Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

“But nothing more.”

  “No. It’s killing me. And yes, he knows about my lingerie and has seen it and is into it.”

  “And you are totally into him.”

  “That’s the problem. He’s hot and cold.” And when he was cold, he tended to vanish. Literally.

  “His gaze was on you last night, and only you, like he wanted to lick you up and swallow you whole. I was watching. I liked that about him.”

  Jordan smiled. He hadn’t realized.

  Mason took a drink. “Look, I know this is going to sound far-fetched, but have you tried talking to him?”

  “Why did I not think of that?” Jordan said with mock horror and then glared at Mason. “Of course I have.” They did too much talking. “The work thing keeps getting in the way.”

  “Will you get fired or whatever they call it?”

  He’d been put on leave during the election. He didn’t want to repeat those few anxious days he’d spend wondering if he was going to need a new job and career. “I don’t think it would be well received, put it that way.”

  “But cops do date.”

  They did, but this was a little different. “I think I can deal with the work stuff. It’s the way he draws away. Maybe I’m not what he wants, but he doesn’t know how to break it off.” He hadn’t wanted to come to the party. Was that a sign he’d ignored?

  Mason hugged him. “Honey. That’s not the vibe I got at all. Is there a reason he wants to take it slow? Have you asked his status?”

  “That’s all fine.” It was the biggest lie he’d ever told. He had no idea if lesser dragons even got STDs. Christ, the way Edra got around, he could have anything. They hadn’t even had that conversation.

  He couldn’t tell Mason that the reason why Edra was going slow was because he was a lesser dragon and they had mating rituals and this was part of it and somehow Jordan wasn’t measuring up. Jordan didn’t have wings or magic or anything. “I don’t know why he likes me.”

  Turning up at Edra’s apartment hungry for Bliss hadn’t been his best performance. Had that been the first bit of damage? But they’d shared some great nights while he was Blissing. At least they’d been great for him. Was he remembering them all wrong?

  “Love isn’t logical.”

  “We’re barely together.” Two months wasn’t long enough to be thinking of forever.

  “You brought him. You wanted to see if he’d fit. He does fit, even if he’s not your usual.”

  “You mean what you set me up with?”

  “I thought that’s what you like?”

  “Depends what I want them for.” He picked up another piece of pizza. But Mason was right—Edra wasn’t the kind of person he’d dated in the past, usually because he settled for what he could get. Edra was everything Jordan wanted, with a side of mytho added in.

  “If you weren’t already invested, you wouldn’t be here. But you need to find the reason he’s holding back. Does he have someone else or a secret wife? In that case, he needs to clean up his act, because he can’t be looking at you like the last beer in the fridge and then not drink it. There’d be plenty of others who would be more than happy to date you.”

  “I don’t think the list is that long.” He had too many black marks against his name. He remembered the first time he met Edra at the precinct and he hadn’t been able to work out what Edra was, only that he was mytho and he doubled Jordan’s heart rate with one look.

  “Don’t undersell yourself. If I can get engaged, you sure as hell should be able to. Dentists are no one’s idea of a dream date. But you come with a uniform and everything.”

  “It was the nurse’s uniform you wore to the party that caught Bud’s eye.”

  “I have great legs.” Mason sighed and looked at the mess. “We should get started. If you want to run away, I won’t hold it against you.”

  Jordan stayed, mostly so he didn’t have to go home to his empty apartment. He wasn’t ready to face the noise of his self-doubts.

  Chapter 17

  EDRA SOARED and tumbled as the air currents buffeted and played with him. There was nothing more fun than the buildup to a storm. The female greater dragon seemed to agree as she chased clouds out over the bay. The light rain hid the city in a cloak of gray that almost made it invisible. It looked so much like home that loss gouged his gut and made it hard to breathe.

  There were no complications up here, only the need to keep enough air beneath his wings. As he played with the dragon, he was almost able to put everything else aside. The dragon had politely asked after his mate, and Edra hadn’t expanded the lie. He just said he was fine.

