Jinni's Wish-kobo

by Marie Hall

  “Oh my god, are you real?” she whispered.

  She’d recognized him? He’d feared she might not. Tristan didn’t overtly resemble him.

  She was shaking.

  “Paz,” he whispered and then her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell ungracefully in a heap to the floor.

  ***

  Soft cooing words of love and devotion were whispered in her ear. Paz shivered at the warm touch of a hand. His hand.

  “Oh my god!” She sat and stared into his eyes. “Is it you? Really you?”

  They were in her home, on her couch and the face was all wrong. Beautiful, but wrong. But the eyes, the eyes were full of tears and light and love and she knew. She threw her arms around his neck and cried, venting a year’s worth of pain and agony, crying and staining his shirt until there were no more tears left.

  He held her and never tried to turn away, even though he must be uncomfortably wet by this point. Finally, trusting herself to speak and not blubber like an idiot, she pulled away. Not enough to get out of his arms, she never wanted to be out of his arms again.

  “Jinni, how… I don’t…”

  He placed his finger on her lips. “I’ve dreamed of this for a year, Paz. What I would say, how I would say it,” his voice was deep, throaty and lyrical. Slightly different than the one she’d grown used to; this one was richer, like a shot of amber whiskey. “And now I’m here and I do not remember any of it.”

  She laughed, it felt so good. For over a year, she’d lived. Breathed. Ate. Painted. But hadn’t laughed.

  It’d been so obvious that she was depressed, even Richard had stopped commenting on it. He’d gone from cracking jokes and giving her hugs, to casting worried glances in her direction. She was sure he’d planned an intervention at some point, but she’d always assured him that it was just going to take some time to heal.

  And that’d been true. But not in the way he’d expected. Living without Jinni had been harder than she’d expected. Any time a good-looking man had cast a glance or smile her way all she could do was frown and think how imperfect it was.

  She’d holed herself up in her studio and painted. Her art had morphed from something light and pretty to dark and mysterious. The brooding artist had lent her an air of mystique and suddenly she’d begun selling paintings hand over fist.

  Paz gripped his face, tracing the lines of his hard jaw, the planes of his wide mouth, familiarizing herself with a body she didn’t know. “So what now?” she whispered.

  “We get to know each other.”

  “I’m all for that,” she agreed. “Do you have a place to stay? Do you live any--”

  He chuckled and man was that sound a whole lot of awesome. Dark and rich, and made her stomach tighten and her heart beat fast. “I stayed at a motel on Danika’s dime until I was cleared medically and then took a bus here.”

  “From Alaska?”

  He shuddered. “Gods it was ghastly.”

  She giggled. “Poor baby.”

  He rested his head against hers and breathed deeply, sharing breath, making her remember all the times they’d done this before. “I missed you, Paz. Every day and every second in it, I ached to hold you. I was so scared you wouldn’t remember me. So scared you’d find this form displeasing.”

  She frowned. “Displeasing?” Paz stood and held her hand out to him. “I’ll need to rest some of my weight on your arm, but I want to show you something.”

  He held his arm out for her. “Where are you taking me?” he asked as she led him down the hall to bedroom she’d converted into her private studio. Each step was painful, her hips had broken in six places, making the healing long and slow and tedious.

  The doctors assured her eventually even the limp would go away, but it could take years.

  They got to the end of the hall and she turned the knob. “I’ve sold over two hundred paintings this year.” Steeling herself, she opened the door and led him inside.

  Jinni inhaled as his eyes took in the canvas’ covering every square inch of wall and floor. Some were of the stars, a galaxy of them, spun silver in a sea of pink and black. Others were of a lush kingdom far, far away. But all of them held the face of a man she’d fallen madly and deeply in love with. A ghostly image of Jinni staring out of the canvas, keeping her company, always on her mind and in her heart.

  He turned to her. “Paz, I--”

  “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 penthou
se 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…

  Sneak Peek: Hook’s Pan

  Chapter 1

  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.