Blazing Bedtime Stories, Volume IV
Page 17
“I’ll be back,” he told her and leaned in, pressing his lips to hers. “You still have a wish left. One,” he reminded her.
She smiled. “I know.”
Then he was gone, and she turned to face Lindsay.
“You’re going to be fine. It’s all over now,” she said coldly, unable to muster any sympathy. Nina undid her chains and helped her stand. Lindsay lifted a hand to her head.
“How did I get hurt?”
“You don’t remember?”
“I don’t remember anything about this.” Lindsay looked at her, blood emptying from her face as she sagged a little, and Nina caught her, before she slipped to the floor.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re fine now.”
NINA PACED THE LIVING ROOM of her home, tense and wired.
It was over now, twenty-four hours later, and all she wanted was to have Alec back here.
No sooner had she thought it and he was there, a solid male wall of muscle that she walked directly into on her next traverse of the room.
“Oh!” she said, planting her hands on his chest. “You’re here.”
He smiled down. “Yes. I’m back. With you.”
He dipped down, capturing her mouth in a hot kiss, and she was trembling before he let her go. “You came for me. You saved me and Joe. I made sure the powers that be know the story.”
“Oh. Who are the powers that be?”
He shrugged with a grin. “They are who they are.”
She rolled her eyes, then became serious again. “You took everything she knew about the jinn, didn’t you?”
His mouth, which had moved over hers so sensually just moments before, hardened to a flat line.
“I had to. She had been doing this for a long time, researching jinn since she was a young woman, trapping them for over a decade. She’d first learned about them through research her parents had done. Knowledge of them was woven into every level of her existence, and she’d used them…for everything. Even if she comes across the topic again, it won’t register or stay with her. Ever.”
Nina frowned, saddened by all that had been lost.
“Shh,” he said, rubbing his thumb lightly over her lips and raining gentle kisses on her face. “It’s done now. It’s in the past.”
Just being next to him kindled little fires from head to toe. The darkness that had hovered over her all day seemed to lift as his arms came around her, picking her up and taking her to bed. There his lips finally found hers, plundering like a desperate, hungry man who’d been away from his lover too long.
Or who planned on being away from her for a very long time to come.
Though she was breathless, and it was hard not to be distracted by the hardness that he was pressing into the V of her body, she broke the kiss and settled her forehead against his.
“Alec?”
“Yes, my love?” He responded while nibbling on her ear in a most delectable way.
“I know what I want for my third wish.”
He stilled beneath her hands, silent, his surprise settling like a chill between them.
“Of course,” he said stiffly. “All you need to do is ask.”
She smiled, her heart hammering in her chest as she made him look at her, saw the emotions that tore him apart reflected in his eyes. There was pain etched into the regal planes of his handsome face. He really did love her. She leaned in to kiss him.
“My wish is that you should have your heart’s desire…that whatever you would wish for, you should have it. I’m giving my last wish to you, Alec, to do with as you please.”
Tears filled her eyes as she saw the shock in his expression, her heart full of joy. His fingers trembled slightly as he drifted them tenderly over her cheek, his voice rough.
“This cannot be undone, Nina. To bequeath a wish…it is almost never done.”
“I love you, Alec. All I want is for you to be happy, for you to have whatever you wish for.”
He set her down, the two of them standing close together, his hands on her shoulders. His expression was so solemn, so intense, that Nina almost worried that he would refuse her. What if she had guessed wrong? What if the wish didn’t turn out right? What if he didn’t want what—
“Nina, I wish for nothing more than to live a mortal life with the woman I love…with you. You are my heart’s desire, and I wish to spend all of my remaining human years with you,” he said the words like a vow, and something shimmered slightly between them. A golden haze of sparks wrapped around them both and then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
He looked down at her. “It is done, and cannot be undone. I am only a man now.” The uncertainty in his eyes moved her deeply. “I dearly hope that this is what you wanted, my love…”
Pushing up on tiptoe, she pulled him down to kiss him passionately, letting tears flow freely.
Alec was hers. He was real, he was human, and he wanted to be with her.
“You’re all I ever wanted, Alec—more than I ever could have wished for,” she said against his mouth. Her hands drifted over him, finding him hard, his breathing urgent. His hands covered her breasts, pushing her shirt up, momentarily struggling with the clasp on her bra as they laughed together over this minute clumsiness.
“I’ve never had to do this without magic before,” he admitted a little bashfully, finally releasing her from the bra. She watched him intently as he took great pleasure in removing the rest of her clothes with his hands instead of just blinking them away.
She did the same for him, kissing every inch of exposed flesh as she did so, immensely happy about the incredible responsiveness of his body to her touch.
“I feel…more. I never imagined that I could feel more as a man,” he said in wonder. “Without magic, I didn’t know what to expect, but it’s as if everything has come alive. It’s all rich and real, and amazingly alive.” He spoke with a deep, sexy laugh, catching her up close to him, every inch of their bodies pressed together, as if he couldn’t get enough.
She smiled through the kisses, her heart full. They sought each other in the most humanly intimate way possible, falling back to the bed. As their bodies and hearts joined, no more words were necessary as all of their wishes came true.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4976-3
BLAZING BEDTIME STORIES, VOLUME IV
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
CUPID’S BITE
Copyright © 2010 by Kimberly Groff.
I WISH HE MIGHT…
Copyright © 2010 by Samantha Hunter.
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