  Lesser dragons didn’t care what species their mates were. If the mate wasn’t a lesser dragon and they felt the urge to breed, they went to the rookery and did what was needed to complete that urge. Then they went home. It had never been a problem in Tariko.

  The wind knocked him down, and he let himself fall toward the bay and caught himself only yards over the waves. There were no mermaids out on the rocks today, no water dragons either. Narv would be somewhere safe, not in the deep with the mermaids, because like him, Narv had to breathe air. It took effort, but Edra gained height, and the rain streamed off him and battered him. He opened his mouth to drink.

  The water wouldn’t sate the hunger building in his belly, and not just for food. The pull was there, always leading him toward Jordan. But it wasn’t too late to break it.

  Last chance.

  The Strega could be wrong, but not about events, just about time. They saw things differently from everyone else. The strands that wove their predictions together didn’t follow the rules of time.

  He called goodbye to the dragon, circled over the city, and stalled before he gave in and found the one gray roof that mattered. He shimmered, not wanting to land on Jordan’s balcony in dragon form while visible—the neighbors would talk and they wouldn’t have anything nice to say.

  He hesitated, wings beating against the storm. He was tiring.

  Slowly, as though giving in to the inevitable, he landed. The furniture that was usually out had been dragged in. For a moment he stood outside and watched the man he wanted but wasn’t sure how to have.

  Jordan had his feet up on the coffee table. His socks were purple and fluffy like two cats. The laptop rested on his thighs, but he was patting Sinner, who was staring out the glass doors right at Edra as though she could see him. She leaped off the sofa and stalked over, mewing her displeasure. Jordan was looking now too, a faint crease between his eyebrows.

  Edra was being a weirdo. He shook off the shift and then the invisibility, which was much harder than it should have been because he was cold and hungry. He should have gone home. That would’ve been the smart thing to do, but he couldn’t stay away.

  Jordan got up, smiling, and grabbed the blanket off the back of the sofa. He opened the door, and warmth bled out of his apartment. “What are you doing out there?”

  “Playing mostly… up there.” But he could play in the storm with his feet on the ground. He lifted his eyes skyward and held out his hand. “Come into the storm.”

  “It’s raining.” Jordan wrapped Edra in the blanket and kissed him. His mouth was warm. “And you’re cold.” He kissed him again. “And the neighbors would see me with a naked man on my balcony.”

  “Who cares if they see us in the rain.” Edra tugged Jordan’s hand. The blanket was already getting damp.

  Jordan stepped forward. “Why do you want to be out here?”

  “Can’t you feel the power as it starts to unfurl?” Edra ran his fingers up Jordan’s arm. “The tingle in your skin?” He smiled. “Dance with me.”

  Jordan looked away and shook his head. “There’s no music.”

  “There is if you listen.” Edra tugged him farther onto the balcony. “Hear the wind… the pitch of the rain as it hits a hundred different things.” He moved in close, as if they were at the party when Jordan had danced with him and didn’t care who saw or what they thought.


  But today Jordan was sober. He broke free, stepped back, and pushed wet hair off his face. “Come in.”

  “Come out. It’s not often there’s a storm like this.” Edra frowned. “You don’t feel the difference.” There was a magic to this one, as it had been drawn from the currents of the deep. All storms were fun, but this one had a shape and a reason, a taste and a rush.

  “It’s just cold and wet and windy. And the neighbors will wonder what we’re doing.”

  “Who cares about them?” He spun Jordan and kissed him. “This is fun.” He wanted to share it with him, the man who could be his mate. “I want to play with you.”

  Jordan grabbed the edges of the blanket and dragged him toward the door, and Edra let himself be drawn out of the storm, but his heart dragged him to the bottom of the bay. Jordan didn’t get it. And even though the need to be with him was there, they still weren’t meshing the way they should be. And that had nothing to do with what the neighbors thought.

