Chapter 3
Izzi realized her mistake the moment she entered the bedchamber after knocking briefly.
A very tall and muscular man, standing silhouetted outside on the balcony, let out a feral growl before rushing toward her.
His eyes glowed golden in the darkened room. Four-inch-long talons visible in the moonlight as they burst from the end of his fingers.
Dragon.
She couldn’t see his face clearly, only perceived that he was huge. But she had known the Romanov brothers all her life, and she knew it wasn’t one of them. Besides, they were all downstairs—
Izzi had no time for further thought as she was swept up into steely arms before the man carried her with lightning speed toward the four-poster bed.
“What are you doing?” she cried out as she was thrown on top of the bedcovers and the man—dragon?—followed her down, pinning her beneath his much larger and stronger body as he held her hands captive above her head. His cock was hard, long and pulsing hotly against the soft flesh of her jean-covered belly.
“Please…” Izzi wasn’t sure, as her body suddenly filled with heat, if she was asking him to stop or give her more. More heat. Desire. Pleasure unlike anything Izzi had ever felt before.
All those emotions surged through her body at the same time, the blood in her veins feeling as if it had turned to liquid fire as the man above her claimed and then began to devour her mouth. A sweep of his tongue parted her lips even further before it thrust inside to explore and touch each and every part of her mouth: tongue, teeth, the moist dips and hollows in between.
Izzi’s arousal centered between her thighs to gather and coil in her core until she felt as if she was about to explode with the overload of intense and unrelenting pleasure coursing through her.
The man’s free hand, bare of those talons now, moved to cup one of her lace-covered breasts beneath her sweater. The nipple became hard as a pebble as he squeezed and teased Izzi’s aching and sensitive flesh until she was shaking with arousal.
She had no idea what this man even looked like or who he was, and yet she was poised on the brink of a sexual climax she knew would totally devastate her if it was allowed to break free.
Panic caused Izzi to fight against the restraint the man had on her wrists, but she only succeeded in having those talons bruise and scrape against her tender skin.
Ouch. That was going to leave marks.
Attempting to squirm out from beneath him only caused his aroused cock to grow harder and longer.
Ouch again. That was going to hurt even more if he attempted to put it inside her.
It took all the strength Izzi had to wrench her head sideways and pull her mouth free of his. “Stop!” she gasped. “You have to stop!”
“Mine,” he growled as those hot lips moved to her throat, teeth scraping over the pulsing vein running along its length.
“Please. I don’t—”
“Deryk!”
Izzi barely had time to register the sound of that third voice, along with the snapping and snarling of the man above her, the talons back in evidence on both hands as he was wrenched from her, leaving her panting and alone on the bed.
She turned on the bedside lamp before turning back quickly to look at the two huge men standing over her. Ominously dangerous-looking men who could probably snap her much smaller body in half without even trying.
She instinctively huddled into a ball to make herself a smaller target for those dual piercing gazes, one golden, the other a dark and equally unnatural bronze.
Because she knew without a doubt these two men were both dragon.
Deryk felt a degree of humanity returning to him now that he wasn’t actually touching the woman on the bed. Enough to allow him to take control of the mating haze and fight the shift as he looked down at his mate. A mate who was curled into a protective fetal ball on top of the bedcovers.
She was so tiny, probably only a couple of inches over five feet tall. Her body was slender and yet curvaceous, and he already knew the full swell of her breasts fit perfectly into the palms of his hands. Her hair was a long and shiny blonde and probably reached all the way down to the perfect curve of her ass.
She was utterly beautiful.
An angel.
Which was pretty fucking insane when he probably looked as threatening as the devil himself as he loomed over her.
She had perfectly arched brows above eyes the color of a flawless emerald. A small retroussé nose, her lips a perfect bow, with the top one fuller than the bottom as an indication of a passionate nature he intended to enjoy fully. The pointed challenge of her chin, as he continued to stare at her, indicated something else: a strong and determined nature.
Something she would also have need of as his mate, Deryk conceded self-derisively.
Bryn kept a firm grasp of his shoulder. “What the fuck, Deryk?” he rasped, his eyes gleaming the same color bronze as his dragon.
“She’s my ma—woman,” he finally managed to growl.
Bryn frowned darkly as he shot the female on the bed a quick glance. “Is she even old enough to be called a woman?”
“Excuse me, but I’m twenty-two years old, and I certainly am a woman.” She sat to draw her knees up beneath her chin and wrap her arms about her legs, blonde hair cascading down the length of her spine. “And despite your mauling just now”—she looked at Deryk with narrowed eyes—“I am not your anything.”
