The Djinn's Dilemma (6 page)

“Relax, just enjoy.” His whisper fluttered across her nakedness, tickling the small of her back.

“I’m trying,” she gasped back. “Just do me already.”

A sharp, stinging smack landed on her left buttock, setting off a sizzle of red, hot desire. “Good things are worth waiting for.”

Next he slid his head between her thighs and pulled her down on top. She tried to twist out of his grasp. “What are you doing?”

“Tasting you.” The movement of his lips, his hot breath against her most secret folds drove all thought from her head. Her fingers dove into his hair, grabbed fistfuls of his thick, soft waves. His tongue probed and stroked, exploring every fold and niche. Her soft mewling saturated the air.

Sarah, already very wet, now sat drenched. Her insides shifted like molten lava and she reveled in it.

“Jasmine,” he whispered. “Are you ready for me?”

“Oh yeah,” she replied. “Ready, wet and willing.”

He got behind her, guided his penis to the entry of her hungry opening and inched in. Slow and determined. He pulled out and pushed in again, his movements steadily increasing in strength.

She clenched and unclenched her pelvic muscles as he entered, making him moan. “Rukh,” she sighed. “Ride me hard.”

He grasped her hips and pumped harder.

“Is this all you got?” she asked.

He shoved himself hard, all the way inside her and leaned forward over her back. With one hand he grabbed a luscious, dangling breast and milked it. “Patience,” he whispered.

His other hand inched forward to the front of her slit, until his fingers found her clit. He teased and massaged it.

In that instant, she was Jasmine, only Jasmine. Her breath raged in her ears in harsh, ragged gulps. She couldn’t think. Sensation upon sensation quaked and crashed through her, setting off shock waves of intense pleasure.

Rukh grasped the nipple between thumb and two fingers and squeezed. Hard.

Pain and pleasure rocketed through her, wrenching a raw cry from her throat. His name. Jasmine came with a shudder that rocked her body. She sank down on her elbows, pushing her face down, sideways on the floor, and her hips up into his face. It was the submissive female position she knew, but didn’t care. The sensations, this letting go, felt good. That’s when he started pumping in and out of her with a feral intensity, his fingers digging into the flesh of her hips. “Is…that…hard…enough?” he bit out.

Her only replies were deep, primal noises that pushed out from the back of her throat.

For a moment, a long delicious moment, he and she became one organism. Their hearts raced together, their breaths mingled, their limbs moved in a choreography of passion.

They came almost together, this time him first, within seconds, with raucous cries of pleasure. They lay entwined and sweaty, totally spent. “Wow,” he gasped. She managed a smile.

Her last thought before sleep was wondering how he’d react in the morning. Would he push her out the door, out of his life, with empty promises? After all, his name meant “Wanderer.” A tearful sadness drifted through her. Now that she’d tasted him, how could she ever be satisfied with anything less?

Did she want him to stay? Yes. Ever since Rukh had come into her life, Sarah hadn’t had nightmares, hadn’t walked around afraid. Being in his presence allowed her respite from worries of real and otherworldly monsters, brought her innermost desires alive, made her feel like a woman. He filled her with a warm, deep conviction that she’d be safe and cherished. As long as he stayed with her.

Rukh woke the next morning to the warm sun bathing his naked skin and to the sight of Sarah’s smile. She lay next to him in the hotel bed, propped up on an elbow, watching him. At his smile, she leaned forward and shyly placed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“You are so beautiful in the morning light,” he said.

In response, she bent down and kissed him again. They explored each other with slow, gentle hands, touching every square inch of skin. All the while, staring into each other’s eyes. Their limbs twined together, skin against skin. He climbed on top. This time, they took it slow and languid. A naked waltz.

Afterwards, they lay in each other’s arms. “So what now?” he asked.

Sarah shrugged. “What do you want?”

Rukh looked at her a long while. “I want to make to love to you again, and again and again,” he said. “I want to get to know you better, taste the Caribbean in you.”

She gave a happy laugh. “I think we can grant your wish.”

The happiness in her voice, in her face, shook him, left him feeling lost and guilty. “I want to do all that, but I can’t,” he said.

