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

He slowed his sensual, playful kisses and looked down at her. “You’re thinking too much again, kiska.” He used that teasing Dom tone that sounded disapproving but really wasn’t.

“I wasn’t thinking,” she argued with a smile. “I was feeling.” She lifted her head up to his and bit his bottom lip. He groaned and lowered his face back down, ruthlessly claiming her mouth. She adored the way he kissed. One minute it was all sweetness and gentle courtship, and the next he was nearly savage in the way he seemed desperate to devour her. She wanted all of it, all of him.

She gasped for breath as he moved his mouth to her throat. “Dimitri.”

“Yes?”

“I want it all with you.” She hoped he understood. She was ready to try going all the way this time.

“Not yet. We don’t need to. We have all the time we need.” He kissed her throat again, pressing his teeth against her flesh in a way that sent pangs of lust through her.

She moaned. “Please, I need this. I’m ready. Be my Dom, not a gentleman.”

He raised his head and looked down at her. “If I sense for one moment you aren’t ready, we will stop. Understood?”

Her heart swelled. “You really are a gentleman, aren’t you?”

“Only with you, kiska. Only with you.” But as he said it, she knew that wasn’t true. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. Then he stole her lips in a kiss that seemed to send every star above them into a heavenly blaze of brilliant light.

Elena parted her thighs, wanting him to take her right there beneath the stars.

He growled, the sound encouraging rather than reprimanding. “Kiska.”

Dimitri suddenly stiffened, his head jerking up. The soft, indulgent expression on his face vanished, and the man who had a thousand secrets was back. She heard the hum of a car engine, and the beams of headlights cut through their perfect night.

“Get up. Run. Head for the riverbank. Do not stop until you reach that bank. Stay down, no matter what you hear, and take this.” He was already off her body and had pressed a small handgun into her palms.

“Dimitri . . .”

“There’s no time.” He dragged her to him for one last kiss that stole the breath from her before she was pulled to her feet and shoved in the direction of the riverbank.

When she reached it, she slid off the steep ridge and down about six feet into a hollowed-out bank that hid her from view. Then she held her breath. Her blood roared in her ears as she waited for any sound, anything at all. But it was quiet and dark. She prayed that Dimitri would be okay. If anything happened to him . . . No, she wouldn’t think that. He would be okay—he had to be.

Dimitri took shelter around the corner of the lodge. In a place like this, it wasn’t smart to be in a dwelling you could get trapped in and your enemies could smoke you out. He held a long hunting knife.

The car in the distance finally reached the lodge. The high-beams blinded him, and he couldn’t see past the glare. The lights died, and the driver killed the engine. Dimitri counted the car doors that opened and closed. Two, no, three people. His eyes were still adjusting to the darkness after the bright headlights.

He crouched down as he listened for any sound of their movements. They were very quiet, but the loose gravel made it impossible to be completely silent. As his eyes regained their night vision, he counted two men, but his gut warned him that he’d heard three doors closing. Dimitri spun just in time to deflect an attack that came from behind him.

He turned, took the man down, and rolled backward in a somersault, sending his assailant flying over the top of his head, and then he flipped up onto his feet with his dagger ready.

“Fuck, Dimitri,” a voice grumbled as the man got up and dusted himself off.

“Maxim?” Dimitri exhaled, and every tensed muscle in him went lax. He turned to see Leo and Nicholas, guns in hand as they rounded the corner.

“You’re here.” Dimitri couldn’t believe his friends had caught up so fast.

“Yeah, you’d know that if you’d answered my calls,” Leo said.

“I left my phone at the house. I thought . . .” He shuddered. He hadn’t thought. That was the problem. He had been so focused on taking Elena out to stargaze and having a quiet evening alone with her and not worrying about what was to come that he’d broken one of the most basic rules of protecting someone. He’d let his guard down. It was a small mercy his friends had found him before his enemies.

“How did you find me? I didn’t leave instructions on how to get here.”

Leo grinned smugly. “I may have put a tracker in your favorite boots some time back. The black widow model is so small, airport security misses it every time.”

“So did I, apparently.” Dimitri was glad his friend had kept track of him. It was a smart move, and he was mad he hadn’t thought of it. Maxim looked to Leo. “Wait. You did not put one in my boots, did you? You know I demand my privacy.”

“Of course not,” said Leo. “I’d never do that to you.”

Maxim turned back to Dimitri, all business. Leo grinned and nodded behind his back, indicating that he totally did.

“We handled your body,” Maxim said. “Cleaned the scene for Devereaux too.”

“Thank you.”

Nicholas stared at Dimitri and glanced around. “Is it just me, or are we missing someone?” There was a teasing note to his tone that Dimitri had missed since he’d been away from his friends.

“Elena is hiding,” he explained.

Nicholas snorted. “Where? Under a rock?”

“Almost.” Dimitri led his friends toward the rocky embankment of the river. He held up his hand up to indicate they should stay back. He put his knife into his boot and called