Vaughn (Russian Dragon Heat 2)

by Carole Mortimer

  But kind wasn’t the word he would have used to describe Nikolai Volkov’s arrogance in turning up outside the door of their new hotel room, situated in a completely different hotel in another part of London.

  Vaughn hadn’t officially checked them out of the previous hotel yet, because once Anastasia was feeling less emotionally fragile, there might be something she could salvage from the destruction of her belongings.

  In any case, Volkov had found them at the new hotel and insisted that they spent the night at his home instead. Vaughn had bit back his objections to the idea once he saw how much the invitation pleased Anastasia. Whatever his own feelings, he would always do everything he could to ensure his mate’s happiness.

  “I hope my being there won’t put you and your family in danger too.” Anastasia gave Nikolai a worried glance.

  “Not at all,” he dismissed. “There’s a state-of-the-art security system installed in the house and grounds, plus security staff patrolling the latter, and twenty-four-seven bodyguards for all of us when we leave the house. It goes with the territory of being Gregori’s second, and Daisy knew that when she married me and we had two children together,” he assured in answer to Anastasia’s concerned frown. “Did you say a bed?” he now repeated softly. “As in a single king-sized bed in one of our guest bedrooms, in which you intend spending the night together?”

  Vaughn hadn’t picked up on Anastasia’s statement in the way that Nikolai obviously had, but he now turned to look at her with that same question in his eyes.

  He had sensed something in Anastasia earlier as she sat on his lap, clutching her destroyed childhood teddy bear to her chest. An emotion that had penetrated her shock and brought with it a warmth and deep connection that told him she felt an instinctive trust in him. Not just in regard to her safety, but with all of her. Her body. Her heart. Her soul.

  Mate.

  Claim.

  Much as Vaughn wanted to claim his mate, he couldn’t do it while in the home of bloody Nikolai the-bastard-who-enjoys-fucking-with-me Volkov.

  Vaughn knew from the Pendragon brothers and, more recently, his brother Vladimir that a dragon-shifter mating was a fierce and noisy affair. Growls and bites from Vaughn, screams of pleasure from Anastasia. Growls, bites, screams, and pleasure that would last all night and for several more days and nights afterward.

  Vaughn had no idea, if he shared a bed with Anastasia tonight, if he would be able to exert enough control over his own hunger and that of his dragon not to claim her.

  Something he really couldn’t do when he hadn’t yet told her exactly who and what he was. Or what she was to him.

  But the thought now of not sharing a bed with her tonight if he was given the opportunity to do so was equally as unacceptable.

  “One bed will suffice, yes.” Anastasia shyly made the choice for him. “Unless you feel otherwise.” She looked at Vaughn from beneath the sweep of her lashes.

  Hunger surged through Vaughn like a tidal wave, tensing his body, engorging his cock until it was a painful throb, and caused his hands to clench until he felt his talons pierce the ends of his clawed fingers.

  “Ouch!” Anastasia quickly pulled her hand away and held it against her chest, much as she had the pieces of her childhood teddy bear earlier. Vaughn had packed those pieces away in his backpack, hoping to repair it at a later date. “What was that?” She frowned her confusion as she stared down at the four curved marks on the back of her hand.

  Vaughn was relieved to see the crescent indents weren’t actually bleeding, but they had certainly marked the skin enough to be visible.

  “Yes, what was that, Vaughn?” Nikolai taunted with another glance at him in the driving mirror.

  Vaughn gave the other man a narrow-eyed glare that promised a later retribution. “Sorry.” He gave Anastasia a brief smile. “My fingernails must need trimming. And yes, one bed is perfectly adequate.”

  Nikolai gave a snort of laughter before sobering as he stopped the SUV outside the tall iron gates into the driveway leading to his mansion surrounded by tended gardens.

  A different guard stood on the other side of those gates, obviously one of the numerous security staff Nikolai had mentioned earlier. He now stepped forward to press some buttons embedded in the high wall surrounding the property. As they had earlier this evening, the gates immediately swung open to admit the SUV.

