Dark Desire by Lauren Smith (7 ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Elena had never stargazed before, but it sounded fun.

“Dress warmly. Meet me at the front door in a few minutes.” Dimitri collected their plates and headed back to the kitchen.

She retrieved a dark-blue peacoat, mittens, and a white knit cap, then met Dimitri at the door. He carried a thick picnic blanket under one arm and two pillows under the other. He was dressed in a long black wool coat.

“Let me get the door for you.” She opened the door, and they walked outside. She closed the door behind them, and they were swallowed up in darkness. The lights from the lodge were completely hidden by blackout curtains.

As her eyes adjusted, she saw Dimitri stride ahead of her toward a distant spot on the ground. She followed him as he unfurled the picnic blanket and laid it down. He eased onto the blanket, and she did the same. They were close, almost touching. The night air was clear and a little cold around them. Elena wanted to curl into him and absorb his warmth. After a moment he stretched out flat on his back, cushioning his head with a pillow.

She joined him. It was just the two of them now, a night sky horizon all around them and quiet stars above. It was like they were the only two people left in the universe, and the thought sent a strange wave of peace through her.

“Tell me what you see,” Dimitri said as he pointed up at the night sky.

Thousands—no, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of stars covered the sky so perfectly that all she could see were celestial objects. Straight above them was a thick band of gold-and-purple clouds that seemed to glow.

“Is that the Milky Way?” she gasped. It was so clear, so visible. She had only ever seen pictures of it that looked like this in books. There was always too much light pollution where she lived. Only a fraction of these stars would have been visible, and certainly not the Milky Way. Yet here it was, far more vast, infinite, and wondrous than she could have imagined.

“They say not all wonders are endless, but I believe this one is.” Dimitri’s voice was so gentle that her heart quivered.

He was right—the beauty above was infinite. Her eyes burned with tears as she took in the enormity of that thought . . . a beauty that was never-ending. Stars died and new ones were born, but there would always be celestial objects glowing in the night sky visible from somewhere in the universe.

Her mother had said once that thinking about the stars and the universe made her feel small, that she didn’t like to think about it. But for Elena, it was different. Especially tonight.

The endless beauty of the heavens made her feel like she was a part of something greater, something more powerful than anything here on earth. What Vadym had done to her, what he’d made her feel . . . none of that mattered, not when she looked up at that sky. He was a tiny, inconsequential thing. She wasn’t. She was a part of the stars, a part of the mysterious beauty above her. After all, she was made of stardust, just like everything else in the universe.

She let out a sigh. So much of her fear and anger from the last few months bled away into the night. “It is endless . . .”

“Endless and precious beyond imagining,” he agreed.

She turned to him and saw his gaze was on her, not the heavens. She stared back at him, aware of what he was really saying to her. She wanted more than anything to tell him that he had given her a gift. He’d helped her to see her value in the world, to feel like she belonged and that she was in charge of her fate again. Not only that, but she felt wanted and desired by a man she wanted and desired back. It left her almost dizzy with optimism.

“Dimitri . . . ,” she whispered and reached out to touch him. He rolled onto his side to face her, and she slid closer to him, tugging herself into his arms.

“You shine, not burn, Elena. Never forget that.”

The funny thing was, she believed him. For the first time since Vadym had taken her, she felt the power of her life was back in her hands. Even though they were on the run, she felt hope for the first time in what felt like forever.

She lifted her head a little so that it rested on his pillow beside him, then touched his full lips with her fingertips and briefly lost herself in dreams of kissing him.

“You saved me,” she said as she traced a finger over his mouth and then caressed his jaw.

“You saved yourself, kiska.” As he spoke, his voice was slightly rough with emotion.

“I didn’t.”

“You did. You stayed alive, lasted longer than any other woman in your situation and had the strength to get free, to fight.”

“It doesn’t feel like I did anything.”

He placed a hand on her hip, the gentle but firm grip grounding her. “Every day you draw breath is a day you have saved yourself, a day you have won by living your life.”

She sighed and closed her eyes before she kissed him. Was it possible for a man to taste like darkness and light all at once? Because Dimitri did. He tasted like everything she’d always dreamed of in her perfect fantasies. But he wasn’t a fantasy. He was real.

She rolled onto her back as he came on top of her. They continued to kiss while he captured her hands and pinned them on either side of her head. The weight of him on top of her felt so good. She had forgotten this feeling, the feeling of safety beneath a man. The only thing he would do was devastate her senses with pleasure. He owned every part of her, yet she felt strangely free at the same time. Elena trusted him with her body,