Chapter Five
Saturday Morning
I t was the day. The whole house was a buzz with the upcoming wedding. It was scheduled for that afternoon, and while it was going to be epic, it was also going to be nice that it was only family.
Today, they were going to have a few people there that weren’t ‘related’ by blood, marriage, or love.
Their lawyer, Delilah Fleur was also going to be on the guest list, simply because she’d bailed them out of sticky situations more times than not, and they trusted her.
She had their backs.
Delilah wasn’t the only one. After the last case, Detective Riley Henderson had once more proved that he was on their side, and he’d found his way into Delilah’s heart.
He was her plus one for the wedding.
Apparently, they were on their way to being a couple, and it was fun to watch a woman who loathed cops, falling for one. Then you had a cop, willing to bend to cozy up to a defense attorney.
It was amusing to the family, and once more, proof that love could happen anywhere.
Emma and Greyson weren’t sure who had it worse. Was it the detective who had it bad for the barracuda attorney or the lawyer who liked to roast cops in their own sweat on the stand?
This was going to be an adventure.
As they all gathered for breakfast to meet before the chaos of the day, Steele was missing.
“Uh, where’s the groom?” Emma asked, as everyone gorged on muffins, bacon, and creamy eggs.
“He said it’s bad luck to see the groom,” Chris teased. “I don’t know why Dante is here then, since we have two,” he said, stealing the man’s muffin from his plate.
“HEY! That was the last blueberry one.”
“I know,” Chris said. “I want it before you get your Croft cooties all over it.”
It was like kids at a table.
It made Emma laugh. She really loved when they all came together and sat down to enjoy a meal as one.
This was the true heart of their home.
Greyson pointed at his brother before he could even think about poaching his baked good.
“If you touch my muffin, I’m going to break your fingers,” he threatened. “I get one fatty carb a day, and that’s it. I’ll have to sneak sugar later as I pretend I’m signing bills in my office.”
Emma laughed. “I took the cookies out of your drawer and the candy bars out of your file cabinet,” she said, feeding herself and their growing baby yogurt and fruit.
“Damn it, woman! Why do you hate me? Haven’t I been a good husband?” he teased.
She didn’t mention the closet safe, so he was going to keep his mouth shut on that last hiding place.
Emma gave him a kiss, and it was a lingering one.
“Never mind,” he said. “I’ll take that over a cookie any day. In fact, it rhymes with cookie…”
She poked him in the ribs.
“Seriously, where is he?” she asked. “Steele has to eat something too.”
Natasha walked in, and she was beaming. “Morning, family,” she offered, giving Chris a kiss.
Dante stole his muffin back and licked it while the man was distracted with the pretty Russian woman.
Chris stared at him in disgust. “Have you no limits to your depravity. I licked it right before you, so who’s laughing now?”
He looked at the muffin and shrugged.
Apparently, not.
“Where’s Dimitri?” Greyson asked.
“Steele had to leave, and Dimitri took him,” Natasha offered, as she grabbed a yogurt out of the fridge. She wasn’t pregnant or married. She needed to keep her man following her, so diet it was.
Greyson stopped eating. “They left the house?”
That didn’t sound good. Dimitri was a sitting duck, and Steele knew that. It had to be important, or so he was praying.
“Where did they go?” he asked.
“I don’t know. All I know is I was checking in with my brother, and Steele was heading out. Dimitri got his gear on, about four guns more than he normally carries, and he followed him.”
Dante dropped his fork and began dialing his fiancé. He was scared shitless.
Was he a runaway groom?
Could he be so close yet so far from getting his partner to the altar?
He didn’t answer.
Then he dialed Dimitri.
He didn’t answer.
“I don’t like this,” he said.
None of them did.
Emma got up, and she headed to the control center on the kitchen wall. She entered a few passwords, and she had the cars pulled up.
“Uh, how did you get Dimitri’s passwords?” Greyson asked.
“I figured them out.”
“What are they?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. “He won’t tell me. He does everything in Russian, and I don’t know what the hell he’s saying.”
“Learn Russian,” she offered. Little did her husband know that his passwords were in English.
“Uh, America. I’m not in Mother Russia,” he said with a cheesy accent.
It made Natasha giggle. “Thank God. That was bad.”
Emma winked at her.
“I did the footwork. Besides, I was only a detective. Do you mean that MR. FBI doesn’t know?” she teased.
He ignored that.
Instead, he turned on the camera in Dimitri’s vehicle. There was the man, driving along. He was on the phone with someone, talking in Russian.
Both Kat and Natasha stopped eating.
“What did he just say?” Greyson offered.
Emma picked up a few words.
“He’s tracking that killer, isn’t he?” she asked. While she was learning, he was speaking so fast.
