Vladimir (Russian Dragon Heat #1) - Carole Mortimer Page 0,22

of them.

Would a mate come under that protective umbrella?

Tanya had no doubt she would. But she wasn’t Vladimir’s mate, and he was too angry with her right now to listen to how she had felt obligated earlier to take the opportunity to escape when it was presented to her. Anything else would have been a betrayal of herself after all these months of captivity.

Just as Vladimir’s grim expression also told her he held her and her brother completely responsible for the changes in Vaughn. What was Tanya supposed to say in response to that? That she was sorry? A part of her was, because she really had liked Vaughn. But ultimately, her need for reprisal against the Romanov dragon shifters had outweighed that liking.

“I’m sorry,” she found herself saying despite having previously decided she wasn’t going to apologize.

The scornful curve of Vladimir’s lips told her exactly what he thought of that apology. “You are about to be very sorry,” he promised. “The room is warmer now, both from the fire and the generator working the central heating. Take off your coat and socks.” He slipped off the duster and placed it over a chair before straightening. “I will take care of the rest of your clothing.”

“The rest of my…?” Tanya recoiled as she saw the intent in Vladimir’s expression, even if she wasn’t completely sure what he was going to do.

She took another step back, despite Vladimir not having made any sort of move toward her. She was also deeply regretting having removed her wet boots. She was going to need them if she had to make a run for it. Not that she would get very far, whether Vladimir was in human or dragon form.

“What does ‘tend’ mean to you, exactly?” she prompted warily.

He relaxed slightly. “That you are about to have your bottom spanked. Your bare bottom, to be exact,” he added huskily.

She gasped. “What?”

“I am sure you heard me the first time,” he said evenly.

“I… But why?”

His jaw tightened. “You ran away from us. You deliberately put yourself in danger from predators, human and animal, when you did so.”

Her cheeks paled, not just from Vladimir’s reminder of the wild wolves outside, but also at his use of the word us. It reminded her all too forcibly that this man was a dragon as well as a man. If she had needed any reminding after being flown here by a huge dragon with glittering black scales! “It’s almost one o’clock in the morning,” she protested.

“And this is important because?”

“Because it’s past time we were both in bed,” she reasoned.

Vladimir shrugged those impressive shoulders. The same shoulders Tanya’s head had rested against when he was in dragon form. “Perhaps we might do that too, after I have had the pleasure of spanking you.”

Tanya had met many men with sexual kinks and requests during the years of selling what those men wanted. Several of them had even liked to spank her as a way of arousing themselves.

Tanya had always been able to keep her own emotions removed from those kinks.

She didn’t think that was going to be true when Vladimir was the one doing the spanking. If, not when, she hastily corrected.

Because she really wasn’t sure she would be able to shut off her emotions in that same way if it was Vladimir’s muscular thighs she was draped over and one of his large hands spanking her bare bottom.

Much as it pained her to admit it, Tanya had enjoyed having dinner with him this evening. Not only was Vladimir gorgeous to look at, mesmerizing, in fact, but his conversation was intelligent and interesting.

Apart from the moment where Vladimir had told her she was his fated mate, she reminded.

She had no idea what that meant exactly for the Romanov dragons, and she wasn’t sure they did either, when none of them were yet mated. But Tanya hadn’t liked the sound of it after Vladimir had told her of how all the Pendragon brothers had now met and mated their fated mates, her own and Pyotr’s friend Izzi being one of them.

It seemed because of that mating, Izzi had now given up her life in St. Petersburg and being with her family, and now lived in Wales as the mate of the dragon shifter Deryk Pendragon.

Tanya couldn’t even begin to think what being Vladimir’s mate would entail. She didn’t want to think about it, hence the reason she had run from the winter palace earlier.

She straightened her shoulders, and her defiant blue