Page 7 of Her Dragon

She nodded. “Yes, please.”

I decided to start with the bedroom, hoping it would make it easier to resist the temptation to drag her onto the mattress since I had the rest of the place to show her. And a fuck ton of information to share.

I was wrong, but I still managed to walk out of there without tasting her sweet pussy even though it was hard as fuck to move when my cock was pressed so tightly against my zipper that I wouldn’t be surprised if the grooves left a permanent mark. I ended the tour in the kitchen, my dick flexing when Marielle trailed her fingers over the granite countertop I’d installed myself.

“I always thought of log cabins as being rustic, but you have all of the creature comforts here.” She peered through the French doors that led to the back porch. “Is that a wood-burning pizza oven I see out there?”

“Yup, pizza is one of my all-time favorite foods. I could eat it just about every day,” I confessed.

“Same.” She turned to smile at me. “Your friends and family must love when you make it for them.”

“Never cooked a pizza for anyone but myself.” After reviewing what I had available in my fridge and pantry, I offered, “But I have a dough recipe that only takes about twenty minutes if you’d like to try it.”

She rubbed her flat belly. “I would never turn down homemade pizza.”

After grabbing the needed ingredients, I padded outside to start the fire in the brick oven. It needed about twenty minutes to heat, which was perfect for the recipe I was using.

When I returned inside, I found Marielle at the counter, chopping the mushrooms and green peppers I had pulled out of the fridge. She looked so perfect in my kitchen. Maybe I was more of a Neanderthal than I realized because I could easily picture her barefoot and pregnant with my hatchling in there. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but living in the dorms means I rarely get to cook.” Setting down the knife, she shrugged. “I couldn’t resist the temptation of your kitchen.”

“If you enjoy it, help as much as you want.”

She took me up on my offer, and we worked together to get the pizza ready to go in the oven. Right after we went outside and I slid it inside to cook, she murmured, “I just realized something.”

Turning to her, I asked. “What?”

“You never really explained how you tracked me down to my campus.”

With how smart she was, I had been wondering when she would catch on to my evasion of that topic earlier. Tapping my nose, I replied, “Caught your scent.”

She rolled her eyes with a laugh, assuming that I was joking. “Not sure I’ll ever be able to be around a vanilla cupcake without thinking of you.”

“Oh.” Her plump lips formed a perfect circle as her cheeks filled with a pretty pink color. “Um…that’s just my body wash.”

“I’m pretty damn sure it only smells so fucking good because you’re the one who uses it,” I corrected, enjoying how her blush deepened.

“You…um…smell good, too.” She was so damn adorable and sweet, it made me chuckle, and she rushed to add, “Not that your scent is sweet or girly like mine. It’s more woodsy, with a hint of something smoky that I can’t quite figure out.”

If I had any doubts about who Marielle was to me, her being able to sniff out a hint of my dragon in my scent with her less acute, human sense of smell would’ve clinched it. Fated mates were more in tune with their partner than other couples, and my inner beast puffed out his chest upon learning that our woman liked our scent. “Glad to know that I smell manly.”

“As if that comes as a surprise when your picture”—she waved her hand down the length of my body—“literally could be in the dictionary next to the word masculine.”

“And yours could be next to gorgeous.”

“Thanks.” She ducked her head at my compliment, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “But now that I’ve gotten to know you a little, I have to confess something.”

“You can tell me anything.”

She probably thought they were just words, but I meant them as a vow. My fated mate never had to worry about me judging her.

“When I was on my hike on Saturday and found your cave…”

I could tell she struggled with getting out what she wanted to say, and I couldn’t bear to watch her struggle when there was something I could do about it. “You also found something else and took it with you.”

“Crap, you already knew? I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier,” she apologized, sincerity shining from her hazel orbs. “I was embarrassed because my professor had just told me that I was wrong about it being a lunar meteorite. And I?—”

I wrapped my fingers around her wrist, stemming the flow of words. “You don’t ever need to feel uncomfortable talking about anything with me, Marielle.”

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