Free Jinni's Wish, Book 4 Kingdom Series by Marie Hall

Gradually.”
    Giving the coffee up as a lost cause, she
settled her chin on her fist and shrugged. “So you don’t fade, but
you do. Trippy,” she teased.
    When he laughed again, she sighed. That smile
of his made her belly squeeze and her body tingle. “You have such a
nice smile.”
    The laughter died on Jinni’s tongue and Paz
froze the moment she realized she’d said it out loud.
    “What I meant to say was--”
    He held up a hand. “No need to apologize.
There was a time in my life once when I enjoyed laughter. Medicine
for the soul Aria had called it.”
    “You miss her?”
    The flicker and buzz of the fluorescent
lighting suddenly dimmed, leaving them in near darkness. But his
glow was so bright, Paz had no problem making him out. He reminded
her of a movie she’d seen once long ago, a corny stupid movie
Richard had made her watch…
    “You’ve a smile in your eyes. What are you
remembering?” he asked.
    “Oh, it’s silly.”
    “Stories go both ways, Paz, and I do recall
you saying you would share yours with me.”
    She flicked her wrist. “Just when I was ten,
my brother was really into aliens and space crafts, you know,
U.F.O. nonsense. Which is probably why he’s working on his
astronomy doctorate.”
    Jinni nodded, and it felt so easy to talk to
him. Memories she hadn’t thought of in days assailed her, but not
only the memories, also the warm feelings associated with them.
    “Aliens do exist, but continue,” he said with
a regal nod.
    Her jaw dropped. “Really? You’re yanking my
leg.”
    A twinkle danced in his dark eyes. “As much
as I would love to yank your leg,” his voice reminded her of the
slow burn of whiskey sliding down her throat, “I do not jest. He is
correct. I am one, in the human sense I suppose.”
    She frowned. “But I thought you said you came
from Kingdom?”
    “And Kingdom is another planet, ergo…” he
lifted his brow, a smug look on his face.
    Snorting with laughter, she shrugged. “I
guess you’re right.”
    “Anyway, you were saying?”
    “Oh, the movie. Yeah. Well, he wanted to
watch some stupid movie about an alien coming to our earth. And the
only thing I can really remember about that movie was that the
aliens glowed blue at night and how pretty I thought that was, and
you reminded me of that movie. You glow too.”
    Neither spoke, each one letting the words
settle in, maturate and root. If she could have blushed, she might
have. But it seemed pointless to pretend something she didn’t feel,
they were both semi-dead after all.
    “Have you ever been in love, Paz?” Jinni
asked, so quietly she’d barely heard it.
    “I thought so. Once. I even got engaged. But
I broke it off two weeks before the wedding.”
    “Why?”
    She rolled her eyes, fingering the table,
attempting to push some of her energy into the tip. Just so she
could feel it, but apart from the brief shock of static, she felt
nothing. The “touch” sensation was fading rapidly. The first day
she’d felt the world around her still, now… it was getting harder
to even remember what “touch” felt like.
    “It would be so much easier to say he cheated
on me. Or he was a jerk and I was naïve and the injured party. But
Harrison was a good guy. He and Todd, my brother’s partner, work
together in the same chiropractor clinic. He was really nice.”
    Saying it only made her feel worse, she
couldn’t look Jinni in the eye. Didn’t want to see his scorn or
anger. Richard and Todd, bless them, had been two of the few people
to stay on her side after the messy break-up.
    “You left him?”
    Nodding slowly, she said, “Yes. He was so
nice, but…” finally she looked at him, and didn’t see the judgment
so many others had cast her way.
    “He was not the one,” he said softly. Not a
question, just a statement of fact.
    “No, he wasn’t. And I didn’t think it would
be fair to him to marry him. He deserved someone to be as madly in
love with him as he’d been with me.”
    “Do you