They all waited for Natasha and Kat to answer. Slowly, Natasha glanced at her sister, they shared a look, and then she nodded.
“What did he say?”
Neither girl wanted to rat their brother out. Only, they didn’t have a choice.
“Girls!”
They caved.
“He’s dumping a lot of money into the seedier side of Vegas to find Viktor.”
She wasn’t surprised.
“What about Babylon?”
They were shocked she’d caught it.
“Listen, I’m smart. I can tell when someone in our family is hiding shit and going rogue. What is going on?”
“He’s trying to buy back his debt, or…”
Emma didn’t need to know what the ‘OR’ was going to be. Someone was going to be dying.
Well, she knew enough.
Emma pushed the button, alerting him.
He stopped his conversation. “Yes, Emma?” he asked, as he continued to drive.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Steele wanted to see someone this morning. I couldn’t let him go out alone, and everyone else was asleep.”
“Dimitri, are you safe?” she asked.
He laughed. “Are you worried about me?” he inquired, pulling over to park.
“Yes, we are.”
“Steele is in the rich part of town. I think I’m good. He said something about seeing a woman named Camille.”
Dante started choking.
Chris pounded on his back to stop the man from choking to death.
“That’s his mother,” Greyson told their head of security. “She’s a pain in the ass.”
“What the hell is he thinking?” Emma asked.
“Do you want me to pull him and get him back to the house?” Dimitri asked. “I can shoot him in the leg,” he teased.
Dante stared at his brother, hoping the man would say something.
“He’s kidding, right?”
Kat laughed. “You can’t tell from the humor in his voice?” she asked.
“That’s Dimitri Gideon. There’s NEVER humor in his voice!”
He may have had a point.
“No, but just make sure he’s back here in time to get ready for the wedding. If he does try to be a runaway groom, then shoot him,” Emma teased, winking at Dimitri through the camera.
“On it.”
Dante closed his eyes. “Why can’t my wedding day be filled with debauchery and food like everyone else’s?” he asked. “Is it too much for me to want people making out in closets, or flashing their man bits at each other?”
That made Emma laugh. “What the hell kind of wedding did you think I was planning?” she teased.
“I just want to get married,” Dante stated. “How freaking hard is it to have a normal wedding?”
“My wedding was normal,” Curtis said.
“Mine too,” Greyson offered. “Emma is easy though. I just had to flash her my smile and…”
She gave him a smack.
Curtis was grinning.
“Shut up, Curtis.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he offered, holding his bad arm. “Don’t be mean.”
“Your smile said plenty,” Dante offered. “I just need to get him to say ‘I do’. This should not be this damn hard!”
Emma gave him a kiss.
“Trust Dimitri. He’ll handle it.”
Dante wasn’t so sure. As of late, the man seemed distracted, and they did have some other Russian gunning for them.
That couldn’t be good.
At all.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Across Town
Spanish Heights
Steele couldn’t believe he was back at his mother’s house in the neighborhood he grew up. He’d fled from this rich, obnoxious lifestyle to be a normal person.
Then he fell in with the Crofts.
Only, they weren’t in your face wealthy. They would watch a game, drink beer, and wear jeans. Here, in this neighborhood, he was always the outsider.
And it had sucked.
He hated coming back.
After the last time they met, he wanted to never see her again. Well, that was his plan, but he was compelled to put this last remaining issue away from his past. Then he could move on and be the husband he was meant to be.
It was time to close the book on this horrible part of his life. He wanted to let it go, and be free.
He had no respect for the woman who lived here.
Why?
She was a horrible mother.
When he’d been hurt, and in the hospital, she never came to see him. Her own child, and she never cared enough to see if he was alive.
After that, he swore he’d see her at her funeral first, but then he had an epiphany.
If he wanted to start this new part of his life, he had to let the old part go.
So, he was standing on her doorstep early on a Saturday morning. He knew she’d be up. She always went to church on Saturday to meet with her women’s group, so they could worship the god that she swore called him an abomination and sin.
This was apropos.
She was the abomination, judging others and being a horrible mother.
Climbing up the stairs, he knocked on the door.
He really hated this hellhole. It was the worst place for a child growing up, and he still loathed it. While it was a huge house, bought with ill-gotten gains, that wasn’t the ugliest part of its past. The person who lived there was.
She was fake.
It was pseudo love covered under dirty money from his father’s ties to Dominic Marianna.
Well, fuck it.
He was facing her down.
As he heard footsteps, he waited.
The woman who opened the door stared at him. “She doesn’t want to see you. After your last visit…”
“That’s okay. I’ll just shout it from here, so the neighbors will know my mother’s dirty laundry. Doesn’t her friend live across the street?” he asked, craning his neck to see the house.
