Genie-Us

Chapter 16

"Are you sure the wish will bend that way?"

"Yes, the She-Gen gave me a few allowances when declaring the wish removed. That freedom will allow me to appear as me and your stepbrother must attend as himself." That satisfied Jene, I could tell by his expression.

"Okay, I haven't introduced my family to any man before." That thought made me blanch.

"Today will be a most fortuitous day," Jene declared with an intoxicating grin. "And we shall start with controlling your power. Up you go, Little One."

Before I gathered myself together, I found myself on my feet. I turned to glower at Jene, only to find him gone. Things had started running in the right direction, and now he just left me. What the heck was going on?

"Find me with your powers." Jene's voice came from somewhere within my home.

"What? How exactly am I supposed to do that?" I tossed my arms into the air as my frustration flared.

"Focus on the anger, it will bring forth your power."

"But I'm not even angry." I complained.

"I shall reward you if you find me with your power." His voice dropped to a tantalising low that made my heart beat faster.

"But I don't know how to do that."

"Close your eyes and focus deep inside of you. There you will find a colour that takes over you when you experience strong emotion. Concentrate on that colour, hold it and use it to find me." Jene advised.

Feeling undoubtedly foolish, I did as he suggested. It was weird to try to look inside myself, and try to figure out where my power might be. The well of frustration began to grow when I sensed nothing.

A spark of red flashed behind my eyes, and it took me a second to realise that this was my power. I traced its origins back to just above my eyes. With no clue as to why my power wanted to live there, I frowned.

"Have you had any success?" Jene asked sounding closer than he had been before.

"Yes, I've found it, but I don't know how to use it." I replied.

"Tell it to do what you desire. Even now I have started planning how to reward your efforts when you find me." His voice became a silky smooth concoction that thrilled me.

I concentrated back on my power. Once again that sense of foolishness took over me. Almost immediately it left when I knew exactly where Jene hid. I wouldn't see him because he'd turned himself invisible, but I could find him.

My power showed everything clearly, but through a red haze, once I knew what to look for. It heightened everything around me. In fact, it became rather breathtaking to have the power engulfing me.

At first, I pretended that I had no clue about where he had positioned himself. I tried hard to keep my triumph from showing. I turned the corner into my bedroom, peered in, and pretended that I couldn't see Jene.

He had stretched out on the bed in front of me, and lay waiting patiently. He turned his face towards me, but grinned widely when he thought I couldn't see him. Jene appeared through the red haze as a pink feature that I couldn't miss seeing.

He raised his brows at me as he placed his head on his elbow, but I continued trying to ignore him. It was hard when I saw his body taking up the whole of my bed. My heart started racing at how delectable he appeared.

It took a lot for me to pretend that I didn't see him. Jene's face dropped into disappointment, which was a lot harder to ignore. Still, I searched my wardrobe diligently, and then turned to the en-suite.

"There's no finding you." I grouched.

At the same time as I spoke, I dropped down onto the bed next to him. I tried to look upset at my apparent failure. With my head in my hands, I had to hide my smirk that wanted to burst from me.

Before he could give himself away by speaking, I rolled over on top of him. He couldn't hide his grunt of surprise as I chortled.

"Found you! Now I demand my prize." I declared as I pushed his body back into the bedding and pressed against him.

"You managed to focus and to find your power." He said as he reappeared, so I didn't look like I'd started wrestling with nothing. I revelled in how proud he sounded, and I might have preened the tiniest bit.

"Looks like I did," I grinned at him. "Now what's my prize?"

"How could I have ever believed that Isla was anything close to being my Genie-Us." His words startled me. I didn't like Evil Isla coming into a conversation where I had started thinking naughty thoughts about him.

There I was with my body pressed intimately against his, and he thinks of another woman. Jealousy gnawed at me, and a certain sense of inevitability that I would never escape that woman's presence. It was almost to much for me to handle.

I moved away from him with a frown. Sliding to the edge of the bed, I tried really hard not to let his words hurt me, but they did.

"Are you ready for your prize now?" Jene teased, but I swiftly shook my head. "Whatever is the matter?" he reached out to touch me but I pulled away.

"Are you ever going to stop thinking about her?" my words came out harsher than I meant to sound.

"I do not grasp exactly what I have done to cause you such upset." Jene actually gazed at me in baffled confusion.

"You mentioned Evil Isla." I snapped.

"Ah, you misconstrued my meaning." He clicked his fingers, and before I could blink, he was on his knees in front of me.

"What're you doing?"

"I only mentioned her because she had never showed such a playful side to me as you have just now. You are such a delight when I compare you to her cold and mean ways." Jene explained with the most endearing expression.

"Okay, so you think I'm better than Evil Isla." I said the words slowly, not wanting him to detect any hidden meaning.

"Perhaps I need to explain how I wasted too many years with her. She-Gen could only show you things she had an awareness about." Jene mused.

"It just feels as if I'm always going to have to compete with her." I rubbed my arms, then clenched my hands together, and stared out of the window.

"There is no competition, Little One. I let myself see something within her that never existed in her frosty heart." He reached out and smoothed a finger over my fisted hands.

"And it's all so sudden this change of yours, so I'm not sure what to believe." I admitted in a whisper.

"You are my light, and I have shown much irrational behaviour in pushing you so firmly away. I feared the same situation occurring to me. I feared dealing with the powerful loss if you left me.

"The difference now is that I see the light that shines from you like a beacon. That light is for me. Never again will I push that light away from me. You are my Genie-Us. Mine. Isla was nothing but a regretful mistake." He promised with sincerity shining from those sapphire eyes of his.

"I think it's going to take me a while to get used to that fact." I admitted.

"I shall promise to always be here to remind you."

He squeezed his large hand easily around my clenched fists, and something inside of me relaxed. Jene had shown me such honesty now that I began to believe in him.

All of his past fell away to the truth he showed me. Evil Isla had broken him. She had stolen his belief and trust that he would ever find love again. I now hoped to restore everything she had taken.