He leaned close and kissed her, tenderly at first, then with more passion. “I am a changed man because of your unselfish love. The gift you have given me of yourself is more precious than gold. I will value it, treasure it, for the rest of my days.”
“I’ve never had a man speak to me from his heart like that, Lugal. If you only knew how much your words meant to me. But even if you hadn’t said them, I would have known. Your every deed, your every gesture, the way you look at me and the way you treat me—all of that shows me how much you love me. I feel so very, very blessed.”
In between kisses and loving caresses, they spent the next moments sipping champagne, nibbling chocolates and reminiscing about their wondrous time together.
Samantha caught Lugal giving the clock on the nightstand a surreptitious glance. Her blood ran cold when she followed his gaze and noted the time. They had eight minutes left before midnight.
Dear God! Eight minutes!
“It is time, my beloved,” Lugal said, his expression bleak. “You must make your final wish now. It would break my heart if you did not make a third wish for yourself before I leave you. I-I hope you have considered my suggestion, Samantha. It would give me great relief to know that you will find happiness with a good man who will love you and treat you as you deserve.”
Samantha wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close for another kiss. “Let me feel you inside me one last time,” she said, tears running down her cheeks. “I want to be as close as we can possibly be until we have to part.”
“I would not have it any other way,” Lugal agreed.
Mindful of the saber at his side, Lugal parted the billowy fabric at his groin, revealing his cock. Samantha dragged her panties down far enough to open her thighs for Lugal.
They chorused an extended ahhhhh as their intimate flesh joined one last time.
“Now it’s my turn to tell you what my heart needs to say, Lugal,” she said, holding him close as they lay on their sides, facing each other. “You are such a remarkable man. The man every woman dreams of having in her life, in her bed. A man who’s strong, decisive and masterful, yet loving and romantic when the time is right.”
“Your words warm my heart, Samantha.”
“Shhh,” she pressed her fingertip to his lips. “There’s so little time and I have so much to say. You’ve given of yourself more than anyone else I’ve ever known. You’re the least selfish person I know—even to the point of wanting me to wish for another man for myself. You’ve gladly romped with Charlie and Rosie’s kids each time they’ve pestered you to play genie—even when you wanted to escape and romp with me between the sheets.” They both smiled at the recollection.
“You’ve taught yourself amazing new skills and abilities and have used them tirelessly to help me and others. You’ve worked your fingers to the bone, pouring your heart and soul into Beyond the Scale—making yourself indispensable to the business in the process. Good Lord how those women love you, Lugal.” She chuckled through her trickling tears.
Samantha glanced at the clock and shivered. Lugal held her closer.
“Before I make this final wish, Lugal, you need to know that you have changed my life forever. I was merely existing before you came into my life. In these six months with you, I’ve lived an entire lifetime. I love you with every fiber of my being, my darling. I love you more than life itself. Promise me you’ll always remember that.” Her tears flowed now.
“I will, my sweet.” Lugal kissed away her tears. “And I feel the same for you.”
“I know.” She smiled. “The wish I make tonight comes from the depths of my heart and soul. Know that I’ve thought it out well, Lugal. You must never, ever blame yourself for what I have chosen to do.”
“Blame?” He gave her a curious look. “Samantha…what is this you speak of? I do not understand.”
“You so richly deserve life, my love.” She smoothed her hand over his cheek. “You must go on living in this world and this new time and find yourself another woman. A woman who will love you as much as I do and who will bear your children.” She smiled. “Your own little goats.”
Clearly alarmed and confused, Lugal shook her. “Samantha, what—”
She held her finger to his lips again. “Goodbye my dearest heart, my sweet, beloved genie.” With a shuddering breath, Samantha kissed his lips softly, tasting him for the last time. “For my third and final official wish, I wish to take Lugal’s place in servitude so he can be free forever more.”
Lugal’s eyes widened. “Samantha, no!” he roared.
But it was too late.
As soon as the words left her lips, Samantha was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Pain such as he’d never known tore through Lugal as he clutched at empty air, the bedspread, sheets and the bed curtains.
