Genie's Awakening Read online

  GENEVIEVE FELT A THRILL go through her when Colin picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, their bedroom. Tonight was a night that could only be described as an awakening. Not only of her long-hidden power, but also of a feminine part of her that now pulsed to be set free. When Colin set her down, she slipped immediately out of the clothes she wore. He watched her with hungry eyes, and she gloried at the feel of his gaze as it latched onto each section of flesh she exposed. He looked at her as if she were a goddess come to life, and she didn’t think she would ever get enough of that.

  He began shedding his clothes as well, and then it was her turn to be fascinated. Just looking at him caused the tender flesh between her legs to throb with need. When he sat on the bed to remove his socks, she kneeled before him to help, her eyes drawn to the generous member between his legs that now stood erect with need. She tossed the sock in her hand to the side and reached out to touch it, fascinated by its firm masculine softness. Colin groaned, but he remained still, watching her. With wonder, she stroked over his length, feeling the wonderful silky skin and firm ridges. She slid her hand down to the base and fingered the folds of the sack beneath, then ran her hand back up again to round her fingers over the tip where drops of dewy moisture had wept out.

  This was the first time she’d done more than kiss a man, so thought she wasn’t exactly sure what she as doing, it felt right. Now filled with her power, she could see that her instincts carried an arcane knowledge that she trusted immediately and implicitly. Sex was no secret among the Jinn. They were not prudes. They celebrated intimacy. But it was one thing to see pictures and hear other women giggle about their escapades and quite another to experience it first-hand.

  Genevieve glanced at Colin and could see he was watching her even more intently now, hungrily, doing nothing to stop her. So she decided to explore even further. She scooted closer to the bed and, with the sides of her breasts brushing his thighs, watched his face as she took him into her mouth.

  He groaned even deeper and closed his eyes, his face tense with exquisite pleasure. It was heady this power she had over him. So she continued, licking and touching as the mood suited her. She found that she loved the musky, salty scent of him and the way it tasted on her tongue. She could have continued, but his breath soon became jagged and he rested a hand gently on her head, making her pause.

  “Wait,” he said. “Come here.” He pulled her up beside him to lay on the bed and ran his gaze up and down her body. “You are so beautiful, Genevieve. I could look at you forever.”

  He stroked a hand down her side to her hip then up to take her breast. Her nipples peaked at his touch and, when he leaned down to suck on one, it was her turn to groan and close her eyes. The feel of his mouth on her sensitive flesh was far more wonderful than she ever imagined it would be. It made her arch her back up into him and grasp his wide, powerful shoulders. All she knew was that she wanted to be close to him, that she loved the feel his warm skin on hers.

  He took his time kissing first one breast, then the other. More magic of a different sort tingled beneath her skin when he trailed kisses up along her collarbone then to her neck and ear while at the same time he skimmed his fingers downward to gently stroke the secret flesh hidden in the damp curls of hair. His fingers were strong and sure, and soon she was calling his name, her hips jerking in response to his touch. She pulled at him, wanting to feel his weight against her.

  Colin shifted to cover her body with his, pushing his way between her legs until the head of his cock rested firmly pressed against her opening, making her tremble with want. There was a fire burning within her, and the feel of him there at the entrance only made her burn hotter. He remained where he was though, despite how she writhed beneath him, and took his time kissing her deeply until she swore she would lose her mind within the soaring maelstrom of lust that raged inside her.

  She pulled at his hips. “Colin,” she said urgently.

  He moved then, just a little, pushing more deeply within her and making them both shudder and groan. Then he stopped again.

  “What’s wrong?” she panted, feeling his hesitation and seeing the strain on his face.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. “Are you ... are you a virgin?” His cheeks filled with color as he said it, and she couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped her. He was such a dear man.

  She was familiar with the term and instantly understood what he was asking. “You won’t hurt me,” she said. “You could say that I am a virgin, in that I’ve never done this before. But the other part of it, the painful part you’re thinking about, is a human thing. We Jinn have no such obstruction.”

  He looked instantly relieved. “Thank god!” he said.

  It was all the reassurance he needed. He plunged his length all the way into her in one smooth thrust, making her cry out with the pleasure of it. She clutched her legs around him and her instincts took over once more. She moved her hips against him, following the delicious tendrils of want that beckoned. He responded to her urgency with some of his own and thrust harder, making their flesh slap together and causing her breasts to jiggle. At this moment he was not careful, not tender. He was a man of power driven to bring them both to ecstasy and, oh, it was so good!

  She couldn’t have stopped the cries of passion that tore from her even if she wanted to. The sensual storm building within her was unstoppable, and she felt as if she would never get enough of Colin. It was too good, like liquid love. Her instincts again took over out of the raw need that was consuming her, and she pushed at his shoulders, surprising them both. They rolled over as one, and she was suddenly astride him. Her legs splayed wantonly to the side with him still embedded deep within her, bringing a whole host of new sensations.

