Page 34 of Dragon Detective

“How . . . ?” I gasped.

“Amazing,” he breathed, his gaze flickering from the tiny dragon to my face. “I didn’t know if it would work with a human.”

I rubbed the mark, but it didn’t smear or fade. He said this could happen, but how could I believe?

Leaving him, I hurried down the hall, into the kitchen, where I turned on the water and thrust my arm beneath the spray. I squirted soap on the mark and washed it with a sponge, but it remained.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Reylor said, leaning against the open doorframe of the kitchen.

Max got up off the floor and sauntered over to him. He sat and peered up at this man who was convinced I was his fated mate.

Reylor scooped up my cranky pet and draped him across his shoulders with Max’s fluffy paws dangling down each side of his chest. Even from across the room, I could hear his contented purr, and Reylor hadn’t even given him scritches beneath the chin, the only way I could elicit that happy sound from my pet.

“Please don’t tell me this mark solidifies something between us,” I said. “You used some sort of dragon shifter hoodoo to make it appear on my skin when I blinked. It’ll fade soon or I’ll scrub it off, and we’ll put this behind us.”

“Okay,” he drawled.

“Okay what?” After rinsing off the soap, I turned off the water and dried my arm. I shifted around to press my back against the counter.

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

I growled.

His grin widened.

“You’re enjoying this.” I stomped across the room and stopped in front of him, tipping my head back to meet his eye. Damn, he was tall. This only reminded me of that fact.

Max blinked at me, watching, as if Reylor was his person, and I was some kind of interloper inside my own building.

“Not too much.” His face sobered. “I’ll be honest with you. Few dragon shifters find their fated mate. It’s so rare that I can’t remember when I heard of it happening.”

“What about your parents?”

“They love each other but they have no marks.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be sad or happy for them, though love didn’t need a mark to prove it was real.

“When the mark appeared on me,” he said softly, his warm gaze locked on mine. “I was incredibly happy.”

“Why would that make you happy when we’d just met?”

“The fates reveal the mark to make things easier for us. If you were a dragon shifter, you’d recognize it right away, and you’d be as pleased as me.”

“But you didn’t know me. Maybe I’m a nasty person.”

“You’re not.”

“Maybe I shove out bad farts.”

“Do you?”

I flung my hands up. “I’m not sure they’re worse than anyone else’s.”

“Then your farts won’t keep me away.”

That sparkle was back in his eyes again, and I liked seeing it there too much. “This isn’t about farts. It’s about this.” I swiped at the mark on my skin. It hadn’t faded one bit.

“This doesn’t mean we won’t take time to get to know each other before I take you to my nest.”

---