Genie Knows Best (25 page)

“Get back! Leave me alone! Toss them in cages! How dare they attack me! Genie, get me out of here!”

Kharah
! The latter was the one thing Kal didn’t want Albert to wish.

Although, technically, Albert
hadn’t
wished it. Samantha could complain about semantics all she wanted, but in this instance, they were a godssend.

“Genie! Did you hear me? I said to get me out of here!”

With two centaurs between them, a gnome hanging on to one centaur’s ears and cursing in Bavarian, and a clump of dirt landing on the other’s forehead with a giant
thud
and splatter, Kal shook his head as if he
couldn’t
hear, which was what Albert would think, but which, in reality, was his answer to the “get me out of here” part. He couldn’t take Albert anywhere until the guy wished for it.

Should have listened to the rules.

The island shuddered and everyone scrambled on top of each other more. The gnomes were the best at it, forming pyramids on the centaurs’ shoulders, the trolls’ flat heads, and even Harv’s antlers. The birds took off with no magical nudging from Kal, and the
peris
disappeared en masse with one gust of wind. But the rest were stuck on a sinking island.

Kal monitored the crowd. He only had to act if Albert was in danger, and so far, the
ibn
el-kalb
was only inconvenienced.

“You enjoying this?” Harv
oophed
when a gnome’s foot landed in his eye.

“It has its moments.” One being when O’Toole went to bop Seamus on the head with the shillelagh and conked Albert instead.

Kal would have to check The Code to see if that constituted danger. He’d look into it tomorrow.

“Son of a bitch!” Albert hollered.

This time O’Toole hit him on purpose. One didn’t insult a leprechaun’s mother without risking the consequences.

“Any plans to fix this anytime soon?” asked Harv.

“Fix what?”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Harv flung his head and the gnome went flying.

Kal looked around, trying to see where Samantha had gone. The water was only shin high on the land surrounding the dais, so she should be able to get back to the carpet before there was any real danger.

But what was she doing here in the first place? He’d sent her away to keep her safe. He had enough on his plate, what with not knowing where the amulet and his lantern were; he didn’t need to worry about her, too.

Not that he had a choice. Master or not, Sam was always going to be on his mind.

***

Samantha ducked behind the stupid gilded throne Albert had had to have. She had no doubt he’d wished it; he’d joked about getting a matching set for the dining room once they were married.

He hadn’t been joking.

He could kiss those days good-bye—just like he could kiss the amulet good-bye. And Kal’s lantern, too.

She tightened her fist around both. Thank God Kal had figured out her plan. Thank God Albert was so transparently greedy. Thank God the gnomes and leprechauns were so predictable.

She’d been counting on their propensity for creating chaos. The rest of the townspeople, too. The perfect cover to reach in and snatch back what was rightfully hers. Albert had been so caught up in the prospect of getting hurt that he hadn’t noticed her circling around behind him. When the masses had climbed onto the platform, it had been easy enough to jostle him and steal both pieces.

She strung the necklace over her head and tucked it beneath her shirt. Torn and dirty in spots, her shirt was still the best hiding place she had. The amulet was a bit tougher to conceal, and in the end, Samantha decided to keep it in her hand, wishing all the while that she could somehow get it to Kal.

Wait a minute… She knew how to do that. Placing the amulet over her heart, she whispered, “I wish it would take me to Kal.”

Unfortunately, Kal was standing right next to Albert when she transported there.

“You!” the slimy lizard-breath screeched the second he saw her. He lunged the next second, his aim going right for the amulet.

Samantha jerked out of the way and the necklaces swung free, practically hitting Kal in the face. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him smile so big.

“Sam! You have my lantern! You’re my master again!”

She hadn’t made that connection yet, but the minute he said it, she did. And she knew just what to do.

“Kal, I wish you’d turn Albert into a lizard!”

After all, it was only fitting.

The water damage was negligible, and the island returned to its normal height in the river once Samantha wished the majority of townsfolk back to their homes.

She took a few minutes to give Bart and Maille a piece of her mind about the importance of parents being there for their children and putting their family back together before wishing them back to their winged and scaly state. Then she kissed Dirham on the head and shook Lexy’s paw and wished them off to a well-deserved vacation in the Himalayas to visit with some distant relatives.

