She went all mushy.
How could she leave him? She fell and fell hard.
“I’ll take your offer. I’ll take the job.”
That gave him peace. That elusive peace that had escaped him was now all his. Dimitri had found the woman who would silence the demons.
Here she was.
In the flesh.
“Let’s seal the deal,” he said, bringing her mouth down to his. He kissed her like a starving man. He devoured, as his hands played, toyed, and stroked.
When she pulled away, she was breathless.
“Seal the deal, Dimitri. Make me yours.”
He pulled himself up with her help. Picking her up, she wrapped her legs around his hips, and he carried her to the shower. Inside, he pressed her body to the wall.
His mouth devoured again.
The bites sent chills up and down her spine.
Poppy moaned in pleasure.
“Dimitri,” she whispered.
“Let me show you the perk that only you can have,” he whispered in her ear. “Let me show you how I will cater to my woman.”
“Yes, please.”
He found his way back into her body. He found his way back into that warmth, and he used the tiled wall to support her as he drove in and out of her body.
They both stared into each other’s eyes, neither looking away.
Her breath hitched.
The pain ebbed away.
The man she loved healed her. The part of her that was broken was healed with his touch.
She came and came fast.
Poppy shouted his name.
“Again,” he whispered, driving her back up. Her hands were in his hair, as their bodies stayed connected.
She begged for more in Russian, and it made him throb with such need.
He’d found his sweet prize.
After years of pain, he found his purpose.
“Oh, Poppy,” he muttered as she came again riding his erection.
It was so hard to concentrate on anything but that delicious building of orgasm in his body.
His whole self quaked with that need.
That heat.
That want.
Dimitri had never wanted anyone more than this woman right here. Not Anastasia, not the hookers, and certainly not Marissa Pierce. They all paled in comparison.
They weren’t his Poppy.
Through it all, Dimitri knew he wouldn’t last long. Sliding from her body, he stared into her eyes.
“I need you from behind. I need that sweet ass that makes me crazy!”
No one had ever wanted her like he did. At that point, he could have anything he wanted. She’d give him her heart from her chest if he asked her for it.
It was already his.
“Yes, Dimitri.” She turned, and his hands found her hips. He pressed her to the shower wall, and her body reacted to the chill of the tile.
She gasped when he found his way back into her body.
In her ear, he whispered in Russian.
They were words of love.
Adoration.
Happiness.
She gave him them back.
As the tempo built, and it was the sound of his wet flesh hitting hers repeatedly, they both shook. Reaching around, he found her clit and teased her.
“Oh, God!” she whispered, barely able to breathe. “I’m going to cum!”
“Fall, my love. Take me with you!”
And she did.
He exploded in pleasure as her body milked his. He nearly fell and would have had she not been there to let him lean. That was the story of their relationship. When he was weak, she caught him. She’d always catch him, and Dimitri finally had peace.
“I love you,” she whispered when the pleasure passed.
“I love you, Poppy.”
He didn’t move.
“And I really work for you?”
“I’ll have the official paperwork for you tomorrow. I have to print it out. Your salary will be there, plus the requirements.”
“What requirements?”
“We work out every day as a team. Basically, I like to kick the crap out of Chris. I’m sure he will not take it easy on you. You’re the newbie.”
“Good. I want to be an equal employee. No taking it easy on me. As of this moment, I am going to be your employee.”
“I promise I won’t be easy on you, but I meant what I said,” he admitted, turning her around. “Here, my beautiful Poppy, you are mine. You are my woman. Here, in our sanctuary, you will be everything I need.”
“And you will be all I need, Dimitri.”
He kissed her on the tip of the nose.
“Always. And for the record, you don’t get away without dates nights,” he said. “I want to woo my girl.”
She smiled.
That sounded amazing.
Dates with this sexy devil?
Hell, yeah!
“Deal.”
“What’s your middle name?” he asked, tucking her black hair behind her ears.
Sweetly, she did the same.
“Rose.”
“Well, Poppy Rose, this is the beginning of an amazing partnership.”
In that moment, she believed it.
Poppy could feel it.
Chapter Fifteen
Sky Villa
Penthouse
W hen Emma arrived with Chris, Greyson was already there. He was sitting on the couch in the living room doing research on the FBI system. Information was scrolling past on the screen, and he was absorbed in it.
Still, when she saw her husband, there was only one thought in her mind.
It was good to be home.
Her sexy cave-Croft was lounging on the couch in a pair of jeans, his black shirt open at the neck, and he was barefoot. It was, quite possibly, the sexiest thing she’d seen all damn day.
Oh, how she loved coming home.
When Greyson heard her approach, he glanced over his shoulder to greet her. Instead, she vaulted the couch and landed in his lap.
It caught him off guard.
“Oh look, it’s raining redheads,” he teased as she nuzzled him. “It’s my lucky day.”
Emma kissed him.
It nearly crossed his eyes.
“Uh oh. What have you done?” he asked, as soon as he was able to speak.
“Nothing. I was a good girl.”