“Why?” Her voice cracked. She sat up and grabbed a pillow, hugged it close to her chest. “Oh my God, you’re married.”

“What? No!” His arms tightened around her. “I…we have to talk.”

She blinked at him. “You have a boyfriend.”

“You want me to prove my manhood to you all over again?” He growled, pushing closer.

“Could be fun,” she giggled. “But you wanted to talk.”

Talk. Right. Trying to fish for information wasn’t working. Time to go for the direct approach. Rukh kissed her long and sweet, fearing that it might be the last kiss they shared. Then he sat back and let out a sigh. “Sarah, I am an assassin,” he said.

She threw him a puzzled look. “You mean assistant?” she said. “You told me yesterday.”

He shook his head, making his hair fly about his bare shoulders. “No, I mean assassin, as in a professional killer.”

At first, Sarah didn’t believe him. She laughed. “Are you, like, trying to scare me away?” she asked. “I mean if you are trying to get rid of me all you have to say is you aren’t interested.”

Rukh expelled an exasperated sigh and let go of her. He rose out of the bed and went to his laptop set on the desk. His back to Sarah, Rukh’s fingers ran through the procedures automatically—starting it up, opening his email, finding the relevant file. A series of clicks filled the silent room.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Sarah getting dressed. Would she lash out at him? Would she finally believe only to be repulsed by the fact that he was a professional killer? Would she fight or run? Something told him, she’d fight.

When he had her picture on-screen and the file open, Rukh called Sarah over. Once she saw her face staring back at her, Sarah didn’t argue but sat and read the screen. He sat on the bed and watched her, dread curdled in his stomach.

After a while, a time that seemed unbearably long, she turned wide, incredulous eyes to him. Eyes shining with unshed tears. “You were serious….”

He nodded.

“I am your target,” she said.

He nodded again.

“You work for the government.” She scrunched her face in confusion. “Homeland Security? The CIA?”

“Actually, I said that just to stop the questions,” he said. “I freelance.”

She shot out of her chair and skittered away from him. “Damn!”

They stared at each other for a long while. He sat between her and the door.

A series of emotions played across Sarah’s face before her expression finally registered, hurt.

“So our meeting, our date, our making love…all of that was a sham?” she asked. “All of it was a setup to the kill?”

“The first time I saw you, yes.” He sighed, realizing she had no clue about the newsroom. No point confusing matters trying to explain that now. “Every time afterwards, it’s because I wanted to help. I wanted to keep you safe.”

A bitter laugh escaped her. “Safe? Aren’t you the guy hired to kill me?”

Honesty was overrated. He told her the truth, gave her a chance, and now honesty was biting his ass.

“If I wanted you dead do you think I’d tell you, show you, all this?” he asked, his voice carefully controlled. “Why didn’t I kill you in your sleep?”

She responded with an angry shrug. “Maybe you’re sick,” she said. “Maybe you like to toy with people before you kill them.”

He flinched away from her. Silence lay between them like an invisible dying elephant. When she spoke again her voice was a broken half whisper. “I am such a fool,” she said. “Here you were playacting and I was falling in love.”

Love. Rukh’s fists clenched at his side. “I wasn’t playacting.”

She got right into his face. “How could you still go out with me, flirt and laugh with me, dance, make love with me, knowing about this death sentence?” Her voice broke, as she turned away. “How the hell could you do all that?”

Her turning away snapped his control, lit the fuse to his fears. He reared out of his chair and spun her around. “What the hell was I supposed to do? Say hi, someone’s trying to kill you, and oh, would you like to first have dinner with me?”

Fear that she was about to walk out the door and out of his life slammed into him, set his heart thundering. He couldn’t let that happen. Rukh pulled in deep breaths, forced himself to calm.

“I wanted us to have a chance and so I decided to be honest because I thought you deserved at least that.”

She stumbled toward the door and he turned away to face the picture hanging over the headboard. He couldn’t watch her walk out. Might as well play the sympathy card. Anything to keep her from leaving. “I shared a secret that could get me imprisoned, no, killed. Texas has a death penalty.”

