Chapter 9
Dylan was aware of Holly giving him quick, almost furtive glances as he drove them both back to London in her rental car. No doubt in part because she still didn’t believe him about being his fate mate, but also because of the depth and ferocity of their lovemaking before they left Pendragon Castle. Dylan had been alive for sixteen hundred years, had seen and done many things during that time, and he had still been shaken by it.
He certainly hadn’t been a monk during any of those centuries. But lovemaking with Holly, with his mate, was indescribable. Deeper, more primal, a pleasure not only of their bodies, but a joining of their hearts and minds. A mating, binding, that grew stronger every time they made love together.
Not that they had made love properly yet.
They had both been too exhausted after the depth and strength of their mutual release, and there was also the need for Holly to get back to London. Although Dylan had no doubt the increase of mating aphrodisiac now coursing through Holly’s system, courtesy of his cum, meant she was once again aroused and needy.
But whether they mated or not had to be Holly’s decision.
Once she had all the facts.
Which she still didn’t.
He’d already bombarded her with enough information to absorb for the moment. Her choice as to whether they mated and both lived or they didn’t mate and both died wasn’t something Holly needed to deal with right now.
Her priority for now was to return to London and see for herself that, despite his own reassurances, her sister was alive and safe.
As her mate, it was Dylan’s right to ensure Holly had everything she needed or wanted. If that included protecting her sister too, then that was what Dylan would do.
Quite how that was going to work when—if—he gave Holly the mating bite and the mating fever began in earnest, he had no idea. From the things Holly had told him, she was all Gayle had in the way of family, as Gayle was for Holly. The fact Holly had come to Wales at all to ask for his help had shown she was also very protective of her younger sister and wouldn’t want to be apart from her.
Gayle would be welcome to come and live at Pendragon Castle too if Dylan and Holly mated, and if she wanted to. It would mean telling Gayle the brothers were all dragon shifters, and Chloe, Izzy and Tegan were their human mates as well as their wives. But perhaps the fact her sister was also the mate of one of those dragon shifters would be enough to ensure Gayle’s silence.
Dylan hoped that would be the case, because, no matter what the cost, humans could not be allowed to know dragon shifters existed.
“Er—can I ask a favor before we see Gayle?” Holly prompted as they stood outside the door to her sister’s hotel room a few hours later after what, for her, at least, had been a very uncomfortable journey. Not because of Dylan’s driving, which, although he drove faster than she did, was assured and safe. No, Holly’s ever-increasing discomfort during the journey was because of the desire once again raging through her body.
Dylan had warned of some sort of dragon-shifter mating aphrodisiac that she now had in her bloodstream.
If Holly accepted that, then she had to accept the rest of what Dylan had told her. His being alive for sixteen hundred years. King Arthur was his brother. Dylan and his brothers could transform themselves into dragons at will.
No, Holly couldn’t countenance believing any of those things if it meant she also had to accept that last one too.
What about the talons?
It was a neat trick, like that compelling tone Dylan used whenever he wanted to be obeyed. It hadn’t worked on her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t fully aware of the compulsion in his voice.
Was it another part of his delusion?
It certainly appeared that way.
Without the knowledge of that delusion, Dylan was a strong and capable man Holly had absolutely no doubt could make this situation right with Markovic.
“Another favor?” Dylan answered her dryly.
“I don’t want…” Holly chewed on her bottom lip for several seconds before starting again. “It might be for the best if, for the moment, you don’t mention any of that other…stuff in front of Gayle.”
Dylan decided Holly was very cute when she used that soothing tone to try to placate him.
Because she still didn’t believe him about his longevity, or that she was his and his dragon’s mate.
For the moment, he was willing to allow her that delusion if it helped to make their current situation with Gregori Markovic less complicated.
Once that was all settled, though, all bets were off, as humans would say.
Besides which, Holly’s physical need of Dylan was only going to get worse as the hours and minutes passed until they made love again. She was going to come to him to ease that discomfort, come for him, much sooner than she realized.
He gave an inclination of his head. “I’m fine with that. Shall we?” He indicated the door of her sister’s hotel room.
“Of course.” She stepped forward to knock confidently on the door in a series of what was, no doubt, a prearranged signal between the two sisters.
Gayle Wilson had the same coloring of her older sister, but her height tended toward the skinniness of youth in a faded green T-shirt and ragged jeans, where Holly’s curves were more womanly and voluptuous.
Her hair was longer than Holly’s too, and would no doubt reach almost down to her waist when it was released from the ponytail currently secured at her crown.
