“Hmm. Genies in Boston. Sounds like the last guy I went out with. You remember, the bartender?”
Nina grinned. “He could have been the genie I’m looking for. Who knows?”
“Except he didn’t make any of my wishes come true, if you get my drift,” Kaelee said dryly, lifting her brow suggestively.
Nina laughed. It was good to have someone to talk to about all of this. Kaelee had never been anything less than supportive through her entire ordeal at The Herald. They’d been best friends since college, and for that, Nina was thankful.
“So what do you have to do?” Kaelee asked.
“I called some women who were tagged on a blog, discussing recent experiences with a jinn. They had wishes granted and were trying to find other women who had the same experience, from what I can tell. Lindsay wants me to interview them, but the real trick will be to find the genie and get an interview with him, too. I’m meeting one of the bloggers tomorrow afternoon, downtown.”
“You do lead an exciting life.”
“This isn’t exciting to me, unfortunately. It’s aggravating. A daily reminder of how far I’ve fallen. I don’t know how much longer I can do this. Seriously, Kaelee, it all feels like such a waste when there is real news happening out there, everywhere.”
Sympathy infused her friend’s expression, and Nina was sorry for giving in to the impulse to whine. She was lucky to have a job at all, really, especially when times were so hard and newspapers around the country were closing down, putting a lot of people out of work for good.
“I know it’s not your dream job, but try to enjoy what you can. You’re not trapped behind a desk, and your stories, while creative,” she said with a grin, “they make people happy. My mother used to read The Scoop compulsively. I think it helped her take her mind off her own troubles, which, as you know, were too many to count with my dad being like he was.”
Nina nodded. Kaelee’s childhood hadn’t been a happy one. Escapism was all fine and good. She did get nice e-mails from readers, and several people had loved her story on porn stars who were trying to fit into suburban neighborhoods. But it wasn’t enough for her. It wasn’t what she had counted on doing with her life. Still, she quietly declared her whining session over.
“I suppose. Thanks,” she said, reaching over to squeeze Kaelee’s hand. “You’re right. It’s work. It pays the rent, and I more or less get to come and go as I please, so what the hell, right? I might get to meet a real genie. Who knows?”
“You never can tell,” Kaelee said with a wink and tipped her beer toward Nina in salute. “If he offers you a wish, what would it be?”
“Easy,” Nina replied without hesitation, the ache in her chest returning with renewed intensity.
“Aw, hon, you have to let him go,” Kaelee urged. “Some new guy, a better guy, might be able to make your wishes come true, and stand by you in the process. Unlike Peter.”
“You don’t know, Kaelee, it was a difficult situation. He has a lot of responsibilities—”
Kaelee shook her head resolutely. “If he loved you, that was his only responsibility. He should have stood by you, defended you, and he didn’t. I don’t know why you can’t see that. Get angry, but don’t be sad over a jerk like Peter Wiley.”
Nina bit down on her defensive reply. Kaelee had boyfriends aplenty, men were lined up at her door, though because of her parents’ disaster of a marriage, Kaelee had declared herself a confirmed single, period. It made it easy with her job, which was the love of her life.
Nina was never short of invitations from men, either, but she had really imagined having it all—the job, the husband, the family. But she’d also had a harder time meeting men who didn’t mind the demands of being an investigative reporter. Now it was even worse. Before, they had just balked at her commitment to her job and the dangerous situations she found herself in. Now, the minute her date found out that she worked for The Scoop, they thought she was a joke.
Peter hadn’t just been her lover. They’d shared the same love of the paper, of the news. He understood when she couldn’t be available for a date because she was eyeball deep in a story, or when she met informants in questionable places late at night. He wanted all the same things she did.
“I know it’s hard for you to understand, but when you love someone, it’s not that easy to leave it all behind,” Nina tried to explain, though she knew Kaelee wouldn’t get it. She wasn’t interested in love. Nina was, and she knew what it was like—and now she knew what it was like to lose it, as well.
