Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(24)

Deryk wanted this to last, to stay in this sensual paradise forever, but he had been in a state of arousal for too long. He’d wanted Izabella since the moment he set eyes on her. Before he met her. To him, she was perfection. The ultimate woman. His woman.

What if she didn’t do the things he liked?

All Izabella had to do was breathe—

Oh sweet Goddess!

Deryk shot up into a sitting position as Izabella cupped his balls again. Combined with the sucking of her mouth, the firm caress of her wet tongue, and the pumping of her hand, Deryk completely lost control. There was none of the usual warnings, the tingling at the base of his spine, the tightening of his balls, only the fierce explosion of his cum as it shot along the length of his cock and exploded in thick, hot jets into Izabella’s waiting mouth.

Ambrosia was Izzi’s first thought. And her second. And her third. It became every thought, as Deryk’s pleasure became all that existed. His cum was so delicious, she sucked greedily until she had swallowed down every last drop as that nectar pumped and continued to flow.

She felt almost euphoric when his release finally stopped, a satiated smile curving her lips when she raised her head to look at him.

He winced as he stared at her. “Fuck,” he muttered with feeling. “Damn it, I thought I had things under control. I didn’t mean to— I should have— Fuck,” he muttered with even deeper self-disgust and vehemence.

Izzi came painfully down to earth as she frowned at him. “What is it?”

Deryk closed his eyes. He had at least managed to control the release of the barb at the base of his cock, but—

How did he say it? How could he convince Izabella to believe him when he told her he hadn’t realized, hadn’t known what would happen. That he’d had every intention of pulling out before he came?

But the evidence of his release was there in the blown pupils of her eyes, so that only a ring of green remained. The flush in her cheeks. That dreamy smile on her lips. The hardness of her engorged nipples. The heady aroma of her returning arousal.

Shit, shit, shit.

Izabella was only just starting to thaw toward him, to trust him, to maybe start to accept that the two of them were mates. He had already endangered that once by not telling her about the aphrodisiac in his saliva, and how he’d made it so much worse by—

“Deryk?” she prompted worriedly at his continued silence.

He moistened his lips before speaking. “I didn’t know, didn’t think. How the hell was I supposed to do that when your mouth and hands were all over me?”

She shook her head. “Think about what?”

“My cum,” he spoke reluctantly. “You look a little— I think maybe—”

“No!” Her eyes widened as she reared back to sit on her calves. “You did it to me again, didn’t you?” She glared at him as the realization hit her.

“Strictly speaking, you did it to me—”

“There was more of that aphrodisiac in your cum!” She scrabbled inelegantly to her feet, gaze accusing.

“I—” Deryk broke off as a timely knock sounded on the door, wanting to kiss whoever was on the other side of it.

“Deryk,” Bryn called out as he gave another knock. “Grigor has arrived.”

Or not.





Chapter 9


“Is what Vlad said true?” The darkness of Grigor’s eyes glowed like twin jet stones.

Deryk’s lids narrowed. Grigor might be the eldest of the Pendragon brothers and also their natural leader, but his brother had no experience of what it felt like when faced with your fated mate. None of them did until they met her.

Deryk certainly hadn’t realized the compulsion to claim he would feel when he breathed in Izabella’s perfume and then met her in person. Not the same sort of compulsion he and his brothers occasionally used on humans to ensure their dragons remained secret, but a driving need that blanked out everything and everyone else as being unnecessary noise. Izabella was now the only thing Deryk could see and feel. Her mere existence consumed him. Her well-being was all he cared about. Along with the raging desire for her that burned constantly beneath his skin.

“Izabella is my mate, yes,” he answered his brother evenly. Grigor had come straight to Deryk’s bedchamber once he had finished talking with Vladimir Romanov.

Grigor looked at him searchingly. “What does it feel like?”

Deryk was surprised by the question rather than the condemnation he had been expecting. “Wonderful and at the same time agonizing.” His smile was pained.

“You haven’t completed the mating yet?”

Deryk inwardly winced as he recalled the way Izabella had refused to listen to him earlier when she had thrown her clothes back on before storming out of his bedchamber. “Getting there.”

Grigor frowned. “That’s two in six months.”

Deryk knew he meant two mates for two of the Pendragon brothers in six months. It couldn’t be coincidence.

He shrugged. “Maybe we all needed to be fifteen hundred years old before we find her?”

Grigor’s smile barely curved his lips and certainly didn’t reach his dark brown eyes. “Whatever the reason, I’m glad you’ve found Izabella. Even if it has caused something of an international incident with the Romanov brothers,” he added dryly.