Dark Desire Lauren Smith (books for 8th graders .txt) 📖

conditioned to follow orders without question. While she desperately craved her own life back and control of her own decisions, she was relieved that Dimitri could offer her some sort of structure until she was comfortable enough to control her life again.

She turned her gaze to the road, taking in the glittery, flashing world of Las Vegas before they passed through to the open road again. The bright sun illuminated the highway in front of them, and the strangest feeling came over Elena. She looked at Dimitri discretely from beneath her lashes as she recalled him in her dream carrying her into the light.

This man was her destiny. As wild and unexplainable as it was, she could feel it. Fate had driven her into his life, and he had welcomed her, scars and all. Elena reached across the console between them and placed her hand on top of his. He turned his hand over, and their palms connected. His fingers curled around hers, and it felt as though the seismic plates deep within her soul shifted, sinking into place. She was home, only now home was no longer a little house in Maine with a white picket fence.

It was this man, her beautiful, scary, Russian protector.

Maxim Kamenev entered the Malibu beach house address Leo had given him. The door code worked at the gate as expected, and he slipped into the house with the stealth of a leopard on the hunt.

Leo followed right behind him. “What do you see?”

Maxim didn’t answer. He had his gun out at the ready. Glass shards and blood littered the kitchen and family room.

The sight made him tense. He was so close to Dimitri, Nicholas, and Leo that when one of them was hurt, he practically felt the pain in his own body.

“Are we on body removal?” Nicholas asked as he came up behind Maxim and Leo. “Because that is my least favorite part of the job.”

At this, Maxim and Leo turned to stare at him.

Nicholas gave his devil-may-care smile. “What? You can’t say you enjoy it.”

Maxim shrugged. “It’s like laundry. Boring but necessary.” He turned his focus back to the house, moving from room to room. He noticed that only one bed was unmade.

“Dimitri is sleeping with her,” Maxim said to the other two men as they joined him in one of the rooms that faced the sea.

Nicholas’s eyes widened. “You’re sure?”

“Only one bed was unmade. They had no time to tidy up.”

“But he . . . he doesn’t know who she is. If he did, he would never have . . .”

“He knows enough. He knows she has Romanov blood,” Leo said.

“But so do a lot of people,” Maxim countered. “You couldn’t tell him her true ancestry over the phone. He’s just following his desires now. The moment he learns that she’s not just any Romanov descendant, he will let go and step back.”

“I hope so,” Leo murmured. “We took a vow.”

“A vow to protect,” Maxim said as he knelt by the pool of blood on the balcony.

“We vowed that we would protect, and we can’t do that if we are emotionally attached. It makes us vulnerable,” Leo reminded him.

Maxim believed in the rules, but this was one that made him conflicted. Sometimes a person was braver, faster, more alert, when defending the life of someone they deeply cared about. It was why the four of them worked so well together even after all these years. They loved each other like brothers, and that made the fight in them that much stronger.

“Where’s the body?” Maxim asked Leo.

“Basement.”

“You two handle the blood and anything broken. I’ll handle the body.”

The three of them split up, and Maxim located the door to the basement. It wasn’t some creepy dark lair—no, it was a casual family room complete with a flat-screen TV, sectional sofa, and in the corner, well, damn . . . a spanking bench, a Saint Andrew’s cross, and a wall of fun little toys.

Maxim whistled softly. A Dom definitely lived here, one who knew where to purchase the best toys, not the crap most men bought for their private playrooms. No, these were quality BDSM products. It was no wonder Dimitri and Royce got along. The rest of them were into the lifestyle a little too, but not as much as Dimitri.

Turning his focus from the play area, Maxim found the body of the Russian agent who had attacked Dimitri and Elena. He frowned as he recognized Viktor Ivanoff. He’d never tangled with Viktor personally, but he’d cleaned up a lot of situations Viktor had been involved in. Most Kremlin agents these days focused on subtle deaths, making it hard to prove who committed the crime. For Viktor to attack so openly like this . . . it was unusual. Whoever sent him here believed blunt action, something not survivable like a gunshot, was necessary, but that raised a whole new question. Who was the target? Dimitri or Elena?

Maxim guest Elena, simply because of what he knew about her bloodline, and Dimitri’s cover had always been the most inconspicuous of the four of them. The Kremlin believed Dimitri to be a rich playboy who liked to visit Paris and Long Island and blow his money on women and indulge in BDSM. The Russian government thought him a fool who would support the men in power without question. That meant it was more likely Elena was the target, and that meant the job of protecting her had become that much more difficult.

With a heavy sigh, Maxim focused on the body he was meant to dispose of. It was going to be an unpleasant couple of hours, and all he wanted to do was lie on the damn beach in the sun.

11

Dimitri took a turn off the highway down to a small country road.

“Where are we going?” It was late in the afternoon. Elena sat forward in her seat, eyes glued to the red-and-gold landscape of the craggy desert terrain of Utah.

“Dead Horse Point State Park.”

“That name sounds foreboding.” Elena bit her lip, more than