  “I was thinking about you.” Jordan kissed him, deeper this time, and then smiled against his lips. “I want you.”

  “I know. I want you too.” But it was still pure need for Jordan. And while there was nothing wrong with that, the desire wasn’t developing into something more. The bond wasn’t forming.

  “What’s holding you back?”

  Edra opened the blanket, wrapped his arms around Jordan, and pressed himself, naked, to him. Jordan slid his hands over Edra’s skin and cupped his ass. It would be easy to just keep going, give in and then deal with the consequences, worry about the way this wasn’t growing the way it should. This wasn’t Tariko, and maybe it wouldn’t be the way he expected.

  “You’re all I can think about.” Jordan kissed down his neck, and Edra wanted to purr. “I need you. It’s a buzz in my blood that I can’t ignore.”

  Edra drew in a breath and took half a step back. “That’s not me. That’s Bliss cravings.”

  “I can tell the difference.”

  Edra took Jordan’s chin and looked in his eyes. His pupils were wide, trying to swallow the color, and his pulse was fast. He smelled like lust, like sex, and altogether too delicious. “I don’t know that you can.”

  Jordan snatched Edra’s hand. “You wanted to wait to make sure. And now you pull away. What is it about me you find so unappealing?”

  Edra had to look away from the hurt in Jordan’s eyes. “Nothing. You are what I want. But you aren’t mytho. You don’t mate for life. No one, not your people or mine, would happy about this.”

  “So what? We keep dancing around, never committing? Or do we do it anyway and to hell with the rest of them?”

  “I don’t know.” No matter what he did it felt like he’d lose. The Strega’s reassurance that he’d be happy was no balm. “We don’t need to rush this part. We can take our time. You aren’t even ready to tell your friends.”

  Jordan stared at him. “You made me want you. Your dragony chemistry has messed me up.”

  “Is it? Or is it Bliss riding you, making you want me? Your body craving what you aren’t giving it.”

  “What would you have me do? Fuck someone else to get free of Bliss?”

  Edra stepped back as though hit. “If you can do that, then do not blame the mating bond.” He studied Jordan. “Do you want to have sex with others?”

  Jordan blinked as though confused. “I want….”

  “It’s not me you crave. It’s release.” Release that he could get from anyone or from Bliss. “Drink your witch’s tea and get clean. Then we can talk mating.” He dropped the blanket and went into the storm. Then he shifted and leaped off the railing and into the wild night.

  Chapter 18

  THE WIND whipped the curtains, and rain splashed on his wet socks as Jordan stepped toward the open door. He wanted to call Edra back, but he didn’t know what to say. The silvery dragon battled to hover, tossed around by unseen hands, like a ball about to be thrown. But neither looked away. The dragon opened his mouth, but his roar was lost in the growing storm. Then he spun away.

  “Dammit.” Jordan slapped the door frame. Everything he did just made it worse.

  He didn’t know what Edra expected or wanted, but it was becoming increasingly clear he didn’t have it. He should’ve danced in the stupid storm, proved he wanted Edra and not Bliss. But the chemical craving in his blood was there, like unsated prickly lust. What had started as fun now ruined every taste of the real thing. It had been months since he’d picked up. He’d been hoping for more with Edra, but that wasn’t going to happen, at least not until he was clean.

  He wasn’t going to drink the tea some witch had made. He’d tough it out. And if Edra still didn’t want him, he’d let Mason set him up. He’d pretend that everything was fine, and one day he’d look back at his almost mating with a dragon and laugh.

  He leaned against the door frame, not caring that the rain slicked his floor and chilled his skin. A hole had been carved in him, and he didn’t think it would ever be filled. There was something both safe and terrifying in the idea of being with a dragon for life. He glanced up, hoping that Edra had changed his mind, but there was nothing out in the storm. He closed the door, not sure what to do.

  Sinner wrapped around his ankles and meowed at him, no doubt to remind him that he was an idiot. “You didn’t even like him at first. Traitor.”

