Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(11)

It wasn’t a good idea for Deryk to come to her apartment, Izzi decided, not with this arousal still surging through her body in hot waves. It wasn’t a good idea for her to meet him this evening at all. And yet a part of her wanted to do exactly that. The part of her that was burning up with arousal for this man, and this man alone. “I’ll come to the palace. I know somewhere good to eat that we don’t have to book, and we can walk to it from there.”

A frown furrowed his brow. “How will you get to the palace?”

“I’ll walk—”

“Absolutely not,” he bit out harshly. “I will either call a taxi or borrow a car from the Romanovs and pick you up from your apartment.”

After giving it some thought, Izzi decided that perhaps might be for the best, after all. She didn’t think it was a good idea for her parents, or the Romanov brothers, to know she had agreed to go out to dinner this evening with Deryk Pendragon.





Chapter 5


Izzi was ready to go out and restlessly pacing her apartment by eight thirty that evening.

The arousal, which she had thought was intense earlier, was now so all-consuming, Izzi felt as if she was going to explode from an overload of emotions and sensations.

Her hands were clenched so tightly, the nails were in danger of piercing the skin of her palms. Her clothes, smart black trousers and a dark green blouse, felt abrasive wherever they touched her skin. The fever was so high, Izzi didn’t need any blusher on her cheeks. In fact, she’d had to apply a light dusting of powder to mute the color rather than enhance it.

Even her hair, usually falling straight and silky to the curve of her bottom, was full of electric static this evening and refused to be tamed until she added some gel. It was as if there was some sort of energy, an electric force, coursing through her body.

Go out to dinner with Deryk Pendragon? She was going to kill him when he finally got here.

Because she had no doubt, absolutely none, that he was responsible for the discomfort she was feeling.

She didn’t know how, and she didn’t know why, but she knew with certainty he was responsible for the agony of magnified sensations she had been suffering since he’d kissed her last night.

How did she know?

Because as soon as the two of them parted this morning, the arousal had returned with a vengeance, becoming so unbearable, she’d thrown off her clothes and jumped into a lukewarm bath the moment she’d gotten into her apartment in an effort to ease the unbearable heat and sexual arousal.

It had succeeded too, just for a moment, when she first sank her aching body beneath the water, before that itching and clawing sensation beneath her skin had returned stronger than ever. Her nipples were so hard and engorged, they physically hurt. As for between her thighs… Her clit was so swollen, she’d actually been able to see that tiny red organ peeping out from the blonde curls beneath the bath water. Her arousal juices had literally gushed from her aching channel the moment she stepped out of the bath.

She was still so wet there, her panties were drenched through.

Simply killing Deryk Pendragon would be letting him off too lightly. He deserved to be flayed first. Large red welts patterned across the broadness of his back and shoulders. After that, she would—

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted her vengeful thoughts.

Deryk was here.

Izzi wrenched open the door, ready to do battle, but instead of Deryk, it was Pyotr standing out in the hallway.

“Izzi…?” he gasped the moment he saw her. “Tanya was right to be concerned. You really are ill.”

Izzi wondered what he would say if she answered truthfully: she wasn’t ill, her body just needed to be very thoroughly taken and claimed.

Which was pretty shocking coming from a virgin, she conceded self-derisively.

Not that she had set out to remain that way. She had just never been out with anyone she felt comfortable or was in love with enough to share that intimacy with. She had been thinking seriously about taking her relationship with Pyotr to that level. Until last night.

Until Deryk Pendragon entered her life.

Because whatever this intensity of arousal was about, it was specific and belonged solely to Derek.

“Mine,” he had growled at her last night.

It seemed that was exactly what she had become. As far as sexual arousal went, at least.

Yes, merely killing the dragon shifter was too good for him. He deserved to suffer, to burn in the pits of hell, as she was burning and suffering—

“Izzi?”

She blinked, having completely forgotten Pyotr was still waiting for an answer. “I thought you said you were going to call me.” She was reluctant to let him inside her apartment, had no idea how she would react if she did. How Deryk would react if he arrived and found the other man there.

“You were behaving so strangely this morning… Besides, I didn’t like the look of that man at the coffee shop.” He frowned. “He seemed almost territorial where you’re concerned, even though the two of you can only have just met.”

She gave a dismissive laugh that didn’t quite come off from the increased narrowing of Pyotr eyes. “You didn’t seem too bothered by that when you allowed me to leave with him,” she reminded him.

He gave a shake of his head. “One minute the two of us were enjoying our coffee together, and the next you were going out the door with another man.”