It worked.
“I’ll tell her you’re here. You can wait.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t come in. My father slept around. Who knows what I’ll catch in there? We GAY men have to be careful…”
She slammed the door in his face, and it made him smile. It was a petty victory, but he was going to take it. Any win over Camille was one to be celebrated.
Then, he could hear his mother. There were the angry footsteps heading his way. There was the clipping of her temper measured out in each step.
Oh, she was pissed.
Good.
It was time they had this final face-off. It was time he stood up for himself to set his past free.
She whipped open the door and stared at him.
“What do you want?”
“I was going to be an asshole, and mention you in the social papers about you not attending my wedding today, when I realized I hadn’t invited you.”
She stared at him.
“I was invited. That vile gangster’s brother came here to invite me. I told him no.”
He loved his fiancé.
Of course he’d remember and do this. Well, he was going to follow up.
“Well, that’s good to know. I was here to officially ask you to come. My half-brother, Bentley Herron will be there, and I figured you could have a conversation with him. Since he’s not gay, and is father’s other child.”
Her face pursed up.
“I wonder where the gay gene came from then?” Steele asked. “Wait, doesn’t your sister, Aunt Bunny, have that female friend of hers? You know…her ‘special’ sleep over buddy?”
Camille went red.
“I bet you think this is funny. You had to embarrass me more, didn’t you?”
He laughed. “It’s not about you, Camille. I learned that last night watching someone I love putting someone in their place. It’s about your child—the one you neglected, verbally abused, and made miserable for his whole life so you could look like the ideal person.”
She went to close the door.
“No, you’re going to listen and listen well. I forgive you, Camille. I forgive you for the path you put all of us on by being a bitter, cold woman. Had you not been so vicious, angry, and mean, father might not have turned to someone else. This isn’t about him, or about me. It’s about YOU.”
She looked horrified.
“This was the world you created, and I don’t want to play into it. So, you’re invited to my wedding—my gay wedding—at the house of a notorious Vegas gangster, who will be my brother-in-law.”
“I would rather drop dead than go there. I hear what everyone says goes on there.”
“You did? Oh my God! Did someone find out that we have big family dinners on Sundays, and that everyone eats breakfast together as a unit? Shit! I really hope they don’t look down on us!”
“You’re a horrible son.”
“Well, you were a horrible mother, and a horrible human being, so what did you think I’d end up like? A Nobel Prize winner?”
“Go away. We are done.”
Well, he wasn’t.
“I forgive you because one day, you’ll be close to death, like I was, and it won’t matter. I fought to have one more moment with the people I love. You will too.”
“Don’t count on it.”
He lifted his eye patch to show her his destroyed face. “Trust me. Death is ugly, mother, but not as ugly as your heart. I’m sorry you couldn’t love me, but I found my family, and my brother. I’m going to be a Croft in…Five hours.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“No, Camille, I’m not. I’m loved, and that’s more than you’ll ever have. Father cheated on you, and he actually loved her. Did you know that? He found his soulmate in that woman, and would have left you for them if you weren’t vicious. He stayed with you because you have a cancer in you that spreads. You’re ugly inside, and really, mother, that tweed is so nineteen ninety. Update your wardrobe. People are talking about you.”
She stared down.
“Oh, and he died loving her—not you.”
The woman glared at him.
“You could have had my love. A child is innocent. They love their parents without questioning their motives. You don’t have that either. You have nothing. So, as you sit up here in this big house, you can stay alone. That’s your choice, but it won’t be because of me. You had the opportunity to come to me and say you were sorry.”
“Never.”
He didn’t think so. “I still forgive you for being a cold, evil person.”
He turned. “Oh, and your eyes are yellowing. That’s a sign of bilirubin buildup. Your liver is failing, and likely from all the booze you drank while you mourned your perfect family. When you see father, because you will, and soon, send my regards.”
Steele began walking away.
“You’ll burn in hell.”
He laughed. “I lived through hell. I’m free. Oh, and the house next door that’s for sale? I’m going to have my GAY husband buy it, since he’s loaded, and we’re going to paint it rainbow colors to make you miserable. Then we’re going to have GAY sex all over the lawn. Don’t watch, Camille. It might get your pulse racing. He’s sexy as fuck, and he knows how to use his dick!”
She gasped.
With that, Steele headed toward his ride. When he got there, Dimitri was leaning against it.
“Sexy as fuck, huh? All over the lawn? Knows how to use his dick?” he asked, trying not to laugh.
“Yes, he is, and I’d be stupid not to ride that soldier all night long.”
