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

She kissed him, first gently and then with a hint of the longing he'd ignited in her. She kissed him, and he pulled her into a breath-stealing embrace.

He kissed her back, and she caught fire.

Their magic exploded between them and sang out in a symphony of desire and heat and passion. She couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't resist him.

Never wanted to resist him.

When they finally had to break apart, just long enough to breathe, she found herself clutching his shoulders so she wouldn't fall. Her legs were trembling.

Her entire body was trembling.

Jake inhaled a deep breath, and then a fierce smile of purely masculine joy lit up his face. "How many wishes did you say I could have? Because I'd like to request that same thing, over and over and over."

She wanted the same thing, she tried to tell him, but she couldn't force the words past the tightness in her throat. She wanted to kiss him, forever. Didn't she? She did.

Except ...

She'd never been free. Could she--would she--truly give that up to the first man who'd kissed her as a free woman?

"Jake, I--"

The indignant wail of a newborn babe interrupted her. Jake shouted out a wordless cry of happiness and relief, lifted her into his arms, and twirled her around.

"Rose's daughter is born, and she's healthy," Donya told him, smiling.

"It's a baby! I mean, a daughter? A girl? We have to go see her," Jake said, and his joy was so bright she almost needed to shield her eyes.

He grabbed her hand. "Let's go see her. Them. And then we can talk and wish and anything else we want to do, for as long as we want to do it."

"You go ahead," she told him. "I'm right behind you."

And then she smiled like her heart wasn't cracking in two.

He took a step, then whirled around and kissed her again. "Hurry!"

Donya laughed. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Get in there already."

When Jake turned around, she was gone.

Exactly one year later ...

JAKE TOUCHED A FINGER to the edge of the lamp that his cousin had given him the year before at the lake, when all of their lives had changed. Rose and Alejandro had a beautiful baby girl, and the entire family had gotten together today for Bryony's first birthday.

He shuddered. Nobody had needed to see Granny making out with the guy she'd met at Senior Yoga, though. There wasn't enough eyeball bleach in the world for that.

He opened a beer, the strongest thing he drank these days, and tried not to think about how his life had changed that day. The day he'd fallen in love with a Djinn.

The day she'd left him.

His family was trying--hard--to set him up with a nice witch. They'd even brought a pretty and smart woman who taught at the local Magic Munchkins preschool to the party. She'd been sweet and kind and funny.

But she hadn't been Donya.

A cool wind swept through his house, and he knew the windows weren't open.

"I see you kept my lamp," she said, and he forgot how to breathe, all over again.

He turned around, slowly. Just in case he was dreaming; he didn't want to move too fast and wake himself up.