Chapter Seven #2
“It is the rules,” he said, rolling to his feet and stalking slowly toward her.
“You may wish for anything you want, as long as it does not infringe on another’s free will.
You can wish to be beautiful, but you cannot wish for the man you desire to love you back.
You can wish for riches, but you cannot wish for the wealth of your neighbor.
No matter how you wished for me to touch you, you could not compel it.
” He was close now, and he reached out and cupped his palm around her face.
“When I touch you, it is of my own free will only.”
Felicity jerked back. “I wished for a footrub.”
“And I did not grant that wish. Not as a wish. I chose to touch you. Chose to caress you. Chose to taste you.”
“Why?” Felicity whimpered, confusion tangling her thoughts.
Dimitri sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. “I am trying to seduce you.”
“You’re what?”
“Seduction,” he said. “I have deployed every wile I have, every tactic I could muster, to convince you to bed me. He gestured sharply at his pants. “Though I am bound by my clothing as well as my magical shackles. I cannot even display my navel, much less free my cock.”
“I wondered why your jeans were always high-waisted...” Focus, Felicity! “Because of Naked Day?”
He looked at her, shoulders bowed in defeat. “I decided to seduce you before I met you,” he said flatly.
“Why?”
“I cannot tell you,” he gritted out.
“So not because I’m beautiful or desirable.” That made sense. A lot more sense than Dimitri decided he actually wanted a fat, freckled—
“At first,” he interrupted, lunging to take her hand. “Before I met you. Before I—”
“Do you love me?”
She didn’t know where that question came from, but Dimitri began to choke, as if words were caught in his throat. “I...cannot,” he finally managed.
She yanked her hand away. “Can’t? Or is it just don’t? Or...or won’t?”
“It is forbidden,” he said roughly.
“By who?”
“By the rules.”
“Fuck the rules!” She stepped closer to him, glaring up into his face. “What kind of shit rules are these, anyway?”
“The kind of rules that make me a slave,” he said, low and gritty, and Felicity’s eyes began to burn with tears.
“I wish you weren’t a slave,” she sobbed. “I wish I could just be with you without feeling like I’m a monster. I wish you were free!”
There was a silence, long and pregnant, like a storm about to break.
“Ah, Felicity,” Dimitri said.
And the storm crashed into reality.
Dimitri’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he arched as if he were in agony, letting out a harsh, strangled cry.
There was a roll of thunder, or an earthquake, and for a moment Dimitri’s body glowed like a beacon.
Felicity scrunched her eyes shut, the light so bright her eyelids barely shielded her, and stumbled back, tripping over the pillows and falling into the cozy pillow nest.
When the light faded, she cautiously blinked one eye open. “Dimitri?”
He was standing just where he had been, holding out his arms and staring at them. As they both watched, the gold cuffs that encircled his wrists cracked and shattered, falling into pieces at his feet.
“Dimitri,” she said again, louder. “What’s happening?”
He raised incredulous eyes to her. “You have freed me,” he said, just above a whisper.
“What did I do?”
“You wished me free.” His hand flew to his throat. “Gods, I can say it. To free a genie, a master must choose to wish for his freedom. I thought the only way to convince you was to seduce you. To make you fall in love with me, so that you would wish—”
“That’s why...” A stab of pain went through Felicity’s stomach. He’d been seducing her to gain his freedom all along. Manipulating her. Before he’d even met her, he’d decided.
“I could not tell you,” he went on. “I could not ask you, could not explain. You had to choose it of your own free will.”
“And I just had to wish you free?” Felicity shoved herself up to sitting. “Are you actually telling me that a goddamn Disney movie actually had the correct answer to all my genie research?”
He hurried to her, fell to his knees before her. “You were studying how to free me?”
“For all the good it did.” Felicity felt suddenly incredibly foolish. Why hadn’t she tried it? It would have been so simple. Dimitri could have been free and gone and—
And now he was free, and he would go.
She couldn’t look at him. Instead she flung her head back and stared at the hole in the roof. “Please tell me we’re not trapped in this bottle forever.” She tried to force a joking tone, but it came out a bit harsh.
“We are not. I have not lost my magic, though it is lessened. I cannot grant you great riches now.”
“I never wanted them anyhow.” She looked down at her hands, reached out to take Dimitri’s. “Let’s blow this popsicle joint.”
“Very well,” he said, and the fizzing and the tingling began, and now that Felicity knew what was happening she could kind of enjoy it, being a cloud of smoke.
When her feet were solid on her kitchen floor again, she hurriedly drew her hands away.
“Wait,” said Dimitri. “There is more I wish to—”
“So,” she interrupted, keeping her voice casual. “Where are you going to go now?” She could not possibly listen to him thank her. Not when the answer had been right in front of her all along.
He blinked at her. “Go?”
“You’re free now. You can pack up your bottle and see the world. No wishes, no masters, no rules. You could do anything.”
Dimitri’s face went studiously blank. The expression he’d worn when they met, she realized. She hadn’t seen it in weeks. “You wish me to leave.” His voice was flat and toneless.
“I want you to live your life,” she said.
“You’re not bound to me anymore, and...and I think you should go out and experience being free before you, um, settle down.
” He wouldn’t return. Of course he wouldn’t.
Not once he’d gotten used to his new freedom.
There were way prettier, way nicer girls out there who hadn’t ever been his frickin’ mistress.
Or guys, if that was his groove. So many people who were more interesting, more talented, more beautiful than her.
He looked away, shrugged. “Perhaps I should.”
“We can celebrate first,” Felicity said. “Go to that food truck you like, maybe get a cake...”
“No,” he said woodenly. “You are right. I should not be a burden on you longer.”
“You’re not a burden.”
He didn’t seem to hear that, just smiled at her with the bright, impersonal smile she remembered from the early days. “I am grateful for—”
“It was nothing.” Stab me more, why don’tcha? “Thank you for the coffee.”
He nodded and went to his room. When he returned, the bottle in his hand, he was in his casual street attire, except that he’d pulled his tight shirt up just enough to expose his navel, while his low-slung jeans stayed low.
He grinned sheepishly when he saw her looking. “I’ve missed it. And...other parts.”
“Looking good,” Felicity said brightly. “I, um, guess you don’t need help loading up a moving van, huh? Convenient.”
“Yes. It is.” Dimitri met her eyes then, a piercing gaze that she couldn’t read. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he looked sad. But he was free now. What could be happier than that?
“So... I’ll see you around?” she chirped.
She wouldn’t ever see him again.
He smiled faintly. “Farewell.”
She wouldn’t fare well, either. She was already faring pretty damn not well.
But it wasn’t fair to lay the burden of her emotions on him. Not when they’d been forged in his prison.
So Felicity nodded, and waved, and watched as he walked out the door and into his new shining life.
She made sure to wait a whole minute before she let herself cry.