The Accidental Genie (12 page)

He looked at her again, as though he were seeing her for the first time, and it sent a wild rush of a thrill through her. “Good night, Jeannie.”

Good night.

CHAPTER

6

Jeannie woke to the quiet of her bedroom. Her heart pounded and her fingers clenched the sheets. Instantly, Marty’s image, pretty and perfectly accessorized, raced to penetrate her thick haze of sleep. She sat up too fast, reaching for the nightstand, cluttered in various barrettes and headbands, to steady herself.

It was only eight, but the day outside was as dark as her fear they’d never find Marty. She slipped from the bed and almost tripped over Sloan’s large frame now covered up to his square chin by Mat. Boris and Benito had apparently slid off the bed during the night and had positioned themselves around Sloan’s head, their contented snoring a sure sign Sloan’s and Mat’s presence hadn’t shook them up in the least.

While she gazed down at this paranormal ball of sleep, it struck her again how truly handsome Sloan was. He wasn’t just pretty to look at in dim lighting—he was prettier still in broad daylight.

These werewolves didn’t just dabble in the good-looks department, they owned it. As if Marty and all her sunshiny blonde, petite, well-dressed frame hadn’t been enough, there was Sloan—dark, sexy, and if she believed what Nina said about him, shallow as a kiddy pool.

Yet, she was okay with that. He clearly wasn’t trying to be something he just wasn’t, and there was an honesty in that she admired.

A soft knock at the door had her hopping over the pile of them and rushing to grab the handle before they woke.

Wanda peered into the room, her eyes tired, but her appearance otherwise immaculate.

“Please say Marty’s back,” Jeannie pleaded in a whisper, the rush of fear returning.

Wanda wiggled her finger to indicate Jeannie should come outside the door. Jeannie obliged, pulling the door shut behind her and fighting the invisible tug that let her know she was moving out of the acceptable range of Sloan. “Nothing?”

Wanda shook her head, the deep chestnut of her hair gleaming. “No, but we did find an obscure book about genies online. We called several libraries to locate it before we finally did, and they have it in. It’s some big book of genie with curses and spells aplenty. Fictional, I suppose, but then there’s you, chock-full of every fictional scenario out there, so we don’t want to discount any possible clues. We need you and Sloan to go check it out while we wait here for Darnell and Casey. Casey has a friend who might be able to help. Some old college buddy who’s well versed in the djinn.”

Jeannie blanched. Darnell’s name wrought images of fire and Satan and sins, of which she had many. He’d see right through her ruse and drag her back to hell where she belonged. Her voice trembled when she asked, “Darnell the demon?”

Wanda must’ve caught the fear in her eyes. She reached out a hand to reassure her by cupping Jeannie’s chin. “Yes. Darnell and Casey are demons, but it’s not what you think. Neither of them would harm a hair on your head. They aren’t the kind of demons who make soul-stealing pacts. Well, Darnell did—sell his soul, that is, but he didn’t do it for fame and fortune or a great pair of boobs and a rich husband. His reasons were much more altruistic. As long as he lays low under the radar of hell, minds his business, he’s okay. He does bear the burden of eternal life, much like all of us. That alone, losing everyone around you year after year, is a hell all its own. As for Casey, she’s just another victim of paranormal circumstance—an accident. Promise you’re safe with them.” She held up a Boy Scouts’ honor gesture.

“And Nina? Did she finally get some sleep?”

“She fucking did not, and I’m a pissier bitch than usual because of it,” Nina called from the living room. “So tell Sloan the Slacker in there to get his ass up because the library opens in an hour. If I ain’t sleepin’, he sure ain’t, either.”

Jeannie leaned into Wanda and whispered, “She’s not going to catch fire is she? Her bio in the pamphlet was pretty graphic, and I definitely remember the words
fry like so much bacon
.”

Nina came up behind Wanda and tugged on Jeannie’s hair, a white strip of zinc on her nose, sunglasses in place. “No. She’s not going to catch fire because she has a barrel’s worth of sunscreen on, but she will set you on fire if you don’t get to rollin’.”

Wanda rolled her eyes at her friend. “Nina’s built up a certain amount of tolerance to daylight and avoiding vampire sleep, but as you can see, she’s also a foulmouthed beast as a result. Don’t fret about Nina. Let’s worry about you and finding Marty.”

