Vladimir (Russian Dragon Heat #1) - Carole Mortimer Page 0,31

lived all her life in St. Petersburg, and they didn’t have a proliferation of wild animals roaming the streets there.

She gave another shiver at the thought of how she could so easily have run afoul of one of those predators the night before. What on earth had she been thinking of to run off in that impetuous way?

Escape, came the immediate reply.

Perhaps, but—

Tanya stilled as a dark shape now stepped out from the cover of the tree line. A shape that moved on two legs rather than four.

She couldn’t make out any of the features beneath the heavy black hood pulled up over the person’s head, but the height of over six feet and the bulk of the heavily muffled-against-the-cold figure indicated it was probably a man rather than a woman.

Tanya hadn’t noticed any other buildings nearby when they flew here—God, that was still taking some getting used to!—so what was some random man doing wandering about near the Romanovs’ dacha?

Except he wasn’t just wandering randomly, but standing still and looking directly at the dacha.

Her breath caught and then stopped altogether as the man lifted his gloved hand to push back the quilted hood—

“Tanya?”

She whipped her head round at the sound of Vladimir’s voice. He was now wide awake and leaning up on one elbow as he looked across the bedroom at her. He looked almost boyish with his hair tousled, dark gaze warm, his muscular chest bare where the bedcovers had fallen to his waist.

“What were you looking at so intently?” he mused.

Tanya really wasn’t sure what, or who, she’d seen outside. Another brief glance out the window before she turned back to face Vladimir told her there was nothing and no one to see amongst the trees now.

Perhaps she’d imagined it?

After all, it was doubtful there was really some random man wandering about in the snow-covered wilderness surrounding this dacha. If there was, considering the remoteness of the area and lack of habitation, then surely he would have come and knocked on the door rather than disappearing as mysteriously as he had appeared?

Or, if the figure had been real, she could just have mistaken a bear standing on its hind legs for a man wearing padded clothing.

That was an explanation that sounded slightly ridiculous to her own ears, let alone—

“Tanya?” Without her realizing it, Vladimir had left the bed and now stood inches in front of her. He was also completely and gloriously naked, possibly because Tanya wore his bathrobe.

She swallowed as she instantly felt enveloped in heat from Vladimir’s body and the feverish glitter in his eyes as he looked at her so intently. “I thought I saw something outside. An animal,” she clarified jerkily.

He narrowed his lids as he looked out the window, no doubt able to see far better with his dragon sight than Tanya had with her human one. “I can’t see anything there now.”

“No.”

He turned back to her. “Perhaps you were mistaken.”

“Perhaps.” She couldn’t stop herself from gazing at the perfection of his naked body. “You must be cold without a robe,” she hinted.

As Vladimir had predicted, the central heating was now doing its job, and the room was warm. But not that warm. It was also very disconcerting to be having a conversation with a naked man. Even if that man had had his head—and tongue—buried between her thighs the night before.

Tanya wanted to groan at the memory. She wasn’t sure whether it was with remembered pleasure or embarrassment.

Vladimir huffed in amusement. “I wore the robe last night for your benefit, not mine. Dragons don’t feel the difference in temperatures, hot or cold.”

And there it was. That stark reminder to her that Vladimir wasn’t just a devastatingly handsome man who made love with the same single-minded intensity as he did everything else, but also a dragon shifter, which made him the biggest and most dangerous predator on the planet.

Vladimir knew he had said the wrong thing when Tanya immediately tensed, her gaze becoming wary as she stepped back and away from him.

Her gaze now avoided meeting his. “I need to take a shower and dress.”

“Why?”

She gave him a startled glance. “It’s what people do in the morning.”

“It’s only six o’clock. And who are you dressing for? I like you fine just as you are,” he stated honestly.

He had gazed his fill of her as he lay in bed and she stood across the room looking out the window. Her hair was a tousled and silky black cloud about her shoulders, her face