djinn wars 04 - broken (36 page)
Read djinn wars 04 - broken Online
Authors: christine pope
After, he held her close, lips pressed against her hair. It felt so good to be together like this, to have the heat of his naked body flowing into her own flesh as they lay there next to one another, hip to hip, leg to leg. At last, though, she knew she needed to go get herself cleaned up. So she squeezed his hand before gently slipping off the bed and going to the
en suite
bathroom, where she performed a quick toilette, washing the last traces of their intimacy away, and then splashing some water on her face.
When she returned to the bedroom, Zahrias was sitting with the covers pulled up around his waist. God, what arms and chest that man had. Julia knew she could probably spend hours staring at every muscle, every shadow of the tautly defined six-pack of his abs.
Tempting as that prospect was, however, she knew they still had some unfinished business to take care of. She found her discarded panties on the floor and pulled them on, then shrugged her T-shirt over her head, although she didn’t bother with putting on the bra. As she picked up her jeans, Zahrias spoke.
“I have noticed that most of you wear those sorts of trousers. Are they really that comfortable? Perhaps I should try some.”
The thought of Zahrias walking around in Santa Fe while wearing a pair of Levi’s was so incongruous that Julia wanted to chuckle. Then again, she contemplated what a pair of nicely worn 501s might do for his muscular legs and slim hips, and decided maybe a chuckle wasn’t the best response.
“Possibly,” she hedged. “What do you think your djinn would do if they saw their leader dressed like one of us mere mortals?”
“Considering that half my people appear to have already adopted your form of dress, perhaps they would only think it was about time.”
True enough. Come to think of it, she’d never seen Jace in anything except jeans and work shirts and motorcycle boots. Maybe he thought the djinn clothing was too impractical for milking goats or whatever.
“Well, we can figure that out later,” she said. “In the meantime….” After picking up Zahrias’ billowy silk trousers, she handed them to him.
With a resigned air, he pushed back the covers and climbed into his pants. Julia thought she did a pretty good job of not staring before he was covered up, but a warm flicker in his eyes told her she wasn’t fooling anyone.
Still, he didn’t say anything as he also gathered up his discarded robe, then headed back to the living room. Once there, he extended Julia’s half-drunk glass of wine to her, and she took it gratefully. He then picked up his own glass and sat down on the couch.
It was hard to concentrate with him so close to her. She wanted to down her wine and go for a three-peat right there on the sofa, but she knew they’d have plenty of time for that later.
All the time in the world, in fact.
A decent-sized swallow of wine helped a little to get her racing thoughts in order. “So….”
One of his eyebrows lifted. “So….”
“I think I’m going to like it here in Santa Fe,” she said, and he smiled. “But there’s still Los Alamos.”
“True,” Zahrias agreed. “Do you have a plan?”
Did she? More like an idea. “At first I thought of Miles, since people do sort of look up to him, despite his faults. But then I knew that would never work. He needs to be able to focus on his research. Besides, he has about the worst interpersonal skills of anyone I’ve ever met.”
Zahrias chuckled, and she couldn’t help grinning in response.
“And then I realized I shouldn’t be appointing anyone. Los Alamos — it’s like the last piece of America, you know?”
It seemed he didn’t know, because his brows drew together in a faint frown. “Forgive me, but wasn’t all of this land part of America?”
“Yes, but the djinn control everything else now, don’t they? Los Alamos is the only place where it’s just regular people, the last Americans, really. And the American thing for them to do is vote for who they want to lead them. It shouldn’t be my decision. It shouldn’t be any one person’s decision. They can all decide together what’s best for them. Does that make any sense?”
For a long moment, Zahrias was silent as he seemed to consider what she had just told him. Then he nodded. “I think this would be a good thing. Margolis wanted to make himself a despot, but that was not how your people did things, and so he doomed himself to failure. I do see how giving them the power to make their own choice will allow the people of Los Alamos to understand that they are also an important part of this new world. Different from us here in Santa Fe, but no less important.”
Had she ever loved him more than she did right then? Julia set down her wine glass so she could lean forward and kiss him. His lips warmed against hers, and she knew that the three-peat she’d been fantasizing about probably wasn’t too far off.
But then he pulled away slightly, dark eyes scanning her face. “And it is important to you as well. I can see that. I hope our two communities will continue to work together. Perhaps one day….”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but Julia thought she knew what he was thinking. Maybe a day would come when the people from the two towns would be able to mingle freely. It wouldn’t matter who was mortal or djinn or Chosen, because they were all working together toward the same future, one where their children could safely grow up in this forever changed world of theirs.
“That day will come,” she said firmly, then took his hand and held it, felt the encouraging warmth of his fingers.
“And we can begin working on it right now.”
The End
The Djinn Wars will continue with Qadim’s story in
Forsaken,
due out in late spring 2016.
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Also by Christine Pope
THE WITCHES OF CLEOPATRA HILL
(Paranormal Romance)
The first three books of this series are also available in an
omnibus edition
at a special low price!
THE DJINN WARS
(Paranormal Romance)
THE SEDONA FILES
(Paranormal Romance)
The first three books of this series are also available in an
omnibus edition
at a special low price!
TALES OF THE LATTER KINGDOMS
(Fantasy Romance)
THE GAIAN CONSORTIUM SERIES
(Science Fiction Romance)
The three Zhore books (
Breath of Life, The Mandala Maneuver,
and
The Zhore Deception
) are also available in a
specially priced boxed set
!
About the Author
Christine Pope has been writing stories ever since she commandeered her family’s Smith-Corona typewriter back in the sixth grade. Her work includes paranormal romance, fantasy romance, and science fiction/space opera romance. She fell in love with Sedona, Arizona, while researching the Sedona Files series and now makes her home there, surrounded by the red rocks. No alien sightings, though...not yet, anyway!
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