Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(31)
She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Vlad won’t like us questioning Vaughn.”
Deryk gave a derisive snort. “I believe I have made my feelings more than clear in regard to Vlad’s opinion on anything.”
Izzi would agree, from the little she had overheard of the conversation just now between the two men. It had filled her with a sense of…pride wasn’t quite the right word, but she had certainly enjoyed hearing Deryk defend her as his mate.
Once Deryk had accepted last night that sleep was all Izzi wanted, she had slept reasonably well with Deryk beside her, the weight of his hand on her hip enough to dampen her desire to a manageable level. But as soon as she woke up this morning, alone in his bed, the return of that fever of desire had instantly consumed her. It was literally becoming painful, as Deryk had said it would with the deepening of the mating, for her to be apart from him. The lines of strain feathering out from his eyes told her he wasn’t faring much better.
“So.” Deryk held out his hand to her. “Shall we go back to the breakfast room and annoy Vlad’s arrogance some more by questioning his youngest brother?”
Izzi had no idea what possible reason Tanya could have had to lie last night about being sick, and Izzi now felt a little guilty for having mentioned the other woman at all if her worry should turn out to be unfounded.
Maybe she owed that friendship at least the courtesy of asking Tanya herself why she had lied.
Izzi ignored Deryk’s hand. “I think until we’re more sure of our mating, you should be the one to question Vaughn.”
His hand dropped slowly back to his side. “Why?”
“Because if—if we decide being together for several hundred years isn’t what we both want, my mother and father still have to live here as servants to the Romanovs.” She gave a shake of her head. “I won’t upset the Romanovs, involving my parents and jeopardizing their life here, for something that isn’t their fault.”
Fire seemed to flare briefly in those golden eyes before it was brought swiftly under control. “Very well.” Deryk gave a terse inclination of his head. “But you and I will need to be alone together in my bedchamber once I’ve finished this conversation.”
Izzi easily guessed that their “being together” would involve more of that earth-shattering sex. “I’ll be there,” she promised.
Deryk gave her one last piercing look before giving an abrupt nod of his head and turning in the direction of the breakfast room.
Izzi quickly hurried to the back of the palace, taking care to avoid seeing or talking to either her parents or any of the other people working at the palace as she collected her coat, hat, and gloves, then quietly let herself out the servant’s entrance.
Chapter 11
“What the hell do you mean you have no idea where Izabella is?”
Anna Mikhailova twisted her hands together. “We believed she was with you.”
Deryk’s dragon was too close to the surface for him to heed the accusation he could hear in the voice of Izabella’s mother. His talons were currently in danger of piercing his skin with the intention of wreaking carnage on anything and anyone who might be keeping Izabella from him. She was missing, and he and his dragon were both frantic with worry.
“Obviously not.” He looked at the other people working in the kitchen. “Has anyone else seen her this morning?”
“We’ve all been working in here since Izzi had breakfast with us earlier.” Anton Mikhailov quietly answered for everyone in the kitchen.
It was also several hours since Deryk had spoken to Izabella.
Unfortunately, his meeting with his brothers and the Romanovs had gone on much longer than he had expected, mainly because Vaughn had been reluctant to reveal the name of the woman he had been going to meet or to have her questioned when he had revealed it.
Finally, Grigor had been the one to insist the other dragon either give them that information, or he and his brothers would be leaving St. Petersburg, along with Deryk’s mate, and the Romanovs could continue to search alone for the dragon hunters.
After the meeting, Deryk had returned to his bedchamber with every intention of apologizing to Izabella for having been away so long. If her need for him was anything like his for her, then she was in great discomfort. But Izabella hadn’t been in his bedchamber waiting for him, as she had said she would be. A search of the palace had shown she wasn’t anywhere else in the building either.
Where the hell could she have gone?
More to the point, why had she left at all?
The why didn’t really matter, only the where, and Deryk had every intention of turning St. Petersburg inside out and upside down until he found her.
This had been a mistake, Izzi realized within seconds of arriving at the Petrovs’ apartment.
Tanya had been the one to open the door to Izzi’s knock and then invite her inside. The other woman looked slightly pale as they walked through to the kitchen, but otherwise, she appeared in good health. Certainly not ill enough to have called in sick the past two days.
Finding Pyotr was at home too was something of a surprise. He was usually at the university at this time of day.
Pyotr rose noisily from where he had been seated at the kitchen table drinking strong black coffee, as soon as Izzi entered the kitchen with his sister. “What is she doing here?” he sneered.