“I want to be with you.”
His heart thundered at what her words meant. He really wanted to be with her too.
“I don’t want to take advantage of you. I don’t want you to do something you aren’t ready for, Marissa.”
She moved off his lap to straddled his hips.
“I’m ready.”
And she was.
That’s when she yanked his shirt open, sending buttons flying all over the place.
Her mouth found his throat, and she left bites and kisses across his flesh.
He was euphoric.
Then the words came out, and Dimitri couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“I want you.”
“Then have me,” she finally said, going back against his body to feel the warmth.
Marissa was so chilly inside. It was as if her heart was cold.
“Make me warm. Fill my body with yours.”
Dimitri almost erupted right there.
He’d had sex with a lot of women, and he’d even loved once before but been betrayed. This feeling of hope filled him.
She might heal him.
Maybe she could fill that emptiness too.
Standing, he wanted to get her naked.
He pushed her skirt from her body, and it fell to the floor. Marissa kicked it out of the way as he stood to face her.
Marissa ran her hands down his chest, and she wanted to do truly wild and wicked things with him to forget.
In that lust, she might find calm.
“Put your hands on me,” he said, biting her ear. “Show me what you need.”
She could do that.
Marissa, flicked open his pants and pushed them down his hips. They both stood face to face, bottomless, and breathless.
“I need more, moya babochka.”
She stopped moving. “What’s that mean?” she asked, kissing him on the lips.
He didn’t even realize he’d used Russian. That’s how distracted he’d been.
“It means my butterfly.”
She turned and lifted her shirt from her body, showing him her back. On it, there was a butterfly.
“From something ugly, broken, and battered always comes something new,” she said, thinking about her childhood and how she’d never let herself be hurt like that again. Marissa would always put herself first, protecting her own heart. Men couldn’t be trusted.
At her words, his pulse skipped.
Then, he left a kiss on the blue and green tattoo.
Once more, he took her into his arms, and they fell backward onto the couch. She was above him, straddling his body, as he worked his way across her throat.
“I feel better,” she said, staring down at him.
He felt amazing.
In fact, Dimitri had never felt anything so amazing in his life. This woman had him enraptured. Her skin was creamy and so silky, he just couldn’t get enough of touching her. Most importantly, she wanted him without him having to pay for that connection.
He stopped being bad blood, and a killer, and he was now simply Dimitri Gideon.
As his hand slid lower, moving past the very sexy lace panties, he found the ultimate prize.
She was wet.
For him.
Dimitri couldn’t remember the last time that happened. When you paid for sex, you just did it. They were the vessel for his need, but this woman… she genuinely wanted him.
She moaned as he touched her.
“Dimitri,” she gasped, as his fingers did incredibly wild things to tease and torment her.
He wanted to watch her fall. With his fingers, he drove her wild, took her to the edge, and then let her tumble into a beautiful orgasm.
That was the first in a long time too.
He was actually worried about her pleasure, and he couldn’t remember the last time he did.
Oh wait.
It had been with that one woman he’d once loved. The one who tore his heart out at the tender age of twenty.
Now it was different.
He could hope again.
His hands found her hair, and he kissed her through that first orgasm.
Moving forward, he pressed her to the cushions beneath them.
“Dimitri.”
“Marissa,” he said, teasing her with his mouth.
She opened for him, and he tore her panties from her body with a gasp. The rendering of fabric caught them both off guard.
He waited, expecting her to push him away.
Instead, she did the opposite.
“Yes, please,” she begged. “More!”
He reached for his wallet and pulled out protection. He wanted them both to be safe.
“I’m on birth control.”
He still slid the condom on, out of second nature. Then, he grabbed her hips and slid home.
“I want to feel you explode around me. I want you to feel so much,” he whispered, right before he began moving.
With his hands on her hips, she let him control the ride.
Then, as he rode her body, giving them both so much pleasure, she came again.
Once more, it washed away the pain, and she couldn’t wait for it to disappear beneath more pleasure.
Dimitri held on as she moved, forcing him beneath her.
When he stared up at her, and she was batting her eyes, he was lost.
Damn!
He was so lost.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, as she stopped moving.
“That when I’m in you, I feel like I’m home,” he admitted. “I can stop worrying and just feel.”
“Welcome home then.”
That pushed him over the edge.
He had to have her. While he wanted to let her ride, he needed more.
He needed to be in control during this tug-o-war of pleasure.
Rolling, he placed Marissa beneath him on the cushions, so he could find more solace in her body.
As he began driving in and out of her, he didn’t want the feeling ever to end. She was beneath him, writhing in pleasure, and he needed to fall.
God!
Dimitri needed this one moment of happiness in his life. There was so much shit falling his way, and this woman…
He could forget.
