Sexy In A Bottle: A More Than Men Novella Read Online Free Page A

left behind. She’d be nothing but an old memory, someone they hadn’t seen in years. But as much as she told everyone she didn’t want to be a physical or emotional burden, Valerie did like that Benny cared. She couldn’t keep him from doing it. She could have volunteered to blast off on a mission into space, never to return, and he would still care.
    "I’ll call. And I’ll be safe. I promise. But please call me before you call in the cavalry."
    " Okay. Stay safe in the storm, Val."
    " I will. You, too." She hung up the phone and dropped it onto the bed. As promised, she checked her shotgun, loaded it, and slipped it just under the lip of her bed so she could quickly reach for it. She hoped she wouldn’t need it, but there was no reason to take the chance.
    It looked like she was stuck with Raj for a while.
     
     
    Raj was used to the nagging irritation of restlessness. When his spirit was trapped within the sapphire necklace, he grew extremely antsy with no outlet for his energy or his mind. He was aware of every second that ticked by, every minute strung together into days and months and years. Even with all his powers, there was nothing he could do inside the gem. It was like being fully conscious and trapped inside a failing, atrophied human body. He wished he could go into some sort of suspended mental state, unaware of his surroundings until he was summoned by a new master. That might help the millennia go by faster.
    Of course, the sorcerer that had trapped him there wasn’t interested in Raj enjoying his captivity. The djinn were dangerous. All of them. At least that’s the story that was told. They were like great raptors that had to be captured and tamed. But not destroyed. Oh no, their powers were too valuable to snuff out. They just needed to have their wings clipped.
    Since Raj was imprisoned, his life had become a predictable series of events. His necklace would be found. He would be summoned. His new master would quickly select their wishes. Raj would grant them, and it was back into the necklace. Sometimes minutes would pass between masters as one man would share his good fortune with another. Sometimes it would be months. Or years.
    But always the same. A new master, new demands. He’d spent nearly his entire existence giving people whatever they wanted. The great irony of his captivity was that he could escape it at any time. One of his masters simply had to be giving enough to sacrifice one of their own wishes to free him. To give something back to the person that had given them so much.
    A few had promised. Early on Raj had even believed them. But something always happened. An emergency that required the final wish. A change of heart. A selfish nature that surfaced after the thrilling rush of receiving their first two wishes. Always something.
    And before he knew it, Raj was back in the stone.
    This, however, was a different sort of restlessness. He wasn’t in the stone. He was free to move about the island. His mistress made no immediate demands of him. In fact, she seemed adamant not to make any wishes at all.
    Now he was sitting on the couch watching what Valerie called a television show. It was a new technology that allowed actors to perform plays that could be broadcast to thin, flat receivers like hers. Radios were the big thing the last time he’d been out. There had been new large boxes that displayed small, gray images, but nothing so colorful and clear as now. The play was interesting. The characters were likable enough and seemed to find themselves in simple predicaments that took a whole half an hour to resolve.
    But still he felt almost useless. He typically didn’t feel this way when he was "out." He was all-powerful. Raj could do almost anything short of interfering with free will or reversing someone’s destiny. Dead people had to stay dead. Living people couldn’t be killed or "willed away." But almost anything else could come to pass.
    He and his last master had gone many