The Call

“I heard that I make you nervous.”

“Well, someone in this group needs to question your sanity once in a while, S’re, or I fear you’ll get us all into more trouble than we’re looking for.” Leaning back in a rickety old chair he had found in the abandoned building, Jasper’s gaze betrayed him, irresistibly drawn to the outline of her feminine silhouette while it posed seductively in the broken doorway. As tall and powerful as any Dragon Rider, the roguish and provocative outfit she wore did a fine job of showing off her heritage, while the ears that brushed the doorway and the flash of her eyes did the rest.

Sauntering to him, she took the scroll he had in his hands. Dropping it to the floor, she straddled his lap, ignoring the protest of the chair. Hanging her hands over his shoulders, she focused on his lips as she kept her own just far enough to tempt him, her hair cascading around him like a curtain.

“You’re so thoughtful,” she teased sweetly with a soft purr that rumbled in his chest. “Always worrying about me.”

Groaning, he drew her hips closer so that she fit more snugly against him. The loose shirt hanging over her smooth shoulder did nothing to discourage his exploring hands– and neither did she. “Don’t think I could’ve kept you around for the last nine years otherwise, lulumi.”

She smirked, leaning in to nuzzle and kiss his scruffy neck as he made it available to her, purring hotly. “Maybe I just really hate walking.”

“Heh” he scoffed with a smile. “In that case, you don’t need me for this heist.”

She pouted by his ear. “Don’t you trust the plan? Weren’t you just looking it over? It’ll all work out and we’ll make out like royalty...”

His face snapped to a scowl. “S’re.” Taking her by the shoulders, he sat up straight. “You’re talking about stealing from the government. From fucking Dragon Riders, S’re! You met some stranger in a bar who promised to pay you only after you stole documents from Dragon Riders, the kinds with War dragons; of course he offered such a sum! We’d become enemies of the state overnight! I might be a wanted man, but it’s for small shit, not something like this! And then, you didn’t even come talk to me first, knowing what I’d say. Instead, you rally and rile the others, hoping I’d just go along.” He shook his head with a hard line in his brow. “You think they wouldn’t feed us to their dragons on the spot if they caught us?”

She rolled her eyes dismissively. “That’s just a thing they say so we stay afraid of them.”

“Not the point, but you say that with such certainty. You’d know this for sure, would you?”

“Well, no, not exactly. But, it seems entirely too barbaric, even for the military.”

“There is nothing too barbaric for the military,” he muttered sourly.

She fixed him with a stern look. “My uncle told me it’s just something the Riders say for effect. They’re not allowed to eat people.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Though, I could see them feeding us to a Horned Drawg.”

He glowered at her teasing with a bitter growl. “Not any better than a dragon.”

Her warm hands cradled his face briefly, her touch sending jolts of electricity through him, and he had to struggle to keep his composure. “Jasper, this is more money than any of us have ever seen in our lives! Black can buy out his exile order. Diana and Slina could get their parlor. And I will go with you anywhere. We can’t lose.” Lowering her chin to her chest, she peeked at him through lavish lashes. “You wouldn’t make us go without you, would you?”

Her purr only made him scowl harder, wagging his finger back and forth in her face. “Don’t. Why do I always have to be the voice of reason? That’s why you want me for this, and that’s why you’re here. The lot of you know I’m the one you can count on for something like this.” His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I bet Diana sent you in here.”

Her injurious gasp gave way to a sheepish smile. “Actually, it was Black.”

His mouth popped open, brow furrowed in disbelief, though his bitter mutter was mostly playful. “That traitorous, asexual snake! Using my girlfriend against me.”

With a little smile, she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I know it sounds crazy, Jasper,” she said softly. “Trust me, this whole thing feels weird. I know this is dangerous. I just ... have a feeling, like the chances are good enough. He said it’s only two Riders. There’s five of us. All we have to do is distract the dragons which will distract their riders, make off with a few documents that we give to the guy outside of town, get our money, and we wash our hands of it.”

Still, he frowned, glaring sidelong at her. “Admit it, it’s just the money that sounds good enough.”

Sighing, she began to rise. “Well, if you don’t want in on it, then we’ll just ... Ow!”