If he was assessing her, then Gayle was eyeing him back just as critically. “This is the Dylan Pendragon you told me about?” she finally demanded of her sister. “He looks more like a male model than a security guard,” she added disgustedly, proving she was as feisty as Holly too. Maybe even more so.
Dylan’s hands itched to paddle her backside outlined in those figure-hugging and ragged jeans for her rudeness to someone she hadn’t even been introduced to yet. “And Holly omitted to mention her sister was a brat, but hey, we can’t have everything.” The steadiness of his gaze held her defiant one.
“You were a little rude, Gayle,” Holly cautioned as they followed her sister into the hotel room. “Especially when Mr. Pendragon has come all this way to help us. And he isn’t a security guard.” There was a blush on her cheeks. “He and his brothers own Pendragon Security.”
“Whatever.” Gayle dropped inelegantly onto the side of the bed. “Can we get out of here now?” She wrinkled her nose at their less than salubrious surroundings.
Admittedly, it wasn’t the sort of second-class hotel Dylan or any of his brothers would ever have stayed in, but no doubt it was the best Holly could afford in her straitened financial circumstances. She certainly wouldn’t have allowed her sister to use any of the fifty thousand pounds she’d stolen from Gregori Markovic.
“An ungrateful brat,” he amended pointedly. “And yes, we’re leaving now, so tidy up and get your things together.” Considering Gayle had been staying here for less than twenty-four hours, the room was a mess. Clothes were scattered on the floor, along with several empty takeout boxes from where she’d ordered food to be delivered to her room.
Garrett had told Dylan about the arrival of a pizza and Chinese food delivery service, one during the evening, the other in the early hours of the morning, but Dylan had thought it best not to mention that to Holly. He doubted she would have approved of Gayle opening the door to anyone who wasn’t her. Dylan had felt no such qualms when he knew Garrett was keeping a close watch on Holly’s sister and his future sister-in-law.
Holly put her hand on Dylan’s arm to distract his narrow-eyed attention from her sister as Gayle moved languidly round the room, picking up her clothes and throwing them into her open suitcase. “I’m not sure it’s safe for us to go back to our apartment.”
His attention remained firmly fixed on the defiant-looking Gayle as she flounced into the small adjoining bathroom. “Did your parents never discipline her as a child?”
Holly shook her head. “They didn’t believe in it.” Her parents had been truly free spirits, and part of that belief had been the decision not to ever punish either of their daughters. Holly had always been a quiet and studious child, but Gayle, as the second and youngest daughter, had been born rebellious.
“Hmm,” Dylan murmured disapprovingly before finally turning his attention away from the brattish Gayle. “You aren’t going back to your apartment.”
Holly’s eyes widened. “We aren’t?”
“Absolutely not,” he stated emphatically. “No one knows of your association with me, which means our family apartment is safer.”
“Your family keeps an apartment in London?”
Dylan smiled. “We do. Also ones in New York, Dublin, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Rome—”
“Okay, I get it,” Holly cut in dryly. “Your family owns a lot of apartments all over the world.”
He nodded. “And a villa in Barbados. We recently purchased a palace in Russia too,” he added. “For when Izzy wants to go back home to visit her parents.”
“Izzy is Russian?” Holly had detected a faint accent when the other woman spoke, but she hadn’t realized that was because she was Russian. She also hadn’t realized the Pendragon brothers were this rich. Considering they lived in a castle, perhaps she ought to have done.
Dylan bent down until his mouth was so close to Holly’s ear, she could feel the warmth of his breath against her skin. “Remind me, once we’re alone again, to tell you about the Mikhailov family of dragon shifters her family works for and has done so for centuries.”
Holly pulled back sharply before stepping away. “We aren’t going to be alone again now that Gayle is with us.” Nor did she want to hear any more talk of dragon shifters, Russian or otherwise.
His eyes glowed that eerie blue between narrowed lids. “Gayle has to sleep sometime.”
Holly didn’t particularly care for the smile of satisfaction now curving Dylan’s sculpted lips.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Gayle came back from the bathroom to interrupt the sudden tension in the room.
“What’s going on?” her sister demanded, eyeing them both suspiciously.
Holly frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You look different.” Gayle scowled. “And he—he looks like a tiger that just ate a tasty meal,” she accused.
“His name is Dylan,” Holly rebuked sharply. “And what do you mean, I look different?” Admittedly, she and Dylan had been involved in two intense sexual encounters in the past twenty-four hours, but surely that wasn’t visible on her face? Or anywhere else!
“Just…different,” Gayle repeated suspiciously. “Sort of glowy.”
