Marked (The Secrets of the Djinn)

by Bonnie Lamer

  I frown even though he can’t see me. “What?”

  He sits up and reaches for the light on the nightstand. I’m blinded when he turns it on and cover my eyes instinctually to shield them. “Was that necessary?” I ask.

  He chuckles. “Can’t handle your whiskey, huh?”

  “No.” I lie down on the bed again and squint at him. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

  He runs his fingers through his brown hair. “It turns out that since I didn’t send you behind the veil when I bound you, I can feel what you’re feeling. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s so I know if you’re plotting against me or something.”

  I laugh. “I’m not plotting against you.”

  His eyes meet mine. “I know. You were too busy doing other things.”

  My whiskey befuddled brain is slow on the uptake, but I eventually get it and suck in a panicky breath. “You knew what I was feeling when Roman was…” He lies back down and puts his hands behind his head. I’ll take that as a yes. Shit. “Zane, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Zane, I was drunk.” Why am I defending myself to him? It’s not his business what I do or don’t do with Roman. But for some reason, it’s important to me that he isn’t hurt by my actions. Is that because of the binding, too?

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  I can tell I’m not going to get through to him tonight and my head hurts too much to keep trying. I reach over and turn the light off. I’m starting to remember why I put so much effort into work instead of dating. I close my eyes and drift back to sleep.

  I’m so cold. This windowless room is so disorienting that I’m not even aware if it’s day or night. I haven’t seen a soul since I was locked in here. How long has it been? Days, weeks? All I know is that I can’t sit or lay on that hard mattress anymore. It’s like sleeping on the floor. I started to count my steps earlier as I paced back and forth, but I lost track hours ago. I haven’t seen a soul since I was locked in here. How long has it been?

  My hand goes to the mark on my neck and tears spring to my eyes again. I have been crying almost constantly since I found out that everything was a lie. I touch my side where his wife slashed at me in a fit of rage. It’s long healed, but the emotional pain it represents will linger forever. I am such a fool. Malik tried to warn me. I should have stayed by his side; comforted in his protection.

  The sound of a key turning in the lock startles me and I quickly sit down on the bed, careful to not move a muscle lest I be held in contempt. I haven’t eaten in days; could they finally be bringing me food and more water? The pail of water that was here when they locked me in here is almost gone.

  The door opens and the guard walks into the room. I am disappointed to see that he has no food, and his lips curl up into a cruel smile as he notes the frustration in my eyes. That immediately changes when I see Malik standing behind him.

  I rush from the bed and into his arms. The guard tries to separate us, but one look from Malik stops him. He gives a slight nod and backs out of the room.

  “Have you come to take me home?” I ask.

  He shakes his head. “I cannot.”

  The tears begin to flow again. “Am I to stay here, in this tiny little room forever? I will go mad!”

  Malik hugs me tighter. “My dear one, I wish you would have listened to me. You have no idea how deep your betrayal has cut me.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whisper through my tears and break our embrace, afraid he doesn’t want me to be so close to him. “What will become of me?”

  “I have persuaded the high council into exile rather than execution,” he says. His tone is harder than usual. He continues to relay my sentence for betraying not only him but our kind. All for a love that was never real, other than in my own stupid heart. “You will be sent beyond the veil and your memory will be erased. You will live amongst the humans as one of them.”

  “No!” I cry, dropping to my knees. “Please do not send me away!”

  Malik kneels down before me. “Skye, it is not my decision. You may have turned the tide of the war with your actions. The high council has made its ruling and we have to abide by it, no matter how painful it is. It was difficult to persuade them this was the best course of action.”

  I wipe at my tears, trying hard to be brave. “I know,” I sniff. “When must I leave?”

  “I have come to send you away.”

  I throw myself into his arms. “Malik, I’m scared.”

  His hand strokes my back gently. “I know you are, dear one. I know you are.”

  For the second night in a row, I wake to find Zane shaking me. “Skye, it’s just a dream,” he says, his voice breathless.

  I open my eyes and all the pain and grief from my dream remains with me. I throw myself into Zane’s arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “Shh, it’s okay. You have nothing to be sorry about.”

  His words of comfort mean so much to me, but he’s wrong. I have much to be sorry about. “This is all my fault. All my stupid, stupid fault. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been so foolish. I threw away everything that mattered for him, and it was all a lie.” I’m crying now like I was in my dream.

  “Shh,” Zane says again. He holds me tighter. “You have to stop, Skye. I’m not used to such strong female emotions,” he says with a half laugh.

  Oh shit. He can feel what I’m feeling. All the panic and sorrow brought back from my dream is coursing through him, as well. I disentangle myself from him and wipe away my tears. “I’m sorry.” I take a deep, shaky breath. “Zane, I know this is a lot to ask, but will you help me so I won’t make the same mistake?”

  I can’t see his face but I can tell he’s frowning. “What do you mean?”

