The Djinn Page 7

  His features tightened with desire and he moved over her, pressing his hips to her. Reaching down, she grasped his distended flesh, aligning his body with her own, feeling a fiery tide of pleasure rush through her as they joined. Her muscles clenched around him, embracing his hard cock as he sank slowly, deeply inside of her.

  He paused, his face a mask of tortured pleasure, his eyes clenched tightly closed. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she lifted her head to kiss him, grinding her hips against him even as she did so. A tremor went through him. He opened his eyes to look at her. “Myska,” he murmured raggedly, covering her mouth with his own as he began to move, thrusting into her deeply, drawing away slowly, almost reluctantly and then burying himself as deeply as he could inside of her once more, as if he could not reach deeply enough to satisfy him, as if he wanted to crawl inside her and become part of her.

  Elise dug her heels into the mattress, arching up to meet each thrust, dragging her lips from his as she felt the muscles of her sex begin to quake as she reached her peak. Her arms tightened around his shoulders as it flooded her body with sensation, with euphoric release.

  He groaned hoarsely as his own release caught him, sending tremors through him.

  He did not move, even when the tremors subsided at last, he held her tightly still. Elise could hardly breathe, but she didn't object. She was scarcely conscious in any case.

  Finally, Raheem rolled to his back, holding her tightly so that she went with him and lay draped limply over him. She rested her cheek on his chest, sated, content in a way she could never recall being as she listened to his heart beat in his chest, felt the caress of his hand over her head and along her back.

  She didn't want to think about tomorrow, or the real world. She wanted to bask in the moment, wring the last tiny fraction of enjoyment from it that she could.

  She could not keep it at bay, however. Slowly, but insidiously, reality intruded.

  What they had done was forbidden. She stirred uncomfortably at the thought and Raheem's hand paused. “Are you sorry it happened?"

  He tensed, pulled away, trying to see her face. After a moment, he let his breath out slowly and rolled until she lay beside him. He stroked her face with the backs of his fingers, his expression serious. “Not with my last breath,” he said harshly, leaning toward her and kissing her with a hunger that belied the very satisfactory conclusion of their previous lovemaking.

  Elise found, within moments, that her hunger equaled his. If possible, it was more intense than before, his caresses more fiercely possessive, their joining more desperate, their release more explosive.

  Exhausted finally, sated for the moment at least, Elise drifted to sleep, her arm across Raheem's chest, her leg tangled with his, her head resting on one hard arm. She should have been far too uncomfortable to sleep, but realized she'd never been more comfortable in her life.

  The phone roused her sometime later. It rang on and on, stopped briefly and began again. Finally she struggled over to the side of the bed and picked up the receiver. “'low?"

  It was her boss, wanting to know if she was coming in to work. Elise was too exhausted for even the realization that she'd missed work to rouse her more than a fraction. “Sick. Tomorrow,” she muttered and hung up.

  Collapsing on the bed once more, she felt around for Raheem and discovered he was gone, but even that didn't prevent her from drifting off again, though it threaded a seed of doubt through her subconscious.

  Chapter Eight

  The sound of the ocean woke Elise. At first she thought she was dreaming it, or heard something else and was imagining it. She didn't live anywhere near the beach and, in any case, Tampa was near the gulf. The water didn't sound nearly as turbulent.

  Finally, fully awake by now, she opened her eyes.

  The room was filled with a soft glow of light. She didn't recognize her surroundings.

  Sitting up abruptly, Elise looked around, completely disoriented.

  The bed she was lying on was huge, held up by posts big enough to be porch columns. On the posts, dragons, flowering vines and birds were carved in a design that wound around them in a spiral. Gauzy hangings fluttered around the bed, caught in the tangy ocean breeze that filtered through the louvers that covered the windows nearby. The walls of the room appeared to be stone. The floor most certainly was, tiled in squares that looked like ancient, rough cut slabs of gray slate.