He lifted a brow.
“Okay, I shook down a suspect, made out with Chris on camera, and thought about molesting the hell out of my husband. Sue me. It’s been a busy morning.”
He laughed.
“Did you physically shakedown the suspect or did you let your bodyguard do it? If it was you, that’s hot. I’m asking for a friend,” he teased.
Chris came around the couch with two beers and some juice. He sat and laughed at the question.
Emma pointed at him.
“He did it, but I told him to. Does that make it less hot?” she asked, taking the juice.
“Not at all.”
Good.
She was glad.
Greyson wasn’t done.
“What did you learn?” he asked.
Emma told him all about how Libby and Johnie were skimming off their client’s profits, and who the client was.
He was surprised.
“I did not see that coming,” he stated. “Was that why you and Chris were making out in celebration?” he asked, but he wasn’t talking to his wife. He was asking the man beside them.
Chris didn’t hesitate to be one hundred percent honest with Greyson.
“The media was riding my ass about the ex,” Chris said. “I swear I didn’t enjoy it. Did you know your wife can practically unhinge her jaw?” he teased.
He laughed.
“I am aware.”
“I’ll be unhinging it later for something more exciting than a kiss,” she teased.
“Hallelujah. My day just got infinitely better,” Greyson stated.
“So now I
need to do some research on Tristan Bauer and where he got his money. Oh, how was your outing with Heath? Uh. Where is he?”
“He had a snack and now he’s off watching the kids swim. Sam was here after his tutors, and he and Petra wanted to go swimming.”
Emma waited for him to tell her about his part of the investigation. When he didn’t, she stared at him.
“Uh, part one of that remains unanswered.”
He stared at her with those stormy gray eyes, and that said it all.
“Did it go bad?”
“No.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
He shrugged.
“Greyson, come on.”
He relented.
“I scared a woman to death, forced her to get out of the city for breaking up a marriage, and then I terrorized Michael Skinner to the point he will seeing his kids like clockwork or I told him he was a dead man. As you can see, it’s just another day in my world.”
She stared at him.
While he expected her to be horrified, she grinned.
“That’s so hot, Mr. Croft. Commence unhinging,” she stated, straddling his lap to kiss him, and it was one hell of a kiss at that.
When Emma finally pulled away, he blinked a couple times to focus.
Chris laughed.
“Been there and done that.”
Greyson’s whole body stirred from that lip lock. Now he was hard and horny.
“Did she steal your gum too?” Chris added.
“Now I have to kill Chris.”
Emma laughed, knowing that there was no way the man was serious. Greyson didn’t mind her helping Chris through his issues.
“Did Skinner give you anything?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, you could say that. It seems the commissioner told him not to help Abby find her sister, and Michael Skinner gave me the ONLY name that Jeffrey mentioned regarding the whole thing.
“What?” she asked.
He pointed at the screen.
“The commissioner was worried that the name ‘Elaine Beasley’ would come up.”
“Who is she?” Emma inquired.
Greyson halted the scrolling so his wife could check out the information on the screen.
“That’s her arrest record,” he said. “She’s a madam in Vegas. She owns a bunny ranch.”
Emma laughed.
“Is anyone surprised that Jeffrey Raye has to pay for sex?” she asked. “I, for one, am not. That’s pretty much how I thought that would go down.”
Yeah, him too.
“Maybe his wife found out about the sex, and he shut her up—for good,” Chris said. “While hookers at a brothel are legal on the ranches, I doubt he thought it would be good for his career. He is the police commissioner in Las Vegas.”
Chris had a point.
“Can you run my guy?” she asked her husband since he was already playing with the tech.
“I am ‘your guy’,” he reminded her. “Care to rephrase that for me?”
Emma had a better idea.
She kissed him again, and when she pulled away, his shirt was unbuttoned.
“Well, that was distracting.”
She laughed.
“Oh, Mr. Croft, you haven’t seen anything yet,” she promised.
He hoped not.
“Tristan Bauer?” he asked, trying to regain his ability to think. His wife was very good at distracting him. In fact, her fingers on his chest were doing just that.
Emma nodded.
Greyson ran him.
“I need to know where he got that big fat chunk of money to invest. That seems out of place,” she stated.
“He’s a teacher,” Greyson stated. “He didn’t get it from his salary.”
No, he did not.
“I vote ill-gotten gains,” Chris stated. “This is, after all, Las Vegas.”
Emma thought about it.
“I say gambling.”
Greyson did his thing, and the man’s life scrolled past on the screen.
God!
He loved FBI technology. It made their lives so much better.
“Anything creepy in his past?” Emma asked. Greyson was more familiar with the technology, so she let him do his thing.
He kept scanning.
“Nope.”
“Well, after we talked to him, he made a call. I’d love to know who he called.”
“We can terrorize him tomorrow if you’d like,” Greyson stated.
She laughed.
“Oh, hell no. You are going to a brothel. I insist. I wouldn’t want to ruin your fun with Elaine Beasley. What kind of wife would I be then?”
