djinn wars 02 - taken (32 page)

Jace and I took our food over to the little table by the window and sat down, eating in companionable silence while we watched a playful wind blow through the courtyard outside, sending little flurries of snow fluttering into the air. The meal had something of the feeling of a ritual. We’d eaten together many times before, but this particular breaking of bread seemed to renew and reestablish our relationship, to bring us back together, sealing the djinn and Chosen bond.

Once he’d finished his sandwich, and the small bowl of sliced apples that had gone with it, Jace wiped his mouth with a napkin. “And you don’t mind?”

“Don’t mind what?” I asked, wondering what he was driving at. I’d been about to pick up a slice of apple but paused, something in his expression stopping me.

“That I am…not the man you fell in love with. Not precisely, anyway.”

I met his gaze squarely. Yes, there were many similarities in his appearance to Jason Little River, but Jasreel was not the same person. I’d already begun to catalogue the differences, to recognize them for what they were, and then to put them aside. So what if the shape of his jaw was slightly different, or the arch of his brows? Those were all trivialities. They weren’t Jace. I’d never known Jason Little River, not the real one. I’d only known Jace, wearing Jason’s appearance. But the person inside?

That hadn’t changed.

“You are exactly the man I fell in love with, Jasreel.” My voice was calm, the use of his full name deliberate. Despite my going to Los Alamos to find him, despite everything we’d both been through, it seemed he still had his doubts.

I could think of only one way to convince him that nothing between us had changed. Not really.

Rising from my seat, I reached out to him, and he took my hands and stood as well. Now that he was no longer under the influence of one of Miles Odekirk’s devices, his fingers were as warm as I remembered, strong and sure as they closed around mine.

He had to be just a little taller in his true form; I realized that I had to go up on my tiptoes to touch my lips to his. And God, the taste of him, sweetness of apples, the heat of his mouth, the strength and power in that body as it pressed against mine. The clothes he’d been given were djinn garments, loose robe and full pants, and through the silky fabric I could feel the hardness of his arousal, the size of him. That seemed to be a little larger as well.

I decided I needed to find out for myself.

The pants had a drawstring, and I loosened it as I sank down on my knees, taking him into my mouth, knowing somehow that this was the best way to show him exactly how much I wanted him, that I felt no need to restrain myself. His hands knotted in my hair as he let out a groan, and I moaned a little as well, a soft guttural sound low in my throat that reverberated against his shaft, awakening an echo in his own chest. Then he sighed.

“Jessica….”

Warm heat pulsed between my legs as I suckled him. Yes, he was bigger. Not by a lot, but enough that I noticed. Enough that I shivered at the thought of him inside me.

He must have felt that tremor, because he gently withdrew from my mouth and took me by the arms, raising me so he could kiss me again, his lips closing on my tongue in an echo of the way I’d been sucking him just a moment earlier. And then my feet left the floor as he held me and we hovered in the air, which felt far warmer than it should have, even with a fire blazing away in the hearth.

“Is this how the djinn make love?” I whispered. Maybe I should have been frightened, floating several feet above the ground like that, but somehow I couldn’t be. Not with Jace holding me.

“It’s how I want to make love to you,” he said.

Warm winds seemed to wrap around me, caressing me, and somehow my clothes were pulled away, drifting down to the floor. The silky heat of Jace’s flesh touched my bare skin, and just that brush of body against body was enough to make me cry out.

But of course that was only the beginning. His mouth closed on my nipple, and his hand stroked its way up my thigh, fingers at last sinking into me, stroking me, touching me in that way only he knew how.

The orgasm came hard and fast. I clenched around him, moaning, and while the tremors were still shivering their way through my body, he pushed himself into me. I gasped, clutching the heavy muscles of his arms to steady myself, feeling how he filled me, so thick, so strong. And we found our rhythm again, floating there, no bed to constrain us, no gravity to tell us which position we should assume next, only the need driving us together, hanging on to one another as if the other person was the only real thing in the universe.

I could tell when he was close, as the gentle, warm winds blowing around us increased their speed, whipping at my hair even as he thrust into me. And then a groan so deep it could have been a rumble of thunder, and he let go, the heat of his orgasm spilling into me, while I came as well, my legs wrapped around his rock-hard thighs, pushing him even deeper as I cried out in a release I’d been craving for weeks, one I wasn’t sure I would ever have again.

Softly we descended, landing on the bed. For a long while we only held one another, neither of us wanting to let go of the moment, to suffer yet another separation. But at last I pulled away just a little, mostly so I could look into his face, stare at Jasreel’s features in the aftermath of his climax, and memorize his expression just as I’d memorized Jace’s before.

He reached out to cup my cheek, fingers tracing the contours of my face. “You are so very real,” he said. “So beautiful. So strong.”

“No,” I demurred, but he shook his head.

“You are, Jessica. To me, you are perfection itself. While they were keeping me prisoner, I kept thinking of you. Remembering you, our time together…it’s what kept me sane. From time to time I did wonder if my memory was turning you into something you were not, but now that you’re here with me, I realize those memories were only a pale imitation of the woman you truly are.”

Heat flooded my cheeks. I wasn’t used to being praised in such a fashion, and I didn’t know what to say in response. A crack — “you’re not so bad yourself” — would have been a reply the old Jessica might have made, but I couldn’t do that now. Not when he was staring at me with those earnest dark eyes, his soul seemingly laid bare to me.

