn’t coming to visit you. So cut the shit, why are you here?”

  Chasin’s gaze drifted to his father. The man hadn’t moved, and his eyes studied Genevieve.

  A sick feeling slithered up Chasin’s spine, and when Will Murray turned his cold, dead eyes in Chasin’s direction, he braced. Not because his father’s gaze was devoid of any signs of life, he was used to that. The way Chasin figured it, his father had been dying a little each day after he’d learned he’d married a lying, cheating bitch. But that wasn’t Chasin’s problem. It ceased to be his when he was eighteen and fled the brothel that had been his childhood home.

  No, Chasin braced because his father was staring at his woman with something that looked a lot like disgust with a side helping of lust.

  “What the fuck?” Chasin growled.

  He wasn’t so far gone in his anger he didn’t feel Genevieve press against his side and her hand envelop his. His eyes never left his father therefore he didn’t miss his reaction. And much like Len earlier in the day, Will’s mouth twisted in revulsion.

  What the fuck?

  “We need to have a word, and since you’ve refused our invitations to come home, you’ve left us no choice,” his mother said, but he didn’t spare her a glance. “Chasin, are you listening?”

  “Be quiet.”

  “Don’t speak to me like that,” she griped.

  And cue the drama.

  “I’m your mother,” she continued. “How dare you.”

  Chasin felt the first thread of his temper break.

  “How dare I? How dare you slink down here and invade my life. Clue the fuck in. I don’t come visit because I don’t want to see your lying ass. I don’t call because the sound of your voice makes me sick.”

  Genevieve’s body went solid and Chasin turned to look down at her. “Go on back upstairs, babe. They’ll be gone in a minute and I’ll be up.”

  With a sharp jerk of her head in the negative, she burrowed in deeper.

  What in the actual fuck?

  “William, aren’t you going to say something? Or are you going to allow your son to speak to me like that?”

  Christ.

  “Seriously, baby, you do not need to hear this shit. She’s just going to get louder. You’ve had a rough day. Go on up with Bobby.”

  “No, honey, I’m fine,” she whispered and Will belted out a laugh.

  All eyes shot to Will and Chasin felt something nasty fill the air when Will stopped laughing. It was thick and chunky, and no matter how hard Chasin tried, he couldn’t swallow past the lump in his throat.

  “Never took you for stupid,” Will started, and the room turned electric. Most of the hostility was rolling off the woman tucked to his side. He didn’t understand her reaction, and his father gave him no time to process the feeling before he continued. “I reckoned you would’ve learned. Everything you saw, your mother not even bothering to hide it, thought you’d figure it out on your own. I see you didn’t.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Chasin angrily asked.

  “Boy, you are all kinds of a fool. You think your mother had opportunity while I was at work every day making sure there was money in the bank and food on the table. What do you think that one will do?” His father pointed at Genevieve and shook his head. “Shit, boy, that woman there, rich, famous, not to mention gorgeous, she’ll break you.”

  Before Chasin had a chance to respond to the shit his father had spewed, Genevieve tore herself from his arms and stepped in front of him. And in a move that Chasin would’ve seriously laughed at had he not been so goddamn furious, Bobby slid in front of him, too, and stopped at Genevieve’s side.

  “Did he just call me a whore?” Genevieve asked conversationally.

  “Yep. I think that’s what he was implying,” Bobby answered in the same tone.

  “Is he stupid?” Genevieve continued. He saw her head move but since she was in front of him he couldn’t be sure but in his mind he pictured Genevieve taking in his mother. The woman hadn’t aged well. She used to be beautiful—there was a reason men had frequently visited her bed. Now she looked worn-out and old. “And you? You did this,” Genevieve sneered.

  “You don’t—”

  “I don’t what? Get to have a say after your husband just compared me to you?” Genevieve snapped, her thick Southern drawl laced with condescension. “Y’all came here uninvited, knowing Chasin didn’t want to see you. And that cannot be a surprise after what y’all have done to him.”

  Then her head snapped back to his father. She raised her arm and pointed her finger directly at him. “The only fool in this room is you, and don’t you ever liken me to that woman again. But more than that, don’t you ever infer that Chasin is some sort of weak, sorry excuse for a man who would first choose a piece of filth, then put up with her when she allows other men to fuck her. And for the record, he learned—oh, yeah, he learned. She taught him mistrust and suspicion, and you taught him what weakness looked like.”

  The longer Genevieve spoke, the tighter Chasin’s chest became, until he thought he’d split wide open. His heart pounded against his ribs painfully, but for the first time in his life, it wasn’t out of anger. The emotions running through him were so unfamiliar he couldn’t begin to assign words to describe them. All he knew was it felt good, it felt right, and he never wanted to stop feeling it.

  “That’s enough, Evie.” His voice sounded rough to his own ears, and when Genevieve looked over her shoulder and locked he
r eyes with his, he knew he hadn’t imagined it.

  “They do not get to come into your home and—”

  “Babe, seriously, listen to me. They’re meaningless. Five minutes after they walk out the door, I’ll go back to forgetting they exist. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but neither of them will hear you.”

  He watched as her eyes narrowed and her body tensed. “It’s not right,” she whispered.

  She was correct, there wasn’t a damn thing right about his parents being in his house. But he’d be damned if he showed either of them the lasting damage their garbage had done.

  “Trust me.”

  He hadn’t realized he was holding his breath, until with a nod, she stepped back to him and once again tucked herself under his arm. This time, her hand came to the left side of his chest and she held herself slightly in front of him.

  She’d claimed him, and fucking hell, it felt great. Never having felt it before, he gave himself a moment to enjoy it. Until his mother’s shrill voice rang out and snapped Chasin back to the situation.

  “This is absurd.”

  Chasin was so far past done, it was a miracle he’d held it together this long.

  “Leave,” he demanded.

  “But we came all the way here to talk to you.”

  “Too late. I asked you why you were here. Instead, you came into my home…fuck, never mind. It doesn’t matter. Just leave.”

  “Son,” his father started, but wisely shut his mouth when Chasin leveled him with a hard stare.

  “There is not one thing I want to hear you say. Years. Hell, my whole life, I waited for you to wake up and leave her. Show me that under all the pathetic bullshit, there was a man I could one day have a relationship with. I thought that when I turned eighteen and you were no longer responsible for me, you’d leave her and I could have at least one parent. But each time I came to visit it was worse, she had you cowed, and you took it like a chump. Your wife has fucked more men in your bed than you can count.”

  Chasin clenched his fists. “That’s disgusting. Disgusting and sad. But you don’t care. And worse you didn’t care I saw it. You didn’t care that seeing that was distorting my view about women. You just carried on in your dysfunctional marriage, and when it was your turn in her filth, you took it. Both of you, take a good look at me because this is the last time either of you will lay eyes on me. There is not one single thing I need from either of you.”