“Marty. That’s the most important issue,” Jeannie replied, running a hand over her sleep-mussed hair. “I mean, the only issue I have is I’m attached to Sloan. I’m not in any danger. So please, let’s just focus on Marty. The rest we’ll figure out.” She turned to go, but Wanda stopped her while Nina’s eyes searched hers, their coal depths swirling.

“You’re important, too, Jeannie. Yes, finding Marty is important, but helping you adjust to this life that’s been thrust upon you, and finding someone to help you do it, is just as important.”

Wanda’s words were so intense they made Jeannie stiffen. She didn’t know how to respond, so instead she nodded. “I’ll go wake up Sleeping Beauty, and we’ll get to the library.”

She slipped behind the bedroom door and let it close with a hush. Before waking Sloan, she said a silent prayer that this book would have an answer about where Marty was.

Because she just couldn’t live with herself if another life was lost due to her.

*   *   *

S
LOAN
blocked the sharp wind by sheltering Jeannie with his body as they came down the steps of the library and said good-bye to Lollipop. The ever-darkening skies only served to make Lollipop’s blonde hair blonder, if that were at all possible.

Jeannie stuck her hand out toward her and smiled. “It was nice meeting you.”

Lollipop smiled back with the kind of coquettish, flirty ease Jeannie envied, pulled her into a patchouli-scented hug. “Now you remember what I said about those extensions for your hair and the Booty Pop. It’ll change your life. Promise,” she said on a wink before wrapping her arms around Sloan’s neck and pressing a lingering, wet cherry red kiss to his cheek. “You know where to find me, handsome.”

Jeannie knew now, too. Lollipop, named as such because she was, according to her, lickable, could be found at Club Grease Your Pole, where she’d offered to teach Jeannie how to rock Sloan’s cradle of love with just three simple moves.

With a wave, Lollipop swished down the steps in four-inch leopard heels, her platinum blonde hair blowing in the wind like a billowy Pantene commercial.

After a quick call to check in on Betzi and Charlene, they’d run into Lollipop as they were leaving the library with no success in finding the book. The librarian said they’d just missed the person who’d checked it out, and she refused to reveal the name of the book borrower—even after Sloan had flirted shamelessly with her.

Jeannie let loose a forlorn sigh as Lollipop’s perfect figure disappeared from sight. “So, she was nice.”

Sloan looked down at her with a grimace. “Go on and say it.”

Jeannie began to walk in the hopes of finding a coffee shop. Coffee had soothing properties. Maybe not the kind that would fix her genie dilemma, but surely it would help reduce the throb in her genie head. “Let’s get moving before it starts to snow, and go on and say what?”

Sloan trailed behind her, the scent of his cologne drifting to her nostrils on the cold morning air. “I’m a pig. You won’t be an original, but at least it’ll all be out in the open.”

Jeannie shrugged, dipping her chin into her totally unfashionable, puffy gray jacket. “I don’t think you’re a pig at all, and I really did think Lollipop was nice. She gave me some very helpful tips on how to find those breast gel things you put in your bra locally. You know, so my breasts will leave men wanting more.” It was a tip Jeannie would treasure forever and ever.

His sigh was sharp and followed by a puff of condensation. “Your breasts are fine.”

She might have blushed, but for the word
fine
and her breasts linked together in a Sloan sentence. “Well, maybe
fine
isn’t the word I want associated with my breasts. Who wants
fine
breasts? Awesome? Sure. Perky? Grand. Voluptuous? Even better. But fine? Boo-hiss,” she mocked indignation.

“Okay, they’re great.”

Jeannie snorted, hanging a left to peer down the sidewalk for signs of coffee. “Not when you put them up against Lollipop’s. Hers are stupendous. Men write love songs about taters like that.”

“Hers aren’t really hers. She bought them, Jeannie. They’re fake.”

“Oh, contraire,
mon frere
. If she signed the check, that makes them hers.”

“Are we really having this conversation?”

Jeannie nodded with a smile, jamming her hands into her jacket. Even in gloves, they were frigid. “We absolutely are. Oh, and I don’t think you’re a pig at all. You’re a little like my hero. I admire your ability to express your sexuality freely while you hop from one bed to another, Sloan. I don’t hold it against you at all.”

“I don’t hop. Men don’t hop,” he replied, a hint of disgust in his gravelly voice.

“Use whatever verb sounds most manly to your ears. The point is, clearly, if Lollipop is any indication, you’re uninhibited about your needs, and you don’t allow others to dictate to you what’s supposedly socially acceptable. It means you’re free. I know you run the risk of all kinds of disease and the potential for your man-bits to fall off in chunks of rotting flesh, but at least you lived while you did it.”