Dimitri patted him on the back. “Are you ready to head home? It’s really not safe out here, and your sexy soldier wants to get you to the altar—today.”
He felt liberated.
“I could kiss every man on this street. For the first time, I’m truly free. She can’t break me. No one can break me but me!”
Dimitri pointed at him. “Uh…awkward.”
“Figuratively.”
Dimitri sighed.
He didn’t want to ruin the man’s fun. What was one kiss? He’d done far worse things than share affection with someone of the same sex.
“She’s watching. Kiss the Russian killer. You’ll really kill her.”
“Really?”
“Go for it. I won’t tell your husband-to-be, if you don’t tell him. Dante will try to kick my ass, and I like him.”
Steele took that opportunity. He planted one right on the Russian’s mouth.
It was hot.
It was steamy.
And it was the perfect picture to leave his mother.
When he set him free, Steele was smiling.
“Let’s go. I have to marry my man.”
“Tossed over by a gay man too. This is not my week to find love,” he teased, heading to his ride.
“Dimitri?”
“Yeah,” he asked, stopping at his SUV door.
“Thank you. That was like my bachelor party. I appreciate it.”
He laughed.
“I feel really cheap, but anything for family.”
Yeah, those were words to live by for everyone.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Terrace Glen
Pool House
Chris was stalling.
He wanted to spend as much time with Natasha before the wedding. It was hard to not spend all his day staring at her, or touching her. Chris knew that Dimitri was always watching, so he was trying to be a gentleman in his presence, but it wasn’t easy. Natasha was always sitting in his lap.
That made him damn hard.
Literally.
Truth be told, he wanted to pounce as much as possible.
When she exited the bathroom, there was a towel wrapped around her body.
“Are we getting ready?” Natasha asked, checking him out. Chris was wearing his boxers, and nothing else. Behind his head, his hands remained clasped. It appeared he had no intention of getting ready for the festivities.
“Soon.”
He tracked her around the room with his blue eyes. Natasha loved when he watched her.
“You look gorgeous as always,” he added.
“I’m wearing nothing but a towel.”
Oh, he was aware.
“Yeah, and no man is going to prefer clothes over that—well, no straight man.”
She smiled at him, trying to flirt. Her sister had told her that men liked it, so she was trying to learn how to be more like Emma and Kat.
It had to be working. His boxers began tenting, and she knew what that meant.
Sex.
Chris watched as she dropped all that red hair from the messy bun that had been holding it up.
Towel.
Hair.
Long legs.
Yeah, he wanted her.
Plus, that one look turned him on, and he couldn’t help but have totally dirty thoughts about what he wanted to do to her.
“You’re making me nervous,” she admitted, as she dabbed some perfume behind her ears.
“Am I?” he asked.
“Yes. You look like you want to pounce.”
He laughed. “You can say that.”
Natasha approached him, and she figured she needed to get him to focus. “What do you want to do?” she asked. “You know, before the ceremony.”
“You. I want to do you.”
Her heart skipped.
“Chris,” she said, enjoying him watching her. There was something about knowing an older man wanted her. The way he always wrapped himself around her, protecting her.
It was amazing.
She had always wanted to feel this need, and it was happening. Natasha still couldn’t believe it. Fate had given her a wonderful man to make her whole.
It made the butterflies flutter in her stomach.
“Come to bed, Natasha,” he said, his voice already thick with need.
She moved toward him.
“Lose the towel. I want to see my girlfriend.”
Natasha did as he asked because the heated look in his eyes made her wet. It made her body react with just the sound of his voice.
As she dropped the towel, he was staring at her. His eyes tracked up and down her body, settling on her breasts. Natasha knew they were his favorite part.
He spent a lot of time focused on them.
“I want you here with me now.”
Her breath hitched.
She was perfectly fine with that.
Chris had a way of driving her wild with just a look. He was a man of very few words. His face said it all.
She was blessed to have him in her life, and she knew it. Natasha couldn’t help but grin.
“You’re smiling.”
“Am I?” Chris asked.
“Yes.”
“Then I must really be happy to be in this relationship with you, Natasha.”
That was all she wanted to hear. Natasha prayed that every day, he’d love her more and more.
It looked like she was getting her wish.
She wanted him to always look at her like that.
He held out his hand.
She took it.
Chris tugged her onto the bed, and she tumbled against him. As she fell, Natasha found herself trapped in his arms.
There was no place she’d rather be.
This was her version of heaven.
His chest hair tickled her breasts, and his big hands held her tightly to his body.
She giggled and squirmed against him. “I love this part of our day and night. You feel nice,” she offered, rubbing her long leg up and down his hip, “but I think I like being beneath you more.”
“Well then,” he stated, rolling until she was trapped under his big, bulky frame.
