in the wardrobe, alongside several other suits he kept here for his use. He put his shirt and underwear in the laundry basket in the bathroom before turning on the shower water. The water, hot or cold, wouldn’t affect him, but he nevertheless waited for it reach his desired temperature before stepping inside the glass cubicle and allowing that hot water to pummel his skin.
All while putting off even thinking of his sighting of Tanya Petrova when he arrived.
She had been standing at one of the tower windows looking down at him, her expression becoming one of defiance and challenge when she saw it was him.
No matter what Vaughn had said or how much Vladimir knew it to be the truth himself, he still railed against accepting Tanya as his mate.
How could fate have been so cruel as to choose a woman who hated him, when he had waited so long to meet and mate her?
She is strong.
She also tried to kill Vaughn, he reminded his dragon as he continued to stand beneath the punishing water spray.
The female human who is our mate almost succeeded in killing a dragon shifter.
A dragon shifter in human form, Vladimir defended.
Even then, Vaughn was still so much more powerful than a human. His senses are also heightened.
The attack only succeeded because Vaughn allowed himself to be distracted by the demands of his cock, Vladimir defended harshly.
A cock he intended to put inside our mate.
Vladimir had no control over the talons bursting from his fingertips or the partial shift of his face to glittering black scales before he threw his head back and his jaws opened, revealing long and sharp teeth, as he released the possessive roar of his dragon.
Tanya would be lying if she didn’t admit to trembling in fear when the palace was filled with the echoing sound of what had to be a dragon’s roar.
As there was only one dragon in residence, she knew it had to be Vladimir Romanov making his presence known in that earthshaking way.
As if Tanya had needed any reminder of his arrival an hour ago.
Then, his appearance had been that of a civilized man, and he’d been clothed in the sophisticated trappings of a CEO of the successful Romanov business empire. The family’s wealth was believed to be in the billions.
The legendary dragon’s hoard?
No doubt that was the case, and behind the thick private walls of this winter palace, Vladimir could become exactly what he was: a fierce and vengeful dragon bent on destruction. Tanya’s destruction.
She tensed, her breathing becoming uneven as she listened to the sound of heavy footsteps ascending the stone steps to her suite of rooms at the top of the tower.
It was nowhere near dinnertime yet, and she knew every cadence of the couple’s steps anyway, and the person coming to confront her was neither of them.
Which meant it had to be Vladimir.
She’d wanted this, Tanya reminded. She’d prayed to have her torment over and done with. Except now the time had come, she was shaking in her black leather ankle boots.
Her year in the orphanage had been terrible, a time when she’d lived in constant fear and more often than not had received a hurtful blow rather than food or water.
Selling herself on the streets of St. Petersburg had been even more so, when she never really knew if the men who paid to use her would be gentle or violent.
Luring in and then attempting to kill Vaughn Romanov had been as satisfying as it was frightening.
But this, the long seconds of waiting for Vladimir to reach the top of the staircase, to unlock the door before entering her luxurious prison, was so terrifying, Tanya couldn’t stop herself from trembling.
She’d been anticipating this moment for days, weeks, months, had even decided to meet her fate with defiance and dignity.
The last thing she had expected was for those unfamiliar footsteps to come to a halt outside the bedroom, the key to turn in the lock, followed by the heavy sound of Vladimir’s fist knocking on the thick wooden door.
As if giving her the choice of whether or not he was allowed to enter.
When in reality, Tanya knew she had no choice.
She ignored the renewed buzzing sensation beneath the skin of her arms to instead clench her hands tightly together in front of her as she stepped back and placed her feet slightly apart, bracing her shoulders as if for a blow. “Enter.”
What happened next knocked her totally off her booted feet.
Chapter Three
Vladimir had