Chapter Sixteen

Genevieve

I lay with my eyes closed, although thanks to the swelling, I wasn't sure I could open them even if I'd possessed the energy. Every part of my body was in agony, and with each shaking breath I took, fiery pain shot through my dislocated shoulder. But it was nothing compared to the devastation that was laying waste to my heart and soul.

Comforting warmth spread up my leg from my ankle, reminding me of Roam's touch. My body began shaking with fresh sobs. He was gone.

The sweet warmth spread up to my hip, then across my belly. Maybe my mind was creating the illusion to help me cope with the loss. Keeping my eyes closed, I reached for the glow, pretending it was Roam, and he was there with me. That I wasn't alone.

I gasped in shock when the heat picked up speed, racing across my skin, then sinking deeper until it felt as though my blood pulsed with Roam's magic.

My heart raced and my breathing grew rough. This wasn't in my head. Opening my eyes, as far as the swelling would allow, I found I was no longer in darkness.

Purple dust swirled around me, reminding me of the day Roam had appeared and changed my life. Except it was different. Instead of the single shade of purple, every hue of purple and pink imaginable whirled around me. And the glitter had turned to twinkling stars that glowed as they danced in the air.

"Roam?" I whispered, voice hoarse from my sobs.

I'm here, he whispered in my mind. And better than ever.

What did that mean? The cloud began flexing and expanding, slowly taking the shape of a man.

My brain flashed to the childhood trauma I'd suffered after a certain sexy beast's glow-up did him dirty and he went from hot to not.

It didn't matter. I'd love Roam no matter what he looked like… worst case, maybe he'd be able to shift forms to the old one I'd fallen in love with occasionally for some bedroom fun.

His laughter came from the cloud, taking my breath away and caressing my aching heart. "I love your strange mind."

With a last flourish, the dust disappeared, leaving the man I loved with my entire being standing over me.

Roam appeared at my side, bending over me and gently wiping the wetness from my cheek.

"I tried to save you. I tried so hard." Tears slid down my cheeks and my throat tightened, this time a mix of regret and relief.

"My love, why did you put yourself through this?" A single tear slid down his cheek. "I felt your pain, and it tore me up, but I knew if I answered the summons, I would be forced to answer to someone else. I refused to live without you, but it broke me."

"And that's why I fought Barker. I love you too much to allow someone to use you. You deserve more," I whispered.

Roam's lips found mine in a kiss that curled my toes and caused my skin to flush, then cool. Surprised, I broke the kiss to touch my face and shoulder. My injuries were gone, and not even a hint of soreness had been left behind. He'd healed me.

"You are my everything. I love you, Roam. Now and forever."

"I love you with my entire being, and there is something I need to tell you." Roam pulled me into his arms.

Glancing toward the motionless bodies, I asked, "Can we go somewhere else? Please?"

"Absolutely."

"Wait!" I sighed and said, "Mom is probably worried. I need to tell her we're okay. And we should probably call the cops and wait for them to get here before we leave."

"It can wait." Roam stood, cradling me in his arms as though I weighed nothing.

"Crime scenes don't really wait." I chewed my lip, torn between needing to be held and reassured that he was safe, but not wanting to end up looking like the prime suspect in a triple homicide.

"They do if I bend time a bit." He winked at me. "I told you I was better than ever."

The next time I blinked, Roam was gently laying me on my back on a cloudlike comforter. I twisted my neck, trying to see where we were and caught my breath. We were in a cabin in the middle of a snowy dreamscape.

One entire wall of the cabin was glass, allowing me to watch as giant flakes of snow fell, covering the evergreen forest that stretched out in the gently sloping valley below us. The left wall was made entirely of mismatched stones, and held a crackling fire that cast the room in a romantic glow.

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

"I'm glad you like it." His eyes glowed that deep purple that spoke of his love, except they were different.

Catching his face between my hands, I pulled him down until our lips nearly touched. "Roam, there's green in your eyes."

"That's what I need to explain." He gently sucked my bottom lip, then reluctantly released it. "Genie, you made a wish."