The sheets got caught all around her, and Natasha’s arms were pinned above her.
When his mouth found her breast, she gasped in a mix of pleasure and want. “Christopher!”
He grinned wickedly, as he went from breast to breast, satiating the need.
Yeah, she’d been right.
He was a breast man.
He lit her body on fire with wet, openmouthed kisses. They ignited something in her that only he could bring out. She moaned in pleasure, as the heat began building. It started in her gut and moved through her like wildfire.
“Who loves you?” he asked.
She knew the answer.
There was only him.
“YOU!” she shouted, as his other hand wandered down her body to tease her between her legs.
That was the truth.
It was only this man who could do this to her every day for the rest of her life. She was made for him.
He was made for her.
“I can’t wait to be buried in your body,” he said, feeling the wetness between her legs.
She was ready.
“I want to ride you,” she begged, knowing that was his favorite position.
“Then you need to get free,” he teased, as he held her trapped beneath him.
As she struggled to get free of the sheets, the tangle of them drove them both insane. She was his prisoner, and he was doing whatever he wanted to her body.
He moved lower.
He tormented her.
He drove her wild.
He devoured her.
Chris knew very little in life. He was an ex-cop, a roughneck, but he knew how to make her scream his name.
Those were his greatest accomplishments.
When she didn’t stop him, he went for it.
Chris’s mouth was on autopilot. He knew what made her wild, and as her body jerked beneath his oral assault, Chris knew he would never get enough.
“Fall for me, Anzehlina,” he whispered, nipping the most sensitive part of her body to shove her off the edge.
When she tumbled, he watched the red flush sweep up her skin. There was no way she could fake that.
Despite what his scumbag ex said to him about his lack of skill in bed. Natasha wasn’t faking it, and that he loved so very much.
He loved honesty in a relationship.
“Oh God!” she shouted as the pleasure wracked her body, making the orgasm that much more powerful.
Chris slid up her torso, noticing that his sexy minx was still trapped. “Can’t get free?” he asked.
She smiled.
“I never want to be free of this.”
That’s what he wanted to hear.
“I want to feel more,” Natasha stated.
Well, he could give her that.
Moving to press her into the soft cushion of the mattress, his mouth drove her wild all over again. First there was kisses, and then bites to her flushed flesh.
“Chris!” she pleaded, still unable to get her arms unwound from beneath the sheets. “I need to be free,” she begged.
“No. I like you this way,” Chris admitted as his erection was throbbing.
“I need you.”
He needed her too.
What he wanted was to bury himself deep within her body.
Soon, he’d be doing just that.
As she struggled to catch her breath, he continued to work his way around her body, finding her even more wet and ready for him. With lips and tongue, he teased her more.
“Please,” she begged, wanting to run her hands all over him.
Quickly, he whipped her body back to the edge and over. He loved hearing her shout his name as she tumbled. When she was vibrating in need, he moved up her body to stare into her brilliant eyes.
“One day, it’ll be our wedding day,” he offered.
Her heart quaked in her chest. She knew how hard that was for him to say it. Natasha knew that with him, she’d have to patiently wait.
Chris wasn’t one to rush.
She didn’t need him to either. Honestly, she was good with being his girlfriend. She had all the perks, and none of the worries. He was happy, and so was she.
While everyone else rushed into marriage, she wanted to take her time. This phase of wooing was heavenly.
She’d never been allowed to date or have a boyfriend. This was pretty special for her.
“When we’re both ready,” she whispered back. “Only then.”
He loved her even more for that one sentence.
She got him.
She understood.
It made him want to do cartwheels. There was finally a woman who understood he couldn’t be anyone but himself. Chris couldn’t rush—not after his past.
He just couldn’t.
Maybe they’d stay like this for a while, enjoying the happiness of the moment. He never had a long-term girlfriend. It was really nice.
As he was focused on their relationship, Natasha finally freed herself from the tangle only to find him staring down at her.
“I want to taste you,” she said, running her hands up his big barrel chest.
His heart began pounding.
Chris was more than okay with that. “I need your mouth on me,” he said, rolling to his back. “Do your worst.”
Natasha was giddy.
She perched herself between his legs as she prepared to begin.
Tentatively, she stroked him.
He groaned in pleasure.
“Have at me.”
Oh, she could do that. At first, her fingers teased him, pulling a low moan from his mouth. When her lips took over, it became desperate.
This was the happiest moment of her life. She loved giving him these tender caresses. It wound them together even more. He was hers, and she was his.
Here was the proof.
His hands found the lushness of her glossy red hair as he controlled the depth of her strokes.
It was Heaven and Hell.
There was nothing more erotic than watching his naked girlfriend pleasuring his body.
