Vegas is Dying (A Croft & Croft Romance Adventure Book 2) Read online

  She simply grinned, almost daring him to try anything. When he lunged, Emma wasn’t expecting it, and soon found herself hanging upside down over his shoulder.

  “Greyson Croft! You put me down!” she ordered, only to hear him laugh. “You can’t carry me in like this! They’ll think you’re…”

  “I’m what?” he questioned, standing in the elevator and waiting for the door to open.

  “A caveman!”

  Now, he did laugh, especially when the door opened and William was staring at them openmouthed.

  “Is Mrs. Croft feeling unwell?” he asked, concerned for her well-being.

  Greyson turned and she stared at the man. “I’m fine. My husband is being silly.”

  He slapped her on the ass, and it echoed through the small space. At her startled gasp, he began laughing. “Oh, is that the term for what I’m feeling, Emma?” he asked as he grinned at the man behind the desk.

  “Ohhhh.” He finally got it. “I’ll make sure no one bothers you two,” he answered chucking. He’d been young once too, and a newlywed as well.

  “Grey, put me down!”

  “Not happening,” he answered, heading for the elevator. “Oh, William, if my partner arrives, his name is Curtis Briggs. Don’t send him up. I’ll come down when I’m done with the little woman.”

  She pinched him on the back and again was slapped on the ass. “Greyson!”

  “Don’t make me use the handcuffs, Emma,” he warned, thinking that might be entertaining after all.

  She sucked in a breath as the elevator doors closed.

  Lowering her to her feet, he knew how to keep her from being angry. “I want you so bad, I can’t keep my hands off you,” he whispered in her ear as he forced her back against the wall of the elevator. Taking her hand, he pressed her palm to his erection as if to prove proof his crazed state.

  “Grey,” she whispered back, stroking him through the material as all the outrage was gone and the heat remained, filling her once more. “I want to feel you in me,” she murmured back, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You make me crazy.”

  Her words fired everything in him. When he finally got them to their condominium, it was going to be a free for all. “Emma,” he moaned, praying for the thirteenth beep. When it happened and the door slid open to reveal their floor, he roughly pulled her out of the elevator, almost dragging her to their door.

  “Too much security,” she said, grabbing his truly excellent ass. It sent her blood pressure soaring. God, her husband was delicious.

  He fumbled with the keys until he heard a ‘click’. Yanking her inside, he spun her and slammed them both back against the closing door. His mouth was on hers in less than three seconds, and both of them started pulling at the offensive clothing on their bodies.

  Emma yanked his shirt apart, sending buttons flying. There was the telltale sound of them ricocheting off the wall. She moaned into the kiss. Greyson already had her pants open, and his hands were gripping her ass and pulling her against his frame.

  “Honey,” he whispered as he moved to her neck. Greyson bit her just below the ear, and it caused her legs to almost buckle. Now, he ripped off her shirt to get it far away from her skin.

  She kicked off her shoes as she tried to step out of her pants without tripping them both. Already, she had his shirt off his body and was holding onto his tie as an anchor.

  “You taste so good,” he said, working his way across Emma’s throat to her breasts. “I wondered what was under your clothes,” he stated, ripping the bra from her body in one quick motion.

  It caused her to gasp. “Grey!”

  All he wanted was more.

  Her hands found his pants again, and she had them open and down his hips with very little effort. When he sprung free, she dropped to her knees to once again torment him with her mouth. As she worked her wifely magic, he moaned and buried his hands in her now free hair.

  “You’re going to kill me yet,” he hissed. “Oh Christ, don’t stop,” he pleaded as she sucked and stroked simultaneously. It was three days past maddening, right into total nirvana.

  Suddenly, Emma stood and pulled him towards the couch by the tie. He was leaving a trail of kisses across her shoulders and running his hands across her truly excellent derrière. “If this is my welcome home, I’ll go away more often,” he hissed as she pulled him down across her body, and they landed on the couch in a tangle of limbs. The tie came off and somehow found its way around her neck between her breasts.

