Vladimir (Russian Dragon Heat #1) - Carole Mortimer Page 0,37

was too arrogant and overbearing to pretend to be anything other than what he was. Which was bluntly honest and completely steadfast and true when it came to those he cared about. He felt no compunction in admitting he now counted Tanya amongst that number.

To a degree he was willing to forego his own pleasure indefinitely if it wasn’t what she wanted.

“Tanya—”

“No.” She placed a hand in the center of Vladimir’s chest as he attempted to sit up. “It’s my turn to make love to you, remember?” she teased.

Inwardly, she was panicking. She didn’t know how to make love to anyone, only how to give enough pleasure to the man she was with for long enough for him to be able to climax. What if—

“Tanya.” The sharpness of Vladimir’s tone brought her out of her wildly floundering thoughts. “You are my fated mate. My queen,” he added huskily.

She stilled. “I hope you meant that metaphorically.”

He appeared slightly discomforted. “No.”

“What!” She stopped breathing altogether as she reared back.

“You will be my queen,” he repeated softly. “Because I am king of the Russian dragons.”

“So when I called you Your Majesty earlier…?”

“You were giving me my correct title. It will be yours too once we are mated.”

She gave a desperate shake of her head. “I can’t be a queen.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not worthy—”

“You are our queen!”

There was absolutely no need for her to question where that assertion came from. Vladimir might be the one speaking, but his voice had become guttural as it did whenever he spoke to her in his dragon form.

Telling her that Vladimir and his dragon believed her worthy of becoming their queen.

Vladimir’s perfectly sculpted lips now curved up in a teasing smile. “I don’t advise that you question your mate and sovereign.”

She sat on her heels. “If I’m to be your queen, won’t that make me royalty too and so not answerable to the king?”

“Good answer,” he approved warmly. “But yes, you will be my beautiful warrior queen.”

“And exactly when did you intend telling me that little gem of information?” Tanya was still trying to get her thoughts around this latest revelation.

He grimaced. “I did not wish to alarm you with too much information too soon.”

“As if being told I’m the fated mate of a dragon shifter wasn’t too much!” she derided.

“As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t. To me it is…everything,” he admitted emotionally. “Besides,” he added, “can there possibly be a right time to tell you I am king and you will be queen of the Russian dragon shifters?”

He was right—as usual.

The knowledge of his sovereignty was starting to trickle through Tanya’s defenses and become a reality, even if thinking of herself as ever becoming Vladimir’s queen was an incredulous one.

Vladimir was so very real to her now. Not that he trickled anywhere. No, Vladimir preferred to stride forcefully through anything and everything. Life. Any barriers placed in his way. He simply cast them all aside to get what he wanted.

Except her.

With her, he was gentle, giving her choices rather than demands.

She’d been aware of and attracted to him—how could she not be?—during her weeks of working at the Mikhailov Palace. She’d dealt with that unwanted attraction by allowing herself to become even more vehemently determined to make the Romanov family pay for the deaths of her parents. “Does that make your brothers princes?”

“Yes.”

Tanya shook her head. “I can’t believe they’ll ever accept me as being your anything.” She’d met the other Romanov brothers during the few weeks she worked as a maid in the palace. They were all as arrogant and haughty as Vladimir, with the possible exception of Vaughn, but she’d tried to kill him! Besides, Vladimir said his youngest brother had changed since the attack.

Vladimir’s nostrils flared. “My brothers will recognize you for the fierce warrior you are. You are my mate, my queen, and they will have no choice but to respect that.”

Tanya inwardly winced at how forceful Vladimir sounded. He was every inch that king of the dragon shifters at that moment. More importantly, one who was assuring her he wouldn’t accept anything less than his brothers bending their knee to his queen.

“What happens to you if I don’t agree to become your mate?” She knew from their conversation last night that the Pendragon brothers would have died if their mates had refused them. That Vladimir’s brother Karl had died after his mate refused to stay with him.

Vladimir’s expression became remote. “If you refuse me before we are mated, then you will continue