  She was naked. After a few moments, she slid to the edge of the bed and looked around for something to put on. A gauzy, sleeveless robe that looked like a Greek toga lay across the foot of the bed. Seeing nothing else, she picked it up, studied it a moment and finally pulled it over her head.

  Peeking from beneath the edge of the bed, she saw a pair of leather sandals of the sort that were little more than sole and thin straps. They looked as if they'd been made for her feet. With a shrug, she slipped her feet into them and moved around the foot of her bed, glancing at the ceiling, the walls.

  She found herself face to face with a woman and jumped, gasping before she realized it was her own reflection in a mirror placed on a dressing table against the wall across from the windows.

  She stared at the reflection, not recognizing herself either.

  Her hair was a wild, tangled mess ... small wonder when she'd spent the night before—or had she? Was it no more than an illusion? Was this?

  Moving to the dressing table, she picked up the brush that lay on it's uncluttered surface, examined it and finally used it to brush the tangles from her hair. When her pale hair hung gleaming and sleek about her shoulders, she replaced the brush and looked around again.

  There were two doors, one between the louvered windows, the second beside the dressing table. After a moment, she moved toward the door that seemed to lead outside. When she opened it, she saw that it led onto a balcony—which overlooked the sea.

  “I see that you have awakened at last, myska."

  Elise glanced quickly toward the sound of the voice. Raheem was propped against the balustrade of the balcony at one end, studying her. “Am I?"

  His eyes gleamed. “Do you not know the difference?"

  Elise smiled at him tentatively. “What is this place?"

  “My palace ... our palace by the sea."

  Her heart skipped a beat when he said ‘our'. Warmth suffused her. “We're in your world?"

  He chuckled, lifting a hand. “No, myska. Yours."

  Elise moved toward him, placed her hand in his. He pulled her against him. Elise settled her cheek against his chest, studying the waves that pounded the shoreline only a few yards away. “Why did you bring me to this place?"

  He tensed. For several moments, she thought he wouldn't answer. Finally, he let out a harsh breath. “To protect you from harm."

  Elise's heart skipped a beat. She looked up at him, frowning. “I ... don't think I understand."

  “It is not a thing that is easy to explain."

  She pulled a little away from him. “You mean you don't think I can understand."

  He shrugged. “The worlds ... all of them and all that connects them—time, space—it is all connected, interlocking—carefully balanced, flowing, fluid, always changing but always remaining carefully measured, weighed, proportioned, equalized. We have broken the laws of the universe, myska. Misfortune will follow."

  “You're certain?” Elise said, suddenly truly afraid.

  He nodded. “I know this."

  Anguish filled her. “Why then? It's my fault, isn't it?"

  “I chose my own destiny,” he said, almost harshly. “I will not allow you to accept responsibility for that which you do not control."

  “But ... if I hadn't bought the charm, opened it...."

  “I would not have known you."

  “If I hadn't tried to seduce you."

  His lips quirked. “I had thought it was the other way around."

  Elise's eyes widened in surprise. “You?"

  “When I could contain my hunger for you no
longer."

  A blush rose in her cheeks. “You wanted me?” she asked, pleased.

  “You did not know this?"

  Elise ran a finger over his chest, tracing the swirling pattern of the tattoo that adorned his shoulders and upper chest. “I wasn't certain. I hoped. But then you said that it couldn't happen."

  His expression became wry. “I should not have allowed it, but I could no more have stopped it than I could pluck the moon or stars from the sky. It was written on the tablet of fate."

  Elise frowned. “What will happen now?"

  “In time, fate will show us."

  A shiver skated along Elise's spine and she looked away.

  Raheem hooked a finger beneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. “For now I will sup from your lips the nectar that is your essence and appease the hunger that only grows stronger each time I join my body with yours."

