Greed and Other Dangers

by TJ Nichols

  “What? You jump and try to shift while you fall?” He’d said some stuff about liking him too, but all he could see was Edra falling and dying.

  Edra shrugged. “You stepped back instead of jumping, and that’s fine.”

  “Being mated for life is pretty permanent.”

  “So is hitting the water at terminal velocity.”

  He jumped from the bridge. Jordan’s heart kicked over a little too hard. “Do you love me?”

  “No, but I like you and I care, and I think it would’ve worked given time.”

  “Do dragons love?”

  “Of course. You don’t love me. You’re mixing Bliss cravings with the need for the real thing, and I got caught in the middle.”

  Edra scooped up Jordan’s T-shirt but didn’t hand it over right away. He held it to his face and breathed it in. Then he held it out.

  Jordan didn’t take it. When they left here tonight, that would be it.

  “Why aren’t you fighting for this if I’m your last chance?”

  “Because it’s not my choice to make.” He lowered his hand. “It was yours.”

  And Jordan had stepped back instead of jumping into the unknown and hoping he’d grow wings before he hit the ground. He could do that at work without even blinking, but when it mattered, he was frozen.

  But if he only ever clung to the familiar and safe, he was never going to have more. Perhaps there was comfort in knowing the Strega had seen all of this, that it would all work out.

  “Then this is me admitting my fuckup and fighting… jumping. I don’t care that it will feel better later. I want it to stop hurting now. I’ll drink the goddamn tea and sweat through the shakes or whatever. I’ll jump off the bridge and see if I can fly.” His stomach knotted around the fear while the rest of his body hummed with adrenaline.

  Edra dropped the T-shirt and clasped Jordan’s hands. “Walking away later, after we’ve mated, will hurt far more. The wound will ache for years, the hollowness will be consuming. You might even try not shifting when you jump, anything so it ends.”

  “But you did shift, and the pain did end.”

  “I don’t want to live through that again. Are you sure?”

  Jordan nodded. “Yes.” No. But he’d felt worse when he left home with only a bag slung over his shoulder. He’d hitched across the country. He’d jumped and flown before. But somehow he’d gotten out of practice and forgotten what it was like to have control over his own life. “No one but the Strega knows the future, and I’d rather face it with you.”

  Edra led him closer to the fire and the heat licked at his bare toes and heated his jeans, but he didn’t pull away. Not this time. Not again.

  “I guess this is a good place for it.” Edra glanced up at the temple roof and then returned his gaze to Jordan. He was quiet for a moment before speaking. “You need to repeat after me. ‘You are my mate, my life, and I swear to honor and protect you.’”

  Jordan blinked. He’d been expecting something very different.

  “It’s your turn now,” Edra said.

  “You are my mate, my life, and I swear to honor and protect you.” The tension Jordan had been holding melted. He’d jumped and flown and was still alive. Edra was his mate, whatever that meant. He paused and waited for something to happen—a spark of magic or a flash of lightning. Nothing. “That’s it?” He didn’t feel different. The ache had stopped the moment Edra had held his hands. “I thought it would involve sex.”

  Edra smiled for the first time that night. “It does. I was just making sure.”

  “You’re such an asshole.” Jordan gave a small laugh and shook his head. He put his arm around Edra’s shoulders and leaned in close so their lips almost touched. “But you’re mine.”

  Chapter 22

  EDRA STUDIED Jordan’s blue eyes. They were rimmed in red, a sign that he had been hurting. But his lips were now smiling. Jordan wanted to seal this now. It was what Edra wanted. As much as it had hurt, leaving had been a plan—one that didn’t involve putting all of his trust in a human.

  But he could put his trust in the Strega. She promised he’d be happy. He dipped his head to kiss Jordan. This was a good place for it, in a temple, early summer. The signs were good, and Jordan felt good against him. When he’d ripped off his shirt, Edra’s pulse leaped, and he hoped Jordan would keep going.

  Edra slid his hand down Jordan’s back, his skin smooth and cool, and rested on the waist of his jeans. He tugged him closer, so he could feel the length of Jordan’s cock pressed against him in a promise of more… of everything.

