Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(37)
“Do you think Vlad will keep his word?” she demanded a few minutes later as she and Deryk went up the winding staircase onto the roof of the palace.
“Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere you’ll be safe,” he answered curtly.
“Deryk…” she appealed.
His expression remained coldly distant. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes, of course—”
“Then where we’re going isn’t important.”
“But— Why are you being so cold toward me?”
He looked at her with hard, gold-colored eyes. “You deliberately left the palace earlier after telling me you would wait for me in my bedchamber.”
The frown cleared from her brow. “I wanted to talk to Tanya and Pyotr before the Romanovs did.”
A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. “And placed yourself in danger by doing so.”
“I didn’t know that—”
“I suggest you prepare yourself to meet my dragon rather than merely see him,” he cut harshly across her protest. “And be aware, he’s no happier with you right now than I am,” he warned grimly seconds before the air around him began to shimmer.
Izzi’s eyes widened as she suddenly found herself in the presence of the twenty-foot-tall golden dragon that gazed down at her with Deryk’s hard and narrowed eyes.
The wisps of smoke escaping the dragon’s wide nostrils each time it breathed out told her Deryk was correct. Right now, his dragon was as angry with her as Deryk was.
Chapter 13
She should have known Deryk would take her to Pendragon Castle in Wales.
A medieval castle, which had once stood as bastion against English invaders.
Izzi wondered how it now felt about its Russian invader.
“This is beautiful.” She was in total awe of the rugged Welsh countryside and the mountain the castle stood on, set among a forest of trees. The valley below was a carpet of late-summer flowers, a small village visible in the distance.
She had wondered, after many hours of being carried by Deryk’s dragon as he flew quickly across the sky—a scary enough experience in itself—where they could possibly be going, as it was taking so long to get there. The novelty of being carried and flying with a dragon had worn off after a couple of hours, and she had even fallen asleep at one point.
The air was warmer when she woke, and she knew as soon as they stopped flying over water and began to dip lower and lower as Deryk flew purposefully toward this beautiful castle set on a craggy mountaintop, exactly where they were going.
“I don’t even have my passport with me!” She turned to look at the still and silent, and once again very human, Deryk. She sighed. “Are you ever going to talk to me again?”
“Maybe once I’ve ensured your backside is so sore, you can’t sit down.” He nodded, unsmiling.
Izzi blinked. “What?”
His mouth was set in grim lines. “Did you seriously think there would be no repercussions for your reckless behavior in going alone to the Petrovs’ apartment?”
Her eyes were wide. “You intend to spank me?”
“I intend to do whatever is necessary to ensure you do not put your life so recklessly in danger ever again.”
“By spanking me?”
“Yes.”
She gave a dismissive snort. “I don’t think so.”
“Thinking does not seem to be your greatest asset right now.”
It was indicative of how angry Deryk was that he was talking so precisely, with none of the modern idioms usually present in his speech.
Izzi gave a shake of her head. “Spanking is classed as abuse in the twenty-first century.”
He gave a grin that could only be classed as predatory. “Neither I nor my dragon belong to this century. Besides,” his voice became almost a purr, “you might find you enjoy it.”
“I don’t think so,” she stated firmly.
Deryk’s gaze swept over her possessively. “The thought of you lying naked over my thighs, with your bare bottom raised and anticipating the sting of my hand, certainly arouses me.”
Izzi’s cheeks blazed with hot color. “That’s probably because you’re a barbaric throwback to the fifth century!”
Some of his coldness left him as he chuckled softly. “Let’s go inside the castle.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Izzi muttered, not budging by as much as an inch. “And I’m not going anywhere until you promise not to spank me.”
Even if she secretly wanted to go inside the medieval castle. Were Chloe and Nathaniel, the only mated pair to the Pendragon brothers, inside? Perhaps some of the other Pendragon brothers were as well. If so, would Izzi get to meet them, or did Deryk intend to take her to his bedroom and keep her there as a prisoner?
Deryk tilted his head to one side, looking very much like his dragon in that moment. “Have you made a decision regarding becoming my mate?”
It was a loaded question, and not one Izzi was prepared to answer right now. Even if the physical distance now between them had brought a return of that tingling arousal. “You told me not to do so hastily,” she reminded him.
“I changed my mind.”