He could have peace.
“Dimitri!” she gasped, as he changed the angle, driving himself into her body.
“I need you, Marissa!”
He kept up the pace and there were beads of sweat on his brow. While he wanted to cum in the worst way, he didn’t want to lose this one feeling.
When she whispered his name, over and over, it took everything he had not to lose it right there.
“God, Marissa! You feel so right,” he admitted, working them both into a frenzy.
There was silence in the small apartment, and he worked her body hard. He’d never wanted something this much before.
She came so many times, she knew she was going to be sore, but still…
Dimitri freaking Gideon was taking her on one hell of a ride. How could you complain about that? He was chasing back the demons, and she could have peace.
She came again, and her nails scraped down his shoulders drawing blood.
He flinched, but didn’t stop. The pain, the blood, the need, and the lust fueled him on. Dimitri refused to let this beautiful sensation go.
He was so close.
He was on the edge.
“Make me cum,” he hissed, pounding himself into her body. “Give me all your pain.”
She was teetering on the edge, and could barely hear him. It didn’t matter. She was lost in the pleasure.
Again, as her nails dug into his shoulders, that kiss of pain sent electricity through his body. He knew it was time.
He exploded.
It was cataclysmic.
Her shout of his name.
His guttural growl of ecstasy as he exploded.
It was unbelievable.
Then the silence fell over the room. There was no talking, no soun
d of flesh slapping flesh, or the grunts of heated sex.
Only quiet.
Marissa was acutely aware of him over her. She was acutely cognizant that the anger was returning, and trying to pull her back under.
She hated this cesspool of a town.
Dimitri rested on her body, and he laughed. They must look incredibly silly. He had his shirt on, open down his chest, and she was wearing hers, too, but it was pulled up over her breasts so he could admire them.
When he lifted his head, he stared right into her eyes.
They were bright.
They were brilliant.
They were watching him.
Finally, she spoke, “That was…something.”
Marissa couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Still, it was clear she wasn’t the only one who wanted to escape in the sex. It was heated, wild, and fucking.
It was nothing more. There never was more.
He laughed. “Is that a good something, or a bad something?” he asked.
“It was a ‘you made me forget’ something. So, it was very good.”
“Well, I’m glad to have helped.”
He didn’t move.
Dimitri didn’t want to give up that feeling. Normally, it was fuck and run, but now…
He wanted desperately to cuddle.
Marissa hated that the pain was coming back. While he used her body, and she used his, there was silence. She needed more of that. He was a way to get past the loss, and she wanted to do just that.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, gently leaving a kiss on the top of her nose.
“That I’d like to do that again.”
Oh, so would he. For the first time, in ever, he was craving more from one person. Forget that she nearly killed him when she stabbed him, or that his brother had killed her sister.
He wanted to build something to keep her around.
“Will you stay with me a little longer?” she asked, touching his face. “Will you make me forget for a little while? Maybe we can forget together.”
He kissed her on the lips, grateful that she wanted him to stick close. “If that’s what you need.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
He stared at this woman and a million desires rushed through his mind. Normally, he’d do a hooker, pay her, and walk away.
This time…
He needed more.
His cardinal rule was never to have sex with a woman more than once.
Yet…
Maybe he could make her stay with him if he wrapped himself around her. Maybe she would find out the truth and he would still matter.
He believed in her.
Dimitri wanted to take that elusive chance and share himself.
“Want to go cuddle in bed? I have a couple more condoms, and I’m up for a few more rounds.”
That sounded perfect.
She pulled his mouth to hers.
When he broke free, he picked her up. “I’ll take that as a yes?”
“Yes, Dimitri. It’s a yes. Let’s go hide from everything that chases us.”
Little did she know, he’d done that the last ten years of his life, and it had brought him to this point.
Only, it didn’t matter.
He now knew what everyone else felt when they let themselves give love a chance.
This partnership.
This feeling of peace.
This joy.
And with that, Dimitri Gideon fell for a woman who didn’t know that truth.
All he could hope was it didn’t go bad.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Downtown Vegas
Happy Child Birthing
Center
Curtis had the best day of his life. As he sat there, while Katerina learned to breathe through labor pains, he couldn’t help but smile.
She was having his baby.
What made it amazing?
That for weeks he’d been trying to feel his daughter move, and for the first time, it happened! His hand was over Katerina’s belly, and in that moment, he felt her.
She kicked.
Then she kicked again.
Sadie Emma Croft kicked so hard, he started to laugh. Everyone looked at him, at first, like he was crazy, but then all the men got it.
That was a miracle.
It was a beautiful thing, and he couldn’t forget it.
So, as he was walking out of the birthing suit, a smile on his face, he couldn’t help but think it was the best day of his whole life.
This was perfection.
