Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series (16 page)

“I didn’t forget a single thing, Jinni. I
remembered everything.”

His warm hands framed her face and Paz knew
there would never be another man for her.

She threaded her fingers through his,
clenching so tight she feared she’d break his bones, but more
afraid that if she let go he’d leave her again. Maybe it was silly,
that fear, and maybe someday it would fade, but for now… she
squeezed harder, determined to keep him always with her.

“I didn’t know what I’d say when I saw you,”
he whispered and she smelled mint on his breath, the icy rush of it
brushed her lips. “If I’d feel the same, if you would.”

Paz couldn’t speak, could only stare and pour
her desire and love for him through her eyes.

“I’d thought of so many words. A million, but
now only three remain. I. Love.”

“You,” they whispered at the same time.

Dizzy, breathless with wonder, Paz kissed
him. Opening her lips to him, breathing in his essence, tasting the
mint of his tongue.

His hands were so gentle, so tender, and she
melted.

They could have stayed like that all night.
Except for the shrill buzz that broke them apart, panting and
laughing for breath.

Paz gripped her chest. “My doorbell.”

He nodded, planting one final hard kiss on
her. “I hear.”

Jinni held her elbow while she walked, he
glanced down. “I’ve seen the scar, Paz. How bad does it hurt?”

The continued buzzing of her door grated on
her nerves. Only one person in the world continued to buzz until
she opened the door. Leave it to her brother to totally spoil her
reunion.

“Hurts a lot in the mornings and at night.
But it gets better every day.”

Today wasn’t such a great day though, her
right thigh kept twinging with hot and cold bursts of nerve pain.
She ground her teeth on her tongue, ignoring it as she finally
reached the living room. A few more steps would bring her to the
door and then she’d sit for a sec…

“Jinni!” she laughed as he swept her up in
his strong arms. Paz patted his chest. “It’s my brother, put me
down.”

He quirked a brow. “Then I think it’s time he
knows about us, don’t you?”

She smiled. He was right. This was the man
she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, it was definitely
time one of the most important men in her life met the other
important one. Paz nodded. “Yup, you’re right. Swing me to the
right, good sir.”

She held out her arm, waiting until he got
her close enough to the knob so she could turn it. The buzzing
immediately stopped when Richard took sight of the man holding his
sister. Shock flitted briefly through his gaze, quickly replaced by
that raised brow and narrowed eyes of a brother wanting to know
what a strange man was doing holding his sister so close.

“And just who the hell are you?” Richard
asked, and he might have looked ridiculous dressed in a pair of
slacks with a frilly pink apron over his shirt, except for the
glower that pierced through Jinni.

“Richard!” Paz swatted his oven-mittened hand
and he hissed, pulling the cream-colored ceramic pot back, glass
lid full of steam.

“Soufflé, Paz, you know they’re sensitive.
And who is that?”

Looking up at Jinni’s sharp planes and angles
of his profile, her heart gave a tiny pitter-patter. “That’s
my…”

“Fiancée,” Jinni said and clipped his head
and Paz’s mouth flopped open.

“Fiancée,” she squeaked as Richard’s brows
shot up high on his forehead.

“Excuse me?” Richard’s hard brown gaze pinned
itself to her face and she squirmed even as her insides melted into
putty.

Fiancée, really? Did he really want to marry
her?

“And just when were you going to share? And
by the way,” he cocked his hip out, “when did this freaking happen?
Last I heard my sister was well on her way to becoming a cat
lady.”

She rolled her eyes as Richard jiggled the
pot at them. So much for soufflés being so sensitive.

“Gonna invite me in or what? Thing’s
hot.”

She bit her lip, and peeked at Jinni who was
wearing a very satisfied smirk on his face. Her heart did a weird
flop before sliding into her stomach. She really needed to talk to
him. Like now.

“Richard, how would you and Todd like to come
by for dinner tonight?” she asked.

The questions and hurt in his eyes died,
replaced by a bright sheen. “Dinner? Really?”

“Umm…” she glanced at Jinni, not sure whether
to call him Tristan or Jinni in front of her family, amazing that
she could remember the name the golem had given her that night long
ago.