He didn’t agree. Nor did the dragon purring and preening inside him, readying himself to demonstrate his prowess to his mate.
Deryk gave an inner wince at his mate’s age of twenty-two. How was she going to feel about being the mate of a fifteen-hundred-year-old dragon? There was an older man and a much older man.
“You answered in English,” he realized.
She frowned. “This other man spoke in English.”
“My brother Bryn,” Deryk supplied distractedly, inwardly relieved his mate was at least able to understand him. He doubted those two phrases of Russian he’d learned would go down too well with the young human woman he knew was his mate. “And you are?”
Izzi scooted up to the top of the four-poster as the huge man who had attacked her sat on the side of the bed, causing the mattress to dip that way because of his much heavier weight, and threatening to tip her over toward him.
The bedside lamp allowed her to see that he wasn’t only huge, dangerous to look at, and intensely muscular, but also possibly the handsomest man she had ever set eyes on.
His shoulder-length hair was a dirty blond with golden highlights running through it. His eyes still glowed that strange gold shade. His nose was long and aristocratic between sharp cheekbones, and his mouth was currently curved into a sensual and confident smile above a square and stubborn jaw.
He had long, elegant hands that nevertheless looked, even without those lethal talons, as if they could break a human neck without effort.
A human neck.
Because despite the very human clothing the man wore, faded jeans and dark blue T-shirt that clung to his defined musculature, Izzi was more convinced than ever this man wasn’t human. She had been around the Romanov dragon shifters all her life, enough to recognize this man as being one too.
As was the dark-haired man now standing a short distance away. It wasn’t only the unusual color of both men’s eyes. There was also a wildness to these two brothers, as if their inner dragon was barely leashed.
The blond-haired man who had kissed her, the one his brother had called Deryk, might look as if he was aged in his midthirties, but Izzi was pretty sure he was much older than that. The Romanov brothers also looked to be in their thirties but were actually centuries old.
“I’m Deryk Pendragon,” he supplied when she didn’t answer him.
She couldn’t decide what the lilt was she could hear in the gruffness of his voice, but it sounded almost musical. “Izabella Mikhailova.”
His eyes widened. “You’re related to the owners of the palace?”
She gave an inelegant snort. “The Romanovs own the palace. They always have. My family has only ever appeared to be the owners to the outside world, rather than the human servants of the Romanov family.”
“You’re human too?”
“Of course,” she came back pertly.
“And the woman who showed us to our bedchambers earlier?”
“My mother.” Izzi kept a wary eye on Deryk Pendragon. He seemed to be in control again now, but she had no idea how long that would last. Or why he had attacked her in the first place. As for the way he’d growled and snarled at the other man when he’d attempted to pull him away from her…
“Your father, Anton, served dinner.” The man named Bryn spoke to her directly for the first time, having that same musical lilt in his voice.
Deryk seemed to take exception to Bryn so much as talking to her, gold sparks shooting from his eyes as he turned to glare at his brother.
“Yes,” she confirmed firmly. “Now, if both of you would move out of my way, I would like to return downstairs to help clear away after the meal.”
“You’re a servant here?” Deryk Pendragon snapped his disapproval.
“No,” Izzi answered evenly as she saw the golden glow in his eyes had intensified. “I’m a student. At the State University.” Not that it was any of his business. She didn’t know this man, or dragon, and in all likelihood would never see him again after tonight.
Then what had that intensity of arousal been about when he kissed and touched her? Even now, just listening to him talk in that deep and growly voice, with its musically attractive lilt, was enough to make her core ache and throb.
She had never had such a visceral reaction to any man before now.
Except Deryk Pendragon wasn’t a man. He was a dragon.
The Romanov brothers had always treated her a little like a pet, indulging her as a child, buying her toys, and then pretty, feminine gifts as she became too old for the toys. They were kind to her, all handsome as sin too, but Izzi had never once had so much as a crush on any of them, let alone felt the arousal still coursing through her body.
In truth, the ability of the Romanov brothers to turn into dragons had always frightened her a little. Not that she had ever seen one of them in dragon form. It was forbidden. But even in human form, they were all as huge and scary looking as the Pendragon brothers now appeared to her much shorter height and build.
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.
Deryk had no doubt he had produced that aphrodisiac in his saliva just now when he’d kissed and tasted Izabella.
Which mean he would definitely be seeing Izabella Mikhailova again.
Because very shortly, she was going to need him as much as he now ached to possess her.