  She headbutted his shin as Jordan made a plan. He’d test if it was Bliss or Edra that he wanted. Then he’d know what to do.

  It felt wrong to get changed and go out with the intention of finding someone else. His hands shook as he locked the door. He needed to know. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to go through with it, or there might be no one he found attractive. But he called a ride and waited downstairs.

  HE HADN’T set foot inside of his bar for weeks… maybe months. He ran his fingers through his hair to shake out the rain. Despite the growing storm, people were still out. It was Sunday evening. While not the best night to go out, there was still a lot going on.

  It would do him good to be around humans and only humans and to forget about the rest. All he did was dabble with mytho problems at work and at home. He ordered a light beer, not trusting himself to have anything stronger.

  This was an experiment, not an opportunity to get drunk and forget. Beer in hand, he scanned the bar, but he felt like an alien, like he didn’t quite belong. People were bitching about the weather, the fires, the mermaids, and the dragons. Mythos had first been feared, then reviled, then treated like something wondrous. Now they were an everyday annoyance.

  He should call up Sean or Pete to hang out with him. Then he wouldn’t feel like such a loser. So he’d had a fight with his boyfriend. Big deal.

  If the fight had been about anything other than Bliss and mating, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Jordan finished his beer and ordered a second one. As he’d always done when picking up, he set himself a three-beer limit. If he didn’t see someone in that time, he wasn’t going to do anything.

  What was he testing for? Attraction?

  Was he never going to feel that buzz again? Is that what it meant for Edra? He suppressed a shiver. He definitely wanted something, and it wouldn’t be Bliss or Edra tonight.

  At the end of his second beer, he joined in a game of pool for something to do. Then went back for his third and final beer, no longer sure if it was him who was the problem.

  “Date not show?” the bartender asked.

  “No date.”

  “Oh. You looked like you were waiting.”

  Jordan lifted an eyebrow. The bartender wasn’t bad-looking, but he was definitely one of those guys who spent far too long working out and making sure they looked good—nice to look at, impossible to live with. “Maybe I was.”

  “I knock off in half an hour.”

  If he’d dressed up to go out, this man wouldn’t be looking at him like that. But that wasn’t the point of this test. Was he attracted to this man? He only needed to like him a bit to get what he wanted�
��what he needed, if Edra was right… which he probably was.

  “And then what did you have planned?” Jordan smiled as though he were already making plans. Was he actually going to do this? He should. He needed flesh, not a powdered rush. If he did, it would prove the thing with Edra was just his problem with Bliss.

  “I’m sure we could figure something out.” The man’s eyes widened for a moment as his gaze skimmed Jordan. “What do you like?”

  Jordan leaned on the bar. “I like it when there’s less talking ’cause your mouth is too full.”

  He’d been wanting to suck Edra for weeks, but he barely got his hands on Edra before he pulled away, not wanting to come while they were touching. Every time it was a stab to the gut, and he had to remember it wasn’t because of him.

  “Nothing more?”

  “Not on the first night.”

  The bartender glanced down the bar to a waiting patron. “I’ll try and change your mind.” He walked away, making sure to wiggle his ass enough to get Jordan’s full attention.

  Jordan could make exceptions….

  He didn’t want to do the math on how long it had been. There’d been one after Devon that had lasted a month if he were being generous. But in reality, it had been nothing more than phone calls and hookups. He couldn’t even remember the guy’s surname. Had he even known it?

  The bartender strolled back. “So… did I manage to change your plans?”

  JORDAN FELT as bad as he looked on Monday morning when he dragged his ass into work. He hadn’t slept well. Sinner had stomped all over his head, and when he kicked her out of the bedroom, she bitched about it for an hour before he relented. They then sat up watching a movie in bed before the wind died down and he finally got some sleep for a few hours before his alarm went off.

  His dreams had been filled with dragons. The dragons turned into men, and he was there, in their world, not here. They kept telling him to leave, but he couldn’t find his way home. And no one would tell him where Edra was.