“Are you happy, my love?” Katerina asked, holding his hand.
He grinned. “Today was the best day of my life. I got to shop with my girls, I got to feel one swimming in the goo, and I’m going to go home and molest the other one,” he said, biting her on the neck.
She giggled.
Katerina never thought she’d be this happy. This was her blessing in life. She was finally someone’s special love.
She was finally important.
“She was going crazy,” Kat said, patting her belly. “I think she liked the Lamaze.”
“Well, I liked watching you. It got me all hot and bothered. Thus the molesting of my sexy wife when we get home.”
She squeezed his hand.
“Curtis?”
He looked over.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Promise you’ll always look at me just like you did in there. Promise me that no matter what, we’ll have fifty more years to be like this.”
“I will love you for seventy-five more years. I’m going to live to be one hundred, see all forty of my grandkids and great-grandkids, and still chase my wife around in the nursing home.”
She laughed.
“That’s perfect, but…”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, kissing her knuckles.
“Can we grab something to eat? This kid…she’s bottomless.”
He laughed, and it sounded so beautiful to her ears. “I’ll take my girls out for food. What do you want?”
“A salad.”
He looked at her skeptically. “You want a salad? No one has ever said that and actually meant it.”
“Well, I want a burger, but I don’t want a big ass.”
He looked behind her.
“Well, I like your ass, and I really like it naked. So, how about we compromise?”
“How?”
“You get a salad, and I’ll get a burger, and we’ll share. Then we each have half a big ass.”
She snorted. “I love you so much.”
He kissed her. “Oh, Anfisa, I never knew love until you. I’m so damn lucky.”
Her heart melted.
As they were heading to their car, they heard tires and a car door slam.
Curtis turned, and it was the detective.
“HEY!”
Curtis focused on him, and just above the cop’s head, he saw it. There was a flash from a window in the distance.
FBI training kicked in.
Preservation took over.
He knew he had a second and that if he didn’t move, someone was going to die. His instinct took over, and he shoved Katerina, his frame covered her body as he shouted in warning to the detective.
The sound of the bullet was heard, and then the searing pain of it tearing through his body as they fell to the ground.
When they hit, Curtis had the fortitude to make sure he braced his fall from crushing his child.
“CURTIS!” Katerina screamed, as she was splattered with his blood. They rolled, and her hands went to his chest to cover the wound.
Kat screamed for help.
She shouted for the detective as he ran their way.
All the while, she stared down into his face as his life bubbled through her fingers.
“Anfisa,” he whispered, trying to hold on. The edges of his vision were going gray.
Riley hit his knees beside them, and he blocked them both with his body.
Curt
is grabbed him by the tie.
“Shooter. Fourth floor. Third window,” he muttered to the detective.
All around them, there was pandemonium.
Screams.
Reporters filming.
Katerina’s weeping.
Curtis stared up into her eyes, and he prayed today wasn’t the last day he’d have.
He’d jinxed himself.
“Curtis, stay with me!” Katerina begged, blood covering her hands and pants. “You can’t go. We have a life ahead of us.”
“I love you,” he said, trying to focus. “Call Greyson,” he whispered to the detective. “Keep my wife safe!”
And then, like that, as the sirens could be heard in the distance, and Katerina kept reminding him of his promise of seventy-five more years, Curtis Croft closed his eyes and prayed for his life.
He prayed with everything he had.
He didn’t want to die.
Chapter Eighteen
Aquarius
Monday
Noon
W hen they headed into ‘Aquarius’, Greyson was in the private room doing searches on one of Dimitri’s ‘special’ laptops. His suit jacket was off, his shirt was rolled up at the sleeves, and Emma could see his tattoo of her name on his wrist.
It got her all hot and bothered.
There was nothing like her sexy caveman at work. She couldn’t help herself.
“Mr. Croft, you look sexy sitting there.”
He looked up and grinned. “Oh, it’s my kitten. Want to come sit in my lap?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Uh, yeah!” she said, dropping into his lap to give him a kiss. As she cuddled into his body, there was that sense of peace when they touched.
It was like coming home after a long day.
Chris took a seat across from them and poached Greyson’s bourbon. Screw it. It was five o’clock somewhere.
As his wife pulled away from the kiss, Greyson eyed up the man across from him.
“Why is your mouth on my glass?” he asked.
“Would you rather my mouth on your wife?”
Emma laughed.
“Carry on.”
Chris figured as much.
“Don’t let me stop you two from making out. I can wait,” he said, leaning back in the seat as he shifted his body armor. “We’re safe in here.”
Croft lifted a brow. “What? You want to watch me kiss my kitten? Normally, you are pretty much irritated by it.”
Paid Justice (Croft Family Mob Series Book 3) Page 36