  “I can’t wait, Grey. Please!” she begged. Emma was on fire for her husband like never before. “I need to feel you in me,” she pleaded, rubbing against him like a big cat.

  Croft began shaking as she wrapped her legs around him. Gone was the chance of slow love making, and in its place was this sense of out of control heat. Pushing into her, he groaned as she fit him perfectly.

  Emma sighed. Once again, she was ecstatic to have him back home where he belonged.

  They began moving together, her meeting him thrust for thrust. It was his name that Emma repeated over and over again as if begging for more from him. Once he was close, he shifted so that she was now perched in his lap.

  “Ride me,” he ordered gruffly as his hands gripped her hips and controlled the depth of the slide.

  Something about the bossy way he said it heated her even more and made her crazy. Yeah, she loved her dominant caveman for just this reason. Taking him into her body over and over, they were both driven to madness.

  As every single muscle tightened, he pulled her mouth down to his, wanting nothing more than to swallow her scream when she shattered apart. A few more strokes, and he was slipping into the dizzying spiral of pleasure. The heat exploded, ripping through his body and pouring into his wife as she ruptured apart in his arms.

  Everything cascaded around them as they struggled to float to the surface. Slowly, sound returned as their hearts beat against each other, matching each thump simultaneously.

  “Best sex ever,” Croft muttered, running his hands down his wife’s back and cupping her ass. “That was a terrific way to welcome me home.”

  Emma snorted as she left little kisses across his throat. “Someone’s going to get hurt one day,” she added, giggling.

  Greyson would take one for the team. “Hurt me all you want, just don’t stop,” he said with his eyes closed and head tipped back.

  Emma sighed as she ran her hands through his hair. “You’re almost too much for me to handle, Grey.”

  He opened his eyes and grinned lecherously. “Then you have a really big problem,” he said, pointing out the obvious.

  She was flushed.

  He ran his fingers down his tie around her neck. “I like it on you. Keep it for the bedroom,” he purred into her ear.

  “If you get a prop, so do I,” she replied, kissing him slowly with lots of tongue and a little bit of teeth. He was filling her as he became excited at her words.

  Breaking away, he pushed her up off his lap. “I need more of my wife,” he admitted, knowing there’d never be enough.

  Emma strolled over to her pants and grabbed her handcuffs off the loop of her belt. “Come on, tiger. I’m ready for you this time.”

  “This is why I’m glad I married you.”

  Emma walked backwards towards the bedroom as she played with their props.

  “Is that the only reason, Greyson?” she inquired.

  He scanned the full length of her body, eyes lingering first on his tie, and then her handcuffs.

  “No way, honey. It’s a very long list.”

  * * *

  Curtis Briggs had a really good time at dinner. The woman sitting across from him was engaging, funny, and really great. Before the incidents in Celestia, he would have been charming his way into her bed, but now he’d made a promise to himself. Then again, what would it hurt to have one more fling?

  “What are you thinking about?” she interrupted, noticing that he’d gone vacant mid-conversation.
/>   He struggled to come up with a lie, and instead just went with the absolute truth. “I’ll be honest. I was thinking about sex and trying to rationalize sleeping with you.”

  She stared at him as if he was out of his mind.

  “I know! I probably shouldn’t have said that, but had I replied ‘work’ you would have been offended, so I went with the truth.” Briggs was trying to navigate the entire guy-girl thing without sex being on the table.

  It wasn’t easy.

  “I’m a little confused. You do or you don’t want to sleep with me? Generally, it’s an easy answer, since there really are only two choices.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s the absolute truth. My last assignment with the boss was in Celestia. I had a one night stand with a woman there, and it turned out badly.”

  Brynn stared at him. “They usually do. I’m not an advocate of them myself.”

  The man shook his head. “No, by badly I mean that she was a homicidal maniac, and Emma had to kill her to save Greyson. She tried to take me out too, but I lucked out.”

