Dimitri knew it.
On her acknowledgment, he entered, turned off the second code, and headed in to see Poppy. When he spotted her, his heart pounded in his chest.
Yes, she was the one.
Poppy was sitting on the couch, legs tucked beneath her as she chewed on a pencil and worked.
She looked lovely.
“I see you began without me,” he teased. “You’ve already begun detecting. I feel left out.”
She looked up and smiled at him.
Her heart skipped.
He looked so virile, dangerous, and delicious. His hair was loose, his eyes sparkled, and in that suit…
Holy hell.
She wanted to jump him.
“Please!” she said laughing. “I had to do something to stay away from the food you had sent up. I think you’re trying to fatten me up.”
He leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the cheek in greeting.
This was work.
Keep it light.
Dimitri knew it would be hard, but he’d manage.
“I find myself wanting to feed you, babochka. I can’t help it. There’s some need in me.”
Yeah, the need to wine and dine her into bed.
Who was he kidding?
“Well, in that case, who am I to stand between that and your need?” she teased.
Little did she know that once he set that part of him free, he’d be all over her. He’d devour every second they were together, and he’d crave her like an addicted man.
He was the predator.
She was his prey.
Once in the trap, he’d never let her go.
“Want to eat?” he asked, trying to keep it light.
She closed the file.
“Okay, and then we have to find a retired cop,” she stated. “He’s the man who investigated my mother and sister’s deaths. That would be the best place to start.”
He held out his hand to help her up.
If that was what she wanted, he’d gladly accompany her on that mission. Dimitri wanted to be near her in the worst way.
But first…
“I have something for you,” he said, handing her the prettily wrapped box with the black ribbon.
She took it and shook it.
“Uh, and here I forgot to get you something,” she said. “How awkward.”
It made him laugh.
“Open it, Detective.”
She did.
Dimitri watched as she carefully untied the ribbon, fussily pulled back the paper, and then stared at it.
“Is that Kevlar?” she asked.
He tapped his chest.
“That’s military grade and the best on the market. That will keep you safe. We all wear it.”
She pulled it out and stared at it. It was about a million times better than the crap cops wore. It had to be expensive and she loved it.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said.
Dimitri hoped he didn’t miscalculate. Maybe she expected something more date-like.
“If you don’t…”
He didn’t get to finish.
Poppy was on him, and she kissed him.
It was one hell of a kiss too. Dimitri held her as her mouth moved enthusiastically across his in the wild and amazing lip lock.
When she pulled away, she smiled wickedly.
“The way to my cop heart is through guns and Kevlar. I will sleep in it! That’s the second sexiest thing I’ve seen today,” she admitted.
“What was the first?”
She went serious.
“You.”
His heart skipped.
Dimitri struggled with that one sentence. No one, other than a hooker, okay, and Emma, had ever called him sexy. Dangerous, a killer, and Russian scum, yes.
Sexy, no.
“Thank you for the really amazing gift, Dimitri. I hope I can pay you back.”
He blinked.
“Well, we’re having a date tonight…” Then he realized how that sounded. “Wait! I didn’t mean…!”
She laughed.
Poppy had meant exactly that. She saw the flush on his neck, and it was incredibly sweet and sexy.
“Will you help me into the body armor?” she asked. “It looks complicated.”
Okay, that was a lie.
She wanted to make him crazy and flirt. Poppy couldn’t help herself.
At that request, Dimitri nearly did cartwheels.
“Absolutely. It will take about twenty minutes to mold to your body. It will be seamless. By the time we finish breakfast, you’ll feel the difference.”
She giggled in glee. Poppy loved things like this. This body armor was sexy too.
Dimitri was glad it made her happy. That’s all he wanted for Poppy.
“Under or over?” she asked.
Oh, here was his favorite part.
“Under,” he said. “It needs the warmth of your body or it’s going to feel like wearing cheap cop Kevlar.”
That worked for her.
Poppy pulled off her blazer and slipped out of her gun holster. He held them for her as she unbuttoned the poppy colored shirt.
He tried not to stare, but it was damn hard. Poppy had an amazing body. It called to him. At that very moment, his dick was twitching at what was to come.
Nearly naked Poppy.
Dimitri didn’t need to lose control, so he tried to focus on anything but what was happening.
“Is that your favorite color?” he asked.
“Close,” she said. “Red first, poppy second,” she said as she slipped out of her silk shirt.
He tried not to stare.
It was hard not to notice that she was standing there in a sexy camisole covering her bra.
His mouth went dry.
BONE DRY.
Jesus.
God help him.
Dimitri was only human.
Her body was amazing. Even more amazing was that she wasn’t afraid to take off her shirt in front of him.
This was hard.
No.
He was hard.
Dimitri hadn’t touched a woman in weeks. That was a long time for him. Normally, he’d hire two to three hookers a week, depending on his mood.
The last time he’d gotten off was with Marissa, and that left a lot to be desired when it came to his soul.