Kaelee looked as if she had more to say, but didn’t. The two friends finished their meal in silence, yet for the rest of the night Nina couldn’t help but fantasize about wishes and the magic creatures who could grant them. If only they really did exist.
2
NINA WATCHED THE WOMAN across from her polish off her second burrito—the price of an interview—and took notes over her own dinner, turning cold on the plate.
“So, your wishes actually came true?” Nina asked neutrally, relying on her reporter training to hide her skepticism. It was clear this woman actually believed she had met a jinn.
“Yes, and then some,” the svelte redhead answered, sitting back to grab her bag and ignoring Nina while she dug something out of the bottom. “Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but here, look at this. You can use it if you want,” Zoe Mitchell offered with enthusiasm.
Nina had to admit the legal secretary didn’t seem like a kook, but her story of meeting the genie was obviously a joke and Nina was waiting for the punch line.
“That was me, a month ago,” Zoe announced proudly.
Nina took in the picture showing a grossly overweight version of the woman sitting across from her, and then looked up again.
“No way. Did you have that stomach-stapling surgery or something?”
“No. For one thing, I couldn’t have lost this much weight in a month, even with that, and besides, do you see one loose bit of skin anywhere?”
Nina had to admit, Zoe was the definition of a hard body. She shook her head in response to the question. Maybe the photo was older than Zoe was admitting to, though Zoe had been clever, holding up a newspaper with the date in her photo—could it had been a mock-up? Nina made a note to check the newspaper headlines for that date and compare them.
“My last wish was to be skinny and sexy, to have the perfect body, but I still wanted to be able to eat as much as I want of anything I want. The next day, I woke up and voilà!” she said, gesturing to a body that didn’t look like it could handle two giant burritos in a row, though it just had.
Nina thought this has to be a hook to lure the unsuspecting into a weight-loss scam of some sort. Zoe would probably head for the nearest ladies’ room to purge those burritos as soon as no one was looking. If she could uncover the scam, that was her story, which made her feel marginally better. Otherwise, she would be writing fiction about a woman who got three wishes granted. So, the most logical way to pressure this woman into hopefully exposing her scam was to play along and to make her provide more proof than a trumped-up picture if she wanted Nina to believe there were really genies at work. She wouldn’t be able to do that, which would be the first step in exposing the scam.
Settling back in, Nina nodded. “Okay, using the picture would be great, thanks. But for a cover story, I need more proof. I would need others, maybe people at your workplace, to attest that you lost this weight seemingly overnight. Most of all, I need an interview with the man himself, the genie.”
“Well, that’s not going to be possible,” Zoe said, her face falling.
“Why not?”
“He, Alec, said that other people don’t realize there’s been a change. They just see you as you are.”
Convenient, Nina thought, but kept a straight face.
“Okay, so where is he? Alec?”
“I don’t know where he is anymore. After my wish, he just disappeared, and so did the ring.”
“The ring you found while y
ou were swimming?”
Nina looked at her notes. Zoe said she had been doing laps in the community pool when onlookers shouted cruel things about her size. It had been one of the worst moments of her adult life, because though she enjoyed the exercise, she knew she couldn’t keep swimming and exposing herself to ridicule. Everything seemed hopeless, as she had tried diet after diet, with no success.
When she started to swim toward the ladder to exit the pool, she looked down and saw a gold ring at the bottom. She said she’d felt called by it, and swam down to retrieve it, even though she didn’t like going far underwater.
The next thing she knew, she was standing in front of a hottie in the locker room who was making wishes come true.
“Yes.”
“But you have no idea where he is now?”
“Nope. We’ve been trying to track him through the blog, hoping people would see and check in, but it’s been impossible to tell who’s jerking us around or not. Some people post that they have seen a genie, too, but they really haven’t,” she said, shrugging. “He just shows up when he wants to, I guess.”
“Did he ever try anything funny? Asking for money, sex or anything else?”