  “I’m not a murder,” she said, laughing. “Not yet, anyway.”

  He grinned. “I want to sleep with you, but I swore after that experience I wouldn’t have one night stands. That’s my dilemma.”

  Now, she understood. “Okay, well I can make this easy for you.”

  Leaning in, he waited for her to continue.

  “I’m not going to sleep with you tonight.”

  His mouth dropped open. “This conversation went from bad to worse. At least before, I had an option and could pretend I wasn’t going to get shot down.”

  Brynn couldn’t help but giggle at the look on his face. “Here’s what I meant--we’re working a case, and it’ll be distracting. Now that we’ve had our first date, you can go from there and pursue it if you want when we’ve wrapped it up.”

  “That’s very logical.” He wasn’t sure if he was just turned down or given a second chance later. The woman in front of him was a mystery.

  Brynn leaned in and offered him a slow kiss on his lips. Immediately, he reciprocated. Pulling away, she stared into his eyes. “And the awkwardness of the first kiss is now over too.”

  He chugged some soda to calm down. “I take it back. You’re beyond logical. You’re borderline control freak.”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, so I hear. Want to come back to my place?”

  Briggs choked on his drink. “What?” His eyes watered as he fought for air.

  Now, she was giggling. “I meant to stay in my spare room. Do you really want to go to their condo, knowing what’s going on in the next room?”

  Curtis was grateful for the offer. “No, I think I’ll accept. I may be moving in though since they’re like rabbits, and I have a feeling that goes on a lot in their home.”

  Brynn didn't mind. “Okay, you can move in too.”

  Now, he stared again, unsure what to say. He couldn’t figure her out.

  Maybe that was a good thing…

  Glancing over at the clock, he noticed it was late. The chime on his phone had pulled him from sleep. Emma was curled around his body, her head resting on his chest. From the slow and easy in and out of her breath, he knew she was deep in slumber.

  Picking up the phone, he read the message from his partner and shook his head. Apparently, the man made arrangements to sleep elsewhere. He replied and then cuddled down into the bed with his wife. There was no doubt in his mind that there was no place like home.

  Right here with his woman.

  * * *

  Wednesday Morning

  When Croft rolled over, he suspiciously found the bed beside him vacant. That meant one of two things. Emma was trying to escape after a night filled with sex, or she was in the kitchen making something healthy for him to eat for breakfast.

  A little piece of him hoped it was option A.

  Slipping out of bed and sliding into a pair of boxers, he headed toward the kitchen and the impending doom. Standing there, he was struck with his good fortune. Despite her forcing health food on him and weird, bizarre green shakes, he was the luckiest man in the entire world.

  He did something right to have this shot at being her husband. As she stood there reading a magazine, he could feel his heart flip in his chest. She was already dressed in her detective apparel, her hair was pulled back, and she was ready for work. After a night filled with debauchery, he should be exhausted, but his woman fired him right back up. There was something alluring about her gentleness and the contrast of a gun sitting on her hip.

  Croft knew he was the luckiest bastard ever.

  “Morning.” He finally broke the silence.

  She crossed to him, looking forward to hugging her husband. “Morning,” she replied, nuzzling his chest.

  Wrapping his arms around her, he closed his eyes in pure bliss. “I love you,” he said softly.

  Emma grinned up at him. “I love you too, Grey. Are you hungry?” This was her favorite part of the day. Now, they could have coffee on the balcony.

  “Um. Yeah, what’s for breakfast?” he asked warily.

  She moved towards the refrigerator and pulled two parfait glasses filled with yogurt and fresh fruit.

  It looked oddly delicious, and he was immediately on alert and wary.

  “We can eat here and then have coffee out there.” She pointed to the sliding glass doors.

  “Okay.” He took a seat as she joined him. Greyson couldn’t help but wait for the nasty food surprise that was destined to pop up. If this was the worst of the morning, he was lucky. In the last month, he’d eaten grasses, roots, stick like cereal, and muffins made out of ground up seeds. Yogurt and fruit were the easy way out.

