A Genie's Love (The Djinn Series) Read Online Free Page B

lips danced across her knuckles. “Right, still feels good.  But actually look at it. That bruise and scab on my wrist...isn’t it a little crazy I still have it? I’m not even a good enough witch to fix it.”
    “Perhaps a wish is in order. I’ve got some magic left in me yet.” He closed his eyes and waited, eager to please like a panting dog.
    “I wish...”
    The wish washed over him like warmed honey, heavier and sweeter than any wish he’d ever experienced. Wishes pulled, but this half-one, not yet fully born, wrapped around him like a lover’s arms. Cassia’s arms. Ah, crap, if he wound up cumming on the street because of a wish, he’d run neck first into a clothesline and hang his own damned self.
    “I wish...”
    “Yes? Your wrist.”
    “I wish you would kiss me.”
    The draw of the wish and the natural tug she had over him presented too big a force to ignore. Their lips crashed together, his over her soft ones. His mind screamed at him to stop.  His lips? Too rough. Too unsteady. Too unpracticed.
    Shame warmed his face, ripping him out of the moment. Cassia wasn’t the type of woman to want for a lover. A girl like her had strings of men, all capable of a better job than this piss poor performance. Her tongue darted out, but he didn’t part his lips. Not fully. He should have spent the last hundred years preparing for this moment and instead he’d pissed it away. He tried to break apart, but she held firm, not stopping until the cacophony of car horns threatened to deafen their ears. The magic, literally, had come to an end.
    “Good wish.”
    “Happy to grant it.”
    “Was I too much again?”
    “Still perfection.”
    Another series of honks and screaming drivers led to a jog and slammed car doors on either side.
    Something about her smile dismissed a lot of important things, mainly the cause of their exiting the Jag in the first place. But she seemed to share the same sentiment he did – that the moment they’d just had was a good one. The kind you held onto. The kind you drew out as long as possible.
    A teen witch must have caused a tiny tear in reality or something. So what? He’d just kissed a beautiful woman.
    His woman.
    Right?
    Yes...probably.
    The car ride was silent, but easy and punctuated with side eye glances and embarrassed chuckles. He’d grown used to women staring at him. Yet the vivaciousness of Cassia meant so much more. It enlivened and terrified him. Yet, he still couldn’t be sure that this was nothing more than some passing attraction.
    Well, he could. Dating could turn into love and then what? Djinn had deeply loved women, only to find their true mates later on. Better to play it safe this time.
    At least until he got things sorted.
    *****
    I t took everything she had not to jump the man in the middle of the highway. Something about him made her want to do naughty, filthy, shock-your-momma-if-she-knew things to him. Instead he grinned, frowned and then morphed into that same blank face she’d seen when they first met.
    What in the blazes had his previous employer done to him? Or caused Faruq to do to someone else? She much preferred the grinning, kissy face Faruq to this one. If only he’d tell her what happened. Not that she had a way to fix it.
    Yet.
    That was worth going back and studying magic for – to find the person responsible and turn him into a newt...or a steaming pile of manure. There had to be a spell for that somewhere. “And I’ll find it.”
    “Huh?” Faruq’s eyes widened and he shifted his gaze from the road to her.
    “Sorry, I mean to say that it’s weird how I’ll be older than my big sister in a few years. I totally fail at not being jealous about it. As soon as they have kids, she’s going to start making regular trips to Tig’s lamp. That’s not a request for a rejuvenating trip to your lamp, by the way. Although I’ve always wondered what those things look like inside. Dinah won’t tell me squat.”
    Again, his face darkened and