“Samantha! Come back.” He rifled through the pillows, hurling them to the floor as he looked beneath them. “You do not understand the fate you have chosen. I cannot bear to think of you existing in the dark realm of nothingness.”
He got to his feet and paced, raking his fingers through his hair, growling Sumerian oaths.
“Gods and goddesses,” he cried out, looking to the heavens, “I beseech you, I implore you, let me take Samantha’s place. She has committed no wrong. It is I,” he pounded his chest, “I who should be incarcerated, not her! Return me to the bottle and set Samantha free!”
The room was deadly silent.
“Hear me, Inanna. Hear my worthy plea! Imprison me, torture me, kill me, do whatever with me that pleases your cold, fearsome soul, but return Samantha’s life to her. Set her free, O great Inanna!”
Silence.
Lugal’s anguished cries had gone unheeded, and for the first time since he could remember, tears flowed down his cheeks.
“Damn you, Samantha!” he bellowed, his hands balled into fists. “Damn you for doing this to yourself—to me!”
Crazed and tortured with grief, Lugal felt entirely powerless. “Didn’t you realize, my love, that my life here would have no meaning without you?” His voice caught on a sob and he snorted with anger. “There, you see what has become of me? You see how I weep like a babe?” He continued his wild pacing.
“This pain, Samantha,” he shouted upward, shaking his fist, “this pain far exceeds any gash from a foe’s saber. My insides are dying. My heart is bleeding. My soul is crushed. See what you have done!”
Lugal stood still and his shoulders slumped. “She cannot hear me,” he muttered. “She exists in a void where there is no sound, no sight, no sensation—except eternal heart pain and grief.” Remembering the utter desolation of the bottle, he held his hands to his eyes and howled out his rage.
He couldn’t bear thinking of Samantha trapped in that bleak, forbidding existence.
His chest heaved. His beloved had made the ultimate sacrifice for him. It was so like Samantha to put his needs first. Why didn’t he realize what she was about to do and stop her? He should have known. He should have known! He would have done something, anything, to keep her from making this lethal choice.
Lugal glanced around the room, feeling at a total loss. “Look at me,” he said, catching his reflection in the full length mirror. “Warrior. Leader of armies. Hah! I am as helpless as a newborn babe.” He plowed his hand through his hair, growling. “What do I do? Where do I go? Who is there to help—”
He spotted Samantha’s purse on one of the chairs and ran for it, retrieving her cell phone. He hit the speed dial and a moment later heard Rosie’s voice.
“Sam! Oh honey, we’ve been waiting for your call. Are you all right? No, of course you’re not. Do you want us to come over? Oh, for heaven’s sake, of course you do. We’ll be there in—”
“Rosie, it is I, Lugal.”
“Lugal!?” She made an audible gasp. “Oh my God, it’s after midnight and you’re still here. What happened, did you manage to break the curse? Oh this is so exciting! Let me talk to Sam.”
&n
bsp; “She is not here.”
“What do you mean she’s not there? Oh, she must be downstairs getting ice cream and chocolate to celebrate, huh?” Rosie laughed.
“Rosie, please, you must stop babbling and listen to me. Samantha is gone. Her final wish was to take my place in servitude so I could be free. As soon as the wish left her lips she disappeared.”
There was dead stillness on the other end of the line.
“Rosie? Rosie, did you hear me?”
“My God…oh my God…that’s what the whole partnership thing was about… Oh no…no…”
Lugal heard the wrenching sounds of Rosie sobbing, then Charlie came on the line.
“Lugal, what’s going on?”
Lugal repeated what he’d told Rosie.
“I do not know what to do, Charlie. Can you help me? I must somehow find a way to contact Inanna.”
“We’ll be right over. Samantha told Rosie we’d be needed after she made her final wish, so we left the kids with their grandparents overnight. Jesus, I had no idea she meant you’d be the one needing us. I’ll bring the latest set of incantations with me.”
“Latest set?”