“No, nothing. He said he was there to grant my three wishes, and that’s all he did. But he did seem…I don’t know, kind of distant, and maybe even a little sad. He didn’t say much, to be honest. Hard to believe a guy that hot could be lonely, but you know, he never laid a hand on me. If I’d had a fourth wish, maybe…but as it is, I’m not having any trouble with men now,” Zoe said with a grin.
“I bet. And how do you think he picked you?” Nina asked.
“I have no idea, I’m just glad he did. It changed my life forever. I go on dates, I feel wonderful. I have sex. I have a life. You can believe it or not, but it’s real.”
With a nod, Nina shut off the tape recorder that sat on the table between them, knowing the last bit was very quotable, so at least that was something. She had Zoe sign the release form for the article and offered to mail the picture back once she was done with it. The woman waved her off.
“I never want to see that picture again. This is the new me, and I’d rather forget the past,” Zoe said with conviction, saying a quick goodbye and leaving as Nina paid the bill.
Doubts followed her out the door. Zoe seemed so normal, so sincere, but then the best con artists were very convincing, weren’t they? Still, Zoe hadn’t tried to sell her anything but the story, hadn’t tried to string her along for more.
Could the young woman be ill? Could that explain her sudden weight loss and her illusions of a handsome man who changed her life?
There had to be some rational explanation.
Nina stopped in her tracks by the edge of an alley where she heard a muffled noise. It was late May, and late in the afternoon the sun lay low. The alley was dim. Peering between the buildings, she tried to see if there was trouble, her phone in her hand in case she had to call 911.
The shuffling sound came again and she stepped forward carefully, hugging the brick wall behind her and trying to focus in the faint light. Her years as a reporter had taken her to worse spots. If someone was in trouble, she felt the need to find out and to help.
The noise got louder, and Nina jumped out of her skin as a small gray cat ran by her legs, scooting down the length of the alley and out to the street. Calming her heartbeat, she turned to leave, her eye catching something by her foot, glimmering in the low light.
A ring.
“Oh, come on,” she said, the sardonic comment echoing in the alley.
Bending down, she used her key to pluck the gold ring from between the cracks of the pavement, rubbing the dirt away and checking it out. She was no expert, but it was heavy and solid, probably real gold, and it looked as if it had been stuck in the ground for a while. Maybe stolen from some poor guy who’d been mugged on the street, or lost by someone having an assignation in the alley. No way could it be the same ring.
Slipping it in her pocket, Nina headed back out to the street and toward the T-Station, her fingers absently caressing the smooth band of gold all the way home.
LATER THAT NIGHT, Nina tried to work. But she’d been sitting at her laptop before the empty page for hours, completely unmotivated. Somehow she hadn’t pulled what she had on the genie story so far into any kind of coherent unit. She had no evidence of anything. Just some research, a picture and a few usable quotes. She needed much more.
The idea that she might lose this job for lack of being able to get an exclusive interview with a genie was absurd. Lindsay hadn’t threatened her with her job, not exactly, but her most recent e-mail regarding the story’s progress wasn’t encouraging. If she lost her position at The Scoop, there wasn’t anywhere left to go.
Standing and pacing for a few minutes in frustration, Nina stalked across the room and poured a glass of wine, proceeding to do exactly what she knew she shouldn’t do.
Reaching down to open a drawer under one of her side tables, she retrieved some old pictures that she and Peter had taken on their one trip together. Carrying the wine and the pictures back to her room, she plopped down among the pillows on her bed to try to remember what it was like to be very, truly happy. Satisfied with life, full of hope for the future, without a doubt it would all happen.
Now, there was nothing but doubt.
She’d sent Peter an e-mail when she got home, but there had been no response. She knew he was online, having seen him commenting over on Twitter, and yet he ignored her. Could Kaelee be right? Was she just being a romantic fool?
Her eyes blurred and burnt and she angrily wiped away tears.