He instantly read her mind. “It’s good to
meet you Richard, you’re sister has spoken so much to me about
you.”

“She has?” His full lips quirked. “Because
she’s told me boo about you.”

He smiled and yeah, she was such a girl
because she totally wanted to squeal and grin like an idiot. “Well,
that’s going to change. My name is Tristan Black.”

Richard finally came inside, walking to her
kitchen with a dazed look on his face. “And where did you guys
meet?” He sat the pot down, turning around with a large frown as he
stripped off the oven mitts.

This conversation was going to take a lot
more than just a few minutes. She smiled. “Dinner tonight, Richard.
I’ll explain everything. Bring a bottle of red, we’ll provide
dinner. Seven sharp.”

She glanced shyly at Jinni from the corner of
her eyes. It felt amazing to say we. She was finally a
we
.
Paz cuddled deeper into his chest, a throaty rumble passed his lips
and her worries that maybe she was getting too heavy for him to
hold washed away.

“But,” Richard said, “I want answers
now.”

Jinni’s fingers strummed the corner of her
thigh and her stomach tightened.

“Honey, I promise, but later. Tristan just
got here and we need to…”

“Talk,” Jinni finished her sentence.

Richard snorted. “Talk. Code for bow chica
wow wow, I get it.”

“What?” Jinni looked baffled and if Paz had
been drinking something she might have snorted it out of her
nose.

“Just go, Richard. Please.”

Richard took a deep breath, then said, “You’d
better be good for my sister.”

“I swear I will,” Jinni said without missing
a beat and yeah, she was definitely turning into a puddle of
goo.

Kissing her cheek quickly, Richard said,
“Good to see you smile again, sweetie. I was so scared.”

She cupped his face. “I know. Love you butt
face.”

He laughed. “Seven?”

“Seven.”

Richard turned on his heels and left, within
seconds she was alone with Jinni again, heart racing like a bird on
crack.

“So you’ve got me in a pretty compromising
position, Jinni.”

His smile was long and seductive. “I
know.”

She swallowed hard. “My room is next to my
studio.”

He turned, and neither spoke a word, but the
air around them grew pregnant with the heady anticipation of
promises, vows, and so much love.

They entered and he stilled as he gazed up at
her ceiling. Made out of double reinforced glass, she had a direct
view of the sky.

“Gets hot as hell during the day, but at
night I feel like I’m back in the stars with you. Do you like it?”
she asked nervously.

He licked his lips and then took them to the
center of her king sized bed, scattering her throw pillows to the
hardwood floor. She scooted back on her heels, until her back
pressed against the head board.

Jinni sat cross-legged on the center of the
bed. “No,” he said.

Her stomach plummeted. “No?”

“No,” he shook his head, “you cannot sit so
far from me.”

He grabbed her hand and helped her crawl back
onto his lap. She laughed when she settled in and he groaned.

“I never wish to be so far from you again.”
He nuzzled his face into her hair and she sighed, arms racing with
goose bumps and a rush of desire so heady it made her dizzy.

“Me either, Jinni.” She ran her fingers
through his silky soft hair, staring deep into his nearly black
eyes. “But is that scary?”

He shook his head, his hands playing idle
circles on her waist. “We had a year to get over this need. At this
point, I don’t think we ever will.”

Jinni reached into his pocket.

“Jinni?”

“Hmm?” He glanced at her.

“Did you mean that about me being your
fiancée?”

His hand stilled and he nodded. “If you’ll
have me.”

She’d read so many books in her life, watched
countless movies, always gushing when the man asked the lady to be
his. But right now, there were no tears. Only so much joy she
thought she might explode from it.

“Paz, in my world, I’m still immortal. This
body will never die, never age.”

The ramifications of that statement settled
like a lump of coal in her gut.

He pulled his hand out of his pocket,
withdrawing two silver necklaces. One with a heart shaped pendant
and the other a square. Both bore an amethyst stone at its center,
but it gleamed like molten steel and she ooh’d as he dropped them
into her hand.

“What is this?”