Watching Poppy…
Yeah, he was definitely in the mood to roll around naked with this woman. He knew what he was in the mood for, and it wasn’t a hooker.
It was a cop.
Oh, he could hear fate mocking him. The irony wasn’t lost on Dimitri.
The bad guy wanted the really good girl.
“I’m ready.”
He was watching her.
Poppy was freaking nervous. She wasn’t super thin, and she didn’t have a model’s body. Here she was, standing in front of this sexy man, and he expected…
Crap!
She wished she’d skipped the chocolates.
Well, here went nothing.
Poppy pulled off the camisole and stood there in only her bra.
“Now I’m ready.”
He was ready too. Honestly, Dimitri didn’t think she’d strip all the way down. He figured she’d laugh and tell him to turn around.
“Truth or Dare,” he said, trying to break the ice.
She laughed.
“I normally take the dare, but right now, I feel like being honest with you.”
“This isn’t nearly as awkward as it should be,” he said, admiring how slim her waist was, and it sloped into full hips and a sexy ass.
“I’m good with it. I saw you pretty much shirtless on the mountain.”
Yes, yes, she did, and if she asked him to strip right then and there, he would. Dimitri would give her one hell of a show.
“Body armor?” she asked.
Yeah, it pulled him back to reality.
Dimitri helped her into the gear, and as he did, he wasn’t able to stop himself from check
ing her out. Staring down over her shoulder, he had one hell of a view of soft, creamy breasts.
Yeah, she was sexy.
Dimitri wanted to touch them in the worst way, and it took everything he had not to do it.
He counted in his head to distract himself.
When she turned around, she smiled at him.
“Truth or Dare, Mr. Gideon?”
“Truth. I risk too much on a daily basis to always go with a dare.”
“What are you thinking?” she asked. As a cop, she valued the truth, even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. A lie…it built walls.
“How I wanted to touch you, and how I’m trying to be a gentleman but it’s hard.”
He zipped up her body armor and took a step back.
“Really, really hard.”
Her heart thumped in her chest. A part of Poppy still couldn’t believe this man wanted her.
HER.
“Thank you for the body armor, Dimitri, and thank you for not lying to me.”
“Thank you for taking your shirt off in front of me. I’m a man. We like breasts.”
She laughed, not expecting it.
Dimitri helped her into her shirt, and he even took the time to slowly button it up.
It felt so damn intimate.
“How does it feel?” he asked.
“You this close or the body armor?” she asked.
“I know how this feels. I was thinking more about the body armor.”
“It’s pinching on my left side.”
He went to adjust it for her, and she kissed him. Again, it caught him off guard, but it didn’t stop him. Immediately, his good arm went around her waist.
Dimitri fell into the kiss.
It was deep, all-consuming, and it rocked his world. When he moaned, she set him free. As she pulled away, his lower lip was between her teeth.
His erection throbbed.
Holy shit!
He was seconds from throwing her over his shoulder and taking her to bed.
When she finally set his lip free, she stared up into his aqua eyes.
“Thank you for protecting me with this really perfect gift. I appreciate it and thank you for being a gentleman. That’s appreciated too.”
Oh, if she could only see inside his head. She’d be running, not thanking him.
Instead of saying anything, he handed Poppy her gun holster.
“It is my pleasure,” he finally got out.
“Breakfast?” she offered, cutting him a break. She could feel the throb of his erection against the front of her body.
Someone was rock-hard.
That made her wet.
Still, they had work to do after breakfast. Tonight, on their second date, all bets were off.
“Yes, let’s eat,” he said, trying to regain control of his libido. With a hooker, he’d just take and be brutal. With Poppy, he didn’t want to be that man.
Instead, he handed Poppy her blazer, and she followed him to the table in the sitting area. Tonight, he wanted the whole place set up to dazzle her.
“After you,” he said, pulling out her chair.
Poppy sat.
When he lifted the dome off the plate in front of her, she smiled brightly at him.
“Bacon. Yay!”
He laughed.
“You’re easy to make happy, Detective.”
He sat across from her and placed his napkin in his lap. He loved watching her.
“When you grow up in foster care, you’re very happy to be given anything. Life is hard when you’re a lost child.”
He understood that.
He had been lost, and so had his sisters. If anyone could sympathize, it was him.
“I’m aware. Maybe that is what has brought us together, Miss Wayne. Two lost souls.”
She began eating and stared at him.
“I’m not lost anymore. I know my purpose. I was born to help people. What were you born to do, Dimitri?” she asked.
“I was born to wander aimlessly. Then I found a family, and I didn’t want to wander.”
She smiled.
“The Crofts, huh? They seem…insane.”
He laughed.
“You should have seen this morning. It was asylum inducing, but it’s what we have come to know and love.”
She laughed.
“I’m glad you found a family.”
Oh, he was too.
His life changed the day Randall had sicced him on Emma Croft as protection.