  I take another breath. “Roman. I need you to help me. I don’t want to fall for him again. I will be his friend, but I can’t be his lover. I don’t want to be, but for some reason when he’s close to me, I can’t resist him. Is that because of my mark?”

  “Yes,” he growls. His hatred for Roman has just increased exponentially.

  I wipe away the last of my tears. “Will you help me?” I whisper.

  He’s quiet for so long I fear his answer will be no. Finally, he says, “Skye, I’m not sure how to do that without my own feelings getting in the way.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask stupidly.

  He sighs. “You know I’m attracted to you. I haven’t gone out of my way to hide it.”

  I smile even though he can’t see me. “Yes, I’ve noticed.”

  “Look, I don’t know how strong this binding is between us. The closer I get to you, the more I want you.”

  If I want his help, I need to confess something to him. “Zane, I don’t think we’re bound.” He’s quiet again. When I figure out he’s not going to say anything, I continue. “After you did the thing with the copper pot, I didn’t feel anything. When you told me to kiss you…I did it so no one would know that we weren’t bound.”

  I can feel his anger vibrating around him. “You let us believe it worked.”

  “Yes,” I whisper into the dark.

  “Were you ever going to tell me?”

  I can’t lie. “I don’t know.”

  “This doesn’t make sense. Why am I able to experience what you’re feeling if we’re not bound?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do with me being the Protector or something that made the binding go haywire?”

  “Or maybe I’m bound to you instead of the other way around.”

  I don’t even want to ponder that. “No, that can’t be it.”

  “Tell me to do something,” he growls, startling me with the anger that has returned to his voice.

  “Like what?”

  “Something that I wouldn’t want to do.”

  I’m scared to do that. What if he’s right and he is bound to me, not the other way around? But I owe him and we have to figure out what’s going on. “Um, okay,
” I have to think a minute. “Juggle the pillows.”

  “That’s idiotic,” he says, but I feel him rise from the bed and retrieve the pillows from the floor. He begins to juggle them. “Fuck,” he says harshly. “Can you tell me to stop now?”

  “Please stop.” I close my eyes and think about the horrible repercussions of this. Mrs. Gregori and Hank are going to kill me when Zane tells them.

  Zane sits back on the bed. “I can’t believe this.” After a moment, he says, “We can’t tell anybody about this until we figure out what happened.”

  I love him for saying that.

  Chapter 39 - Forgetting

  Zane lies back on the bed. “Why did you have to show up on this doorstep?”

  “Because your sister brought me here.”

  “That’s right. Remind me to kill her in the morning.”

  Good thing I know he doesn’t mean that. “She didn’t know.”

  Zane moves up the bed and leans back on the pillows he had tossed back on it. “I think this earns me the right to sleep on the bed instead of the floor.”

  I’m not so sure it does, but since he’s so calm about the situation, I’m not going to argue. “Okay.”

  I hear the zipper of his jeans and feel the bed move as he shimmies out of his pants and then removes his shirt. I crawl back under the covers and hope that he didn’t go commando today. That would be a bit much.

  On the other hand, maybe the way to get one man out of my head is to replace him with another. My attraction to Zane may not be quite as strong as my attraction to Roman, but it’s pretty damn close. He’s sexy, funny, and smart. He’s also willing to put his life on the line for me and he was the first one to stick up for me when it was discovered that Roman and I are djinn.

  Why do I have to talk myself into this? Before my car accident, I would have drooled all over Zane. Well, when I took my nose out of one of my medical books, anyway. This might not be the best time in the world to start a relationship, but I’m going into a battle that I may not survive. Do I want to die never having loved someone? Even though I’ve only known him a short time, I have a feeling that if I open myself up to Zane, I could easily fall in love with him. Even if I don’t, I bet I’d still be sexually satisfied, and it has been a very long time since that happened. I think it’s time to enjoy some things that I put on hold in my previous life.

  Zane rolls onto his side away from me. “Goodnight, Skye,” he says, settling himself in.

  I roll towards him and press my body against his. He is wearing boxers. I run my hand up and down his arm as I curl into him.

  “What are you doing?” he asks cautiously.

  “Make me forget.”

  “Come again?”

  “Make me not want anyone but you,” I purr in his ear. My hand moves to his hip and I feel him tense.

  “I don’t compete for women and I certainly won’t be second best,” he says, ice coating his words.

  “It’s not a competition. I don’t want to be ruled by this mark, which I think was what happened earlier with Roman. I was drunk and I let my guard down. But that’s not what I want. I’ve wanted you since you almost shot Brielle on the front porch.” That’s mostly true even if I hadn’t admitted it to myself before now. To make my words more meaningful, I move my hand to his thigh and his breath catches. “And I’m counting on you being the best, not second best.” To emphasize my words even more, my hand moves to where his boxers are now straining to hold him in place.