My eyes widened. "You heard me?"

He nodded, not quite meeting my eyes. "And so did my magic. I'm not sure how literal you intended your words to be taken, but the djinn magic latched onto them and took it very seriously."

I scrunched up my nose and squinted at him. "Why do you look like that's something bad? You're here with me. I don't care how that happened."

Wrapping my legs around his waist, I pulled his body down on top of me and began kissing his bare chest. He'd nearly died, and I refused to risk it happening again before we had sex. That was a regret I didn't want to live with.

Roam groaned, and I felt his hardness press against me. "Genie, listen. The octopus thing."

"Mm-hm," I murmured, rolling my hips so that our bodies ground together.

"You are making it hard to think," he rasped out.

"Then spit it out quickly so I can feel you inside me. I don't want to wait any longer." I flicked his nipple with my tongue.

"I'm inside you."

I froze. Surely I'd know if he was inside me. Heck, I had very vivid memories of his length and girth in my mouth. Wanting to be sure, I snuck a quick glance between our bodies.

"Not like that," Roam snorted. "Believe me, you'll know when I'm inside you because you'll be screaming my name."

He pulled away from me, sitting up and putting distance between us so he could talk. "I was dying because I was no longer bound to the lamp anymore. You made a wish, and the magic took that, plus your open heart and love as you offering yourself as my anchor."

"Are you going to go inside me like you did your lamp? I mean, if that's part of the price I have to pay to have you here, I'll learn to deal. But it is a little weird." The mental image of rubbing my belly to make him appear had my lips twitching, even though that was definitely not the time for my weird sense of humor.

"No, the only time I'll be inside you is during sex. The magic is tying us together and flowing between our bodies. You can't use it like I can, but it's weaving through your DNA." He reached out, taking my hand. "Genie, there is no way to undo this without me dying. And because djinn are immortal, as long as I'm bound to you, my magic is going to keep your body from aging."

That took a minute to process. But it didn't matter. I would agree to anything to have the love of my life with me.

Climbing onto his lap, I straddled him. "So what you're saying is you're stuck with me forever?"

Roam's hands slid under my shirt to rest against my bare skin. I shivered.

"Since your magic accepted my offer to be your vessel, and your magic is flowing through me to keep me alive for you…" Another thought occurred to me and I went up on my knees to brush my lips against him, teasing us both. "Does that mean you own me now?"

"We belong to each other." Grabbing my waist, he spun us around and pinned me beneath him.

"Good," I whispered. "You can never leave me. I guess I'll just have to Djinn and bear it."

"Maybe it should be Djinn and bare it." Roam laughed and trailed his fingers down my body, causing my clothes to disappear at his touch. It was a nifty trick, as long as he didn't accidentally do it while we were grocery shopping or something.

"My love, nothing but death was ever going to take me. I told you I was yours forever," he chuckled, his hot breath teasing the skin between my breasts. "Tonight just made it official."

Happiness burst inside me. I would never be alone again.

"Enough talking. I'm dying to know what it feels like to have a djinn claim every part of my body as his."

Roam's eyes lit with lust. "You have no idea how much I've thought about this," he whispered, dipping his head to lick and kiss my breast.

"I'm pretty sure I do. In fact, I'm beginning to think I want it more since you seem more interested in talking—" My sarcasm got me exactly what I wanted.

Roam pressed the head of his thick erection against my soaked entrance. He shifted his weight to his left arm to keep from squishing me under his large frame.

His right palm moved to settle on my lower back, just above my butt, and he used it to hold me against him as he slowly pressed inside. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing as he stretched my tight heat.

My body wasn't accustomed to accepting something of his size, and despite how slick and aroused I was, it was hard not to squirm away.

Roam stopped moving, holding himself motionless. "My love, you have to relax your muscles."

"It will be fine. You can keep going." I'd been trying not to think about the pain because I didn't want him to know, but the stupid tremble in my voice gave away how uncomfortable I was.

"I won't risk hurting you." Roam placed a sweet kiss on my lips. "I'm going to make it feel better."

