All Bottled Up (7 page)

“So…” she slid the tip of the prawn into her mouth and sucked the sauce off with a popping sound, “…this lesson isn’t about conversation?” The prawns came to rest on Jerod’s plate and he picked one up with his fingers and popped it into his mouth, making sure to lick the sauce from his fingers. “That’s right.” Determined to beat Jerod at his own game, Viola dipped her finger into the wine glass, getting a large drop to cling to the tip. She brought it to her lips and stuck her 60

tongue out so its tip captured the drop as it fell. Closing her eyes, she made sure to let out a little moan of pleasure before she looked at him again.

“So, I’m supposed to be flirting? See if I have the skills to win Bill over?” She watched as he shifted in his seat, but she couldn’t be sure if it was a result of her actions. Up the ante. That’s what she needed to do. Without letting on what she was doing, Viola slipped her right shoe off her foot. Slowly, she straightened her leg until her foot found its mark—Jerod’s thigh.

He stiffened immediately, but Jerod must have sensed the impending approach of the waiter, because he leaned in and whispered to her. “You’re being very naughty.”

“Bill doesn’t like naughty?” She began to stroke the outside of his knee and upper thigh with her toes.

“Bill always orders for his date. He thinks it shows he’s a take charge type of guy and it will show his good taste.”

Viola leaned in also, kept her toes busy switching to the inside of his thigh.

“I trust the good taste of my date.” She smiled and licked up the length of her fork, getting the last of the tomato sauce.

He was closer to her than she realized. With her leaning forward, her toes brushed against his swollen cock. She blushed when she realized what she’d touched. Her foot dropped to the floor as her gaping mouth snapped shut.

Jerod shifted in his seat, pulling back an inch. “Minx.”

“I didn’t know genies could get a hard-on.” She couldn’t believe she’d said that.

“What made you think we couldn’t?”

Good question
. “I didn’t realize you were human.” Viola felt the tickle of invisible fingers stroking her leg above her knee. She reached down to smack it away, but realized both his hands were on the table. Jerod chuckled and winked at her.

“Little bit of human, and a whole lot of magic.” Their banter stopped the moment their waiter entered hearing distance. He smiled a big toothy grin when he reached their table.

61

“You two look like you’re enjoying yourselves.” Viola smiled back. “We are, thank you.”

Despite Jerod threatening to order for her, he didn’t, which meant she had to make a decision. After a few moments of deliberation, she picked the grilled ginger mahi mahi.

Jerod choose a steak, rare.

“Very good. Enjoy your drinks.” He disappeared to the kitchen.

“He looks very happy tonight,” she said, making sure he was watching when she licked a drop of her wine off the outside of the glass.

“He thinks we’re in love.”

Jerod chuckled as she fought not to choke on her drink a second time.

“What?” she asked, half coughing.

“The two of us, in a secluded booth. It’s a natural assumption.” Viola felt her face warm, though she wasn’t sure if it was from his words, or from the second glass of wine she’d finished. Her head tingled as the alcohol began to work its way through her food-deprived body. What it did was give her courage to play along.

She dipped her finger into the wine, brought it to her lips, and sucked the drop off.

She then lazily drew a line down her lips, along her neck, to rest on her chest at the dip of cleavage.

“So, teacher, what would Bill want to do at this point?” It somehow felt wrong to bring up Bill’s name. But he was the reason she was here with Jerod after all. And Jerod didn’t seem to mind. His eyes were currently following her finger on its sensual journey of her neck.

“Bill would want your finger to go lower,” he said, his accent sounding heavier.

She got a chill of pleasure from listening to him. The exotic sound of his voice was an unexpected turn on. Something she’d never known about herself before.

“Viola.”

Her eyes flicked over his shoulder to see where the waiter was.

“No one can see you.” He sounded urgent. “Undo the button.” Who was she to argue with a genie? It only took a little pressure for her finger to 62

release the button from its confines. Her skin was warm, her nail felt good as she grazed the sensitive skin. She felt bold. She never felt bold. Viola continued on and undid the third button.

Jerod sucked in a short breath and watched as she played with the top of her breast.

Her finger felt foreign and thrilling at once.

“Bill would like that.” His whisper held a raw edge to it.

“Do you?”

Her question clearly caught him off guard as he straightened in his chair. With graceful speed, he moved his chair beside hers before she knew what was going on. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled it underneath the table. She found her hand in direct contact with his engorged cock.

“Does that answer your question?”

She flexed her fingers around him, but was at a loss for what to do next. They were in a restaurant, for God’s sake.

“You’re…”

“When I am in your world, I take human form. My body functions as it did before I was cursed. I always could appreciate beauty when I saw it.”
And how can a lady argue against that?

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You do that often. It makes you different from my previous masters.”

“Do what?”

“Show gratitude.”

She felt his cock swell, pulse with blood under her touch. When he released her wrist, she pulled her hand away, but didn’t remove it completely, resting it on his knee.

He felt so warm, inviting, it was a temptation she’d never been faced with before. One she definitely wanted to explore.

Viola bit on her bottom lip as she tried to find the right words. “How can I not show gratitude for what you are doing for me? You’ve given me so much in such a short period of time. I look different, I even feel different. It’s amazing.” 63

“The waiter is coming,” he said, but didn’t move. “I should return to my seat to give you more room to eat.”

“Okay.”

He still didn’t move. Instead he picked up her hand and kissed it. In a flash he was back in his original spot.

“Drink your wine, darling.”

Viola couldn’t keep up. He had her so worked up, she thought she would burst.

Before she could say anything else, Jerod flicked his finger and the buttons on her shirt redid themselves.