  Heat shimmered through him.

  “We shouldn’t really do this here. There’s guards, and it is in public,” Jordan whispered.

  “It’s between midnight and three, and we’re in the temple, so we can’t be arrested for public indecency.” The exemption had been fought hard for, so the satyrs could do what they needed to in the temple. They weren’t satyrs, but it should still apply. He turned his head and asked a dragon to come over as a precaution.

  She grumbled. “Why?”

  “I need to claim my mate, and I don’t want the thin-skin ones to see.”

  He felt her interest. The barricade fell over as she approached, but then she settled down at the temple and curled around the outside, blocking two sides from view. One large yellow eye watched him and Jordan. “If he hurts you again, I will cook and chew him.”

  Edra nodded.

  “Say it,” she insisted.

  “She would like you to know that if you hurt me again, she will cook you and chew you.”

  Jordan lifted an eyebrow. “Okay?”

  “Can you look a little troubled? That’s a dire threat. You’ll be alive for the whole thing. It can last all day…. It’s not pretty.”

  Jordan’s body went rigid. The dragon sensed the change, let out a contented purr, and closed her eye. “Is that a traditional punishment?”

  “No, she just likes me.” Edra smiled. “At least as much as a dragon can like a lesser dragon. She’d eat me too if I pissed her off, hopefully in one bite.” He let his fingers drift over the button on Jordan’s fly. “Now we have a dragon blocking the view from the park, and the fire hiding us on the other side.” He popped open the button.

  Jordan nodded but bit his lip as though unsure. “Do you need to do this as a dragon?”

  “Only if you want.” His smile widened, but he knew that he’d never have sex in that form again. He’d known that for years. “If you had wings, we could fly and fuck, but it is a little overrated, more of a controlled fall and rushing to finish before you hit the ground.” It was a young-dragon thing. He was smarter than that now, mostly.

  Jordan was silent for a moment. “I don’t know if you’re being serious or not.”

  “Another time I’ll tell you about when I almost smashed my head open because we couldn’t untangle. Tonight you can do whatever you want. I’m yours.”

  It felt as though he’d been waiting for forever to have Jordan’s hands on him. Just when he thought Jordan had changed his mind or was freaking out about being with a dragon, his hand slid under Edra’s T-shirt and smoothed across the skin of his back, traced the edge of the denim and then up over his ribs.

  “I keep forgetting there’s nothing there to play with.” He tugged Edra’s shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. Then he spread his hands over Edra’s smooth chest and dragged them down, his thumbs skimming the crease of stomach muscle.

  “Try going lower.” Edra nudged Jordan’s hands down. He wanted to feel them wrapped around his cock. He wanted that mouth on him. He wanted to taste Jordan and not worry about things going too far.

  Jordan’s lips curved. “You want to rush?”

  “Honestly? Yes.” He rolled one of Jordan’s nipples between his fingers. The need was tearing him up inside, twisting through his blood and hooking every part of him until he was sure he was going to die if it didn’t happen now.

  He wouldn’t. But that didn’t mak
e it any easier.

  Jordan leaned in, the stubble on his cheek rough against Edra’s skin. Edra rubbed his face against him, drawing in the scent of his skin and the soap from the shower he must have had before coming down to the temple, drawn here by the bond that had been forming without his realizing. It wasn’t as well formed as Edra had expected, but it was there.

  “I want to feel your tongue,” Jordan murmured, barely louder than the crackle of the fire.

  Edra licked the side of Jordan’s face. He wanted to taste every inch of his skin.

  “Lower. Lesser dragons do that, right?” Jordan undid Edra’s jeans and freed his cock from the clothes. Then Jordan stroked the length, carefully, as though he expected Edra to pull back and put that safe distance between them.

  “Yeah.” He swallowed as Jordan’s fingers closed around him. “We like to lick.”

  Jordan made a little noise in the back of his throat. “I’ve wanted to do this for a while.”

  That made two of them.