Dylan knew exactly what “differences” Gayle was referring to. Holly had an aura about her that hadn’t been there yesterday. Her skin appeared creamier. Her body more voluptuous. Her eyes were a deeper green. Her lips were also redder and slightly swollen from their lovemaking this morning.
All of them because of the mating they had only just begun.
Once…if Holly allowed Dylan to bite the back of her neck during their mating sex, and he ingested some of Holly’s blood into his system at the same time as more of the aphrodisiac entered hers, Holly would cease to age as humans did. She would still be as beautiful in fifty years’ time as she was now. Maybe more so, because they would hopefully have several children together by then, and Holly was meant to be a mother.
“Does this have something to do with him?” Gayle accused.
“Don’t be ridiculous, and stop being rude,” Holly snapped. “Just pick up your things so we can go. Dylan has very kindly offered to let the two of us stay at his family apartment for the next few days,” she added briskly as they all stepped out into the hotel hallway. “Will Garrett be there too?” she enquired politely, the two of them walking side by side with a morose and reluctant Gayle bringing up the rear.
Dylan shook his head. “He decided to go back to Wales.” The decision had been forced on him by Dylan; his younger brother loved nothing more than to cause mischief if he could, and this situation with Holly and her sister was just the sort of situation Garrett liked to have fun with. Dylan had chosen to forego giving Garrett the temptation by requesting, rather forcefully, that his brother return to Wales. Garrett had reluctantly agreed but no doubt he would get his revenge at a later date.
Holly hadn’t quite known what to expect of the Pendragon family apartment, but she shouldn’t have been surprised it was a penthouse apartment at the top of a tall building in the heart of London’s exclusive and most expensive district.
There was a security guard sitting at a desk in the glass-walled lobby, the man giving a courteous nod as Dylan took the sisters over to the private elevator up to the top floor.
The apartment itself was… Luxurious didn’t even begin to describe the modern black, silver, and chrome décor, with objets d’art placed strategically on furniture in the wide hallways and rooms. Original paintings hung on the cream silk walls. One of those walls in the sunken sitting area was all glass, with a magnificent one-hundred-and-eighty-degree view of the London skyline and over the river Thames.
“Wow,” Gayle murmured in understatement.
Holly felt as speechless as her sister. This sort of opulence also made her even more aware of the yawning gap between her own lifestyle and Dylan’s.
Maybe, she thought hysterically, their extreme wealth was the reason the other Pendragon brothers thought nothing of Dylan’s wild imaginings. No doubt the very wealthy, as the Pendragon family obviously were, could happily attribute their behavior as being eccentric rather than the result of a mental illness.
“I’ll show you to your suites,” Dylan said briskly.
Holly turned from looking at the view out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. “There’s no need for you to go to the bother of giving us separate rooms. Gayle and I can share a bedroom.”
Dylan held back a smile, knowing this was Holly’s way of ensuring the two of them weren’t “alone again,” as he had said they would be. “It’s no trouble at all,” he assured her dryly. “There are half a dozen suites in the apartment, and considering your sister is awake most of the night and asleep all day, it will be more comfortable for you if the two of you have separate rooms.” Garrett’s report on Gayle Wilson’s movements had been very thorough.
Gayle’s eyes widened. “Have you been spying on me?”
“I’ve been in Wales with your sister,” Dylan answered calmly.
The younger Wilson sister didn’t look convinced by this explanation. “Then maybe you had one of your lackeys spying on me.”
Dylan almost laughed out loud at hearing Garrett described in that way, although he doubted his brother would find it as funny. “Make your mind up, Gayle,” he drawled. “Either I’m a male model/security guard, or I’m wealthy enough to employ lackeys.”
“This apartment says you’re obviously the latter,” she conceded begrudgingly. “But I still don’t like the idea of someone watching me when I didn’t even know about it.”
“I believe not making you feel self-conscious was the purpose of not telling you,” Holly cut in impatiently. “Now stop being difficult and show a little gratitude to Mr. Pendragon for being willing to help us.”
“Thank you for helping us,” Gayle muttered moodily.
“Helping you,” Dylan corrected pointedly. “Holly is only involved in this mess because of your irresponsible actions.”
Gayle’s face flushed with temper. “You arrogant—”
“That is enough, Gayle!” Holly snapped. “I don’t know what’s come over you, but I can’t allow you to continue talking to Mr. Pendragon in this way.”
Dylan wasn’t altogether sure he liked being referred to so formally by his mate, even to a third person.
It was a formality he intended to rectify in regard to Holly, at least, at the earliest opportunity.