  “Try it,” she said, watching him. It amused her that he was this wary about the food she made for him. All Emma wanted was to help him live a long time. She couldn’t imagine life without Greyson.

  He sunk the spoon into the creamy, rich concoction and dug some out.

  “I used agave nectar and organic honey to sweeten it.”

  That sentence along scared the bejezuz out of him. Whatever happened to plain old sugar? Closing his eyes, he swore he’d eat it all, just because he loved her and the previous evening was that fantastic. Placing the first spoonful in his mouth, he began to chew. Something miraculous happened. It actually tasted good.

  “It’s really fruit and yogurt,” he stated incredulously.

  Emma started laughing at his statement. “What else would it be but fruit and yogurt?”

  He ate some more and actually enjoyed it. “I really like this one. It’s better than the scary muffins made out of tree bark.”

  She giggled at his reaction. “I’m glad you like it, babe.” Emma took a bite of hers and smiled at him. “The muffins were made out of flax not tree bark, and they’re good for your heart. They were loaded with Omega-three and fiber.”

  Yeah, okay. Somehow, he doubted the health benefits.

  Croft was halfway through his breakfast when it hit him. She didn't drink cow’s milk and that was where yogurt came from in his world. “What is this?” he asked, pointing at the white creamy filling.

  Her eyes filled with laughter. “It’s yogurt.”

  “You’re eating it. Where did it come from, Emma?” he questioned suspiciously.

  “A container.”

  “You know what I mean. What’s it made from, as in the species of animal, vegetable, or mineral?”

  She laughed more, taking another spoonful.

  “Damn it, Emma. Is this soy?” She was always trying to feed him foods made from the innocuous substance like milk, cheese, and now he suspected the yogurt.

  Running her fingers down his cheek, she smiled. “I don’t like soy yogurt. It’s gritty.”

  He relaxed and then tensed again. “Then what is it made from?”

  “It’s from goat’s milk.”

  He put down his spoon and shook his head. “I almost want to give up, but I know if I don’t put up a lit
tle resistance, I’ll be wearing hemp and getting dreads before the week is out.”

  Now, she was laughing outrageously at the vision in her head. “Grey, what’s the difference between cow and goat milk? They both come from animals.”

  “Then why not use regular yogurt?”

  “Hormones.”

  He stared at her with his mouth open, clueless as to what she was talking about. It was like a foreign language whenever they discussed food. Lettuce always had a funny name and nothing ever seemed as simple as it appeared.

  “It’s all about having kids one day.”

  His heart skipped in his chest at the comment she made, and he didn't have a reply, since he was torn on the subject. Immediately, his mind began wandering as he visualized his wife having a baby. “Okay.” It wasn’t as if the idea didn't appeal to him. Greyson just wasn’t quite there yet.

  “Hormones are bad for pregnant women and growing babies. I’m just getting us prepped to have a happy, toxic free pregnancy. If we decide to take that route, I’m thinking ahead.”

  Croft picked up his spoon and started eating again. “Since that’s logical and a very good reasoning, I won’t argue.” He leaned over, kissing his wife. The idea of her wanting a family with him was an amazing feeling, but he needed to weight all the pros and cons. It was just how he managed things in his brain.

  “Good. Then, we need to detox.”

  “Crap! When we do it, it’s going to hurt, isn’t it?”

  Before Emma could continue, their intercom buzzed. “Mr. Croft, there’s a man and woman here. He says he’s your partner. Can we send him up?”

  “Did you strip search him yet?”

  There was a sputtering sound from Briggs on the other end, making them both laugh.

  “He’s kidding, Thomas. Send them up. They’re our partners,” Emma replied to the guard.

  “Yes, ma’am. We had the woman on file. He just looked sketchy,” he teased back, before disconnecting the intercom.