  He rubbed his thumb over the tip, pushed back the foreskin, and smoothed over the head. He frowned slightly and glanced down as though just realizing that there was a difference. The slit was horizontal, the head not quite as round as a human’s. “At least there’s no spines or anything.”

  It was probably for the best that Jordan didn’t see his dragon dick.

  When Edra didn’t respond, Jordan pulled away just enough to look him in the eye. “In this body, anyway.”

  “You want to see it, don’t you?”

  “I’m curious.” He kissed Edra’s throat and worked his way lower. He paused where humans had belly buttons and then dropped to his knees and glanced up. “This is it, isn’t it? You haven’t let me touch you before.”

  He nodded, his fingers threading through Jordan’s hair. “The taste as well as the touch. The me inside you and you inside me. The shared climax.”

  “I don’t—” Jordan’s mouth was so close, if Edra rocked his hips, the head would brush his lips… but he waited.

  “I know. This will be enough.” He knew what he was giving up, but like plenty of lesser dragons, he didn’t let small things like species and preferences stop him. He was flexible, but he much preferred having one to having many.

  Jordan gave him another stroke from balls to tip. Then he licked along the length. His lips and tongue were warm as he explored and then finally took Edra in his mouth. Edra shuddered, and cold raced up his spine, but his blood was hot enough to keep him visible. Jordan glanced up at him as he slowly sucked and swallowed. It felt like an eon since Edra had last had a lover on their knees. He tipped his head back, unable to breathe as the world spun and clicked back into place, the same but different.

  The dragon guarding them snorted.

  Jordan jerked back. “Maybe we shouldn’t be here.”

  “This is the perfect place.” For a heartbeat Edra thought Jordan had changed his mind, and he couldn’t breathe. But in Jordan’s eyes there was only desire.

  Jordan tugged Edra’s jeans the rest of the way down. Then he pulled Edra to his knees and kissed him. Edra let him suck on his tongue and feel its length in his mouth. Jordan’s pulse quickened, and he closed his hand around Edra’s dick again and stroked in time with the tongue thrusts.

  For all that he wanted to rush and do this, Edra didn’t want it over in an instant. He wanted Jordan every which way, but knew there would be only one time, at least until later. He tugged down the fly of Jordan’s jeans, needing to get him naked, and Jordan sat on the stone floor as Edra pulled his jeans off. Jordan wasn’t wearing any underwear, and his dick was thick and hard against his belly. Edra moved over him, kissing and tasting his skin, his inner thigh, his balls, and then his length. Jordan watched, eyes wide, as Edra curled his tongue around it before he drew Jordan’s cock into his mouth.

  “Fuck.” Jordan lay back and closed his eyes.

  Edra took him all, and the head of his cock nudged the back of Edra’s throat as though he wanted to swallow Jordan whole. Then he slowly drew back. Jordan groaned, his fingers pressed into Edra’s shoulder and then tangled in his hair. The taste of Jordan was on Edra’s tongue, and while he knew the sounds Jordan made, from watching him on Bliss, this was so much better. Jordan’s stomach tightened as Edra licked his length and then wrapped his tongue around a ball and gently squeezed. Jordan tasted like sweat and musk, and Edra wanted to bury his face in the scent. But he didn’t, not this time, at least. He let his face press closer and his tongue slip a little lower to tease Jordan’s hole.

  Jordan tugged on Edra’s hair and pulled him away. “If you keep going, I’m going to come.”

  Edra smiled. “That’s the idea.”

  Jordan’s skin was sheened in sweat, and he glistened in the firelight, looking more elvish than he should—too pretty. Edra lay over him, kissed him, and ground against him. He wanted Jordan to suck him again, but he liked the way Jordan felt against him, and he pulled him closer. Their legs tangled as Jordan hooked his ankle around Edra’s thigh.

  Edra rolled his hips, and the friction was almost enough. The need was hot in his blood, and Jordan’s eyes were dark, his lips parted. Jordan took another kiss, his tongue invading and his teeth nipping at Edra’s lower lip. Then Jordan’s hand was between them, grasping and stroking, rubbing over the heads so each movement become slicker as their precome mingled. Edra shuddered, sure he could smell magic in the air. His balls were tight.