  “I’ve had the suite of rooms over the garage prepared for you,” Daisy Volkov informed them after giving Anastasia a warm hug in greeting. “There’s a sitting room, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms if you should need them. It will give the two of you more privacy than being in the main house.”

  “My wife is so much more thoughtful than I am,” Nikolai drawled with another of those mocking glances in Vaughn’s direction.

  Daisy smiled as her husband’s arm moved possessively about her waist and he drew her to his side. “I think we knew that’s the way it was going to be when we first got together,” she teased. “Besides…” She included Anastasia and Vaughn in the warmth of her teasing smile. “Our children usually wake the whole household up at six o’clock in the morning. This way, you’ll be able to sleep in a little longer than that.”

  “You’re very kind.” Anastasia had a feeling she might need that extra sleep. The end to their evening had been very emotional, and the night wasn’t over yet.

  “Would either of your like a drink before you go to bed? No?” Daisy acknowledged the shake of their heads. “Then I’ll just show you to your suite and let you get some rest. It’s been a traumatic end to the evening for you.” She gave Anastasia’s arm a sympathetic squeeze. “I’ve put some toiletries in the bathroom for you, and a few bits and pieces of clothing to get you through until you’re able to get out to the shops to buy new ones.”

  Tears stung Anastasia’s eyes at the other woman’s thoughtfulness. At both Nikolai’s and Daisy’s kindness.

  Vaughn seemed to hesitate at her side before stepping away to talk quietly to Nikolai. The other man scowled before nodding abruptly.

  “Is something wrong?” she prompted once Vaughn rejoined her.

  “No, we’re fine,” he assured her.

  Is something wrong, Anastasia’s question inwardly taunted her.

  Everything was wrong right now.

  Her stalker’s behavior had escalated to deliberately hurting her.

  They still had no idea who that stalker was.

  Anastasia had no idea how she was going to find the money to replace the things she’d lost.

  But despite all that, it was the destruction of her childhood bear that she mourned the most. It was irreplaceable. The only link with the mother she had never known. Vaughn had pushed the pieces of her teddy into the overnight bag they took with them to the hotel, but Anastasia didn’t need to see it again to know it was beyond repair.

  Even thinking about it caused her to tremble, and she was grateful for the way Vaughn held her hand for the walk through the house to the guest suite. His touch alone gave her the reassurance that, no matter what, he would ensure her safety.

  It was only once she and Vaughn were alone in the luxurious guest suite that her nervousness returned.

  Her statement earlier that she intended sharing a bed with Vaughn had been made out of a need to remain close to him tonight. But now that she was actually alone with him, she could feel her shyness returning.

  “How about a shower before bed?” he now suggested lightly.

  She had no idea until that moment how much she needed to do exactly that. Having her things destroyed in that awful way had made her feel as if she had also been somehow violated. A shower might help to dispel that feeling.

  Except… “Together?” She didn’t want to be alone right now for so much as a minute, even for the time it would take her to feel clean again.

  Not that she had ever showered with a man before, or even been naked with one, although some of the costumes she occasionally wore on stage were so skimpy, they might as
well have been nonexistent.

  But that was on stage during a performance, not in the confines of sharing a shower.

  She wanted this, wanted to remain physically close to Vaughn, ached for it.

  “Unless you would rather not?” she prompted awkwardly when she realized Vaughn hadn’t answered her.

  “Unless I would rather not?” he repeated incredulously.

  “Yes.” She looked at him shyly from beneath her lashes. “I thought that you—that we—liked each other, but if I’ve assumed too much— Vaughn!” She gasped as he took her in his arms before claiming her lips in a totally possessive kiss. Again. And then again.

  The last of Anastasia’s earlier shock melted away under the heated onslaught of those kisses, until it felt as if her very bones had literally turned to mush. All she could do was cling to Vaughn’s shoulders as she returned those passionate kisses.

  It was long minutes later before Vaughn rested his forehead against hers, his breathing ragged. “I needed that.”

