Deryk (Dragon Hearts #2)(7)

These two men didn’t look much like brothers, she decided after studying them both for several seconds beneath lowered lashes. Deryk was blond, Bryn was dark. One had golden eyes, the other bronze. Deryk was over six and a half feet tall, Bryn was maybe a couple of inches shorter but, incredibly, broader across the shoulders and chest.

She fidgeted uncomfortably under the intensity of that golden gaze that hadn’t wavered from staring at her for as much as a second since he glared at his brother. It was as if Deryk knew she intended making a run for it if he took his eyes off her.

Because Izzi did intend doing just that. And not only from this bedchamber, but from the palace too. She could never tell her parents what had happened here tonight, because if she did, they would pass the information on to the Romanov brothers. She didn’t know a lot about dragons—no one did except the dragons themselves—but she did know they were very territorial. If her parents reported one of the Romanovs’ guests had attacked Izzi, it could result in a dragon war. Which she doubted anyone would wish on the human world.

Besides, it had been a little scary initially, but she would be lying to herself, and everyone else, if she claimed she hadn’t enjoyed being kissed and caressed by Deryk Pendragon. Enjoyed it? It was the most arousing experience of her life. She was still aroused. If anything, more so than she had been a few minutes ago.

No, instead she would make her excuses to leave the palace by telling her parents she had forgotten she had an assignment to get in by Monday morning. Izzi knew from past experience that only the excuse of her law degree and its ability to help the Romanov brothers in the future would excuse her from remaining here for the rest of the weekend.

“I’m only here to help out while the two of you are here,” she explained.

“You don’t live here?”

“No.”

“Where—”

“Deryk,” Bryn warned softly.

He turned to look at his brother, a long and intense gaze passing between the two men before Deryk’s mouth tightened and he gave an abrupt nod. “Very well.” He stood and stepped away from the bed. “But you and I will talk again soon, Izabella.” His accent made her name sound like a musical caress.

Talk? Izzi hadn’t noticed much talking between the two of them so far. Unless you counted that wild response of their bodies to each other. But this man was dragon, so who knew what sort of spell he had woven to enchant her into feeling that reaction?

Spell?

Enchantment?

As far as Izzi was aware, dragon shifters couldn’t cast spells or enchantments.

Then how else did she explain her response to Deryk Pendragon?

She couldn’t. And that was the most worrying part about this encounter. She had been aroused by a complete stranger. A stranger who was also a dragon shifter.

“Of course we will,” she humored as she scrabbled to the other side of the huge bed before standing. She shot the brothers one last worried glance before hurrying to the door and leaving.

It was as if there was an invisible string tied to Deryk, causing him to follow Izabella as far as the door. He stood in that doorway and watched the sexy sway of her ass as she walked to the end of the hallway before turning left and disappearing from view.

Deryk tightly gripped the doorframe as his legs felt weak again.

“Try not to break up the happy home,” Bryn drawled behind him.

Deryk quickly removed his hand before he did exactly that, turning to face his brother. “Goddess, that was intense,” he muttered shakily. “I’ll never again give Nathaniel hell over his possessiveness where Chloe is concerned.” He gave a self-derisive shake of his head.

Bryn frowned. “If Izabella works for the Romanovs, then she’s under their protection.”

“So?”

“So she’s under their protection,” his brother repeated pointedly.

His jaw tightened. “She’s also mine.”

“Humans aren’t possessions, Deryk. And Izabella may be young, but it seemed to me she has a definite mind of her own,” his brother added dryly.

“She’s still mine.”

Mine.

His dragon agreed with him.

Bryn sighed his impatience. “Humans require romance and flowers. Time to fall in love. Remember what a shock the dragon mating was to Chloe, and how she reacted?”

“My mate wouldn’t dare run away from me,” Deryk announced arrogantly.

“You don’t know the first fucking thing about what Izabella would or wouldn’t do,” his brother snapped in exasperation. “Any more than you know about wooing and winning a human woman. Hell, any woman!” he added disgustedly.

“She’s mine. It’s done,” Deryk added firmly as Bryn seemed about to put forward yet more arguments.

“You didn’t— Shit, you did.” His brother scowled as he saw the answer in Deryk’s challenging expression. “You fucking idiot. What the hell did you think you were doing?”

“Claiming my mate.”

They now knew, from Dylan’s observations of Nathaniel’s mating to Chloe, that from the moment a dragon met his mate, he began to secrete an aphrodisiac in his saliva. It excited and pleased his human mate enough that she would be able to take the savagery of the mating itself when it happened. But it also produced an intense mating frenzy and a need for sex that could only be assuaged by their dragon mate.