Dae turned to James, who was writhing on the floor at his feet. “You do not get to come in my house,” Dae said, “and insult me or mine. You do not get to come in my house and speak ill of my guests.” Dae bent down and grabbed James by the collar of his shirt. He hoisted him off the floor like he was a leaf and Dae a giant. “You do not get to come in my house and pretend that you are superior to us when you are, in fact, no better than the slime oozing in the sewers beneath my feet.” He tightened his hold. “You do not get to come in my house and insult the one woman who deserves, more than anyone I know, to be worshipped.”
And then he tossed James aside. Just a rag doll, spineless and quivering.
For a split second, Ashley felt sorry for him. The color had drained from his face. Blood dripped from his broken lip. Her old instinct was to go to him and care for him and coo to him. Her old instinct was to apologize and submit and tell him he was right—she didn’t belong here.
But she was no longer the old her and they were no longer the old them.
She wasn’t going to submit to James. She wasn’t going to care for him.
Isla could do that now. That was what they’d chosen.
Ashley threaded her arm through Dae’s, her fingers tightening around his bicep. She had wanted to appear strong and determined—she felt stronger than she’d ever been—but she was still trembling and having Dae’s strength beside her was a welcome feeling.
She wasn’t sure about anything at all, other than the fact that Dae, in the last hour, had made her feel worthy. And she was in no rush to leave his side.
James doubled over and spit blood on the hardwood floor, and as soon as he turned away, Dae grabbed hold of Ashley’s hand at his bicep. His magic swelled around them with a crackle and then they were gone.
Chapter 22
ASHLEY
Ashley blinked.
The brightness and openness of Blackwell House had been replaced with darkness and closer walls.
She wasn’t sure where they were. It was nowhere she recognized.
“Let me get a light,” Dae said and slipped from her grasp. A second later, a desk lamp flicked on washing the space in soft golden light.
They were in a loft. High ceilings, though not as high as the palatial heights of Blackwell House. Steel ductwork ran across the matte black ceiling. The floors were polished concrete, the walls whitewashed brick.
“Where are we?” Ashley said.
“This is my private residence,” Dae said. “It’s on the northwestern curve of the Rine River about thirty miles outside of the city.”
Ashley turned a circle.
The space was incredibly open. On her immediate left was the kitchen—white cabinets with butcher block counters and white subway tile grouted in black. Restaurant quality appliances gleamed in the light. A long galley island sat between the kitchen and living space. Eight café bar stools were tucked beneath the island’s counter.
To her right was the living space. An L-shaped gray tweed sofa sat with its back to the kitchen. Stuffed bookcases lined the far wall with a flat screen TV hung in an alcove in the center.
The steel coffee table in front of the sofa had been burdened with several stacks of books. Ashley couldn’t make out any of the titles save for the one on top of the pile closest to her—Mythology in the 21st Century.
“I’m sorry I brought you here without asking,” Dae said. “It was instinct that pulled me here. It’s the safest place I know.”
“It’s all right.” She went to his bookshelves. Books were an odd sort of belonging. They were meant to be out and on display, but they were also an incredibly intimate possession. You could tell a lot about a person based solely on the books that lined their shelves.
Ashley scanned the titles. There were several Shakespeare books—Macbeth. Othello. Romeo & Juliet. The books were wrapped in leather and gilded in gold. There were books on Greek and Roman and Egyptian mythology. Books on engineering and finance. Some were even written in Japanese and French and Swedish.
Would it be rude of her to just spend the rest of the night exploring his collection?
When Ashley finally tore herself away she realized Dae had made himself comfortable on the sofa and was watching her intently.
“What?” she said, heat rising in her cheeks.
“Nothing. I just like looking at you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Oh, I absolutely do.”
She came around the coffee table and sat beside him. The sofa was plush and welcoming. The kind of sofa you could curl up in on a Sunday afternoon watching rom coms.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked. Though she hadn’t given voice to this thought, it had been hovering in the back of her mind since yesterday. “Is it because of the deal? It that like a rule or something? Treat your wisher nice and you get a shiny bonus at the end?”
She’d been wondering what Dae stood to gain from the deal. Ashley knew what she got—three wishes—so what did he get out of it? There was so much about magic that she didn’t know or understand.
“No bonus,” he said, his voice lilting with a laugh. “We don’t have access to our magic when we’re not invoked.”
“Oh. Wow. That must suck.”
He laughed again. “It does. Very much so. But to answer your question…” His gaze turned far away as he gave the question some thought. “Firstly,” he said “let’s be clear that a gentleman should always be nice to a lady.”
“Yes, okay, but let’s first be clear that that is not what I’m asking.”
“True enough.” He squinted and thought some more. “If I’m being truthful, you’re different. I’ve made 206 deals in my time, and somehow, you’re the only one that stands out in my mind.”
“But…I literally asked for the single most universal thing—revenge.”
“Well, yes, in that regard, you were just like the rest.”
Ashley wrinkled her nose at him and he laughed, his hand finding hers, fingers threading together.