  Edra thrust into Jordan’s hand and flicked his tongue over Jordan’s lips.

  “You going to come for me, my mate?” Jordan didn’t answer. He just opened his mouth so Edra could fuck him with his tongue. Beneath him Jordan shuddered, his breath hitched, and his cock twitched as come spilled between them. Edra let go, groaning as he came, the final pieces of magic settling into something new and binding them together.

  They were both breathing hard. Edra rested his forehead on Jordan’s. He reached down to grasp Jordan’s sticky hand, where viscous white strands webbed his fingers. Edra brought them to his mouth and licked two clean, tasting the salty musk of Jordan’s come and his own slightly sweeter come.

  He didn’t need to tell Jordan to do the same. Jordan sucked one finger into his mouth and drew it out and then kissed him as though to be doubly sure.

  “It’s done?” he said against Edra’s lips.

  “Yeah. You didn’t feel it?”

  “Whatever I felt was good.” Jordan licked his lips and closed his eyes. “Maybe something is different. The itch is gone. The… ache is gone.” He sighed. “I don’t think I can move.”

  Edra kissed Jordan’s nose and rolled to the side. He clasped Jordan’s hand. “We don’t have to move yet. It’s still legal to be naked in the temple.”

  “There’s a difference between legal and decriminalized, just so you know.”

  “In the temple between midnight and three, satyrs can be naked and participate in rites. That’s all I need to know.”

  Jordan lifted an eyebrow and then shook his head as though he couldn’t be bothered. Lying on the floor of the temple, the stone cool on his back, Edra closed his eyes. There was enough magic in this world for the bond to form. He’d forgotten what it was like to feel it, to feel another as though they were almost part of him. Jordan’s heartbeat and contentment were an echo in his blood.

  Jordan moved closer and put his head on Edra’s shoulder. “We should move, get dressed. We aren’t satyrs.”

  “I know. I’m praying.”

  “If we’d done this in any church where I grew up, they’d have tied us up and dragged us behind a couple of trucks.” Jordan skimmed his hand over Edra’s belly, and his fingers traced circles. “Who do you pray to when not all the gods survived?”

  For several breaths Edra didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure how to, so in the end, he went with the truth. “No god in particular.” It was safer that way. “I just wanted to bask in the moment and enjoy lying here, pretending that there wasn’t a whole world out there
waiting to tear us apart. But this is Pan’s temple, so perhaps he appreciated our rite and will feel kindly toward us.”

  It was generally not a good idea to piss off a god. While the Strega saw the future and the most likely outcomes, the gods could manipulate them if they wanted.

  Jordan trailed his hand over Edra’s chest, circling where a human would’ve had nipples. “So what was the traditional punishment for stealing dragon eggs?”

  Edra kept his eyes closed. “Death. If you were caught in the act, you’d be killed on the spot, and no one would try to tell a dragon that there should’ve been a trial.”

  “They don’t know who it was, do they?”

  “No. If they find out, they’ll eat him.” Edra opened his eyes and looked at his mate, the way the fire made his hair gleam like gold and his gaze was intent as he sorted through a problem. He was propped up on one elbow, naked, and his skin glowed like honey. Edra couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t realized there’d been such a hole, such a rift in his being, until it was mended.

  And he’d been ready to leave. No fool like a dragon in a tizzy, lesser dragons included. When it came to love and family, dragons did tend to be dramatic.

  “Skery won’t survive prison. He’ll get shanked,” Jordan said.

  “You’re assuming he makes it to prison.”

  “He won’t walk free. There are too many charges.”

  Edra sat up, dislodging Jordan. “Come on, Jordan. There’s a reason why the government is stalling on making us people and citizens. They want to know what makes us different.”

  Jordan’s eyes widened. “And a shapeshifter who can become invisible….” He raked his fingers through his hair so it stood up on end. His gaze tracked over Edra’s body again before meeting Edra’s gaze. “I wish I could say they wouldn’t do those things.”