"Coffee ... Jade?" He poured another cup of coffee and held up the pot.
She shook her head, but had to fight to keep from smiling at his attempts to guess her name. "Not Jade."
"So, Not-Jade. The wishes? And what is your name this time, Genie?"
"I'm not a genie; I'm a Djinn. No music, no Major Nelson, no Disney. Stupid American popular culture," she grumbled, flinging open cupboard doors to look for food. "Really? Fruit Loops and Captain Crunch? Aren't you a little old for this?"
He winced. "Great. First, a hangover, then the beautiful woman in my house punches me and calls me old. I think I'm going back to bed."
"And no milk, only beer. That's just nasty. What about--" She blinked when his words caught up to her thoughts. "Beautiful?"
Great. Now he was sucking up to her to get more wishes. Humans.
Except, last time ...
He drank his coffee, put the mug on the table, and raised an eyebrow. "Like you don't know it. Although, honestly, the sequins are a bit much. I like the purple hair, but the combination makes you look like an ice skater crossed with a drag queen."
She bared her teeth at him and then took her coffee out to the deck. A single thought and her coffee was flavored with sugar, cream, and cinnamon, just how she liked it. Another twinkle of thought, and the rough wooden deck chairs transformed into cushioned chaises.
"Ahhhh." She sank into her chair and looked out at the beauty of the sunrise over the lake. The birds were waking up, too, and one of them landed lightly on the arm of her chair and twittered at her. It might even be worth staying in a log cabin for a few days to wake up to this.
"Good morning, Sir Robin." A twirling movement of her finger, and bread crumbs appeared in midair, scattering on the deck railing for the bird and his friends. But her mind was only half on her magic.
"Drag queen. Jerk," she grumbled.
"I heard that." He was suddenly right behind her, though she hadn't heard him approach. Jake Cardinal made her nervous; not that she'd let him see it. There was a frisson of awareness--a sharp edge in the air between them--that had only intensified since the first time they'd met. They'd spent the entire night dueling with quips and jests, and she'd fallen asleep on the couch, only to wake at sunrise in his arms.
She'd disappeared before he'd woken and regretted it ever since.
"Vegas, right?" He sat on the other chair, leaned back, and closed his eyes against the light.
The idea that he might not even remember exactly where they'd met--when she'd carried the memory with her for more than two years--stung her pride and might even have hurt her feelings, if she admitted to any feelings. She shrugged, putting on a mask of indifference. "Who can remember?"
Jake opened one eye and grinned at her. "I can remember, and I was drunker than I've ever been in my life. You're not exactly forgettable, sweet thing."
She refused to tell him she felt the same way about him. Stupid human. His ego was already big enough, no doubt. Instead, she drank more coffee and looked out over the water.
"Three wishes, huh? What did I wish for last time?"
"A giant tattoo of a pinup girl that covered your entire back," she told him, rolling her eyes.
He laughed. "Well, I know I don't have that, so what happened?"
"Your second wish."
This time he laughed out loud, and his laugh was deep and rich and delicious, just as she'd remembered it so many times, alone in her solitude. She suddenly wanted to curl up in his lap and bite his neck.
Oops. No biting the humans. It was one of her cardinal (Ha! See how she did that?) rules.
He stretched and, truly, his body was a work of art. She suddenly wished she were a sculptor instead of a Djinn.
"What about the third?"
Donya shook off her wistful, lustful thoughts, drained her mug, and flicked the cup into the air to send it floating to the kitchen sink. "A bottle of whiskey. How can you not remember any of this, when you remember me, and that I called myself Ruby?"
His smile faded, and his eyes darkened to a gleam of emerald fire. "Because all I remember is you," he said roughly. "I've been remembering you and nothing but you for two years, five months, and three weeks. I remember your laugh, and how beautiful you are, and that you smell like jasmine. I remember your intelligence and your stories about ancient cities. I remember that you fell asleep next to me and didn't wake up when I wrapped my arms around you. I remember that I woke up wishing you were there with me in my bed."
She caught her breath. "I--"