I opened my eyes. "No, I want our first time to be with your natural form."

He hesitated, then nodded. "I won't change the size, but I can do other things to increase your pleasure."

A delicious warmth rippled through my aching walls as his thick erection grew hotter. It was like having a heating pad on sore muscles and I immediately moaned in pleasure. When his right hand moved to brush against my clit, I trembled.

Looking at my lover, I took in the tenderness that shone in his eyes as he took care of me as his muscles rippled under the strain of resisting the urge to move inside me.

"You are the sexiest woman to ever walked this earth," he murmured, his eyes never looking away from mine.

"That's what you're supposed to say," I rasped, struggling to think of anything other than the sensations he caused everywhere he kissed and touched.

"It's the truth, Genevieve. You have no idea how hard it is not to have my hands on you twenty-four hours a day." His mouth kissed and sucked my needy breasts.

The pleasure of the heat, his finger stimulating me, his length filling me, and the love I could read in his eyes was more than I could take. I fell apart, crying out his name.

My hips bucked, and I gasped as it plunged him deep, hard and fast. Instead of pain, all I felt was pure pleasure.

Roam hissed as though in pain. "Genie. I didn't realize that was going to happen. You feel even more incredible than I'd imagined."

I barely heard him. My body had adjusted, and I wanted more. Rolling my hips against him, we moaned in pleasure.

"Make love to me," I whispered. "I want to be yours in every way possible."

That was all he needed to hear. Bracing himself on his elbows, Roam rolled against me, his rhythm sexy and reminding me of undulating waves. As he pulled back, his hard length stroked me in ways that had my eyes rolling back in my head, and then he'd thrust back inside, setting off an entirely different set of erotic sensation.

Far too quickly, I could feel my release reaching the point of no return. "Roam."

"Come for me," he commanded.

And I did.

"I love you!" I screamed as he grabbed my hips and thrust in time with the waves of pleasure crashing through me.

"It's only because of you I know what love is," he rasped. "You're squeezing me so tight, I can't hold back—"

His body stiffened and he wrapped an arm under me, holding me to him as he twitched inside me.

When he caught his breath, he kissed my lips and whispered, "I love you."

Every little move was exciting me all over again, but I wasn't about to tell him that. He'd think I was insatiable.

"I like that you're so sensitive to my touch." Roam rolled to his back, settling me on top of him without pulling out from inside me. "I need some time to recover, but let me show you a magic trick."

It was a weird time to start pulling rabbits out of hats or having me pick a card, but I was too in love to admit that.

Roam pinched my butt. "Not that kind of trick. I came up with this one after finding your vibrating worm drawer."

I didn't even blush. He had me far too curious about what he planned. The familiar heat of his magic warmed me where our bodies were joined.

Grabbing my hips, Roam lifted me, letting me seeing the thick raised ridges running down the front of his erection. Those ridges continued several inches, following the thin line of dark blue hair that ran up toward his stomach.

Roam's eyes glinted with devilish mischief as he lowered me, then rocked me forward and ground me down against him. The ridges provided friction in all the right places, and I nearly passed out at how incredible it felt.

My sexy djinn laughed. "I knew you'd enjoy this." He continued the steady rhythm, building my need to new heights.

I couldn't take it anymore and I begged, "Please, Roam."

"Tell me what you wish for." His hands gripping my hips kept me from taking matters into my own hands and finding my release.

His smile was teasing, but I saw the eagerness in his eyes. He was a djinn, and wishes were part of him. Just like writing your partner a love song, or baking their favorite dessert, this was an ability he wanted to use to make me smile.

Grinning in challenge, I purred, "I wish you'd stop teasing me and make me come so hard I lose my voice."

"With pleasure." He switched the pace so fast I barely had time to brace myself before I was seeing stars. "Now tell me who you belong to."

Once more I came apart, screaming his name until I couldn't speak at all.

"I will spend every day finding new ways to bring magic into your life." Roam rolled to his side, tucking my trembling body against his. "I love you, beautiful keeper of my heart."

The End