When she pulled away, he glanced down his body, trying to catch his breath.
“Did I do that right?” she offered, running her fingers down his thighs.
His brain spun at all the possibilities of what he could ask her to do.
“Again, you can’t really do that wrong. No man is ever going to complain,” he said, grinning.
“Can I finish?” she asked.
Oh, he couldn’t say no to her.
“Yes, Anzehlina.”
Her mouth sought him out. The second the wet warmth enveloped him, he was more than happy.
He was at peace.
She worked him hard, and Chris held on with everything in him, but he was close to the edge.
He teetered between orgasm and pain.
Finally, he had to have her stop.
“I’m going to cum. Stop, baby.”
She set him free.
“I really need you to climb on and ride me. I want to see your breasts bounce, as I’m buried in your body.”
She flushed red at his words.
Chris knew she was embarrassed by some of the things he said to her. Only, he needed her to adjust. For so many years, he’d put his needs on the back burner.
Now he was in control of his wants, and she was at the top of the list.
“I want to watch you use me to get off.”
Natasha couldn’t believe someone wanted her this much. It staggered her.
“I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“I want you screaming my name as we fuck. Now ride me, and ride me hard!”
She grinned wickedly. “Yes, Captain,” Natasha said, sliding back up his body.
Over the weeks of lovemaking, he found this was the position he loved best.
For him, it had a spectacular view.
She began sliding him home, and he wanted more. With his large hands, he pulled her down hard, sheathing himself in her body.
They both moaned.
Then she began moving.
Chris focused on the slide in and out of her body, watching his erection slick and swollen with need.
His hands went to her hips, and he helped her take the ride.
“More!” he ordered.
Natasha let go of any inhibitions.
The bouncing was torture. When he said hard, she’d given him exactly what he’d asked for too.
He hoped Natasha was close, because he certainly was going to cum at any second.
When her body shook, he roughly rubbed her clit with his thumb.
She exploded, taking him over the edge.
The spiral of pleasure and lust washed over them, as she collapsed onto him.
Then, as they floated, silence fell.
When he could finally see straight, Chris rolled her to the side of his body.
Once there, she cuddled against him like always.
His heart melted.
“Chris?” she asked glancing up at him.
“What?”
“I love you.”
He grinned. “I love you too,” he offered, giving her a soft kiss on the lips. “I couldn’t live without you,” he said.
He knew it was true.
He’d seen it, finally.
Love was pretty freaking amazing, and Chris was glad he found her.
“We should get ready for the wedding,” he said.
“We should. I’m going to have to shower again. Someone got me all sweaty. Care to join me?”
He was up for it.
Literally.
Natasha had that effect on him. She seemed to make him feel like a teenager again.
It was a gift.
“I seem to have a problem.”
She ran her hand over his erection. “I can fix that.”
He grinned wickedly. “Prove it.”
And Natasha did.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Steele sat in a chair in Emma and Greyson’s room. He was as nervous as hell. This was a huge day, but even more so, tonight was going to be his and Dante’s wedding night.
“You look like you’re ready to bolt,” Emma said, clipping on some pretty earrings that Greyson had given her.
“I was thinking about sex.”
“And staring at me. That’s alarming. I already heard you talking to Dimitri and thanking him for the make out session. What the hell is going on at Terrace Glen?” she teased.
He laughed. “I needed that.”
“Care to share?” she asked.
“I told off my mother. I was at the top of the world, and low and behold, there was a sexy Russian man there too.”
She snorted. “Did you really do it?”
“I did. I gave him the full gay treatment—tongue and all. He didn’t stop me, so I partied at my own bachelor party for two.”
She loved Dimitri even more.
He’d taken one for the team, and he’d healed this man.
“But, now you look worried. What gives?”
He knew he could trust her. “I was thinking about how I’m going to cry.”
“During the wedding? That’s normal.”
Steele shook his head.
“During sex?” she asked, moving to his side.
“Maybe.”
Emma sat beside him. “What’s going on, Steele? You can tell me.”
“What if he looks at me down there, and he’s appalled?”
Now she got it.
He’d been brutalized, and he was worried he didn’t look like a man.
“Want to show me?” she asked.
He stared at her. “Now something is going on here at Terrace Glen. You just asked to check out a gay man’s junk. What the hell, Emma?”
She snorted. “Yeah, the pregnant woman wants to check out your goods while her caveman freaks out. I like to walk on the wild side.”
He got up and began pacing.
“Steele, you’re my friend, and you’re about to be my brother. Let me check out your equipment so you don’t have a freak out. I get to stare at a lot of dick. Greyson has a high sex drive, thank you God, but I know what it’s supposed to look like down there.”
