Awaken to Pleasure by Lauren Hawkeye Page A

her family had been But now she was learning an even more horrible possibility—that she might love someone, and he might not love her in return.
    “Moira.” Boone ducked down so she was forced to look at him. “Moira,” he repeated. “I know. I know what you were going to wish for.”
    “Well, that’s just great.” Moira sat straight up at his words, feeling more naked than she ever had in her life. Grasping for her cloak to cover her nudity, she pulled her long body to her feet and began to move toward her tub, intending to splash cool water on her dirty face.
    “You have one more wish.” The words, spoken in that voice that reminded Moira of a substance called chocolate she had once tasted as a child, stopped her in her tracks. She whirled, dropping the cloak on the ground. Ignoring the lascivious once-over that Boone gave her again revealed flesh, she planted her hands on her hips.
    “What are you talking about?”
    Boone pulled himself up onto his elbows, a smug smile now crossing his features. “You get one more wish.” He stretched languidly, and Moira wasn’t sure whether she should leap on him or kick him where it would hurt most. “You made a selfless wish, so you are automatically granted one more.”
    Moira couldn’t help it. She gaped, her mouth opening and closing like the rainbow fish that swam in the small pool outside. Staring at Boone accusingly, she sputtered, “You might have told me this a bit earlier!”
    The smugness left Boone’s face as he pulled himself to a sitting position. “I couldn’t,” he told her, and his tone spoke of the truth. “The selfless wish must be granted willingly, without duress, with the person’s whole heart. It cannot be coerced to receive a second wish. As you can imagine, this power could be greatly abused, so I am forbidden to tell the master of the Lamp of the Sapphire of the rule.”
    Moira’s mouth opened.
    Then it closed.
    “Another wish.” The breath leaving her, Moira sat abruptly down on the floor next to Boone, their knees touching. Her mind raced frantically over the possibility now opened to her.
    But she didn’t want to free him, to bind him to her, if it wasn’t what he wanted, too.
    “You can wish for
anything
, Moira.” Boone spoke and startled Moira out of her reverie. She caught his gaze and noted the twinkle in his eyes. Damn the haven, he
knew!
He knew exactly what it was she wished. “Anything at all.” Something cool and hard touched her hand and Moira knew that Boone had passed her the lamp.
    “You’re sure?” Her tone was challenging, and they both knew that she wasn’t questioning his knowledge of the rules of the lamp. “Absolutely sure?”
    Leaning over, Boone placed his lips on hers in a tender kiss. “More sure than I have ever been of anything,” he whispered against the twin bows of her mouth, and the simple touch was enough to have heat coursing through her veins and love fizzing into her heart.
    “The queen is dead. It is time for the world to be rebuilt.”
    “I can’t leave the haven,” Moira blurted out. It was important that he knew. “Not until…not until I know that everyone will be okay.”
    “You wouldn’t be you if you could.” He smiled at her again, that slightly naughty grin. “Now wish, woman.”
    “Well, then.” Grasping the lamp firmly in her hands, Moira touched her fingers to the gemstone. She looked into Boone’s eyes and saw her future.
    “I wish for your freedom.” She had expected a sonic boom, a roll of thunder, lightning flashing. When nothing happened, she opened the eyes she had automatically closed and found Boone grinning at her, his eyes alight with something that hadn’t been in them before.
    “Look!” His voice was full of glee, the same infectious note that could be heard in a child’s over a shiny red ball or a stick of sugar. Moira’s eyes followed his finger, and she felt a similar grin break out over her own face.
    The sapphire was crumbling to dust