The Final Wish (2 page)

Keith appeared through the side door, his blue security uniform ironed to crisp perfection. And crisp perfection pretty much summed up the big man too. The girl stood against the wall, her arms wrapped around herself as she shivered. Caleb picked up his leather jacket from where it rested over the back of a chair and wrapped it around her. “Keith here is going put you in a cab home, okay? Can you give him your address?”

The girl frowned uncertainly, her eyes darting between him and the security guard. “Um …”

Keith leaned over and picked up a handbag off one of the bar stools. “Maybe this belongs to the young lady?”

“I guess so.” Caleb opened it and took out the girl’s wallet. The driver’s license on the inside of the clear plastic window showed her picture. “Shit, she’s barely legal. Only turned eighteen yesterday.” He handed the wallet over. “Can you organise for someone to see her home? I don’t think she’s in any fit state for a cab.”

“Yes, sir,” Keith said and with stern but tender efficiency helped the unsteady girl out the door.

Fuck, Ryan, why do you do this shit?

After they were gone, Caleb ran his hand through his hair. When had his life gotten so complicated? Fame and fortune were supposed to make things better, not worse. He looked at the gold and platinum records lining the walls and stopped at the framed
Rolling Stone
magazine cover. The cover quote read Ryan and Caleb Salt, the brothers behind RoC Salted. They stood together, Ryan’s arms casually slung over Caleb’s shoulder with brotherly ease, grinning for the camera. All Caleb had ever wanted was to play and create his music. But fame was Ryan’s dream come true. The dream his brother had had ever since they started their first garage band together, back when they were kids.

It all felt like such a lie.

He walked to the glass cabinet where a small, unassuming bottle sat amongst the music awards and other trophies. He took it out and reluctantly rolled the cool glass between his palms, taking care not to actually rub it. But maybe it was time. Time for the final wish. Time to make things everything right for his brother, to make him the way he was before all the drugs and alcohol.

Caleb rubbed the pad of his thumb across her name etched into the midnight blue glass and whispered, “Ishari.”

—come!

Just as she shattered into blissful surrender, the familiar falling sensation hauled her out of her world and into his. She solidified on her back, her hand still between her legs as she lay at her master’s feet. The echoes of her orgasm still sent delicious aftershocks through her womb and her core.

“Wow!” He reached out his hand. “You’ve made some spectacular entrances, but this one has to be the best by far.” He arched an eyebrow as his hungry gaze travelled the entire length of her body in a long second.

She looked down, the blush heating her cheeks. He had to have seen, and surely heard, the last of her orgasm. But she recovered her poise and rose to her knee as she bent her head in proper supplication.

“Please,” he said. “I’ve told you not to do that.” He reached out his hand to her.

She took it and stood. Water dripped from her body and hair to pool around her feet. He was tall, so tall. Even standing she still had to look up into his face.

“Wait here,” he said before disappearing down the hall and leaving her alone.

She turned to the window. The crystal clear swimming pool that she’d seen in her vision pedestal filled half of the area beyond and a path led down to a small jetty where a large boat was moored.

She turned back at the sound of his bare feet on the floor behind her.

He held out a large soft towel. “Here, this should help.”

As she took it, their fingers brushed briefly, sending a shockwave up her arm. His eyes flicked over her body again before he turned away politely, but not before she noticed the swell in the front of his jeans. She wrapped the towel around her body with gratitude and a small sense of satisfaction at the effect her nakedness had on him.

And then the realisation hit her.
He’s called me
for the final wish
.

A dark cloud descended over her happiness. “Is it time?” she asked in a hollow voice, not really wanting to hear the answer — to hear him confirm her worst fears.

He ran his hand through his hair and looked at her. “Maybe … I mean, I’m not sure yet … I mean, I just don’t know what to do.” He turned his back on her.

Most of her masters wished for wealth or power or both. Some, like the one who’d cursed her, had even used her to satisfy their carnal desires. But not this one. Not Caleb. He’d never even made an advance toward her, let alone asked anything for himself.

She reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me your desires, Master.”

He turned around and looked at her, his face a mask of confusion. “It’s my brother …”

Her heart broke. His first wish had been to get his brother out of a Moroccan prison where he was being held for drug possession. The second was to have the band discovered by a record company so his brother could finally achieve his dream and stop his path to self-destruction. She’d wanted him to make his final wish for himself and not his undeserving sibling.

“He’s so angry — so self-destructive,” Caleb continued as he paced the floor in front of her. “If I could just make things right for him, if I could just make this—”

“Think carefully before you make your wish.” Ishari reached out and placed her hand on his chest. She wasn’t ready to give him up yet, but his pain and indecision seemed to be tearing him apart.

He froze under her fingertips, searching her face with a frown. Then his expression softened and he brushed her hair behind her ear.

She smiled.

Caleb crushed her body against his, claiming her mouth with a hunger that stole her breath. He pushed her gently backward until the cool glass of the large window pressed against the bare skin of her shoulders. His hands reached under the towel, squeezing her thighs. Her sex flooded as his fingertips traced the line of her hip. He pulled away the towel and she gasped as the material of his T-shirt rasped against her tender nipples.

Abruptly, he stepped back, leaving her standing against the glass  and panting with need for him.

He dropped his gaze to his feet. His features were twisted with shame, or perhaps disappointment. Was she that abhorrent to him?

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

She bowed her head, more so that she didn’t have to look at him than in supplication. “You do not desire me.”

“Desire you?” He laughed. “You’re the only woman I’ve thought of in months.”

“Then I am confused, my master.” She raised her fingertips to lips left bruised by his kiss. All she wanted was more of the same. “I belong to you to use in any way you please.”

“All the more reason not to … ” His horrified expression deepened as he picked up the towel at her feet and held it out. “You shouldn’t belong to anyone in that way.”

Her nakedness was making him uncomfortable. “There is no need, master.” She ignored the proffered linen and willed herself into a more presentable state of dress.

His eyes widened as he took her in. “I thought you couldn’t use magic on yourself.”

“Changing my appearance to please my master is a part of my power.”

He nodded and swallowed hard. “Ishari. No one should
ever
take you against your will.”

“It would not have been that way.” Her eyes locked with his as she placed her hand on his arm. “At least not with you, my master.”

Caleb stepped away from the temptation to kiss her again and her eyes flashed with something akin to disappointment as she bowed low once more.

Could it be true?
Could she really want him as much as he wanted her, and not just because she thought he owned her?

Now her body was covered in semi-translucent red silks, she seemed even more alluring then when she stood buck-naked before him. Her hair, now completely dry, hung like a black silk waterfall to her waist. All he wanted to do was bury his hands in it and kiss her senseless.

“Does my master want to make his final wish instead?” she asked in a hollow tone as she fell to her hands and knees in a full subservient bow.

“No.” He dropped to a knee and lifted her chin, brushing her hair behind her ear. “At least not yet.”

“As my master wishes.”

“So.” He stood and lifted her to her feet. “Are you telling me, that as your master, I can sleep with you anytime I wish?”

Her violet eyes twinkled. “Yes, master.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

She tilted her head and frowned. “Because you didn’t ask, master. I’m not permitted to tell you what your desires should be.”

Of course not.
That might be too helpful.

“So,” he said and paused to look at her closely. “Do you want to have sex with me?”

Her eyes rounded. “Oh, yes please.” Her reply was little more than an expelling of breath and it stirred something more in him than just his cock.

Ishari took his hand and placed it against her silk-covered breast. “Feel how much my heart desires your touch.”

Her flesh was warm through the fabric and her heartbeat raced under his palm. He searched her violet eyes, now darkened with passion. His cock leapt and strained in his jeans. But he wanted more than just sex. He wanted to join with her, mind, body and soul. He took her face between his hands and took her mouth, drawing her bottom lip between his. Her hands pressed his against her cheeks as she returned his kiss with desperation. Caleb drew back, searching her eyes, her face, her lips. Every feature, every curve, filled him with such longing.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Oh yes, my master.” Her words broke against his skin with a warm rush.