He knew she’d be honest with him.
Still, it felt weird. He’d never shown his goods to a woman before.
“I won’t turn you un-gay,” she teased.
“Is that really a thing?”
She snorted.
“Okay, but you can’t tell anyone,” he said. “I feel like an idiot, especially since I’m a doctor, but I know you won’t lie.”
“Who am I going to tell? Greyson?” she asked, laughing. “Dante?”
She had a point.
“Is the door locked?”
She headed toward it and clicked the lock.
“Okay, Doctor Bentley, drop your drawers and let me see what you’ve got in your tool box.”
“I hope that’s not what you say to Greyson.”
She laughed. “I’ll pee myself. Stop stalling. Let me see your dick.”
He undid his pants and dropped them. She giggled at the boxers. They had hearts all over them.
“Emma! Come on! This is serious!” he said, trying not to laugh.
“Okay, sorry. You’re wearing hearts. That’s the sweetest thing ever. I lost my head for a second. I swear. I won’t laugh. I’m serious now.”
He slipped his fingers into his waistband and pulled his boxers down, standing there in front of Emma.
Bottomless.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Steele, but you look like every other man out there. The junk is all there.”
“Not all of it.”
She moved closer.
This was love.
She was checking out his gear.
“Okay, so you’re one ball short of the game, but really, that’s not shocking. I see one stick and one ball. You can definitely play in tonight’s opening event.”
“Nothing horrifying? How’s the scarring?” he asked, crossing his fingers.
“I see a scar or two, but that makes you bad ass. As for horrifying, other than I’m checking out my friend and soon to be brother’s goods? Nope. You pass. As a woman who gets up close and personal with male anatomy, I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash if we were doing it.”
He sighed. “Thank you for that. Well, not the last part, because I don’t think I want to picture that.”
“HEY!”
“No! Not that. You know what I mean!”
She laughed. “I do. Now you can ‘I do’ too.”
“I appreciate this, Em!”
Emma was glad she could help. In Casa Croft, she was accustomed to men running around in their boxers. For the longest time, it had been her, Greyson, and Curtis.
Then Dante.
She’d seen Dimitri swimming, and the man did NOT like to wear trunks. He liked to wear something very tiny, and revealing everything.
She’d seen more flashes of man goods than any woman in their lifetime.
This was nothing.
“I feel better.”
“Well, yank your boxers back up because you’ll feel dead if Greyson finds out,” she teased.
He knew the man wouldn’t be angry.
“I was going to ask him, but that felt awkward.”
She snorted. “For him or you?”
“For me when I tried to picture what was going on in his pants. You know, since I get to sleep with his brother, who looks like him, and I’m sure…”
She laughed about that. “Over my dead body are you getting that fantasy. You got to make out with Dimitri. Your fun is OVER,” she said, hugging him.
Steele held on to her.
“Thank you for everything,” he said. “Today…it’s huge for me. Knowing that I have you in my life is enough to chase away all the things that scare me.”
For that, she was grateful.
Emma knew family came first.
He was family.
“Yeah, today is huge, and tonight is huge for Dante,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Doctor Bentley is hung.”
He laughed. “That’s so inappropriate, and yet ego lifting at the same time,” he teased. “I’m two for two today. I made out with a sexy killer, and my best girl-friend thinks I’ve got game. Today is a good one for me.”
Emma gave him a kiss on the lips. “You are going to make a handsome groom.”
He hoped so.
All he wanted was to make Dante proud.
He wanted to heal.
He wanted to love.
Steele wanted to move on from that horrible day where he’d been taken, sodomized, and destroyed.
He wanted to move on with their lives, and sex was the only thing holding him back.
“I have something for you,” she said, going to her jewelry box.
“What?” he asked.
Emma pulled out a silk, blue pocket square. It was monogramed with the letter ‘C’.
“When I got married to Greyson here in Vegas, he gave me this after we said I do. It’s always meant the world to me. It’s the day I became a Croft, and I want you to have it for your big day. You’re entering our family—officially—and that’s huge.”
She placed it in his hand.
“Emma, I can’t take this. This is precious to you.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “You can. It’s brought me nothing but good luck. I fell in love with a sexy caveman, I married him here in Vegas, and I have this family because of it. I’m blessed, and I can’t help but want you to have all of that too.”
He hugged her. “I love you, Emma.”
She returned the words.
“Now, let’s put this in your pocket, and let’s get this flower onto your suit jacket. You look handsome, Mr. Bentley. You’re going to knock your sexy Croft man off his feet.”
He felt a million times better.
“You are going to be a wonderful mother,” he stated. “Your child is going to be so happy.”
She kissed him again.
