Page 68 of Mistaken

“I am not so sure about that,” he replied. “But I very much hope this is what you were thinking about now.”

He pulled her to him and their mouths met, hot, hungry, even as their bodies touched and she could feel him hard against her leg once again, as if she hadn’t just given him the mother of all orgasms only a moment before.

Clearly, djinn bounced back a lot faster than human men did.

But that was all right, because he pushed her down against the pillows, his mouth trailing along her belly down to her mound, until his tongue touched her and she let out a cry that was almost a scream, all of her thoughts and her need and her love focused on those amazing sensations swirling in her core.

She came only a moment later, her hands caught in his thick, longish hair as she rode out the climax, her breath coming in harsh pants. No time to recover, not really, because almost at once he shifted and she felt him pressing against her entrance.

Yes, he was big, but she was ready for him, her body crying out for him to join with her. He seemed to sense her need, because he pushed in at once.

She wrapped her legs around him, driving him in deeper, and now they were moving together, point and counterpoint, harmony and melody, so perfect, so utterly sublime, that she knew those times before had only been sex and nothing more.

This…this was love, the kind of love she hadn’t even known existed. How could she have ever sung of love when everything in her life before now had been a pale counterfeit of what she and Abdul shared?

She didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the glorious sensations flooding through her body, the way she knew another climax was on its way, bigger and better than even the ones from a few moments earlier.

It burst through her like the light of an exploding sun, shockwaves rippling along every nerve ending, every single atom of her being, even as Abdul also hit the edge and went over it, his heat filling her core, his breath harsh gasps.

They clung to one another for what felt like hours afterward, although Sarah couldn’t say for sure how long it had been.

Time didn’t matter, though. They were here together, and she loved him and he loved her. Everything else was just details.

He touched his lips to her cheek, a brush of gentle butterfly wings. “You are the most perfect thing I could have ever imagined.”

“So are you,” she whispered. Scarred and solitary and carrying too much of a burden for too long.

But not alone anymore.

She would never let him be alone.

Chapter20

Oddhow the world could change so completely in such a short amount of time. True, it had changed when Sarah first kissed him, but now — now that they had made love, had become one for a single ineffable moment that he could never have even comprehended before this past hour — everything was different.

Of course, they had attempted to be natural with one another afterward, had kissed and gone in the shower to clean up, then gotten dressed, but he knew his love for her before had been a weak thing compared to what it was now. It was a bright, hot star burning in his chest, the searing realization that he would do anything…anything at all…to make sure she was always safe and happy.

And that included reassuring her that the horses would make their way home without a problem and that all the picnic items they had left behind would be taken care of. Even though it might have seemed an anticlimax to some, they went out into the garden afterward to collect the fruit and vegetables they wanted for that night’s dinner. In a way, Abdul thought that was perfect, because to him it solidified their bond, let both of them know that passion would always be part of their existence, but that it was also all right to do the simple things as well.

Of course, that did not prevent them from returning to his bedroom after they were done in the garden, and for them to explore one another’s bodies all over again, in a more leisurely fashion this time, as if they both understood that there was no need for haste now.

Nor was there in their dinner preparation, or in the lovemaking that followed, this time lit not just by candlelight, but by the lightning flashes of a storm that had come in near sunset, bringing with it thunder and sudden rain.

Sarah slept afterward, but of course, he did not require slumber. He lay there for a while, listening to her soft breaths, and realized he was thirsty.

The simplest thing would have been to summon a glass of water, and yet some impulse made him slide out from under the sheets and gather up his pants, although he left his tunic behind. And when he went into the kitchen, he saw at once he was not alone, that one of the elders, Idris, stood there by the island.

Abdul stopped where he was, eyes narrowing. “Are you here to lecture me, elder? For I find that somewhat disingenuous of you, considering how you have taken a Chosen of your own.”

The space was dim, lit only by the digital clock on the cooktop, but djinn — or those adjacent to them — did not need much illumination to see well. Idris’s expression was somewhat rueful, and his voice sounded even enough as he replied, “No, you will get no lecture from me. We all know that you are not subject to our whims in the way that other djinn are. It is only…have you truly considered what it means to bring this woman into your life?”

It meant coming alive after so many centuries of merely existing, nothing more. It meant being glad to feel the sunshine on his face, to know that the woman he loved cared nothing about his surface scars, for she had somehow looked deep into his soul and seen something worth saving.

“Did you consider that same thing when you made Amber McCoy your Chosen?”

Idris smiled. “Of course I did…and I fought against what I knew was in my heart, for I could not see how it was possible that an elder of the djinn might bestow his heart upon a mortal. But at least I had seen how the djinn of the One Thousand had made it work with their human partners, so I believe I had more context in evaluating the situation than you, who have always lived apart from all others.”

No more than the truth, Abdul supposed, and yet he found he did not much appreciate the elder’s argument. “This was not something I sought,” he said, then paused, eyes narrowing. “How is it that you know anything of what has passed between Sarah and myself when you know better than to interfere in my life?”