Charlie gave a little chuckle. “Ah yes, I forgot, you don’t know about that. Samantha, my wife and I have been doing our best to conjure Inanna behind your back for the last three months.”
Lugal smiled. “That is just like my Samantha.” Saying her name ripped a new tear in his shredded heart. “Come quickly, my friend.”
———
Bunny Turner yawned and set down her romance novel. She glanced at the clock. Just after midnight. As she reached over to turn off her bedside lamp, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
Sitting up in her bed, she blinked and then her jaw dropped as she watched a faintly lavender-hued vapor waft across the room. She would have been scared witless it she hadn’t overheard the conversation about Lugal being a genie.
Her gaze followed the vapor to the mouth of the ancient bottle and, as if being sucked inside, it quickly disappeared into its depths. The bottle’s stopper rose from the box unaided, seating itself.
“Sonuvabitch, this is it,” Bunny breathed. “I have my genie!”
She grabbed the bottle, ready to pull out the stopper, then paused. Setting it down again, she zipped to the mirror, checking her hair and makeup. She’d been wearing makeup every night, in case Lugal came to her. She wanted to look her most alluring when she welcomed her hunky new love slave into her bed.
Thanks to plastic surgery, she didn’t have to rely on her old pushup bras to enhance her breasts. No, the girls stood out at attention, even better than they had when she’d been twenty. The heart-shaped neckline of her petal-pink silk negligee showed her firm nipples to their best advantage.
“I’ll have him forgetting Sam Rutledge’s name in less than thirty seconds,” she cooed at her reflection. “In fact, I’ll demand he forget everything about that fat little bitch.” She laughed at that. The anticipated power was already making her heady.
She still wasn’t sure about the wishes. How could she decide? She’d been trying to word the wishes to be more universal, with each wish encompassing numerous wants.
For instance, I wish to be the richest, most powerful woman in the world with more jewels and furs and palatial property, fancy cars and yachts—including a stable of gorgeous, muscled young men to be at my beck and call—than anyone else has ever had or ever will have.
Wish number two could be used to get revenge on every rotten bitch or bastard who’d ever done her wrong. Bunny hadn’t concocted the appropriate wording for that one yet. It was going to take some time to decide on some significantly harsh comeuppance for those who deserved it. Of course, Sam Rutledge would have her very own, unique little place in Hell for what she’d done to Bunny and TBT.
As for wish number three, eternally perfect health, eternal youth and beauty, accompanied by eternal life ought to do the trick.
Not one prone to giddiness, Bunny was surprised when the desire to giggle wildly gripped her. Of course, she couldn’t do anything so buffoonish, especially since Lugal might be able to hear her through that bottle of his. No, girlish buffoonery was Sam’s specialty.
Just thinking about Lugal made her pussy heat. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been with a man who made her cunt spasm just from looking at him. Jesus Fucking Christ, that man was hot!
She didn’t know what excited her more, making that first wish or commanding him to fuck her senseless.
Slipping into her high-heeled, poof-topped satin slippers, Bunny returned to her bed, picked up the bottle and pulled out the stopper.
“Genie, come forth,” she commanded. “It is I, Bunny Turner, your new owner. Come forth and do my bidding, genie.”
Before the last words were out of her mouth, the lavender-hued vapor rose from the bottle. Bunny suppressed another wild urge to giggle as she watched the smoky mist journey to the plush carpet where it stood…a lot shorter than she would have thought.
Slowly the vapor took form. Eyes wide, Bunny watched it morph into the shape of…
“Sam!” she screeched, taking a few steps back. “What the fuck are you doing here? Where’s Lugal? Goddammit, where’s my genie?”
“Oh God, it was awful in there.” Sam shuddered, rubbing the goose bumps from her arms. “Cold. Total blackness, such loneliness…”
Bunny noted with irritation that Sam seemed to be talking more to herself than to Bunny.
“I was semi-conscious, in a sort of hypnotic sleep state, but I couldn’t move or even see my hand in front of my face—if I’d been able to place it there… Terrible.” She rubbed her arms again.