  He scooped her into his arms even as he kissed her and then strode back through the balcony door. Placing her on the bed, he followed her down, stripping the gown from her and tossing it aside. Elise reached for him as he moved over her, settling himself half atop her. Need spread through her at the look in his eyes, at his touch and, as he leaned down to kiss her hungrily, she met him, kissing him back with equal longing. As his hands moved over her in a restless caress, she allowed her fingers and palms to learn his body, to give pleasure to him as she took pleasure from the feel of his flesh against her hands.

  And when he broke the kiss and moved over her body, kissing, tasting, teasing her flesh to heightened sensitivity, she writhed in mindless pleasure, touching, kissing any part of him that she could reach.

  When he pushed his knee between her legs, she spread her thighs wide, opening eagerly to him, reaching down and cupping his sex, gently stroking his testicles before she slipped her hand around the distended flesh of his cock and guided him to her opening, lifting to meet him, lifting her head to watch as he sank slowly inside of her until his hips ground against her own. When she looked up at Raheem, she saw that he, too, was watching the joining of their flesh, his face tight with desire.

  Gripping his shoulders, she rose up to kiss his shoulder, his throat. He wrapped his arms around her, taking her with him as he came up on his knees, impaling her more deeply than before. She locked her arms around his neck as he grasped her hips and lifted her slightly away and then pushed her down again. In his eyes, as she looked at him, she saw the reflection of her own pleasure. It multiplied as she watched it grow inside him, until she was gasping, hovering on the verge of release, and then crying out as it seized her and took her over the edge.

  He gripped her tightly, burying himself deeply as his cock convulsed with his own climax, spewing his seed inside her.

  Elise felt so weak in the aftermath she was certain she would have fallen if he hadn't been holding her. When he lowered her to the bed at last, she merely collapsed limply, her eyes closed as she fought to catch her breath.

  Something tickled her nose. Her lips curled in a half smile as she pried her eyelids open a fraction.

  “You are a lazy wench."

  Elise frowned, but she couldn't summon the strength to be insulted. “Weak with hunger, more like."

  Raheem's eyes gleamed. “Insatiable, too. I am not at all certain I can appease your hunger at the moment, myska."

  Elise swatted at him weakly. “Food!"

  He chuckled, snapped his fingers.

  The door opened. Elise jerked upright, grabbing frantically for something to cover herself. A girl stood in the doorway, a tray in her hands, her head bowed politely. She looked Polynesian and Elise wondered if they were near Hawaii. She shook her head at the absurdity of it. “Magic,” she muttered.

  Raheem glanced at her sharply. “Nay. An islander."

  Elise was taken aback. “But ... she would've had to be waiting....” She trailed off, her expression horrified as it occurred to her that the girl, if real, had to have been waiting just outside the door to have heard Raheem snap his fingers, and if she'd heard that....

  Raheem chuckled at her expression. “She is your maid. She will see that you have all that you need."

  Elise gave him a look but waited until the girl had set the tray down on the table on the balcony outside and departed before she said anything. “I'm not used to servants. I wouldn't be comfortable."

  Raheem shrugged, rolling off the bed. “You will grow accustomed,” he said as he strolled outside and bent to examine the contents of the tray.

  Elise wasn't certain she would. She also wasn't certain she wanted to. She hadn't spent a great deal of time considering the situation she'd found herself in, but that was, she realized, mostly because she had not accepted that any of it was real. She'd been certain it was merely an illusion that Raheem had conjured to charm her. After a moment, she located her gown and pulled it on, then followed Raheem.

  He was still stark naked, lounging casually in one of the chairs, his legs crossed, his feet propped on the balcony railing. Elise dropped a cloth napkin in his lap. He glanced up at her, his eyes gleaming with suppressed laughter. “I see no reason to dress when I mean to ravish you again once you have filled your belly."

  “Promises, promises,” Elise chided, settling in the chair opposite him and helping herself to a selection of fruits and meat. The concoction looked exotic enough to be some island dish.

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You believe I am jesting?"

  “I believe you're the one that's insatiable,” Elise said tartly.