“I’m the one who will be blessed. Children are a gift, and they should be loved. I’ll be your mother today,” she offered.
He wasn’t surprised she knew he was thinking about that too.
“For you, and for everyone who needs it.”
He held her hand. “Thank you, Emma. That will make today perfect.”
That’s all she wanted.
Steele deserved this.
He deserved to feel this love.
Everyone did.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Greyson was sipping some champagne as his brother messed with his bowtie. It was the fifth one he’d tried on, and he kept pulling them off.
He could tell he was a nervous wreck.
“Need my help?” he asked.
“Was it wrong of us to kick Mom and Dad out from my wedding? I feel like a huge asshole that I’ve done that to her. I mean, I know she’s a bitch about most things, but she’s still our mother.”
He patted him on the shoulder.
Greyson had already handled it.
“She’ll be here.”
He looked over. “What?”
Croft laughed. “You can’t have it both ways. You either have crazy in the seats, or you don’t. Decide.”
“What did you do?”
“I spoke to Dad this morning. He said she feels bad. You know how she gets when she drinks.”
He was aware.
She had no filter.
At.
All.
“She feels bad? Really?”
“Dad asked as a personal favor if I would let them come to the wedding. I told him if she behaved, she could come. If she didn’t, she wasn’t ever coming back. I think it has to do with the fact that we are having a child. She was pissy because of that, and now she knows it’s happening, she’s willing to chill.”
He hoped.
With Reggie, you never knew.
Still, Dante continued to be nervous.
Apparently, that wasn’t the only thing bothering him, so Greyson knew as best man he needed to keep digging.
“What are you stressing?” Greyson asked. “I know you’re not a virgin, so…”
“Funny.”
“Spill it.”
“Is being married any different from being a couple?” he asked. “I guess what I’m asking is if something is going to change.”
Greyson sat and thought about it.
“A lot is going to change,” he offered. “You’re going to grow stronger as a unified front, and it’s a different kind of love,” he stated.
Dante sat beside him on his bed.
“Is it worth it?”
“Are you having cold feet?”
“Between us, yes. I am.”
“Why?”
“I let him get hurt once, and I don’t know if I can live with myself if that happens again. Once he becomes a Croft, he’s wearing that bull’s-eye. You know the shit is coming. Is he safer not having my name? Is my desire to have him as my partner clouding a rational way to protect him?”
Greyson was glad that was all this was. If it were more, he’d tell his brother not to do it.
“I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but that’s why we gave you the apartment in New York City. You’ll be safer there. If you have to leave, or I think you and Steele are in danger, I’m sending you there.”
“Grey.”
He stopped him. “I won’t have my brother killed because of me. I won’t have a man, who withstood hours of torture and rape to protect us, hurt again. If what’s coming hits at my core, I’d rather be the one who goes down.”
“You have a child on the way,” Dante stated.
“Yes, and I have a family to protect. All of it. Emma is my life. If anything happens to her, I’m going to be unstoppable. I’m going to kill everything in front of me. They know that. They won’t hit at her. They’ll wait. They are going to start to weaken us, Dante. My brother is a hit directly at me. If it goes bad, I want you to take your husband and leave.”
He wouldn’t do it, but he’d tell his brother he would. Dante wouldn’t leave him behind.
It wasn’t happening.
“Okay, Grey.”
“Thank you.”
“As for should you get married, don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing they stopped you from being happy. Today is your day. Get married, celebrate tonight, and head out tomorrow. You deserve a honeymoon with your husband.”
“You’ve been my best friend since the day I was born.”
He hugged his brother. “Mom and Dad did one thing right,” he admitted. “They gave me one hell of a brother. I’m glad I have you.”
They sat there.
“Any advice about tonight?”
“Make it count. You only get one shot at your wedding night. Make it a night Steele will never forget. Do it up Croft style.”
That he could do.
“I’m going to use the penthouse tonight,” he stated. “I have something romantic and special planned.”
Greyson was glad.
He’d assumed as much.
“Are you in the mood to get married?” he asked.
Dante took a deep breath. “Which bow tie?”
“The black one.”
He didn’t hesitate as he put it on and tied it. When his brother stood in front of him, fixing it so it was just right, his eyes filled with tears.
“I’m proud of you,” Greyson stated. “Today, you become a husband. Always put Steele first, make sure you tell him you love him at least ten times a day, and never forget that you nearly lost him.”
He wiped his eyes.
“And most importantly,” Greyson began, patting his brother’s cheek, “remember that you’re a Croft, and we run this city.”
He couldn’t forget.
The family was larger than life, and Steele was about to make it even better.
Life was about to begin.
Dante was about to become a married man.
It was about damn time.