She just laughed at Harv when he put the moves on her yet again, and as for the lizard Albert had become, well, she let him see how much fun it
wasn’t
being holed up in a cage. She gave the cage Kal conjured to Stavros, figuring it was as much a prison as any the satyr could keep him in.

That left just her and Kal. Alone on the island amid a dusting of orange glitter, with the amulet and the lantern and all the privacy they could want.

“We did it!” She threw herself into his arms. “You understood what I was trying to tell you!”

Kal hugged her. “And you got the amulet
and
the lantern! Have I ever told you how brilliant you are? That was sheer genius.”

“Just call me Einstein.” Albert could stick that in his craw and munch on it.

With his tiny little pointed lizard teeth.

“Not Einstein,” said Kal, threading his fingers through her curls. “Your hair is prettier.”

“Okay, then how about Plato?”

Kal shook his head, his gaze on a curl he was tugging on. “He had too much facial hair.”

“Socrates?”

“Too old.”

“Da Vinci?”

“Too bizarre. He talked to himself all the time. Probably because he was the only one who could hold an intelligent enough conversation with him, but still… His social skills weren’t up to par.”

Samantha looked at him. “Tell me you didn’t know them personally.”

“Is that a wish?”

She smacked his arm. “Seriously. Did you know them?”

Kal shrugged. “Sam, the past isn’t important. It’s the here and now that is. And I can honestly say that I’m very happy with where and when I am.”

Not quite what Berosus had said, but she really didn’t want to think about the Oracle and his word problems right now.

She tucked the amulet into Kal’s pants pocket, linked her hands around his waist, and looked up at him. “I like where you are now, too.”

And just like that, the moment changed. No teasing now, no word games. No double meanings. Just, raw, honest,
real
desire.

“Kal, I’d like you to kiss me.” Couldn’t be any more honest than that.

He tilted her chin up with a crooked finger. “That’s right, Sam. You don’t have to make it a wish. I’ll gladly do it without you wishing me to.”

“Then do it.”

He did.

Oh how he did.

Cradling her head in both of his hands, stepping closer until there wasn’t room for air to wisp between them, Kal claimed her lips with the softest, sexiest, most compelling kiss yet. It spoke so much of want and need and admiration and desire and caring and longing that it took Samantha a few minutes to realize she no longer had her feet on the ground.

Kal had kissed them right out from under her.

They were flying again. On the gold carpet, hovering just above the ground, the movement so ethereal it was as if she were walking on air. Actually, with Kal kissing her like this, she could have been.

He tucked her against his chest, and she could hear the beating of his heart beneath her ear. Hers matched its rhythm, and she couldn’t stop the words.

“Kal, I want you.” No wish this time.

She felt him swallow. Heard the breath
whoosh
from his body. Felt his arms tighten around her. Felt him harden against her.

“I want you, too, Sam.”

He kissed her again, and her stomach fluttered when his tongue slid between her lips.

Or maybe that was because the carpet went soaring over the tops of the reeds, then coasted down behind them as if they were surfing a wave, all the tummy-swirling turbulence mimicked in the feelings evoked by his kiss.

They flew over a starlit field of lavender, and still Kal kissed her. She had a momentary thought about flying blind, but then Kal changed the angle of his lips and the worry flew off with the wind rushing behind them.

She could finally come up for air (not that she was complaining) when the carpet landed on the far side of the island in front of a grove of fruit trees. Sweet-smelling honeysuckle and wisteria braided the trunks like garland, their teacup-sized flowers blossoming in controlled chaos like an artfully messy hairstyle, wisps here, tendrils there. Some kind of fluorescent vine draped through the banana trees, ringing the grove about two stories up, and provided a soft white glow like Christmas lights around a porch.

Mushrooms in various shapes and sizes dotted a clearing that had a stone circle filled with glowing orange rocks at its center. Off to the side, a round, thatched hut was nestled between the overhanging branches of a weeping cherry tree and a moss-covered hill. A thin ribbon of water cascaded from the hill and formed an intimate pool with pale blue light rippling up from the bottom. Neon moths fluttered along the banks, and a flock of fireflies formed figure eights over the center, then zipped up over the roof of the hut, playing tag with each other, their lighted tails like a comet of rainbows.

“Oh, Kal, what is this place? It’s perfect. Paradise.”

