One corner of his mouth tilted up. "I've had it for more than eighty years," he said. "I took it out a little over a year ago, but I got it pierced with iron and enchanted it so it wouldn't close. I put in new jewelry tonight."

"Grand plans?" I asked, keeping my voice very dry. "Meet someone special with a fondness for forked tongues?"

Dain's smile curled up a little more. "Not recently."

"Mm," I replied, my lips twitching with humor against my control. "Feeling lucky, then?"

"Someone gave me reason to hope today," he said, his eyes on my face and his voice soft. "I don't think she'll take me up on it tonight, but I wanted her to see the offer, and know I won't change my mind."

Heat flooded me, making my body tingle all sorts of interesting places. I had to swallow and my nipples were for sure showing through the dress. But Dain didn't look down at my body as I shifted. He kept his eyes on mine, that soft little smile hovering on his mouth.

"Oh," I said, because it seemed like I should say something. "That's very nice of you."

He laughed, an amused sound, and released me from his gaze. I exhaled, a little shuddery. Dain, wearing nice clothes and a tongue piercing to escort me to a revel, where at least one person would be having an orgasm before dawn. The knowledge that if I asked him to, he'd probably be willing to publicly make me one of them, left me a bit jittery.

A mental image of me on his throne while he buried his face between my legs came unbidden. That would set people's hair on fire: Crown Prince Sundamar on his knees for a human woman. Very carefully, I set the contemplation of that picture aside. Whatever it was that I needed, it wasn't another reason to find him attractive. I had plenty of those. The throne and that tongue piercing would keep, as long as I could figure out what was wrong.

We didn't have to wait much longer before we were finally allowed out of the room and into the revel. Dain offered me his arm and I rested my hand along his gleaming black scales. I always expected them to be cool, the way reptiles feel, and they never were. If he was anything, he was a dragon, warm-blooded and with flame behind his sharp teeth. That the Queen couldn't see what a gift she'd been given in the god's rebuke said so much more about her than about him.