  The new positions allowed his hands the freedom to roam over her body, from her thighs to her hips to her breast as she began to move, discovering the marvelous increase of erotic power. With the feel of his hands on her skin, and the whims of her body desperately directing her, her passion quickly stoked far beyond what it had been before. And when he bent his head to suck on her breast while still pulsing in and out of her, it was as if she were thrown over the edge into shockwaves of a magnificence. It made her forget everything, including who she was, just so that she could revel in the purity of their oneness as they climaxed together.

  They remained locked in each other’s arms after it slowly wound down and rolled away, like thunderclouds after a rainstorm. Then Genevieve shifted to lay beside Colin with her head on his chest and his arms cradled around her, and listened to his heartbeat as she drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Seventeen

  In the morning, Genevieve woke slowly, luxuriously, with a smile on her lips that she would bet had been there the entire night as she slept. Her body felt fluid and more relaxed than she could ever remember being in her entire life. And bits of memory drifted through her mind like puffy dots of cloud until she finally rolled to her back, executed a full body stretch, and then reached out a hand for Colin. When she felt nothing but the empty expanse of mattress, she opened her eyes to look for him, then bolted upright in shock.

  She was back in her suite at Reverie Resort.

  The sheer white panels hanging from the four-poster bed rippled as she scrambled out and padded across the plush carpet to yank a curtain back and look out the window. Instead of the red-hued landscape of Garrulus Four, blue-green waves crashed on white sand while sandpipers trotted along the edges as each receded. A single sun shone in the sky and wind made the palm trees and abundance of tropical green foliage dance and sway. She should have been relieved and overjoyed by the site, but instead panic beat against her ribcage.

  “No, no, no, no...” She moaned, hands to her lips. It wasn’t a dream. It couldn’t be a dream! Desperate for proof, she stalked to the French doors, yanked them open, and went outside to the first plant she laid eyes on: A small fern in ceramic pot at the edge of the private patio.

  “Grow!” she demanded
with such a surge of power that it burst out of the pot with a pop and spread ten feet in all directions. She stared at it, stunned at first, then started to cry with relief. It was all true. Her powers were real, which meant she wouldn’t be exiled to live among humans anymore. Her family would welcome her home with pride and there would be a grand celebration...

  But she no longer wanted to go back to the Jinn dimension anymore. It wasn’t her home, had never been her home, regardless of how eminently she might fit into it now. No, she wanted Colin, and their work, and her friends on Garrulus Four. She wanted to be there when Colin woke up and go with him to the different labs to see the scientists working themselves into a frenzy trying to figure out how it had all happened. And most of all, she wanted to help them make Garrulus Four a whole new world, maybe travel with Colin back to Eardia to help him heal all that had happened there. She knew deep inside that she could do it...

  She raced to the closet to put clothes on, noting in the dressing mirror that her eyes were still that strange pure gold. She had to get back to Colin. He would be mad with worry at her disappearance. She knew with time, she would develop the additional gifts of apporting and shape-change, but she had no idea where in the multiverse Garrulus Four was let alone how to apport that far. And there was no way she was going to wait that long. If her powers were really real, and her eyes, that mean that Colin was, too. And it also meant that Chin-Sun and Itembe could tell her where to find him.

  “ARE YOU SURE ABOUT this?” Chin-Sun asked with wide, disbelieving eyes. “It’s highly unusual.”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Genevieve said, sounding upset. Her hair was in disarray and the outfit she wore was mismatched as though she hadn’t bothered to look at what she’d pulled on before leaving her room. “I could cause you both a lot of trouble, you know, for sending me there in the first place to be treated like that.”

  The Afrit had bypassed Chin-Sun’s assistant and burst into her very tidy modern office, interrupting a meeting between her and Itembe. Chin-Sun exchanged a glance with Itembe who looked relaxed and inscrutable as always. If there’s one thing she could count on him for, it was his poker face.

  “As far as the contract is concerned, we provided exactly what we promised.” Chin-Sun snapped her fingers and the black folio with Genevieve’s details appeared before her. She opened it and lifted the top page to glance at one beneath. “You said that you wanted, let me see, ‘to feel the glowing satisfaction that comes from having your every need fulfilled before you even know you have it. You wanted the radiant, bone-deep happiness that comes from feeling complete and getting everything you want out of life.’”

  Chin-Sun dropped the page and fixed Genevieve with her gaze. “You received all of those things,” she said and lifted a hand to tick the facts off on her fingers. “Your power manifested. You learned what it was like to find your purpose and use it. You made friends and felt what it was like to have real friendship. You finally made love for the first time, and are now loved and adored by a man whom you also love and adore.” Chin-Sun folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “A few of the things you craved and several you didn’t even know were missing in your life.”

  “Okay, you’re right,” Genevieve conceded. “I have no right to be upset about that then. But now, I want to go back. However, I have no idea where Garrulus Four is and I don’t have the means to get there just yet. Look, I’ll pay whatever you want, just send me back right now.” Genevieve’s expression shifted and her shoulders slumped as her upset gave way to pleading.

  Chin-Sun noticed the change with satisfaction. She rose from behind her desk to stroll along the perimeter of her office, where walls of glass showcased the breath-taking view. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement,” Chin-Sun said. “It’s not that that I’m concerned with.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to return home first, for the Afrit tribunal?” Itembe asked Genevieve.