  Raheem popped a chunk of fruit into his mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. “I can not take you back, Elise,” he finally said, his voice gentle.

  Elise paused with a fork full of food halfway to her mouth. “You're not serious."

  “I would not jest about something of this nature."

  Placing the fork carefully back on the plate, Elise stared down at it, unseeing. “But ... I have family who will worry."

  “It is not safe for you now. Later, I will take you."

  She looked at him finally. “There must be some way I can get in touch with them, tell them I'm alright."

  He shook his head. “This island is far away from everything else. It is why I chose it."

  Elise found she'd lost her appetite. “I hate to think of what they must suffer, thinking something has happened to me. If it were the other way around—if my mother or sister had suddenly gone missing—I'd be sick with worry."

  Raheem frowned, but finally shook his head. “I dare not risk it now. If I could trust that I would sense the presence of another djinn, I would go, but I can not."

  An uneasy feeling swept through Elise. “What do you mean?"

  He stood up abruptly, snapped his fingers. Moments passed. Abruptly, the breeches he wore appeared and he was clothed. “With each day that passes I feel the chains that bind me to my own world growing weaker."

  Elise stared at him in horror. “You're ... becoming mortal? Human?"

  He glanced at her sharply. “It matters to you?"

  “Of course it matters to me!” Elise gasped, jumping to her feet. “You have to go back! Now! You can't stay here."

  He turned away from her, moved to the balustrade, gripping it with his hands as he leaned against it. “You want me because of my powers, myska?"

  Elise studied his back uncomprehendingly. “You don't believe that!"

  He looked at her. “If I am merely a mortal, your desire for me will cool and I will be of no more interest than any other—living—mortal."

  Elise paled. “I have never compared you to John!"

  “John is dead,” he said harshly. “It is hard to compete with a man who no longer exists ... except in your mind. And you can not let him go, can you, Elise? This is why you have always told me to go, to leave. You will not allow anyone to even try to banish the ghost you cherish."

  “That's not true ... none of it! You know it's not. I only asked you to go because I don't want anything to happen to you!"

/>   “Like losing my powers?"

  Elise grew angry. “You're not mortal, weren't born in this world. Humans born to it have a hard time surviving and making a living! How will you adjust? Why would you want to? Just so you can grow old? Sick? Die? I can accept it because I've got no choice. You do."

  “I chose,” Raheem said angrily, stabbing a finger at his chest. “I chose. You can not make my choice for me! You can only accept what I offer to you ... or not!"

  “Then go! Because you don't belong in my world anymore than I belong in yours!"

  He stared at her for a long moment and Elise thought he must see right through her. Abruptly, he folded his arms and vanished.

  Elise felt every ounce of strength leave her. It took an effort of concentration to turn and place one foot in front of the other until she reached the chair and collapsed into it. She was afraid to cry, fearful that he might be nearby, that she would give herself away.

  He could not have been more wrong about the way she felt. If he had truly known her, he would know that his doubts were unfounded. She supposed it was for the best that he didn't, although it hurt to think he believed she was like that.

  She supposed, in a way, that he had been right about John. Deep in her heart, she would always love his memory, but she loved Raheem with far more passion that she had ever felt for John ... and it didn't have a damned thing to do with him being a djinn! She loved him ... because he was strong, and passionate, and gentle and giving. And nothing in the world like John, so how could he even think that she would compare them? Or that she would find him lacking in any way?

  She wanted, desperately, to tell him, but if she had yielded to that selfish need, he wouldn't have gone.

  She wasn't certain how long she sat, staring at the cresting waves blindly, but at last she noticed the sun was sinking into the sea.

  With some surprise, she discovered that the maid had come and taken the tray away. Rising to her feet with an effort, she moved stiffly inside, stood for some moments looking around the empty room and finally went in search of the bathroom.

  The door the maid had entered through earlier led to a dressing room, she discovered with some surprise. It was filled with her things, all arranged neatly. After a moment, she moved through the room to the door at the other end.