“No sense in giving him a show.”

With the steaming meal placed before them, their conversation died down. Viola concentrated on her fish and hoped she could sort out her emotions before the meal was done. She loved Bill. It was only natural that she’d project some of those emotions onto Jerod. He was, after all, showing her how to seduce the man. It would stand to reason she’d feel something for him as a result of all they were going through.
Wouldn’t it?

After supper, Jerod waved his fingers and made a sizable stack of bills appear on the table.

“That should cover things nicely.”

Viola gasped. She’s never seen that much money in any one place at the same time.

“Ah…yeah. Nice tip.”

“He earned it. He didn’t flirt with you once.” She giggled as they left the restaurant together. As soon as they reached the night air, Viola shivered. “I didn’t think it got this cold here at night.” She heard him snap his fingers and out of nowhere a white knit shawl appeared in his hands. He took great care to drape it over her shoulders.

“We should get you back to your room. I would hate for you to get a summer cold.”

“Is that what Bill would do? Walk me back?” She couldn’t resist the urge to tease him.

Unfortunately, Jerod didn’t look amused.

64

“Not exactly. He would drive you home in his Ford and make advances toward you the entire time. Which reminds me of another lesson I need to teach you.”

“Rebuking his advances?”

He spun her around so fast she had to throw her arm up against his chest to prevent her from losing her balance.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “No. Lesson five.” Her mind was a whirlwind trying to remember the order of the lessons he’d outline at dinner. “Attitude?”

“Kissing.”

Her mouth suddenly dried. She had to run her tongue over her lips to moisten them.

“What happened to lesson two and four?”

“I’m changing the curriculum.”

“You don’t like how I kiss?” she said, sounding more juvenile than she wanted.

“There’s always room for improvement.”

His hand slid up her arm, under her shawl and across her shoulder, until it rested at the base of her neck. He rubbed his thumb over her pulse line, which made her heart beat even faster.

“I think we need to change the setting.”

He snapped his fingers and they were standing in her resort bedroom.

“That’s better.”

Her chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. “Why did you do that? Someone might have seen us disappear.”

“That’s the wonderful thing about humans. They discount the impossible as a trick of the eyes.” He looked around and made a tsking sound with his mouth.

“Bill wouldn’t approve of this. We need to make a few changes to improve the atmosphere.”

He snapped them again and the room filled with candles. She gasped. The glow they produced was stunning. Shadows reached long and far, dancing on the walls to the rhythm of the ocean waves.

65

Viola noticed he didn’t do anything this time, but suddenly the bright floral comforter was replaced with crimson satin sheets, littered with rose petals. Music filled the air, a light harmony of instruments that sounded like they came from the earth itself.

It made Viola sway gently to the sound.

“Better.”

“Amazing.”

Jerod pursed his lips and examined his handiwork. “It’s still missing something.

What would Bill do?”

Viola laughed. She doubted Bill would think of any of this. Everything about the room glowed a warm, inviting welcome. It was like a dream. Like Jerod.

“Now I know.” Jerod smiled and snapped his fingers again.

A bottle of wine and two glasses appeared on the side table.

“You do that,” she snapped her fingers, “for effect. Don’t you?”

“I find it makes my masters more comfortable if they know when something is coming. Otherwise they tend to do this.”

Viola shouted in surprise when she felt her body moving across the floor toward him.

It took a second, but her body finally relaxed as she drew closer to him, but not quite touching. “Cute.”

“I did warn you.”

She was within an arm’s reach of him. A gentle breeze blew in from the ocean sending a ripple of shadows as the candles flickered.

“So this is my next lesson?”

“Kissing is very important to Bill. I want to make sure you are ready for when it happens,” Jerod said, his voice growing deeper, his eyes locked on hers.

Viola felt a shiver of desire shoot down her spine. Her body felt like an electric current had charged it and she needed to release it back into the ground. She needed to feel what it was like, just once, to have an attractive man want to kiss her. The special way she’d heard the other women talk about in the lunchroom.

“I wouldn’t want to disappoint Bill. I better practice.” 66

Without moving, Jerod was suddenly by her side. He wasn’t touching her, not yet.

She could tell he was trying to keep things playful. But that side of things was quickly losing its appeal. She really,
really
wanted to get this lesson going.

“So now what?”

She had to fight the urge to touch him. She curled her fingers into the palms of her hands to help. Her patience was rewarded when he repeated his earlier action of caressing her arm. When his hand traveled up and across her shoulder, Viola moaned.

“You’re very sensitive there, aren’t you?”

He continued his exploration, his fingers caressing her neck, until she felt his fingers massage little circles into her hair. Her eyes closed and her body began to relax.

“The secret to being a good kisser is to let the excitement of the moment wrap you up.”

“I think I can do that.”

She was so wrapped up her body was about to explode from the pressure. She saw his desire etched on every inch of his body. He wanted her—and she wasn’t about to say no.

Jerod’s eyes were dark pools of black, the crystal blue of his irises all but gone.

“A good kisser uses her whole body. Ever last fiber of her being should be focused on the contact of lips on lips. Do you think you can do that, Viola?” She couldn’t take anymore.

“Kiss me.” The words were out of her before she stopped to think about them.

“Is that a wish?”

“No. A request.”

She heard him growl. A very primitive-sounding growl. One that turned her on more than anything else.

“Yes, Mistress.”

He stepped close, his body pressed hard against hers. His exotic scent was everywhere, washing over her so much she could almost taste it. It wasn’t until he increased the pressure on her neck, pulling her closer, that her body melted.