Dark Desire by Lauren Smith (an ebook reader txt) 📗

she woke up. She checked that the door to the hall was closed, then called. The other woman answered almost immediately.

“Hey!” Kenzie grinned, but Elena could see the worry in her friend’s eyes.

“Hey, Kenzie.” Elena went out onto the balcony and curled up in a chair facing the sea. She held up her phone to an appropriate angle.

“You got into Royce’s house okay yesterday?”

“Yeah, but . . . Kenzie, you didn’t tell me I would have a roommate.”

Her friend’s face paled. “A what?”

“Some guy named Dimitri Razin. I actually met him on the flight over. He’s nice, but it freaked me out to find he was staying here too. He said he’s a friend of Royce’s?”

Kenzie’s brows drew together. “Royce!” she hollered away from the screen. “Just a second, Elena.” Kenzie set her phone down, and Elena got a view of the marble ceiling. She could just barely hear a conversation in the background.

“You let Dimitri go and stay with her? What the hell were you thinking?”

“He’s a good man. You know that,” Royce countered.

“A good man with a serious kink . . . and you know what he’s like . . . possessive, all alpha male—”

“I didn’t hear you complaining when I shared you with him.”

Elena’s lips parted in shock. Royce and Dimitri had been with Kenzie at the same time? Vadym had never shared her, and that was the one thing she was grateful for. His greed had kept her safe from the added abuse of others.

There was a heartbeat of silence, and Kenzie growled, “I consented to that. Elena is a victim, Royce. You just fed her to a wolf.”

“He won’t touch her, not unless she asks him to, and maybe not even then,” Royce shot back, his voice fading as they moved farther away.

The rest of the conversation wasn’t audible and soon dissolved into angry whispers. Then the phone moved, and Kenzie’s face was visible again, her cheeks red.

“Hey,” she said again, far too casually.

Elena was tempted to pretend she hadn’t heard that argument, but she had and now she had questions.

“Kenzie, who the hell is this guy? You just said he has a serious kink. What did you mean? Can I trust this guy?”

“Yeah, so Dimitri is a friend of Royce’s. He’s really powerful in Russia—we’re talking a ridiculous amount of money and influence—but he’s not like Vadym. He’s a good guy, I swear.”

“You trust him?” Elena asked.

“Yes. With my life,” Kenzie replied without hesitation. “Royce is right. He won’t do anything to you, not unless you ask him to.”

Elena was silent a moment. “And the kink?”

“BDSM,” Kenzie replied. “Like Royce. No sadism, just domination, sometimes bondage and discipline. You aren’t into that, are you? I mean . . . after everything I don’t think anyone could be.”

“I was a little bit,” Elena admitted quietly. “Before Vadym.” It was the first time she’d said his name without it causing her physical pain and anxiety.

Kenzie didn’t respond.

“Why is he here? He fed me a line about being here for work.”

“Royce said he is looking to protect some valuable assets or something. If I can find out more, I’ll let you know. And you let me know if I need to give Dimitri the boot. The whole point was for you to have a safe place to relax and pull yourself together, you know?”

Elena turned her gaze away from the sea and back toward the bed where she had slept through the night—unharmed in Dimitri’s arms.

“I think I’m okay for now,” she finally said.

“Well, you call me immediately if that changes, okay?”

“Okay.” Elena ended the call and watched the waves roll in for a long time. There was a peace to be had in watching the blue water fall in on itself and transform into pale foaming tides that drifted in and out from the shore.

It was nearly noon when her stomach grumbled and she checked the time on her phone. She used to have a pretty silver watch, one her father had given her for her eighteenth birthday. But Vadym’s henchman, Jov Tomenko, had stolen it and then lost it in some card game. The memory of that night made her fresh hunger briefly fade.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, she decided she couldn’t avoid seeing Dimitri again. She came downstairs, her steps quiet on the marble floor. She padded through room after room.

He wasn’t here . . .

The thought that he’d left, that he hadn’t said a word about leaving, left her feeling shaken. He’d promised to be here . . . She started to tremble.

She heard the front door click open. She tensed, suddenly rooted to the ground where she stood. Her stomach seized and her hands clenched as she readied herself for fight or flight. A moment later, Dimitri came inside and closed the door; the tension inside her bled away.

“Ah, good, you’re awake. Do you want lunch?” He held up a bag of Mexican fast food.

“Tacos?” Her mouth immediately watered. After pizza, tacos were her favorite food.

“Yes, I hoped you would like them.” He nodded toward the kitchen, and she joined him. He looked more intense today somehow. Perhaps it was the darker clothing he wore, dark-blue jeans and a black T-shirt and boots. Yesterday he’d seemed almost serene, but now she realized he was letting her see a new side to him, perhaps the real side. The old Elena would have been hooked on him like catnip.

“I, uh, do . . .” She wasn’t sure what was making her mouth water more, the sight of the taco bag or the sight of him.

“Please sit. I’ll get our plates.”

His gentle but commanding tone had her instantly responding by dropping into the nearest chair at the table. She frowned at her own response.

“Dimitri, last night . . . ,” she started uncertainly. “You came into my room.”

“I did.” He set a plate of three tacos in front of her.

“You touched me.”

“I picked you up while you were enduring a nightmare. You were on the floor.”

She shook her head in frustration, not even sure what she was trying to say. “You stayed in my bed.”

“You needed to