Dragon Betrayed (Immortal Dragons Book 0) by Ophelia Bell

he wasn’t really hers, and yet he stayed. Her siblings would probably castigate her for allowing a mortal—even if he was Blessed—to see her true form without marking him.
    With Nikhil, she awoke with a pleasant thrill that the day ahead was filled with the unknown. She hadn’t felt this way in countless years.
    Every day he kept her guessing, and at the end of every day, he managed to satisfy her.
    Each morning before he left her bed to return to his own quarters, he would whisper a command in her ear. Some secret thing he wished her to do for him, and only him that day.
    The weeks he spent with his troops were the loneliest times, but he always returned, their reunions some of the most memorable moments.
    One morning after such a reunion, he stayed with her for breakfast and allowed her servants to dress him while she was dressed for her day. After the servants left, he rifled through all her things, exuberant with some secret surprise. Finally, he pulled out a pair of large, bronze scarabs from her jewelry box and examined them. They were ear clips, joined by a long chain that was meant to hang down over her chest, linked to a matching golden breast-piece.
    She thought he was going to clip them to her ears, but instead, he pushed the vee of her gown aside to bare her breasts and clipped each ornament to a nipple.
    Belah gasped at the sudden, sharp sensation. She’d worn them on her earlobes many times without discomfort, but to have them attached to a part of her so much more sensitive made her instantly wet.
    “Nik, I have to go out there and be the queen .”
    He grinned deviously. “Yes, and whatever you do they will love. You go bare-breasted all the time. In fact, that’s one of the reasons your army is so loyal. Why I am so loyal.”
    A steady thrum of sensation ran from her nipples to her groin and she closed her eyes.
    He left for a moment and returned with a heavy golden collar, that he secured around her shoulders. It draped coldly over her chest, curving just above her bare breasts and warmed quickly to her temperature. In the center of it was another scarab that matched the ornaments attached to the tips of her breasts.
    “See?” he said. “You look resplendent.”
    He turned her toward the mirror she rarely ever looked into. Before her, she saw a beautiful woman who was every bit as regal as Nikhil believed. Her shoulders were squared beneath the arc of golden scales that shone on her chest. Fine, blue linen draped over her shoulders, hanging down to her hips where it was gathered beneath her navel with a gold belt slung low enough to display her flat, bronze belly. And the two scarab ornaments gleamed on the tips of her full breasts like a pair of tiny, suckling infants.
    He stood behind her with his mischievous smirk and kissed her neck.
    “Don’t you agree?” he asked.
    She smiled back at him in the mirror. “I do.”
    “Good,” he said. He cupped her breasts and removed the clips, teased her nipples with delicate circles of his thumbs. The sensation made her gasp at how sensitive they’d become and an even heavier warmth flooded between her thighs.
    As quickly as he removed them, he replaced the clips again and spoke low into her ear. “You will think of me every time they vex you today. You will think of what I plan to do to you when we’re alone again tonight. I promise I will be good during the day, as long as I know I have a leash on you, so don’t disappoint me.”
    ***
    By the end of the day, Belah’s nipples were entirely numb, but the presence of those scarabs during had enhanced her awareness of her own body to the point every inch of her itched to return to her chambers and to whatever he might have in store for her.
    When she walked through the door, she was ready to rip off her clothes and let him have his way with her, but something made her wait. She had already spent the entire day holding dominion over her kingdom. Alone in his presence, she was no longer the master,