The Dragon’s Appraiser: Part Two

The Dragon’s Appraiser Part Two

Viola Rivard

1

Madja nibbled on her bottom lip as she examined the small golden tablet. Although time had faded the ancient symbols engraved on its face, the grooves were still deep enough that a scholar could easily glean their imprint with a piece of parchment and some charcoal.

“If I had to guess, I’d say that this was part of a Basheti book of law. Quite rare, quite rare,” she said. “You see, Emperor Vardeksema was the only person in history to unite all of the city-states of Bashet. He created fifty-seven books of law, one for the governor of each city-state. The laws were supposed to unify the uncivilized people, but the emperor’s plan backfired. Because he engraved the laws on solid gold, the governors all sold the tablets, paid for mercenaries, and then revolted. To this day, even just one of these pages would be worth at least a hundred and twenty silvers in the marketplace.”

That was where she lost the dragon.

“Why would anyone trade gold for silver?” Sevrrn asked. “Your economy sounds absurd.”

Typically, Sevrrn sat atop an ornate throne. Each morning he would lay an array of objects in front of his gilded seat and stare down at Madja as she gave a thorough appraisal of each one. But for the past few days, he had forsaken his throne, choosing instead to sit on the coin-littered floor beside her.

Madja liked to think it was because he was begi

“Silver is the most common currency in trading. If this were merely a hunk of gold, it would only be worth one point seven times its weight in silver—about fifty-eight coins. It’s the historical and scholarly principles of it that give it value. Does that make sense?”

“I suppose to a human, it would,” he said absently.

Madja recognized his mounting indifference and doubted she would even get to the next appraisal before he’d be on her.

She was right.

“I grow tired of this,” he said. “Let us do something else.”

In one fluid motion, Sevrrn was in front of her, his long arms placed on either side of Madja to cage her in. Beautiful as he was, Sevrrn could never be mistaken for anything but a calculating predator. Any other person would have cowered beneath him. There had been a time when Madja would have as well, but after two months of his antics, she knew how to manage the lascivious dragon.

“Do you ever think of anything besides sex?” she asked.

Sevrrn took the question into serious consideration, his garnet eyes turning thoughtful. “Perhaps on occasion.”

Suppressing a grin, she pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m not really in the mood for that right now.”

Golden brows drawing together, Sevrrn looked at her as if she had just said something inconceivable. “Why not?”

She gave a small shrug. “I suppose I have a lot on my mind.”

Disappointment flashed over his face as he sat back. For all his age and power, one thing the dragon god was not yet adept at was hiding his emotions.

“Such as?” he asked.

“Well, mostly I’ve been thinking about visiting town. Remember when I asked you if we could go to the marketplace?”

Sevrrn grew tense. “No.”

“And here I thought your memory was—”

“I meant no, you will not go.”

“Can you at least consider—?”

“No.”

Madja took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She had played this scenario out in her head hundreds of times in the past few months, meticulously pla

“I’m going crazy in here, Sevrrn,” she said, hoping she sounded every bit as weary as she felt. “I need to go be around other people.”

“Why?”

Well, at least that was something she could work with.

“Unlike dragons, humans are social creatures. We need to spend time with our own kind, even if it’s only for a day or two.”

Anticipating the next “no”, Madja reached out and pressed her index finger to his mouth. After a brief pause, she began to trace the contours of his lips with the tip of her finger.

Sevrrn’s gaze drifted downward to follow her finger as she moved to trace his jawline, and then the curve of his strong neck. She could feel the blood pounding in his veins as her finger reached the triangle of hard flesh exposed at his neckline.

Now that she had his attention, Madja climbed into his lap. She placed her hand on his chest and he allowed her to push him back onto the floor. Intrigued though he was, the dragon’s gaze remained defiant—a silent reminder that at any second, he could be the one on top and in control.

Keep thinking that, bonehead.

Straddling his hips, she stared down at his robe. Aside from Sevrrn himself, the robe was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen. Comprised of thousands of tiny, golden scales, it practically radiated light. The scales themselves seemed to be alive. Warm to the touch, she could feel the raw power coursing through them.

In countless legends, powerful dragons had been conquered by crafty heroes tricking them into taking human form and then destroying their scales. The robe could very well have been Sevrrn’s only weakness, yet he didn’t so much as bat an eye as she ran her hands over it. Was it because he trusted her, or because he believed her too weak to be any real threat? It seemed the more she got to know him, the less she understood.

In their strange relationship, there was only one thing that was completely unambiguous. Sevrrn craved her body, perhaps even more than gold and diamonds.

Pulling at the sash of his robe, she exposed his long, muscular torso. She kept her eyes locked with his as she bent down low, flicking her tongue over both of his flat nipples. Slowly, she drew her tongue down the hard rows of muscles, until she finally reached her destination.

A curiosity, the likes of which she’d never seen before, blazed in the dragon’s eyes as she took his thick manhood into one hand. Every time she held him, she was amazed, both by his considerable size and the fact that he’d ever managed to fit inside of her in the first place.

Lowering her mouth, she placed a gentle kiss on the crown of his penis. She had to hold back a cry of triumph as his perfect mouth fell open. Seizing the momentum, she ran the tip of her tongue along the underside of his shaft. His hands fisted, gripping at the ground for purchase.

Pulling back, she gave him a saccharine smile. He responded with an inhuman growl.

“Do not stop that,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“I won’t…but you’ll have to do something for me.”

There was a word for what Madja had done to him, but Sevrrn couldn’t recall it.

Deceived?

No, that suggested that Madja had lied.

Tricked?

That word suggested that she had, in some way, cheated or swindled him. Closer—but still not accurate.

Manipulated…

Now that was a word with promise. Madja had taken advantage of his inability to think clearly while his cock was buried in her mouth.