“Dammit, I do have to stop this,” she said angrily to herself, wishing away the wave of self-pity, but finding it creeping up on her anyway.
Kaelee was right. Peter didn’t care about her anymore, and maybe he never really had, but what about how she felt? How was she supposed to stop loving him and mourning what she had lost?
Her eye landed upon the gold ring sitting on the bedside table and she reached for it, playing it between her fingers. It was a gorgeous ring, a symbol of everlasting commitment, but someone had lost it in an alley. Nina had put a classified online but sincerely doubted it would find its rightful owner.
She wondered about the person who’d lost it, if he had really loved anyone. If he was saddened by the loss, or had been happy to leave it lying in the dirt.
She finally gave in, realizing the phone wasn’t going to ring. Peter wasn’t going to answer her e-mail, and she had no story to hand in to Lindsay tomorrow. Sliding the ring on her finger, even though it was too large, she gave in to tears until she fell mercifully asleep.
Only to be shocked awake what felt like seconds—though the clock said hours—later.
Someone sat at the side of her bed. As she opened her mouth to scream, her mind racing to think of where she’d left her cell phone, he spoke in a calming tone.
“Don’t be afraid, I mean no harm. I’m the jinn you seek. I’m here to make your wishes come true.”
ALEC WATCHED THE LOVELY woman with riotous black curls framing a heart-shaped face that had turned pale upon discovering him sitting at her bedside. Sleep-laden brown eyes went wide as she drew back against the headboard, her full breasts pushing against the fabric of her pajamas as she strained to put some distance between them. The fabric was thick and practical, pants and a shirt that covered everything, and yet the simple impression of her nipples budding against the inside of the material stirred him.
As he looked at this woman, it was as if a thousand flames danced over his skin. He hadn’t experienced true desire in a very long time; the sudden spark took him somewhat by surprise. He moved to the side of the bed, leaning in closer.
“You sought me, did you not? You wear my ring.”
While watching her sleep, he’d slipped into her dreams, met her there and asked her what made her so sad, not that he needed to ask. When a jinn walked in someone’s dreams, he touched a part of
their soul, saw their secrets.
What he saw in Nina’s dreams made him feel things he didn’t often allow himself to feel. What was the point? As a jinn, a fire spirit who only existed to serve the needs and wishes of others, he and his kind were not meant for love.
Alec looked at Nina deeply, sliding to the side of the bed, watching her fear turn to curiosity, the knot of her fingers relaxing slightly where she clutched the blanket. He would be familiar to her, though she wouldn’t know exactly why. She wouldn’t remember—
“You’re from my dream,” she said suddenly, shocking his thoughts into silence and he watched understanding enter her eyes. “I’m still dreaming. Of course,” she said with no small measure of relief. “You’re Alec.”
She wasn’t dreaming, of course, but that she remembered him specifically was disturbing. Jinn were never seen, never remembered, unless they wanted to be.
“You’re not dreaming,” he said, laying his palm along the top of her thigh, sliding it upward. “Should I show you how real I am?”
She drew her leg away quickly. “Hey, stop that. This isn’t that kind of dream.”
“What if I changed how I look? Would you believe me then?”
With merely a thought, he remembered the image of the other man in her dreams, the one she longed for, and became him. Her lips parted as she watched him, her breath coming a little faster.
“Peter?” she whispered, and reached out her hand to touch his face.
Alec shuddered, the softness of the touch making him hard and needy within seconds. He was a spirit, but he took the presence of a real man—or any other shape he desired—and was able to feel, act and react like any other human. Right now, that fact tortured him as he ached to take the woman in front of him. It would be easy enough, he thought. She thought she was in a dream, and he knew a thousand ways to please her….
“I can be whoever you want me to be,” he said, leaning in, slipping his hand up underneath the soft fabric to caress the soft skin of her belly as he focused on her lips. Her tongue darted out, hungry for him, but right before he took her lips, she pushed him back.
Blazing Bedtime Stories, Volume IV Page 10