Second Chances: A Romance Writers of America Collection (Stark World 2.50)

"It wasn't about you," she finally admitted, because beginning at the beginning was impossible. "It was about Alejandro."

"What?" He pulled his chair around to face hers, and dropped into it. Stared at her with those lovely golden eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"He had the lamp. I'm not sure where he got it, but he was showing it to Rose last night, and he rubbed it in jest, and thus summoned me." She shrugged. "The same way it always happens. Do you remember the fake 'genie lamp' you won that night in Vegas?"

The astonishment on his face amused her, but it also reassured her that he hadn't somehow been part of a scheme to seek more wishes, or to subvert her magic to his own purposes. Although, he'd proven that wasn't the case, hadn't he?

He'd set her free.

Goosebumps shivered up her arms. Free. Why was she still here? She had the whole world to roam, and she never, ever had to answer to anyone ever again. Why in the name of all the gods and goddesses was she still here, in this awful little cabin?

Jake took her hand, and the shock of connection answered her question. There was something here, something she wanted. Maybe, just maybe, something she needed.

"But if Alejandro rubbed the lamp, why did you come to me?"

She looked at their joined hands and wondered why it was suddenly hard to breathe. "The magic wouldn't work for him; he has perfect PH balance."

Jake's eyes widened. "His alkaline/acidity levels are balanced? What does that have to do with anything?"

She laughed and took a deep breath of fresh lake air. "No. He is Perfectly Happy. He has no need for wishes; the magic doesn't work on him."

Rose's voice suddenly rang out through the open window to the bedroom. "If I wanted you to remind me how to breathe, I'd ask you. Go shoot some vampires or something."

Alejandro's quiet response, reassuring and soothing, must have worked, because Rose let him stay in the room. Jake and Donya locked gazes, and then both of them had to fight back the laughter.

"Anyway," he finally said, when the danger of a stressed-out garden witch hearing them laugh while she was in labor had passed. "That doesn't seem fair. Happy people deserve wishes, too, right?"

Donya's smile faded. "But they don't deserve the dark twists of Djinn magic. Have you never heard the expression 'no good wish goes unpunished'?"

"Deed."

"What?" He was still holding her hand, and it confused her thinking.

She ... liked it.

"We say, no good deed goes unpunished. For you, it's wish?"

Because she liked it so well, she forced herself to pull her hand away from his, and then she stood and walked over to the railing. "For me, it was always about the wish. If a man wished to be surrounded by gold, the magic took him literally and encased his body in molten metal, so he died screaming. If a woman wished to be beloved of all, love turned to obsession and her lovers killed her from jealousy. Alejandro is perfectly happy with his Rose, so he deserved none of that."

Jake walked up behind her and put his hands on the railing on either side of her, surrounding her with his strong arms and the tantalizing scent of his body. "But I deserved it? Twice, even?"

She shuddered at the thought of the magic backlash harming him. "No. Which is why you came to no harm. You weren't selfish, greedy, or destructive. You were funny, and kind, and you didn't try to manipulate or capture me."

"And this time?"

"This time the magic bounced to you, as the nearest person to it who wasn't perfectly happy," she said quietly, daring to lean back and rest her head against the hardness of his chest. "But you weren't greedy this time, either. This time, you set me free."

He rested his cheek on her head and wrapped his strong arms around her. "It was the right thing to do. You should never be anything but free; wild creature that you are."

She turned in his embrace and looked into his golden eyes, feeling her heartbeat speed up and then settle into a matching rhythm with his. "And now I always will be, Jake Cardinal."

"May I have a wish after all?" His voice was husky; silken smooth and whiskey rough all at once.

"Name it first," she whispered.

"I wish you would kiss me."

She raised her hands to touch the sides of his face. "Oh, Jake. This wish I gladly grant."