Loving Her Dragons (Mannix Dragon Shifters #4)
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SHE COULD BE HIS MATE
Then her scent hit him.
Maryk whipped his eyes open.
Without thought, his gaze stalked her as she moved through the room to the podium. A skirt hugged her shapely ass, which swayed enticingly with each precise step she took. Her brown hair cascaded down the center of her back, landing between her shoulder blades in loose curls. She held a clipboard tucked under one arm and a phone in front of her so she could read the screen.
She turned when she reached the head table, as if sensing something followed her. Her mouth opened slightly when her eyes met his. A slight wash of pale pink stained her cheeks. Compelled as if by some godly hand, he approached. As he neared, he honed his focus on her. Her scent grew stronger in the still air of the conference room. She fiddled with a ring on her finger. According to his research, the thin band of metal symbolized marriage in the human culture. But her scent—pure and feminine—betrayed her. No other person’s scent marked her. The ring was a lie, one that he would forgive because that had kept her single, waiting for him.
Her heartbeat thrummed faintly in the quiet. It sprinted faster as he drew closer to her. Was she scared of him? No. It couldn’t be.
Not again.
He scented the air again. An anxious cloud of stink emanated from the cluster of women sitting in the center of the room, but the acrid pungency of fear wasn’t among the heady notes coming from this woman.
He inhaled deeply again. Just to be sure.
The faint aroma of the woman’s soap, floral shampoo and something fruity he couldn’t place teased his senses. A soothing sense of calm settled over him, as if her scent was an anti-anxiety drug. So different from what he’d experienced with Jasmine when he’d believed she was his mate. His need for her had been driven by fierce and uncontrollable desperation. But this? This woman wasn’t triggering him in that way. In fact, his reaction couldn’t have been more different. There was a rightness to her scent. And he wanted more of it.
Suddenly it didn’t matter that he didn’t have a dragon pair. His reaction to her told him she could be his mate.
He hadn’t planned to take one so soon, but now…
Her eyes widened as he stepped closer, eating more of the space separating them. Her greeting to him was a soft and stuttering mess of syllables that didn’t form any words. She was nervous. Was that a good thing? He hoped so.
“Hello,” he said. He scraped through his head for a reasonable explanation for why he would approach her. He held his hands at his sides, even though human norms suggested they should shake hands. He couldn’t, no matter how much he wanted to. If he touched her now, he would be killed. It was one of the conditions of his confinement. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t speak to her, get to know her. “I’m Maryk. Are you organizing today?”
Her eyes widened even more at his name. She recognized him. She knew who he was… what he was.