  Anastasia laughed huskily, her lips feeling puffy from the onslaught of the kisses she had also needed. “Nikolai does seem to take delight in annoying you.”

  “The man’s a pain in— My need to kiss you has absolutely nothing to do with Volkov,” he said, dismissing his impatience with Nikolai. “And everything to do with the fact I’m finding it increasingly difficult not to kiss or touch you all the time.”

  She felt the color warm her cheeks. “I feel the same way. I…This might sound odd, but I’ve felt drawn to you since we first met. I’ve never felt that way before with anyone, and I don’t know how best to explain it.”

  Vaughn’s smile was dazzling. “You don’t need to, because I feel it too.” His smile dimmed as he frowned. “And there’s a reason for it, but… There are some things I need to discuss with you, tell you, before or if we take this attraction any further.”

  “Do those things have anything to do with your ‘it isn’t you, it’s me’ speech earlier?” she teased.

  He sighed. “They have everything to do with that, yes.”

  She tilted her head. “Can it wait until after we’ve showered?”

  His eyes darkened to the color of deep emerald. “I would prefer that it did.”

  Anastasia was the one to initiate holding his hand as they went through to the adjoining bathroom.

  Chapter Ten

  Vaughn turned from adjusting the shower water to a comfortable heat, careful to remember that temperature needed to be a lot cooler than he normally had it in order not to burn Anastasia’s delicate human skin.

  Her nervousness was apparent in the way her hands shook as she unzipped and then removed her dress, leaving her wearing only a pale pink bra and matching satin panties.

  Vaughn’s mouth instantly became dry just from looking at her.

  She had the lithe and slender body of all ballet dancers. Her breasts were gentle slopes he knew would fit perfectly into the palms of his hands. He could see delicate pink nipples through the lace. The matching scrap of lace covering her mound also revealed that she was completely bare there, no doubt because of the skimpy ballet costumes she often wore. It was arousing as hell to imagine that complete exposure of her folds and the nubbin hidden inside them.

  If someone had asked Vaugh two days ago what his perfect woman looked like, he wouldn’t have known how to answer them.

  Now he knew that woman would look exactly like Anastasia, from the roots of her long golden hair to the tips of her slender toes.

  She was, in a word, perfection.

  Our mate, his dragon echoed proudly.

  “Now you,” she encouraged huskily.

  Her gaze didn’t falter from him even as a permanent blush seemed to have taken up residence in her cheeks as Vaughn slowly peeled off his clothing, piece by piece.

  He had never had any reason to question the powerful and natural musculature of his own body; bulging arms, wide chest and shoulders, hard abs, tapered waist and hips, his legs long and powerful. His cock, nine inches in length and four or five around, was already engorged, pre-cum slicking the fiercely red and mushroomed head.

  Even so, Vaughn was very aware that next to the male ballet dancers Anastasia was used to, he must appear overly big and powerfully muscled. It caused him to question how he measured up beside those slender men.

  “You’re so beautiful.” Anastasia reached out a tentative hand to gently touch and then caress the hard contours of his chest and then down his abdomen until her fingers became gently entangled with the curls at the base of his cock. “May I?” She seemed hesitant about touching him any more intimately without his permission.

  Vaughn gave a choked groan. “I might spontaneously combust if you don’t. Or if you do.” He gave a self-derisive grimace. “Please, feel free to touch me anytime. Any and everywhere.”

  It seemed slightly unfair to Anastasia that Vaughn was completely bare whereas she still had the illusion of being covered by her lacy bra and panties.

  Instead of accepting Vaughn’s invitation, she reached back to unfasten and remove her bra, baring breasts tipped with engorged nipples. They weren’t large breasts, but the heat of Vaughn’s gaze and the way in which his tongue licked along the length of his bottom lip told her how much he liked and wanted to suck her nipples.

  Her panties were easily pushed down and stepped out of before Anastasia straightened. Her breathing had become low and shallow, but she kept her chin raised high as she stood completely naked before Vaughn for the first time.

  He drew in a slow and ragged breath. “You’re everything I could ever have dreamed of or wanted.”

