Genie Knows Best (Magically Ever After Book 5), page 26
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.
Chapter 36
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 up 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 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 providing 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 fragrance was 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 wrapping 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.
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. What 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.
Chapter 37
Kal shifted beneath her and it was as if something shifted inside her. And she didn’t mean him, though yeah, he did. And he thrust. And he moved. Bearing down on her hips with his fingertips, lifting her up, then burying himself inside her. Samantha didn’t know how he was keeping them afloat since their hands were busy creating pleasure on each others’ bodies and their legs grasping as tremors racked them, and she didn’t care.
His hands slid to her shoulders. “Sam… Trust me.”
She did. That was the thing; she did trust him. She had no reason not to.
With a gentle nudge, Kal laid her in the water. “Open your eyes, sweetheart. Watch what I do to you.”
Overhead, the soft white tree lights reflected off banana leaves blocking the starlit sky, but that was okay because, with the first stroke of his palm from her collarbone to her hip, the moment her shoulder brushed his chest, Samantha saw her own stars. Flashes of light as if they were attached to every nerve ending she had.
He cupped her and his fingers played in her curls. “You are so beautiful, Sam.”
He made her feel beautiful. Made her feel cherished and desired and wanted. His eyes were that warm, melty-ness that was her undoing. She cupped his cheek, drew his face to hers, and kissed him. Softly. Stroked the stubble on his cheek.
“I like this,” she whispered when they came up for air—but not too far apart. Their breath mingled as their bodies soon would.
Kal smiled and kissed her shoulder. Then he moved across her skin to just above her breasts, the sexy scruffiness along his jaw firing even more responses from her nerve endings, and Samantha couldn’t hold back a moan.
“That’s it, Sam. Go with it. Let the sensation take you.”
Oh she was.
His fingers delved inside her, his thumb stroking that sensitive part of her, and Samantha widened her legs, the feeling of the water lapping against her swollen flesh as erotic as what he was doing to her. She’d never made love like this. Never in water.
And she’d only ever made love with him.
“Kal, I…”
Kal’s lips found her breast and she lost the ability to speak. All she could do was arch into him and trail her hand down his body to find him beneath the water. His cock jerked when she closed her hand around it.
He panted against her breast. “Careful, Sam. It’s not going to take much.”
She looked down at him, her nipple pebbled beneath his tongue, the chains of her necklaces encircling that one breast, a sight so erotic she almost came just from the sheer imagery. “Tell me about it.”
And he did. He told her everything he was going to do to her. Told her when he was going to spread her wide. When he was going to feather soft, butterfly strokes over her. When he was going to press a little harder. Then a little softer. A little faster. A little slower. He told her when his fingers would go inside her. When they’d withdraw.
The anticipation was incredible, but his actual touch… Samantha was so on fire she could have lit up the clearing.
And then he floated her in front of him. How she remained above water, Samantha didn’t know. Didn’t care. All she cared about was where he was going to stop her.
He spread her legs and drew her toward him.
Tremors racked her body.
“Cold?” His palms closed over her breasts.
Samantha shook her head, her wet curls clinging to her neck. “No,” she managed to croak out between dry lips. It didn’t make sense that she had absolutely no moisture in her mouth, but elsewhere… She was drenched.
Kal lowered his head, groaning when his lips made contact, and Samantha groaned, too.
Then she moaned when his teeth gently stroked the sensitive nub, his chin gently rasping across the rest of her swollen flesh.
She spread her legs wider.
His hands cupped her backside, his thumbs working more magic by spreading her even more for his tongue, and oh, God, the sensations…
She arched, she twisted, she pressed toward him, trying to get closer. Trying to stem that rising tide or invite it, she didn’t know which.
Kal stroked her fast, then slow, then almost not at all, and she thought she’d go crazy at the last. “Please, Kal.”
“Please, what? Say it, Sam. I’ve got to hear you say it. Tell me what you wish.”
She wanted; she didn’t wish. A world of difference in meaning—semantics again—but she could barely say, “Lick me, Kal. Make me come,” let alone anything else.
And then she didn’t have to.
He sucked her between his lips, his tongue working her, and Samantha could feel the sensation rise within her. Felt it coiling there, churning, waiting to rush over her.
She grabbed his head and pulled him into her, not having a clue how he was breathing and not worrying about it. He was a genie; he’d figure something out.
He brought her to the edge; she was panting his name. Chanting it, desire wringing it from the depths of her soul.
Then he stopped, blowing gently over her instead, and Samantha raised her head. “Kal?”
He smiled a wicked wicked smile. “Like that?”
Her “yes” was one long hiss, cut off at the end when he tongued her again. And this time he didn’t stop.
No matter how much her body writhed or her legs wanted to close against the overpowering sensations, Kal didn’t stop. He built the tide, working it, feeding it, until finally, with strokes so fast and strong and hard, she shattered against him, her cry rippling through the oasis.
And she didn’t care.
Her body trembled as the waves rolled over her, her fists protesting when she gripped water that slipped away.
Kal slid his hands to hers, never releasing that one point of pleasure, but then he created more when he intertwined their fingers, and, palm to palm, he pulled her toward his mouth again, wringing every last sensation from her, every last pulse of pleasure.
Finally, Samantha’s body went slack, floating on the water’s ripples in the aftermath of what he’d done to her, those ripples perfectly in tune with the ones inside her.
***
The sand was soft beneath her back and didn’t cling to her skin. That was Samantha’s first coherent thought after Kal had taken her to paradise—he’d been right about that.
Her body hadn’t been hers to command afterward, and, thankfully, it hadn’t mattered. Kal floated her to the beach beside the pool and managed to get her onto it while all she felt was the touch of his skin against hers, the rise and fall of his chest, the scent of him and their lovemaking.