The sound of the door opening and closing, soft snicks, echoed in his head loud and long. Guess it didn’t work. Rukh squared his shoulders, stiffened his spine, to keep himself from crumbling. He stood for a long time staring at the picture. He remembered it was something pretty and soothing, but at that moment it was nothing but a blur of different colors. Pain crushed his every pore. So this is what being in love felt like. Heaven and hell.

Rukh didn’t know how much time—seconds or hours—had passed, he didn’t know if she’d left or not, he didn’t even know who he was anymore.

Footsteps approached him. Rukh didn’t turn or move, just stood there and waited for whatever was coming.

“Why? Why did you tell me?” Sarah asked.

“Because you made me feel things I’ve never felt,” he said, hanging his head in shame.

“I need to know,” she said. “There are so many jobs out there. Why kill?”

“I sort of grew up in it, and was good at it,” he said.

“The deaths never bothered you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be very good at my job if it did.”

She folded her arms under her breasts. “I ask you an important question, and you quote me
Casino Royale
?”

He was messing this up. Bad. “I’m sorry, but believe me I just want to keep you safe.”

“I felt ambushed and it hurt,” she said, her eyes shimmering with tears. After a long while, she shook her head. “But I believe you.”

He gathered her in his arms then and kissed the top of her head.

They decided to work together. Time was running out, since his client expected Sarah to be dead by Thursday. Tomorrow.

“But who’d hate me enough to want me dead?” Sarah said. “I really can’t think of anyone.”

“It may not be about hate at all, but desperation.” Rukh got up and stretched. “I seriously think all this has something to do with your work. So what do you have going on at the paper?”

Her gaze slipped. “Um, not much I can talk about…yet,” she said.

Rukh sat down opposite her and fixed her with a stern look. “This is not the time for ethical debates.”

Sarah gnawed her lower lip, almost driving him insane. “It’s not that, it’s just that the story hasn’t been published yet and journalists don’t talk about unpublished work.” She shoved her fingers through her hair, making the curls stretch and bounce back.

“Jasmine!” Rukh growled out curses underneath his breath. “Someone is trying to kill you.”

Sarah wrapped her arms around herself. “I know.” She closed her eyes and faced all her fears and worries. Then she looked at him. “I’m writing about the governor.”

Apparently, the governor of Texas—happily married to a pretty, blonde wife—was having an affair…with a man. Not only that, the lover had been appointed to head the Texas Department of Transportation. Interestingly, many of the contracts were being awarded to friends of this lover, and his friends and family were buying up land wherever major roadways were being developed.

While many dummy corporations and layers of bureaucratic paperwork covered up any direct connections, Sarah had spent months researching and talking to sources. She now had phone records, business records, cell phone photographs, marriage records, property records and bank balances proving the story and proving that a lot of the money generated by this corruption was finding its way into the governor’s war chest for the upcoming presidential race.

Rukh let out a whistle. “That’s a hell of a story.”

“Yeah, I worked hard to bring it all together,” Sarah said. “I just have to tie up a few odds and ends. It’s going to be published this Sunday.”

It was just Wednesday.

“No one knows about the story, so we are going to make a big splash with it,” she continued. “We’ll be the ones breaking it.” A proud smile appeared and disappeared from her face when she caught his expression.

Oh, someone knew about it all right, Rukh thought. Someone who figured with Sarah dead, the story was dead too. Of course, if the story was almost complete, the editor could still run it. He would, if he were the editor. “Have you turned it in to your editor yet?”

She shook her head. “I’m paranoid. I like to tweak the story until the very last second of deadline. Make sure it’s perfect.”

Seemed like his client also knew the woman. Hence the Thursday deadline. “So where is this story?”

“On a zip drive, in my purse…” Her face lost all color, as she turned to stare at her bag tossed on the floor near the door. “That’s what those guys were after…” She turned terror-wide eyes on to him. “You said the first time you saw me was a setup.”

Oh shit. “That wasn’t the first time I saw you,” he said. Nausea churned in his gut. Now didn’t seem the right time to spring the Djinn explanation on her. Her nerves seemed brittle and fragile as spun glass. Shit. Shit. Shit. “The first time I saw you, I was hidden. In fact, I’d planned to stay hidden, but those two hoodlums showed up and things changed.”