Bunny folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Spare me the sob story, Sam, and answer my question. Where’s my genie?!”
Sam took in a deep breath, expelling it slowly. “I am at your command,” she said, looking none too happy about it.
Her face was wet with what appeared to be tears. At least that’s what Bunny surmised because Sam’s eyes, nose and cheeks were all red and blotchy.
“To give you pleasure,” Sam continued unenthusiastically. “To act upon your every urge.”
“Whoa! Wait a minute,” Bunny said. “I don’t get it. You’re the genie, not Lugal? But I thought—”
“We traded places,” Sam told her. And for the first time since she’d wafted from the bottle, she grinned. “Surprise, Bunny!”
“Traded places. What are you talking about? How? Why on earth would you do something like that?”
Sam smiled. It was one of those pitying smiles Bunny detested. “You’d never understand, Bunny. Not in a million years. In any case, it looks like you won’t be fucking Lugal tonight. And I hope to God I’m not your type.” Sam shuddered.
“Hardly.” Bunny stood arms akimbo, glaring at Sam. “I still get my three wishes, don’t I?”
“Yes. When we traded places, all of Lugal’s powers and the rules he operated by shifted to me.”
“How can you be sure?” Bunny’s gaze narrowed. “I don’t want to get skunked on this deal. I want my three godamned wishes.”
“It’s a sense of knowing that I have inside,” Sam replied. “Even though you’re a lying thief, a bitch and a selfish, money-grubbing phony, I’m still bound to grant your wishes.” She gave a smug smile.
Bunny laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Sam asked.
“Before you popped out of that bottle I was trying to decide whether I’d fuck Lugal or make a wish first. I guess that dilemma has been solved. Of course…I suppose I can always command you to bring him to me. I can do that, right?”
There was that grin of Sam’s again. “Nope. Sorry. I have to obey your commands, but that doesn’t include making people do things against their will.”
“Oh, I doubt it would be against his will.” Bunny shifted her position, thrusting out her breasts. “Not now that he’s free of you.”
“I wouldn’t be t
oo sure about that, Bunny.”
Bunny scowled at her. “I want you to call me Master.”
“That’s the masculine form. Wouldn’t you prefer Mistress?”
“Master has a more powerful ring to it.”
Sam shrugged. “Master it is.”
Bunny gave a sly grin. “Bark like a dog.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I command you to bark like a dog.”
Sam promptly obeyed, sounding like a sick Chihuahua.
“Now hop on one foot and caw like a crow.”
“Bunny—”
“Master. No, wait…I changed my mind. I want you to call me Most Beautiful and Powerful Master. Let me hear you say it.”
“Oh for chrissakes.” Sam hopped on one foot. “Most Beautiful and Powerful Master.” She cawed like a crow.
“Excellent. Now say, I’m a big fat disgusting pig—and keep hopping.”
“Oh that’s easy.” Sam laughed. “You’re a big fat disgusting pig.”
“Not me, you fat bitch, you! Do it. I command you!”
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m a big fat disgusting pig.”
Bunny clapped her hands, finally letting out the giggle she’d been suppressing.
“Granted, it’s not as much fun as fucking Lugal,” Bunny noted, “but this should keep me occupied for a while. Besides,” she said to the still hopping Sam, “you need the exercise, chubbo.” She watched Sam for a moment.
“Okay, that’s enough hopping. Get into the bathroom.” Bunny gestured to the right. As soon as Sam turned, Bunny gave her a good swift kick in the ass.
“Hey!”
“Hey what?”
Sam groaned. “Hey, Most Beautiful and Powerful Master.”
“You’re my property. I can treat you any way I want, can’t I?”
“Yes, Most Beautiful and Powerful Master,” Sam mumbled.
They walked into the bathroom and Bunny opened a drawer. “Here’s a toothbrush. There’s a bucket and cleaners in that cabinet. Scrub every nook and cranny of this room, including the toilet.”
Samantha and Her Genie Page 35