“The stones of veritas. Truth stones. True
love stones.” His hands pushed her hair out of her eyes, forcing
her gaze to his. “Those stones contain a piece of our soul, only
true soul mates can do so. Your love for me and my love for you
rests within those stones.”

She traced the heart with her thumb,
shivering at the tingle that raced through her veins from the
contact. “Is this mine?”

“Paz Lopez,” his eyes were bright and he was
smiling and it took her breath away, “will you walk with me all the
days of my life?”

“But I thought you said--”

“That necklace will bind you to me, Paz. You
can stay with me forever.”

Tears trembled on her lashes. “Are you sure
you’re not just doing this because you want free rent?” She laughed
through her tears.

He chuckled. “You drive me mad.”

“Hmm… not a good way to start our lives
together.”

He growled and pinned her with a kiss, deep
and thoroughly satisfying. She sighed when he pulled away. “Umm…
okay. Yup, that will do.”

Rolling his eyes with the biggest, goofiest
grin she’d ever seen him wear, he took the necklace from her and
unhooked it. Clasping it around her neck, the stone settled against
her breast with a quick flash of warm heat. It pulsed through her
blood and then blazed a deep jeweled indigo before returning back
to just a pretty stone.

Her mouth rounded into an ‘o’ and she gripped
the heart in her hand. “Am I?”

He nodded. “Forever, little dove.”

“And ever, and ever, and ever,” she
whispered. The moment was so full and ripe with meaning, that she
needed to break the tension. “Jinni, I have to know. I always
wondered about this.”

Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “What?”

“You were a genie once. If you could have had
one wish, what would it have been?”

“That’s easy,” he twirled a length of her
hair around his finger, “you.”

“Mush,” she sighed, “I’m mush.”

Jinni glanced at her bedroom alarm clock. “We
do have two hours before your brother returns.”

“Hmm…” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Whatever should we do?”

He glanced at the bed. “I can think of a few
things.”

She laughed and then he was kissing her and
she was kissing him back and neither one came up for air until the
annoying buzz of her penthouse door said her brother and Todd had
arrived.

Paz watched him dress and pouted. “I hate to
see you cover that magnificent body.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do it often.”

Happy, body sated, Paz grabbed her clothes
off the floor and smiled. She’d found her Todd.

“Dove,” Jinni said, the annoying buzz of her
doorbell so easy to ignore when her body felt so good, “would you
like to go dancing on the stars tonight?”

Grin splitting her face wide, she nodded.
“You still have magic?”

His smile was mysterious and sultry and Paz
knew that no matter what, she could never have done better.

Jinni was her everything. Her confidant. Her
lover. And if she’d been a genie, she’d have wished for him
too.

“I love you,” she whispered and he grabbed
her hand, lacing their fingers together.

“Forever,” he whispered, tucking a curl
behind her ear.

“Forever,” she kissed his knuckle.

And their forever was filled with light,
love, and dancing on the stars…

James twirled the amber fluid in his tumbler,
mesmerized by the golden brown glow. His cabin was alive with the
scent of whiskey and the snapping crackle of wood smoke. He slumped
over his mahogany desk as he shifted the glass cup from one side to
the other. Firelight danced across it and cast beams of white light
around his room. A room that dripped luxury.

Everything a man could want.

Red velvet curtains tied back with golden
tassels, Turkish rugs from the farthest corners of Neverland.
Silver from the mines of Under Kingdom. Jewels from a fire dragon’s
lair. Sage and pine laced incense undulated like a snake’s coil
around his face, making him dizzy each time he inhaled.

The night was long and the ship asleep,
listing softly on the waves. But his mind would not rest, not for
the last hundred years.

Not after he’d lost
her
.

His beautiful, innocent Talia.

Swallowing another dram of whiskey, he
shuddered as it settled like hot lead in his gut, burning down his
throat, easing the ache in his cold, miserable heart.

He hadn’t deserved her.

But still she’d chosen him.

James toyed with the locket on his desk,
clasping and unclasping the lock. Clenching it so hard in his fist
for a moment he thought he might bend it. With a start, he released
the necklace. It settled back on his desk with a loud ping in the
startling quiet.