Kal waved his fingers, and the flying carpet rolled itself into a compact roll. He set it beside a cluster of rocks and picked a bouquet of white forget-me-nots that he handed to her. “
Now
it’s paradise.”

As if she’d forget him.

Kal captured her fingers with his when she reached for the flowers whose fragrances were a mixture of tart apple and something she couldn’t name. Exotic. Otherworldly. Like here. Except… this didn’t feel otherworldly. It felt right.

It felt like home.

Funny how, now that she had the means to return home, all she could think was that home was where Kal was.

***

She was beautiful, standing there in the clearing, the soft blue light from the pool sending shimmers across the iridescent threads in her outfit, hinting at the shadows and hollows he’d explored—was it only last night? Gods, he felt as if he’d known Samantha forever. Yet, as with the scene in the clearing, when she’d come up with that perfect solution to the problem of Albert and the amulet, he felt as if there was still so much more about her to discover.

He didn’t want to rush any of it. He wanted to peel back the layers to Samantha as if he were unwrapping a precious gift, because, really, that’s what she was.

He tugged her fingers and she stepped closer. The heat of her body reached out to him, her scent wrapped around him, and it was all Kal could do not to take her then.

He needed to cool down. “Sam, how about a swim?”

“A swim?”

“Yeah, you know, float in water? Have it lap at our skin?” Their naked skin. “I promise you’ll enjoy it.”

He’d make sure of it. Gods knew, he would.

In one movement, Kal whipped the sash from his hips and shucked his pants. Naked, he held out his hand. “Care to join me?”

He had to smile when she tried to speak but couldn’t. He liked that she wanted him and wasn’t afraid to say so, but she was no match for him; he had a over a hundred and sixty years of pent-up desire to unload on her—

No, make that over four
thousand
years because that’s how long he’d been waiting for her to come into his life.

Dropping his hand to his side, Kal smiled wider when her gaze followed; he knew what she’d see. He wanted her to see—and to know—how she affected him. He couldn’t tell her, but he could definitely show her.

He turned away, giving her another view. “If you don’t want to join me,” he said over his shoulder, enjoying the way she was staring at him, “I’ll be back in a few minutes. After I cool down.”

Like that’d happen.

He heard a splash when he surfaced in the middle of the pool and shook his head to clear the water from his eyes.

Two seconds later, Samantha surfaced in front of him. A second after that, she was in his arms. A half second later, she was in his heart for good.

The water was the perfect temperature—but on this island, that was to be expected. It was also the perfect buoyancy so he didn’t have to work to keep them afloat and could put his hands to better use; the perfect taste when it slid down her cheeks into the sweet groove of her lips; the perfect silkiness when he slid his palms down her back. Around her waist. Up to cup perfect breasts, his lantern resting between them.

It was all perfect.
She
was perfect. For him.

And then Samantha wrapped her perfect legs around his waist, fitting herself above him perfectly. Fitting herself
on
him perfectly. Ah, gods… Talk about paradise.

She moved then, and it was all Kal could do not to let go. She took him so high in the space of one little gasp. The sound at the back of her throat when she settled herself down on him, the wiggle in her hips… it all but undid him.

He gripped her hips, holding her there. Needing to feel her all around him before she slid off. Needed to know what it felt like to be cocooned in her warmth, to have her around him, enveloping him, to have this memory to sustain him when she was eventually gone.

Sure, he might have fifty or sixty years with her, but the reality of facing eternity without her stung. Flipped him upside down and inside out. A life without Samantha…

“Sam, I l—”

He kissed her.

He kissed her because he wanted to. Because he had to.

Because she was right there, looking so damn good—and because he’d almost done it. He’d almost given in and said the three words a genie should never say. The ones that’d take away his power, his life.

Kal closed his eyes, wrapped his arms around her, and inhaled, letting Samantha’s lilac scent wrap itself around him. Around his heart. It was all he could do to not tell her everything he was feeling.

But he couldn’t. The only way he’d ever be able to tell her how he felt was if he gave up who he was, and that wasn’t what love was. Love wasn’t subjugating yourself for someone else. Becoming less of a person to fit into someone else’s life. Giving up who you were to be who they wanted you to be.

Love was about two people coming together. Joining who you were with who your partner was. Making a commitment. Except
he
couldn’t make that commitment. He couldn’t say those words.

And that was more of a prison sentence than the one the High Master imposed had ever been.