He swung her up and her arms circled his neck as he cradled her against his chest. “I need you, Ishari, my Djinn.”

“And I you, my master.”

She weighed next to nothing as he carried her up the stairs to his bedroom. With the blood of desire pounding in his ears, it seemed to take forever to reach his room, but he finally reached it and kicked the door closed behind them as he set her on her feet.

Ishari stared at him and then reached to loosen a thick ivory clasp at her shoulder. The sheer fabric slid from her body, catching for half a heartbeat on the pinched swell of her erect areoles before dropping to pool around her feet.

A deep ache ground through his gut. Never had he seen anything so beautiful or so precious. He drank in every inch of her naked body—completely hairless apart from the beautiful arch of her eyebrows and the satin sheen of midnight hair spilling over her shoulders and down her back. Her copper skin glowed like gold in the light of the dying sun creeping through his bedroom windows.

She glided across the few feet separating them with effortless grace and placed her warm right palm against his cheek. He was almost afraid to touch her—afraid she might disappear in a puff of magic smoke. His hand shook as he reached out and traced his fingers up her bare arm. Her skin was warm and silky under his fingertips.

She was a goddess. His goddess. He fell to his knees before her in worship, wrapping his arms around her hips with his cheek against the slight swell of her stomach, and he breathed her in. He wanted to have her, taste her, devour every inch of her, and he couldn’t wait any longer. He rose to his feet, looking up into her eyes as he easily lifted her off the floor.

She placed both hands on his shoulders and smiled down at him with such radiance it almost blinded. It was a smile full of promised pleasures.

Caleb took three steps to his king-sized bed still mussed from the previous night when he’d spent tossing and turning with the dreams of her. But this was no dream. Not this time. This was unbelievably real. Her scent of exotic spices and silk filled his nostrils, driving the heat straight to his cock.

But he wasn’t about to rush it. He wanted to savour this last time with her … savour her.

He gently set her down on the mattress edge then dropped to his knees before her, palming the most beautiful left foot he’d ever seen. Gold rings circled lovely straight toes that had never seen the inside of a modern woman’s shoes. Bands and chains of gold wrapped around her ankles. He cupped her calf and traced his lips over her warm skin. As he reached her knees he gently pushed them apart.

Her smooth thighs smelled of sun-warmed sands. His cock strained in the confines of his jeans and he shifted to help relieve some of the pressure, bringing her mound within reach of his hungry mouth. He looked at her propped up on her elbows, watching him, her violet eyes dark with passion.

He rested her leg on his shoulder and inserted two fingers into her tight wet opening. A moan escaped her as she dropped onto her back, clenching the sheets with her fists and her dark hair flooding the white cotton sheets.

He leaned in and laved the erect nub as he slid his fingers in and out of her opening with a lazy rhythm—her thighs quivering against his ears with each stroke.

“Oh great celestial Sultan, please …” she groaned, raising her hips to give him better access.

He stopped and drew back to look upon her face. Her parted lips glistened as she moistened them with her small pink tongue. After another breath, she looked down at him, her features a mask of frustration and pure lust. He turned and nipped the inside of her thigh. Her hand clasped his head, guiding him back to her centre, to her tight, wet sex.

“Please, please …” she begged.

He lowered his head again.

Only Mari had ever given her the intimate kiss like this. Never a man. Not even Hussein. The stubble on Caleb’s chin grazed her in a way Mari’s soft skin hadn’t and his strokes were firmer, almost rougher. It was so different from the servant girl’s tender caresses, yet his masculine touch stoked her desire in ways Mari never could.

Heat grew heavy in her womb and spread out through her body, infusing every fibre of her being with such erotic bliss. The pressure built with each flick of his tongue, pushing her toward that delicious precipice. His big hands, slightly calloused from years of playing his instrument, gently spread her wider, opening her up to further ministrations, and every muscle in her legs, thighs and buttocks clenched tight as the pre-orgasm intensity curled around her sex.