“I guess what I’m trying to ask,” Ashley said when they’d both quieted again, “is whether or not....” She trailed off, face flaming. “What I want to know is whether or not sex is a typical part of your deals.”
He frowned at her. And there was her answer.
Yes.
Yes it was.
Her face fell. His hold on her tightened.
“Sex does, on occasion, become part of the work. I won’t lie to you about that. Some people wish to have sex with me and I am duty-bound to the magic to comply, though in most scenarios, jinn can manipulate the magic to get out of it, if they choose and if they’re clever.” His expression turned downright devilish. “And I assure you, I am very clever.”
His thumb ran circles over the plane of her wrist as he went on. “But, and I am not saying this to pacify you, the sex we had was different from any of the sex I’ve had before. It was not the deal, it was not just for fun.”
He let go of her and turned, his hands going to either side of her face, forcing her to look him in the eye. “I very much wanted to do what we did and I very much enjoyed it. It was not just sex to me.”
She bit at her lip, trying to decide if he was being truthful or not. It felt like he was.
“If you really must know,” he said, and bent over her, his breath fanning across her face, “I am in no hurry to see this deal done.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“I don’t just say anything, love. I’ve lived too long to mince words.”
And then he kissed her, his lips hungry against hers, drawing up that heat between her legs.
He slid his hand along her jaw, his thumb brushing over the delicate curve of her cheek, before sliding back, tangling in her hair. His tongue flicked out against hers, then his teeth nipped at her lip.
Ashley heard a faraway moan and realized it had come from her.
She let her hand trail up his thigh to the space between his legs where his pants w
ere now bulging, straining around his shaft.
Ashley rolled onto her knees and climbed on top of him.
He sucked in a breath and then crushed his mouth against hers, harder, hungrier, as his hands worked to bunch her skirt around her waist. When her ass was bared, he grabbed her, pressing her moist center against him.
He was so hard. So ready for her.
She did believe him.
She believed that he needed her. Wanted her.
She hung her head back as he kissed along her neck.
“Dae,” she said, her words breathy and far away, “get me out of this dress.”
He snapped his fingers and she was suddenly naked. Her nipples hardened at the shift in temperature and Dae’s mouth rushed to her breast, his tongue teasing around her peak.
Ashley let out a breathy moan.
Dae guided her hips back and forth, rubbing her against him. “Is this better?” His voice was hoarse and heavy, his lips wet and swollen. His fingers plunged inside of her. “Fuck, love. You are wet.”
Her insides knotted and uncoiled and knotted again.
She was drunk on this feeling. Drunk and flying.
But this wasn’t about her.
As much as she wanted it to be.
Some foreign feeling rose up inside of her—the need to please him.
It wasn’t out of a sense of duty, like she owed it to him because he’d whispered sweet things in her ear. Or because he’d done the dishes or cleaned up the kitchen.
It wasn’t out of wifely duty because it was the thing that a wife was supposed to do.
It was because she fucking wanted to.
She climbed off of him. He looked up at her dazed and a little confused.
She went to the floor, to her knees, and unbuttoned his pants. He sucked in a breath.
When she pulled slowly at the zipper, he grew harder. And when she parted his pants, his cock spilled out, hard and throbbing in the lamplight. She took him in her hand and stroked him slowly, gently.
Dae lay his head back and closed his eyes. She leaned in and flicked her tongue along his head. He jolted, threaded his fingers in her hair. She flattened her tongue and ran it from the base of him up to the tip. Then again and again until he quaked.
She liked watching the waves of pleasure washing over his face. She liked the way his body tensed up, his cock throbbing in her hand.
She ran her tongue along the underside of him again and then took him fully in her mouth.
He exhaled in a rush. His fingers pressed harder at her scalp, pulling her mouth further and further down his shaft. His head throbbed against her tongue.
“Fuck,” he said.
Ashley straightened on her knees, angled herself in just the right way and went so far down on him, he stopped breathing. Only his cock trembled against the back of her throat.
“Fucking hell, love. You keep doing that, I’m going to blow.”
Ashley pulled off of him. “In my mouth?” she asked with a smile.
“Fuck yes.”
She went down, again and again, working her thumb along the bottom of his shaft as she did.
“Don’t stop,” he said.
She didn’t.
He buried both hands in her hair.
Ashley could sense the heat and beat of him rising and growing closer. Magic danced along her skin and the air smelled of fall and cider and heat. He growled, loud and basal, as he let go and his cum shot down her throat, hot and sticky. She swallowed as he pulsed inside of her, driving into her like he couldn’t get enough.
He groaned as the last bit of his orgasm seeped out. Ashley pulled back and ran her milky tongue along his head and Dae, eyes bright red, watched her as she did.
“Bloody hell,” he said.
When he was spent, he lay back, eyes closed, chest heaving.
Ashley swiped at her sticky lips. “Was that good?”
James always wanted a blowjob, but he never said much as to her ability to give them. He’d been her first. Blowjob, that was. She’d always been too shy to take a man in her mouth, afraid that she’d suck too hard or accidentally nip him with her teeth. Somehow she’d escaped having to give them, mostly because her partners before James never lasted long enough for it to become a thing.