  “There’s no point. None of them care about me anyway. They were about to cast me out.”

  “But things are quite different now,” Chin-Sun said. “An Afrit of your magnitude will be placed immediately in a position of high honor. If you are not the most powerful of your kind right now, I would be surprised.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t you know about your power? The eyes alone would be a definitive sign,” Itembe said.

  Genevieve shook her head.

  “Tell her, Itembe,” Chin-Sun said and turned to watch a flock of gulls wheel in the sky in an elegant, organized chaos.

  “There hasn’t been an Afrit of your kind born in an eternity. In fact, it has been so long that it has become legend,” he said. “You are a descendant of one of the original Afrit made by the creator.”

  “You mean one of those who lived on Earth in the beginning?” Genevieve moved to sit in the chair next to Itembe.

  He nodded his head. “It is thought that the blood is now so diluted that the powers have been lost, but occasionally an Afrit is born who is worthy of their expression.”

  “And exactly what power is that?” Genevieve asked.

  Chin-Sun turned and walked back to sit at her desk. “The power to influence the energy that infuses life, which is the very fabric upon which the creator paints his masterpieces. This involves plant life only, not beings.”

  Genevieve’s lips parted, and she looked confused for a moment. “I thought that was impossible,” she finally said. “I thought no Jinn had power over life.”

  “It is a fine shade of distinction to be sure,” Itembe said. “It is true that no Jinn can destroy or create the lives of beings. Plants, however, are a bit different. You still can’t create them from nothing, but you have the rare ability to influence their energy for good, to bless it if you will. Not the life itself, the consciousness, of course. But to touch the energy of the life force is a power next to creation itself.”

  “But why didn’t anything happen before now? Do you know? Does legend say?” Genevieve asked.

  “It’s simple,” Chin-Sun said. “You just weren’t around plants enough for it to emerge. You never really had the opportunity given the Afrit’s distaste for landscaping.”

  “That makes sense,” Genevieve said, chewing at her lower lip.

  “What this means, Genevieve, is that you will live among the most affluent of your kind and have authority over them for the rest of your life. As a creator of worlds, those you know will vie for your favor.”

  “Creator of worlds...” Genevieve echoed. “Is that what I am?”

  “Call it what you will,” Itembe said. “But it is fitting, isn’t it? You have the power to make plant life prosper on the many millions of barren planets in the many millions of universes. With the plants comes atmosphere and the ability to support other life, like animals, insects, and humans.”

  “And since our world overlaps with theirs. once other life flourishes on the surface, the Jinn dimension expands along with it,” Chin-Sun finished, then she smiled. “New real estate.”

  “Wow. I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Genevieve said. “I wonder how many others like me there have been. How many were mistakenly labeled as having no power and cast out.”

  Itembe leaned forward in his chair and fixed Genevieve with is dark gaze. “None within our lifetime.”

  Genevieve straightened in her chair. “Either of your lifetimes? But that’s—”

  “A very long time,” Chin-Sun said. She tapped the surface of her desk and a screen popped to life within the glass. Chin-Sun scrolled with her finger through various pictures with names and short profiles next to them. “We’ve watched every one that was sent away. You’re the first,” she said.

  “I can’t believe it,” Genevieve said.

  “It’s every Jinn’s dream to be so powerful and so revered,” Itembe said. “Your entire family’s status will be elevated, and your name will live for all time among the Jinn.”

  “Still don’t want to return home?” Ch
in-Sun asked.

  Genevieve looked glassy-eyed as she considered it. But within a very short time, she shook her head. “No, I want to be with Colin on Garrulus Four. I want to make a life there with him, and with the other ... Eardians. Who are they anyway? They seem human...”

  “They are,” Itembe said and leaned back in his chair again and crossed his long legs. “You think the creator gave up on humanity with those he put on Earth?” He shrugged. “Think of Earth as phase one. The first experiment.”

  Genevieve blinked. “You mean, there are more out there? But why haven’t they found each other yet? The humans on Earth have always felt so alone in their universe.”

  “Who are we to know why the creator does what he does?” Chin-Sun said. She tapped a perfectly manicured fingernail on her desk and a contract and along with a gold pen appeared. “We can only speculate. But we think it was done so that they wouldn’t affect each other if something went wrong.”

  “Or, if they finally got it right, they would have the means to find each other,” Itembe continued.

  “Wait, but if there are more humans on other worlds, and more Jinn dimensions that overlap along with them, does that mean there are other Jinn living in those dimension that we don’t know about?”

  Itembe spread his hands and smiled. “Who do you think we are? And where do you think we are right now?”

  Genevieve’s mouth gaped, and her eyes bulged. The she blinked and seemed to gather herself to ask more questions, but Chin-Sun cut her off with a firm, “Now. We can send you back to Garrulus Four, but there will be a fee for that.” She spread the pages out in a neat row along the desk in front of Genevieve. “Most of this agreement is quite similar to the one you signed for your vacation, but please take your time and read it through.”