He popped his temptingly sinful lips. “Interesting perspective.”

She nudged his side as they rounded another corner and came to a desolate dead end that led to a deserted alleyway with no coffee.

Stopping to face him, Jeannie looked up at his amused expression with a serious gaze of her own. “Look, do me a favor. Don’t apologize if we run into any more of your many conquests. According to Nina, you’ve done a lot of chicks all over the tristate. So it’s bound to happen simply by law of averages. Instead of sweating it, wear it like your badge of honor. You know, the ‘Yeah. That’s right. I did her. Isn’t she hot?’ T-shirt.”

Sloan’s smile was amused even while his eyebrows bunched together. “I have no words.”

Jeannie cocked her eyebrow at him. “Well, I hear it doesn’t take you many of those words to get you where you want to be anyway. So why indulge in the unnecessary? Efficiency is premium.”

He barked a laugh at her, rocking back on the cracked pavement. “Mind explaining where this attitude comes from? I think you’re the only woman on the planet who feels like that.”

Her shoulders lifted. This attitude came from hiding. Hiding from life. Hiding from the potential to be hurt. Hiding from her past. But due to the nature of her past, she couldn’t explain. Let him think she was just one of those women who was super-evolved rather than simply scarred. “Well, not all the women on the planet know what it is to be inhibited.”

Sloan’s eyes on her made her look away in discomfort. “I don’t want to pry—”

Her shoulders stiffened along with her spine. He was treading into uncomfortable territory for her. Maybe Sloan really didn’t care that people knew who he was—but she couldn’t afford that luxury. “Then don’t,” she said between thin lips.

He shook a finger at her, but his smile reappeared in all its yummy goodness. “I call unfair.”

“Call whomever you want. If we run into any of my conquests and they offer to show you their pole tricks of the trade, then you can pry.”

“Jeannie . . .” His syrupy tone turned brittle with warning.

Her eyes fell to the ground. “Look. I just didn’t want you to be uncomfortable about your vast and varied appetite.”

“I’m not uncomfortable.”

Jeannie waved an admonishing finger at him. “I beg to differ. Just as she approached us, you whispered in my ear, ‘Oh, look. It’s Lollipop the Librarian.’ That you actually expected me to believe Lollipop was a librarian says to me you feel shame that you’ve seen her on a pole or two in your time. She was gorgeous, Sloan, and while I’m sure there are lots of librarians who’re just as hot, she was no librarian.”

“I did meet her at the library,” he protested, his handsome face reflecting his supposed innocence.

Jeannie rolled her eyes. She pulled her hat farther down on her head when the wind nipped at her ears. “Is there a library near Club Grease Your Pole? Wait. Don’t tell me. You met her there while returning Shakespeare’s sonnets, right?”

He held his two fingers together and grinned, beautiful and perfect. “So close, but not quite. Dr. Seuss, I think, for Hollis. She loves
Hop on Pop
.”

Hollis was Marty’s daughter. He read to his niece? Her insides gushed warmth, but she hid it behind her sarcasm. “See my surprise. The point is, don’t lie about who you are, Sloan. Own it in all its sordid, live, loud, and proud way. It might not be what everyone labels correct, especially the women in your life, but at least it’s honest. So don’t insult me by lying. Deal?”

His face held awe and confusion and then more awe. “You are the strangest woman I’ve ever met.”

Jeannie curtsied. “Brunettes are like that. Strange. You’ve been buried hip-deep in blondes too long to notice, Sloan Flaherty.”

“I like you.”

Jeannie fought the impulse to scream no! He couldn’t possibly like her, and instead she responded with, “Let’s see if you’re still saying that when you have to pass up sleeping with a leggy hottie named Candy Bar because I can’t get far enough away from you to give you your schtuping space.”

“I dunno,” he drawled and winked, the sweep of his gorgeous eyelashes falling to his cheek. “Maybe I’m tired of schtuping only blondes, and it’s time to branch out.”

Jeannie cocked her ear to the howling wind. “Maybe I just heard the four horsemen.”

“Then you’d better duck, because it’s true,” he said on a soft, velvety chuckle.

She wanted to ask why, but that same old demon inside her, the one that had eaten away her ability to have expectations where anyone was concerned, stopped her. She stood silently beside him instead.

But Sloan provided the question for her with a nudge of his shoulder to hers. “You wanna know why?”