“So, you have two kids…?”
He knew this talk had to happen. He knew it was going to occur at some point. He was fairly young, and he was a single parent.
“Yes, as you know, Sam is my son,” he said, as she ate some bacon and watched him with those curious cop eyes.
“How old is he?”
“He’s a child going on twenty-five.”
She laughed.
“Oh, that sounds like you have your hands full. I only talked to him a bit on that day, and he was something.”
Dimitri was curious.
“Truth or Dare?” he asked.
“Truth. I like to mix it up.”
“Do you like kids?” he asked, keeping his fingers crossed. If she said no…well, that was a problem. He loved Petra and Sam. They were his.
“Kids are fun, but I’ll be honest.”
Uh oh.
That didn’t sound good at all.
“What?” he asked, feeling on edge with what she was going to say to him.
“I don’t like babies. I don’t know what to do with them. They stare at you, and you know they need shit, but you have NO idea what they need. I’m more a little kid kind of person. They don’t freak me out.”
“My sister just had a baby. She’s sweet.”
“Can I see a picture?” she asked. “I mean, I heard she did, but the heir to the Croft fortune is being kept under wraps.”
He pulled out his phone, unlocked it with his finger, and then flipped through the pictures.
“Her name is Sadie Emma Croft.”
She looked at her.
“Uh, she’s cute.”
He grinned.
“But terrifies you?”
“Oh yeah. It’s that ‘I’m looking for boobs and are you going to feed me’ look.”
He laughed.
“That’s fairly accurate. She takes after her father. Curtis is always doing that to Katerina.”
She finished eating and sipped her coffee.
“Croissant?”
“I like my ass to fit on a chair, so pass. As tempting as a chocolate croissant is, one of us has to have self-control. We know it’s not you,” she said, pointing at the buffet of food he’d called up.
Who was he trying to feed?
An army?
“What’s your daughter like?” she asked.
“Well, it’s day two. I’m still alive.”
“That good, huh?”
“It’s a battle. When I saved my sisters, they were badly neglected. Natasha hadn’t been fed regularly, and she was a skeleton with skin. Her hair was falling out.”
“I’m sorry she was killed.”
“You found her justice. That’s the point, isn’t it? Beneath it all, isn’t that the end goal?”
“No. The point is you hurt because your child was taken from you. There’s no way you raised her for all those years only to think of her as your sister. She was your child.”
It astounded him that she understood that. Family knew it, but outsiders never got that.
“She was my child.”
“I’m glad I killed the man who hurt her. I’m glad she has justice, but I’m sad I can’t fix that pain.”
He had never had anyone understand him the way she did. No, that wasn’t true. Emma saw through his façade rather easily.
“She’s in a better place.”
She laughed.
“That’s a load of bullshit, and I hate when people say that.”
He lifted a brow.
“Pardon?”
“Death isn’t hard for the dead. It’s hard for the living. We all know that for us, the best place is with us. My mother and sister have been gone for a long time. Decades. I still miss them. They aren’t in a better place. The best place would be in my life.”
Dimitri heard the bitterness. It appeared that he wasn’t the only one who mourned like he did.
Anger lived in him too.
“You found them, huh?”
She sipped her coffee.
“Yes, and I’ll never forget it. The smell of cooking flesh, the sight of my mother floating dead in an overflowing tub. I don’t need that file to pull up the visuals. I live it every day in my mind. Daisy was stuck to the radiator. She cooked to it.”
He put down his fork.
It turned his stomach.
“Why do you do this job? It’s a constant reminder, Detective. Why? Help me understand.”
“It’s penance.”
“For? What sins have you committed that you feel you need to relive that atrocity?”
“I couldn’t save them. I carry that. I was born to do this. I was born to save people. I couldn’t save my family, so I save as many people as I can until I can’t do it anymore.”
“Do you ever want to quit?”
She laughed.
“Every hour or so.”
“So why don’t you? It’s a shit job, with shit pay, and you could do anything you want. Why suffer?”
“Because that scene haunts me. I chase the demons that chase me. It’s a big circle. If I stop chasing, they’ll catch me. Then what?”
Yeah, he understood that.
Because of his family, he didn’t have to worry about the demons. They kept them off of him.
“I’m sorry, Poppy.”
“Don’t be. I’m strong. I rarely break. I’m ready to find this person. There are only a few possible people it can be. He clearly knew my mother. He knew her name. I’ll systematically chip away at it. I’ll win. I always win.”
“I’ll help you until you do.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because I was born to wander until I found what I was looking for, and I’ve found it.”
“The Crofts are lucky to have you.”
He stared into her eyes.
“I was talking about you, Poppy. I meant that I was born to find you.”
That sat there between them.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
“Does that make you uncomfortable, Poppy?” he asked, watching her for any sign. He was good at watching. He was good at judging.
With her, he couldn't tell.
Mob Justice Page 23