“I love you, Jace,” I said. “I never — I never thought I could feel this way about someone. Those people in Los Alamos…they think I’m a traitor to my own kind. But they don’t know you. If they did, they’d know how good you are, how amazing. How perfect.”

He pulled me against him, his mouth brushing against mine. Need pulsed in me again, but I ignored it. We’d had our moment, and would have another soon enough, I was sure. Now, though, I wanted to be here, held in his arms, feeling safe and comforted in a way I’d thought I never would be again, as he laid his cheek against mine and stroked my hair.

For some reason, I blurted, “I gave our goats away.”

His hand stilled on my hair. “What?”

“When I went to Los Alamos. Evony and I thought maybe they’d be more likely to take us in if we brought them gifts, so we took the goats and the chickens. I’m sorry.”

For a long moment, Jasreel didn’t reply, and I worried that I might have upset him with that revelation. After all, he’d put a lot of work into taking care of the animals, building shelters for them, feeding them. But then he said, voice amused, “Beloved, I doubt those were the only goats and chickens in New Mexico.”

“Well, true, but — ”

“And they would not have survived on their own. At least now they’re someplace where they’re valued and taken care of.”

I had to hope that was the case. The goats were worth far more as milk producers than as meat animals, and maybe the chickens were, too. I had a feeling that Captain Margolis wouldn’t scruple at chopping the head off a hen if she stopped laying, though.

“Thank you, Jace,” I said simply, but he seemed to understand.

“I can’t fault you for doing what you thought was best. And no doubt they have plenty of animals here in Taos, so perhaps they’re doing more good in Los Alamos anyway.”

Smiling, I shifted in his arms so I was gazing up into those dark, dark eyes of his. “Are you sure you’re a djinn?”

An eyebrow lifted. “What else would I be?”

“Well, when you make statements like that, I have to start wondering whether you’re some sort of saint instead.”

The crinkles around his eyes deepened as he smiled back at me. “No, Jessica, I am most assuredly not a saint. And I realize that most of the people in Los Alamos probably have no idea what Margolis has actually been doing. They just want to live, to be someplace where they can feel safe after the world they knew was torn from them so suddenly. I can’t begrudge them something that might help them to live, not when we have plenty here in Taos.”

I hadn’t thought I could love him more than I already did, but in that moment it felt as if something inside me gave way, aching for him, for all that he’d given me…and others, if they would just let him. How he could even be of the same race as those who’d destroyed most of humanity, I didn’t know. Certainly Zahrias hadn’t exhibited many of the same characteristics. And as for the djinn who were out hunting down the human race’s few remaining members…well, I’d count myself lucky if I never had to encounter any of them.

“You’re being a lot more charitable than I would if our situations were reversed,” I said after a long pause. “Especially considering what they did to Natila.”

Jasreel shut his eyes for a few seconds, long black lashes sweeping against his high cheekbones. Then he opened them and gave me a piercing look. “‘They’ did not do that to Natila. Captain Margolis and Miles Odekirk…and their henchmen…did. Rest assured that if I should ever encounter either of those two again, they will be made to pay the price for the crime they committed.”

Strong words, said with conviction. I didn’t bother to point out that if Odekirk’s devices were still operating, then Jace wouldn’t have a lot of options when it came to giving the two men some frontier justice. Still, it was possible he might still get satisfaction one day. After all, we’d managed to capture one of those boxes, and if we were able to get it to give up some of its secrets…well, then the tables might turn for sure.

But that was all in the future. For now, I only wanted to be with Jace, think of Jace. I pushed myself up on one arm so I could kiss him again, and he seemed to understand, because he bent and brought his mouth to mine. Then it was just the two of us, the world shut away for the moment, so we could find healing in one another.

Right then, it was enough.

Chapter Seventeen

We stayed in our suite for hours, exploring one another, reacquainting ourselves with the way the other person touched, kissed, caressed. I’d been so caught up in the heat of our reunion that I hadn’t even stopped to think that I hadn’t taken one of my birth-control pills for several days now. They’d been left behind, along with the rest of my belongings, at the Los Alamos house.

I told Jace, and added in halting tones, “But maybe it doesn’t matter — maybe djinn and humans can’t have children?”

At once he folded me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “It is a very rare thing, but it has happened several times over the centuries. Also, among djinn, a conscious choice to have a child must be made. It is not something that happens by accident. So you need have no fears on that account — we would have to decide together to have a child, and even then….” He left the words trail off.

“I don’t have fears,” I protested, although as the words left my mouth, I tried not to think too hard about what that unfinished sentence meant. Was he trying to say that we might not have children, even sometime in the future, when the time was right? Better to leave that alone for now. My tone firm, I added, “I’d love to have a family with you, Jace. Only…maybe not just now.”

A blazing smile, and he kissed me again, this time on the mouth. “I could wish for nothing more. And we will make that decision together when the time comes. For now, though, you need have no worries about becoming with child unexpectedly.”

His kisses were enough to have me pull him close again, our bodies joining once more. It seemed that no matter what I did, I could never get enough of the sensation of his flesh against mine. Eventually, though, it was time for us to emerge, if for no other reason than it was almost past dinnertime, and we needed to see what we could scrounge from the kitchens.

“And I’d better check on Evony,” I told Jace after I’d gotten some food and fresh water for Dutchie. Luckily, the dog was used to our intimacies, and had slept by the fire through the whole thing, occasionally opening one eye to see whether we were done yet. “I don’t want her to think we’ve abandoned her.”

He only nodded, his expression somewhat distracted and grim. I could tell he was thinking that Evony probably wasn’t much in the mood to talk to me.