Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series by Marie Hall

you.”
    He cocked his head.
    “That man,” she flicked her wrist, “he’s not
you. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”
    But she was wrong. The man shoving his cock
into Nala’s writhing body was him, so was the man who’d chosen
dishonor over loyalty. “You do not yet know the rest of the story,
Paz.”
    “Why are you so obsessed with sharing this
with me? I don’t need to know, Jinni. Just like I’m sure you don’t
want to know about my sordid history with men.”
    To scrub my conscious. To release the
demons that have held me prisoner for years. To know that someone
knows me, the real me, and still chooses to stay by my side .
All those thoughts flitted through his head, but instead he said,
“Because I cannot pretend to be other than I am. Don’t you see,
hiding it is what’s causing me to fade.”
    He ran an angry hand down his form. “I am
weak, a pathetic miserable man and I cannot seem to stay away from
you. I know I should.”
    “No.”
    “Yes,” he gnashed his teeth, “Yes. You should
get back in your body, open your eyes and live, Paz. Live, find
your Todd. Do not do this to yourself. Do not wallow in this. If it
were truly your time, you would be gone. Don’t you understand
that?”
    He turned on his heels, marching back and
forth. She stood where he’d left her, wringing her pale blue hands
in front of her body. She was growing a brighter blue, deeper hued.
Not good. It meant she wasn’t fighting the death, wasn’t fighting
for her life. Why?
    “Why aren’t you fighting, Paz, why?” He
turned on her, his anger barely leashed. It churned and brewed in
his gut, made his breathing heavy, his vision foggy. “Why?”
    She glanced down at the wasted form on the
bed, a frown marring her smooth forehead. “Because if I leave, I’ll
never…” She bit her lip; tears shone in the corners of her
eyes.
    He turned his head. “I am not good for
you.”
    She scowled. “Don’t tell me what is and isn’t
good for me. My parents did it to me all their lives, told Richard
the same thing. Guess what, they were wrong. I loved them,” she
walked up to him, and then softly murmured, “but they were wrong.
Todd makes my brother happy. That’s all I want. I don’t know why I
feel so close to you, maybe because all that stupid stuff you feel
you have to hide behind in life doesn’t matter at this point. Maybe
because the luxury of flirting and dates, aren’t something we can
indulge in. I don’t know.” She gesticulated wildly. “All I do know,
is that when I look at you, I see my Todd. And I don’t want to
leave you.”
    A lone tear tracked down the side of her
nose.
    “Each moment you stay out of your body, you
get closer to that tunnel. Either way, Paz, you lose. Why would you
choose this? You are not supposed to die yet.”
    She shook her head. “But I’m not dying,
Jinni. I’m alive. You took me dancing on the stars. You showed me
the milky way, the birth of galaxies.” She laughed, a sultry sexy
sound that shivered down his spine and kicked him in the gut. “I’ve
seen a Kingdom I could never have imagined existed.”
    Paz cupped his cheek. She sighed and he
couldn’t feel a damn thing.
    “Finish the story, Jinni, if that’s what you
need to do. But I’m not leaving you. No matter what happens
next.”
     

Chapter 13
     
    Head in Nala’s lap, and entranced by the
hypnotic trickle of water in the marble fountain, Jinni nibbled the
grapes from off her feeding fingers. The hazy white glow of the
twin planets hanging high in the sky, gave the twilight setting an
ephemeral feel. The wind was ripe with the scent of flower blossoms
and fruit. Nesting birds chirped and sang a few yards away.
    The setting was one for lovers, and the
brief moment in each day that he always anticipated. Thirty minutes
in time that they could come together as one, laugh and talk, make
love, and dream.
    Red grape juice slid down his throat. With a
contented sigh, he closed his eyes.
    She