Chris laughed at that.
Greyson…not so much. Instead, he sighed.
“Please don’t make me go to the brothel, Emma.”
For some reason, she found that outrageously funny, and she couldn’t help but snort.
“What’s it worth to you, Mr. Croft?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t want to be privy to this,” Chris said. “I feel dirty, as it is, watching you feel him up after you were making out with me.”
Greyson lifted a brow.
“If you were any other man saying that, I would kill you. Next time you wonder how much I love you, go with that.”
He grinned.
Greyson had to get out of this.
“Emma, honey, when I go to those places, I feel dirty. I hate how everyone thinks I’m stepping out on my pregnant wife. If you take the bunny ranch, I’ll take the next shitty interview you don’t want to take.”
“Promise? Even if it’s Jell-O wrestling a stripper live on TV?”
He looked horrified.
“What the hell kind of case would that be attached to?” he asked. “And HELL NO! I’m not wrestling a stripper in Jell-O for anyone. Period.”
“I’ll do it,” Chris said.
They both looked over at him.
“Don’t judge. It’s on my bucket list.”
Emma laughed over that. She didn’t buy that for a single second. She knew her best friend. He’d be just as horrified as Greyson—if not more so.
“I’ll take the madam and you get Tristan, but you better get something out of him.”
“Oh, Heath is evil. We won’t have a problem with that. The man is pretty sadistic, and yet, he’s watching kids. That seems like a well thought out idea,” he teased.
“Not our kids,” she teased back.
“Oh, Mrs. Croft, you have a very good point.”
Emma gave him a kiss, and he was rock-hard. She wiggled in his lap to drive him crazy. What could she say? Emma missed him.
“Kitten. Behave.”
Before she could say anything, the family began filtering into the condo.
Kat was there, and she was dressed to do a job. She was wearing all black, her hair was in a ponytail, and Curtis was holding a swaddled Sadie.
“There is my daughter and her felonious ways,” Emma said. “Kat the cat burglar is back in action. My son married well. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Speaking of cats, Curtis was grinning like the Cheshire one, and they could postulate that he’d worked out his issues.
Kat gave her a kiss, and one to Greyson too.
“I’m ready for tonight. In fact, I’m so excited to be back at work.”
They bet. Everyone there knew how that felt.
“We are just waiting on Dimitri,” Chris stated.
“He came in with Poppy,” Tessa said, sitting in Paris’s lap. “We wrapped up the job, and handled the situation at Poppy’s place.”
They all stared at her—especially Paris.
Only then did she realized what she’d done. Dimitri hadn’t told anyone yet, and she knew. Paris was staring at her, and she knew the shit was about to hit the fan.
“Uh oh,” Emma stated.
Yeah, she could say that. Tessa’s husband, who had just gotten back from the hospital and work, was staring at her.
“And I’m about to get a lecture fr
om my very stern looking husband,” she added.
Crap!
Paris couldn’t believe his ears.
“What do you mean ‘wrapped up the job’?” Paris asked. “I called you earlier and you were deeply involved in an adventure. I thought you meant a book.”
She gave him a kiss.
“Uh, I was researching one?” she tried.
“Tessa.”
“We had a little issue,” she stated. “We missed Brent Hendricks, again, and while we were out interviewing…”
He stopped her.
“Who were you interviewing?” Paris asked. “When I left this morning, you were not planning on ‘interviewing’ anyone.”
“Poppy had to head to the commissioner’s.”
“We knew that part,” Greyson stated.
“We interviewed Lewis Garrett. He’s probably Poppy’s biological father. Dimitri didn’t want Poppy facing that, so he needed backup.”
She told them everything.
They listened.
“Then we got the call.”
She told them that too.
“He’s an asshole,” Chris stated. “He wanted her off the force, so he put her career under the magnifying glass. That’s what he did to Riley, to me, and to you, Emma.”
“Oh, well, I hope Finn and Delilah will have him for breakfast.”
Tessa told them about the apartment.
“Jesus!” Greyson said. “Is she okay?”
Tessa wasn’t sure.
“He brought her here. That’s all I know. When we left her place, she was pretty shaken up.”
Oh, they could only imagine.
“Oh, and he offered me a security job,” she added rather quickly.
Paris stared at her.
“Pardon?” he asked.
Tessa smiled.
“Apparently, I’m badass.”
“And pregnant,” Paris stated. “Have we forgotten that little part of this ‘adventure’?” he asked.
“Not really,” Tessa stated. “How mad are you?”
He laughed.
“Well, I’m not thrilled, but we’ll discuss this later—while we’re alone, Tessa.”
Oh, she didn’t doubt that at all.
Greyson was worried about his best friend, and the woman that Dimitri was in love with. So, he pulled out his phone to text Dimitri, only to hear the man come in with her. As soon as he did, they all looked over.
“Well, we’re late,” he said, holding Poppy’s hand.
Immediately, Emma was up and heading toward the woman. She hugged her.
Mob Justice Page 45