He had her by an earlobe and pulled her back to his lap without mercy. “Oh-ho no, dovlin,” he purred in his own way, “you came in here to start something and you are going to finish it–” crushing her lips against his for a passionate moment that made her hazy, he continued– “at the end of this conversation. Now, I believe you were about to threaten my share of the pay out?”

She gasped dramatically, shaking her head. “I would never!”

He easily broke her attempt at innocence with a menacing growl and several teasing snaps at her throat. She squealed and tittered, his arms tightening around her to prevent escape. Relenting on his assault when the chair protested their squirming, he leaned back and smirked at her. “Is there anything else you can think of to convince me? Because I don’t know if pussy and profits are enough.”

She gave him a roguishly coy smile. “How about, this will be a great adventure?”

“Oh, an adventure!” Throwing back his head, he barked a laugh. “Ha! Straight to a Drawg feeding! Sounds grand!” Squeezing her tighter, a rapacious grin made him a downright scoundrel. “So what you’re saying is we should get the fucking out of the way now?”

Though she rolled her eyes, she could not stop herself from giggling and leaning in closer, tapping his nose with her finger. “We can get to the fucking after we get paid. And that’s when the adventure begins. We’ll be able to go anywhere!” She gasped with an idea. “What if we booked passage to Lindarow with Diana and Slina? Live out our days on glittering beaches and endless summers, and no one’s the wiser.”

“Hmm, do I get to watch you skinny dipping in lavender waves?” he mused shamelessly. Each hand occupied itself with a cheek of her rear, making certain she knew the thought appealed to him.

Hanging her arms around his neck, she leaned in tantalizingly close. “You get to do more than watch.”

Fixing her with a stern eye, he stared into her captivating gaze. Drawn into their pearlescent depths, drowned in their blue embrace, he had never been entirely certain he could look away, though he had never had the desire to test it. She stared back at him with sultry intention, biting her lip so close to his.

“Your mating take too much time.”

They both jerked at the voice and the chair dumped them to the ground in an ungraceful heap. S’re leapt to her feet while Jasper curled and groaned.

“Are you alright?” she gasped, reaching down to pluck him up and set him to his feet with ease.

Steadying himself, he straightened his leather vest and dusted his pants. “Ah, think I’m all together. Just bruised my ego as much as my ass.” Standing beside her ensured his good posture and yet he hardly reached past her shoulders.

Glaring up at the reptilian humanoid towering over them dressed in a green and gold body wrap, S’re frowned. “I’ve told you to stop sneaking up on us, Black. We like privacy!”

As dark as his name suggested, his glassy crimson eyes were his only color. Lowering his large head to be nose to long, spiny nose with her, the beads and trinkets all over his horns and spines tinkled, and his slow, raspy voice reminded her of leaves skittering across the ground on a windy day. “There isss no pri-va-cccy from my nossse and you have known thisss,” he hissed sarcastically.

Jasper groaned while S’re’s mouth popped open, then shut. “I, uh, really prefer forgetting about it.”

Snorting at her, his long neck raised him up tall again before focusing on Jasper. “Hue-man alwaysss mating. Would not be ssso bad if did not take ssso much time.”

Jasper shook his head. “We’ve been over this before, saipaki. ‘Mating’ is for making babies. We have sex.”

“Of courssse,” he hissed in a slow, sarcastic drawl, his thick, forked tongue nearly as long as Jasper’s arm flicking out. “They do not both make young?”

“He does have a point,” S’re tittered.

Glaring between them, Jasper held up his arms to shoo the svelte reptile out. “Well, it wouldn’t take so long if you weren’t always interrupting! Now get! We weren’t done! Unless you intend to join us, go on!”

Hissing at him in disgust with narrowed eyes, Black turned his body but continued to face them until he had slipped out the slanted door, his head slithering after him.

“Ugh! I hate it when he does that,” Jasper muttered, shaking his head before rubbing his rump. “My ass still hurts.”

Giggling, she combed her fingers through his unruly brown hair lovingly. The constant stubble on his cheeks snagged against the calluses of her hand, but she had come to like the sensation. “Can I make it up to you?”

With a smirk, he leaned closer, buried his face between her breasts and peeked up at her deviously. “Oh, you’ll be making it up to me on the way, lulumi. But we won’t make it to the party if we don’t get started.”