  She blinked. “I am?”

  He nodded. “The fates have been kinder to me than I could ever have hoped.”

  She eyed him quizzically. “You believe in fate?”

  He smiled slightly. “I said fates, not fate, although that’s been good to me too.”

  It seemed like a strange statement to Anastasia, but not one she wanted to pursue when she’d come to the end of her courage. The steam from the hot shower water had warmed the bathroom to a very comfortable degree, but she still felt self-conscious in their nakedness.

  “Let’s take that shower.” She held her hand out to Vaughn in invitation, fingers curling about his much larger hand as they stepped beneath the hot water together.

  It was the largest shower Anastasia had ever seen, a glass wall and door extending along the whole length of one wall. Inside the enclosure, the walls and floor were warm terracotta tiles, with a bench seat extending along the back wall.

  Showers were usually something Anastasia believed necessary every morning and after she had been in rehearsal for several hours. Merely a part of her daily routine. This shower, shared with Vaughn, was nothing like that.

  With Vaughn being so much taller and larger than her, the confines of the glass sides seemed to narrow inward when they stepped inside, the steam surrounding them adding to the intimacy of the moment.

  “Let me.” Vaughn took the soap from her, holding her gaze as he lathered it in his hands before washing her from the tops of her shoulders, over her breasts and abdomen, then kneeling to run his soapy palms down the length of her legs.

  Anastasia’s breath, already choppy and shallow, stopped altogether when Vaughn sat back on his heels to look up at her with that familiar and unusual fire burning in the depths of his eyes.

  She really would have to ask him about that—

  “Can I touch and kiss you here?” Vaughn’s fingers danced lightly above but didn’t quite touch her bare mound and exposed pussy lips.

  Anastasia trembled slightly, her knees feeling weak as she felt both excited and self-conscious at the same time. But she trusted Vaughn. Implicitly. Despite the fact they hadn’t know each other for very long. “I would like that very much,” she invited softly.

  That fiery gaze became riveted on the swollen folds of her pussy as Vaughn watched his own fingers caressing and then separating that plumpness, rev
ealing her erect and aroused clitoris and the slickness between her folds.

  His breath was a warm waft against her sensitized flesh as he leaned forward, his wide shoulders pushing her legs even farther apart, before he licked a sensuous path down the seam of her pussy.

  Anastasia’s unique taste burst onto Vaughn’s tongue as he lapped up some of her juices. Nectar of the gods and earthy spices exploded on his taste buds, as addictive as any narcotic as Vaughn drank and drank those juices down his throat in between licking and suckling on her folds and clit.

  “Vaughn!” Anastasia’s hands moved to tightly grip his shoulders. “Oh God, Vaughn…” The latter was gasped out as her body began to tremble.

  The swelling of her clit in Vaughn’s mouth told him of her release seconds before she shook in the throes of that ecstasy.

  Vaughn looked up at her hungrily. Her head was thrown back, exposing the long length of her throat, her teeth biting into her bottom lip, her nipples tight and flushing a much deeper rose as they became even more engorged. Vaughn lifted a hand to squeeze one of those hard buds between fingers and thumb, prolonging Anastasia’s orgasm.

  He didn’t move until he was sure she had enjoyed every measure of her pleasure. Then he rose to his feet to lift her in his arms and carry her to the bench seat along the back wall before once again falling to his knees between her parted thighs. He placed her legs over his shoulders, fully exposing her clit and the slick entrance to her channel. A place he dared not go as yet. Not until Anastasia knew the full consequences of allowing him to claim her in that way.

  Which didn’t prevent him from licking and sucking on her clit as he gave her release after release.

  “No more, Vaughn,” she finally gasped. “I can’t— It’s too much.”

  Taste.

  Suck.

  Pleasure.

  Vaughn ignored his dragon’s demands as he leaned back on his heels to look at Anastasia. Her face was flushed, eyes feverish, lips slightly parted, her breasts moving up and down as she breathed raggedly in and out.

  “Take me to bed now, please,” she encouraged. “Make love to me.”