Dae looked at her through the slit of his heavy eyes. His were faintly glowing red in the dim light. “A goddess does not ask the mortal, ‘Am I mightier than you?’”
Ashley laughed. “I’m not even sure what that means.”
“Your mouth on my cock was practically divine,” he said with a smirk. “You are the goddess.”
Ashley stood up. Dae stood up beside her. Though Ashley had unbuttoned his jeans, he’d remained fully clothed besides. Until now, that is. In the blink of an eye, he was naked before her, his cock still hard and bobbing between them.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said.
“I don’t know? To wash up?”
“Absolutely not.”
One second they were in the living room, the next they were in his bedroom, crashing against the silky gray waves of his bed.
Chapter 23
DAE
Dae held Ashley close to his side, his arm wrapped around her, his fingers holding at her waist. Her chest rose and fell against him with the evenness of sleep. She was naked and warm and soft and so goddamn human.
He didn’t want to let her go.
He shouldn’t be holding on to her in the first place.
The moon had arched through the sky and was now descending on the other side, its light stretching long with its shadows. It would be dawn soon.
Why had he brought Ashley here? To the place he let no one tread?
When James had shown up at Blackwell House, Dae felt the deal grow taut with apprehension, the magic coiling like a snake. He’d wanted to make James jealous—from the moment the deal was made Dae had wanted to see that piece of shit suffer. But when Ashley saw James just minutes after they’d slept together...well, it’d broken something inside of her. Dae had noted the shame painting her face in vibrant shades of red.
She had nothing to be embarrassed over. He was Dae fucking Blackwell. Hundreds of thousands of women had tried to sleep with him in his seven hundred years.
Was Ashley ashamed of him?
Why did he even care?
This was the problem.
He did not question things like this.
He did not care for the opinions of mortals.
And now Ashley was in his bed beside him, a smile playing along her lips even in sleep.
He did care, he realized.
He cared for the opinion of this mortal.
And what did that mean?
Nothing good, is what Poe would have said.
Nothing good, is what Red would have said.
Bloody fucking hell.
He could pull on his magic and send them both back to Ashley’s house and pretend like this never happened. Or rather, that he’d never let another living being into his private space.
But he was so damn tired.
Or maybe it was that he was more relaxed than he had been in a long time. Jinn did not need sleep, after all. But his body felt heavy and all he wanted to do was stay beside Ashley with her tucked into the crook of his arm.
Besides, he trusted her to keep his loft a secret.
And as he drifted off to sleep, he realized it was that, trusting her with the intimate details of his life, that was the most telling of all.
Chapter 24
DAE
Dae woke to the incessant buzzing of his phone. Gently, he slipped his arm out from beneath Ashley and rolled over, blindly grabbing for his phone on the nightstand. The bright light of late morning streamed in through the French doors off his bedroom.
“What?” he said when he answered, his voice morning rough.
“Where the fuck are you?”
It was Poe.
“Miss me, do you?”
Poe snorted. “No, asshol
e. Red isn’t doing well. Thought you’d want to know.”
The line went dead.
Dae was up, eyes wide and heart racing. He hurried from the bed. With a snap of his fingers, he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, the magic hissing behind him as he stalked away. Ashley shifted beneath the sheets and Dae stopped and looked down at her. Should he wake her? Tell her to leave? Should he wake her and offer to take her home?
He looked around at his house, the place no one had ever been save for him. He thought of all the private details Ashley might be able to discover once she woke and realized she was alone.
That level of intimacy, one Dae had never known, was terrifying.
But there was no time to wake her.
Besides, he was not embarrassed by his life, not with Ashley.
In fact, he thought he might just be proud to share it with her.
He scribbled a note on a loose sheaf of paper and set it on the table on her side of the bed.
Family emergency, it said. If you call the number below, a private driver will pick you up and take you home when you’re ready, but please help yourself to whatever is here. I’ll check in with you later.
-D.
It was the nicest note he’d ever left a girl. In fact, it might just very well be the first note ever. This deal kept surprising him and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.
His magic wound around him and with a thought, he left his loft and reappeared in the foyer of Blackwell House. He could hear his brothers arguing in the conservatory.
When Dae entered, he found Mad shouting at Poe and Poe turning red with rage. Thorin was on the periphery as usual, looking stuck between a rock and a volcano.
“What happened?” Dae asked, his words diffusing the argument.
Mad looked at Poe. “Tell him.”
Poe’s shoulders sunk as the fight ran out of him. “The black mark on Red’s arm...”
“What about it?”
“It’s spreading,” Thorin said.
A knot formed in Dae’s stomach. “How far?”
“Across his chest,” Mad said. “And it’s creeping up his neck now.” He folded his arms over his chest. “He should make his last deal. He can’t be doing this dance any longer. One day he’s well, the next he’s practically comatose.”
Three Wishes (Blackwell Jinn) Page 11