Sexy In A Bottle: A More Than Men Novella Read Free Page B

grant you three wishes."
    " Three wishes," she repeated. "Like the genie in the lamp?"
    " Yes!" he said, finally seeming to make progress with his mistress. Surely she would start making her wishes now. "I am a genie, if you are more familiar with that word. It is the same."
    " Where’s your lamp?"
    " I do not have a lamp. When a djinn is trapped by a sorcerer, they are confined in a prison made of pure metal because it is one thing we cannot escape. A gold lamp would be a good choice, as it was used in the stories. Or in my case, a stone set into gold. It serves the same purpose."
    Valerie sat back in her seat. The frown was gone, but his mistress still looked anything but happy. She looked tired. Worn down.
    " Shall I demonstrate my powers for you? Prove to you that I am who I say?"
    Her pink lips twisted in consideration for a moment before she shook her head. "Maybe later," she said. With that she reached out to pat his hand and took her empty bowl to the sink.
     
     

 
    Chapter Two
     
     
    Well, so much for her first plan.
    Valerie thrust the bowls and plates into the hot, sudsy water and scrubbed the remains of the food from them. She hadn’t sat still since their bizarre discussion. Raj remained at the table, watching her silently as she worked. She’d put the leftover soup into containers in the fridge, wrapped up the extra bread, washed the pots and pans and now had turned to the last of the dinner dishes.
    She had hoped warm clothes and a hearty meal might bring her guest to his senses. It hadn’t worked. He seemed more insistent than ever that he was a magical genie. Somehow she couldn’t reconcile the hard, dark man beside her with the singing, dancing blue genie of her childhood.
    He wanted to prove it to her, but she wasn’t about to take the bait.
    Valerie was no mental health expert, but she’d spent two years alone on this island and she’d watched her fair share of true crime shows. Challenging someone’s delusion could be harmful or even dangerous. If this guy wanted to believe he was a genie, that was fine. But if he tried to grant her wish and failed, she didn’t want to be trapped on the island with a guy losing touch with his version of reality.
    Raj didn’t seem dangerous. So far he’d been nothing but polite and grateful for what she offered him. He complimented her mediocre cooking, which meant he had been hard up for good food for a while. She would’ve sent a red flag up to the coast guard if she thought he would be a problem. But the weather was getting worse by the minute. There might be people out on the water that truly needed saving. She wasn’t about to waste their time and potentially put them out on rough waters because this guy wanted to grant her wishes.
    It didn’t mean she wouldn’t give Benny a ring, just in case.
    When she finished the dishes, she grabbed her cell phone off the coffee table. "I need to make a call. I’ll be right back."
    Raj nodded, remaining in his seat as she went into her bedroom for privacy. The call was picked up on the second ring, which didn’t bode well. If Benny was out on the water, he was usually slow to answer.
    "Hey, Val. Are you feeling okay?"
    Apparently she didn’t make enough casual calls to Benny. She called the day before he would come out to let her know what supplies she needed. Aside from that, her calls tended to be for emergencies. The catastrophic blowout her doctor had warned her about hadn’t happened yet. But she’d had some close calls. Chest pains. Shortness of breath. When that happened, she called Benny. She’d rather die in a hospital then have him find her dead and bloated in the living room after a week of decomposition. She wouldn’t burden him with that.
    " I’m fine. Listen, are you still out on the water?"
    " No. The winds got too high for my boat, so I had to drop the last of my traps and head back in. I started feeling seasick, so I headed to the pub to ease my stomach."
    Somehow Valerie wasn’t