Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)

It thumped loudly and his fingers curled deep into her waist. “I’m so sorry, Paz.”


And he was. Sorry that he’d wasted his life and love on another, sorry he’d not been man enough to fight the fading. Sorry that he was so far gone, he could never come back.

Her eyes filled with tears and light. “How much longer do we have?”

“Not long enough.”

She closed her eyes. “Then make love to me.”

He swallowed hard and stopped moving, almost stopped breathing. “What?”

“I want this memory for as long as I live. Because if I’ve got it in here,” she tapped her head, “then you’ll never really die. Your flame will live on in my heart forever.”

Heat surged in his throat, filled his eyes. But he did not cry. She was offering him a priceless gift. The gift of herself. He did not deserve it.

Time was too short, too precious to make it long and sweet as he knew he should. As he wished he could. Blinking his eyes, their clothes vanished and he sensed the flame of his immortality dim by a fraction of a beat.

She was awe-inspiring. He trailed his fingers down the long column of her throat, across the plump ripeness of her breasts. His hands shook just a little.

“If we had more time,” he whispered, “I’d lay you down on a bed of roses.”

She nodded.

“Your black hair would fan out around your face.” He framed it again, holding her close, his mouth so close to her own, they shared one breath. “I’d kiss you from the crown of your head,” he pressed a gentle kiss against her, “to the soles of your feet.”

Paz moved into his arms, her every curve fitting impossibly tight and perfect to his own. Crafted just for him, he could believe that now. She was the piece of his soul he’d tried to force Nala into. But that piece had never been made for the Queen. That had belonged to a woman so far in the future he’d been too blinded and foolish to wait for.

Gently, reverently he knelt with her. She placed her warm hands on top of his bare shoulders. Still gazing at him, with eyes full of wonder and something more. Something infinitely more.

“I’d feed you grapes, make you laugh, fill your mind with nothing but joy and happiness,” he continued and pulled her down on top of him.

He was so hard, so ready--painfully so--, but he was not a beast to rut and walk away. They may not have eternity, but he had now to make it right. She spread her thighs, her center encircling him, heating him in a velvet hug as she leaned up on her toes and kissed his collarbone, the center of his panting chest.

“Then what would you do, Jinni?” her soft voice made him ache, yearn for what could never be. An eternity with this woman by his side.

He rolled them over, drawing the light from many thousand nearby stars and created a bed for them. She laughed as the light seeped through his pores, her pores.

“We glow white,” she stared at her hands.

“It would be like this forever.” He kissed her fingertip. “Making love on the stars, holding you close, forever, Paz.”

Then he slipped inside her heat and she shuddered, tilting her head, exposing the long line of her throat as she purred. Ecstasy flitted across her face and Jinni knew when he died, a part of him would live on in that memory.

He kissed her, swallowing her passion on his tongue as he stroked and flamed the heat of her desire.

Paz dug her nails into his shoulders. “I’ll never forget,” she murmured as tears spilled hot and thick down her face.

Jinni tucked her hair behind her ears, gazing down at her, moving just enough to build her pleasure. But he wouldn’t close his eyes. This was all he had, this moment, and he wanted to die just like this.

As if she sensed him staring, she opened her eyes and smiled and that was his undoing. One final thrust brought them home. On his tongue lingered the word: forever.

Their cries raced through the heavens and he knew his people rejoiced. Their soul weary brother had finally found his peace.

But the peace didn’t last. A violent rending tore through his middle. Jinni sat up, clutching his stomach, gnashing his teeth as his flame began to gutter out. Already their corporeal forms began to fade.

Paz knelt by his side, gripping his shoulders. “Jinni? Honey?”

Her eyes were wide and frantic as he gazed into them. Refusing to give in to the pain, refusing to let her see just how much it was hurting. Cold sweat swept up and down his body, breaking out on his skin, causing his scalp to tingle with fire and pain.

“Listen to me, Paz,” he gritted out. “You have to return. Now.”

Their heavenly bed began to dissolve back into the stardust that had created it.

She shook her head, even as they began falling like a comet back to Earth. “No.”

Pain sharpened his words. “Now! You swore it to me.” He gripped her arms. “I will not let you watch this.”

The sensation of a thousand knives slicing him open made his back arc in terrible agony. Paz flung her hands over her mouth.