  Zane groans and rolls onto his back. “This is a terrible idea,” he says with absolutely no conviction in his voice. My hand continues to explore and I free him from the boxers. I grasp him firmly and move my hand up and down his shaft. I think he’s done arguing.

  He slips his arm under me and pulls me on top of him, claiming my mouth and pressing my satin clad hips against him. Not able to keep my hips still, I slide across him rhythmically and he growls deep in his throat. Leaving his lips, I kiss my way down his chest, licking and nipping until I reach his boxers. He is rock hard when my mouth reaches him and I run my tongue along his shaft slowly, teasing him until he’s panting. When my lips finally wrap around him and I take him deep into my mouth, his entire body is quivering.

  “Oh god, Skye,” he groans. In one smooth move, I am suddenly on my back with him above me. “You’re driving me fucking crazy.” His mouth is back on mine and his fingers feverishly work at getting the buttons on my pajama top undone. He practically tears them off in his rush to get it open.

  When his lips find my bare breast, it’s me panting. His mouth is masterful as his lips pull and tease and his tongue glides across my hard nipple. When I am just starting to feel that he’s neglecting the other breast, his mouth kisses a trail to it. My hand is in his hair, pressing him firmly against me as I wrap my legs around his waist.

  I want to feel him inside me, not just pressed against me. My hands fumble as I rid him of his boxers and he does the same with my pajama bottoms. But he’s not done teasing me yet. His hands are everywhere now, touching and teasing, and his mouth goes along for the ride. My body is on fire and I buck against him, raising my hips when his mouth finally goes where I need it. Considering it’s been a while since I had sex, I expected it to take a while until I climaxed, but I’m almost there already. My breathing is fast and shallow and my body is tensing, waiting for sweet release. I cry out in frustration when Zane lifts his head.

  I’m pacified when his mouth finds mine again and he shifts his body so he can finally join with mine. I’m more than ready. I pull him to me, wanting to finish the journey he started with his tongue and lips.

  He stops just before he enters me and drags his lips from mine. “Fuck,” he says harshly.

  “That’s the idea,” I say, trying to pull him back to me.

  He resists, moving his body away from me and pressing his forehead against mine. “We can’t,” he breathes, “I don’t have any condoms.”

  Oh hell, I was so wrapped up in what we were doing that birth control or protection never crossed my mind. Now that he’s reminded me, it’s my turn to groan in frustration. That makes him laugh and he kisses the tip of my nose.

  I’m not ready to give up yet. “Do you have any in your room?”

  He laughs again. “If I do they’re too old to use.”

  “I use the depo shot every three months, so pregnancy isn’t an issue. Is anything else?” I ask tentatively.

  I feel him smile. “I have a clean bill of health.” I probably shouldn’t, but I believe him.

  “Zane…”

  “Mmm?”

  “Fuck me.”

  I don’t have to ask twice. In one glorious thrust, he is deep inside me, filling me, buried in my warmth and wetness and I rise up to meet him. Oh god, he feels so good. His cock is thick and long and I cry out as he stretches me; as he slides back until he’s almost out and then buries himself again. I want to scream, I want to cry out his name over and over, but his mouth wisely covers mine, my cries muffled as his tongue matches his cock in rhythm, bringing me to heights I’ve never reached before.

  Just as I’m ready to come, Zane moves his lips to the mark on my neck and I clamp around him, drowning in pleasure. I think I scream. I most definitely come and I bring him with me, the spasms within me milking every last drop of his orgasm. His cries are buried in my hair, and his thrusts are hard and deep as he does the same for me. My orgasm keeps going and I beg him not to stop. He doesn’t. His cock is still hard inside me and he doesn’t stop fucking me until we both come again.

  Completely out of breath, Zane rolls onto his back, bringing me with him, tucked in at his side with my head on his chest that’s slick with sweat. I run my tongue along his salty skin and he shudders in pleasure. “Fuck, you are fucking amazing,” he pants. “Screw the djinn, you’re never leaving this bed again.”

  I laugh. “I think your family may have something to say about that.”

  “I don’t care.” He pulls me on top of him ag
ain and I squeal in surprise. “I don’t fucking care.” Then his mouth is back on mine and thoughts of anyone else flee both of our minds.

  Chapter 40 – Good Morning

  I wake to find that I am alone in my bed but I have a smile on my face. I was worried that I’d feel differently this morning than I did last night, but the smile spreads wider over my lips as I think of the night’s activities with Zane. I have absolutely no regrets.

  The shower is going in my bathroom. It’s nice to know he didn’t go far. Retrieving my pajama top from the floor, I slip my arms in and hold it closed in front me. The bathroom door is open, so I don’t think Zane was looking for privacy. I peek my head around the door and marvel at his naked glory through the shower door. His chest and abs might as well have been chiseled from stone. His ass is tight and round. His entire body is gorgeous. I allow my pajama top slide to the floor and decide to join him in the shower.