Page 42 of Concluded
Bursting out laughing hurt, and it probably wasn’t the best response, but Achilles couldn’t stop himself.“Are youserious?”
“You can’t believe I’m thinking about kissing you?”
“No, that’s plausible, if a little unlikely under the circumstances.I meant the spell part.You’re the magic guy.I’m the most ordinary human on the planet.I can’t even do card tricks.”
Dee made an exasperated noise.“Then how come I want to kiss you?”
He was so serious about this that Achilles tried to be too, even though this was a truly dumb thing to be worrying about when everything else was falling apart.“Maybe it’s due to the Florence Nightingale effect?The fact of almost dying tends to get the juices flowing.Or maybe it’s simply because I’m really hot.”Achilles waved away Dee’s protest at the last part.“Look.If you want to try a kiss and see if it gets your motor running, go for it.Just watch out for my bruises and things.”
In fact, the experiment sounded like a good idea to Achilles.Well, not agoodidea precisely, because even a hint of a fling was probably unwise with someone who’d almost helped end the world and who’d also just found out he was a genie.But common sense be damned.Dee was good-looking, and sleeping in his arms had felt nice—and weirdly safe.Also, nobody had kissed Achilles in a long time, and for all he knew, he might die before sunup.
“Carpe diem,” Achilles said by way of explanation.
“Right.”Dee took a deep breath and dove in for what Achilles expected to be a harsh and messy kiss.
But it wasn’t.Dee was gentle about it, at first barely brushing their lips together.And even though their bodies were angled awkwardly and aches still echoed in Achilles’ body, the contact felt good.There was something absurdly sweet and innocent about it, as if they were a pair of teenagers trying this for the first time, not a middle-aged ex-agent and a genie.
Dee pulled back slightly, eyes wide with surprise.“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“I liked that.”
Achilles smiled.“Me too.”
“I want to try it again.”
“By all means.”Achilles spread his arms to demonstrate acceptance.
The second kiss was firmer and more lingering but still tender.Lips closed, no tongue.And this time Dee tentatively reached up to thread his fingers through Achilles’ hair.That particular kind of contact had always been Achilles’ little kink, sending him from first gear straight to third, as if his scalp was an erogenous zone.
“How do you manage,” Dee asked, kiss ended but face still close, “to have such soft hair after days of ill treatment in the desert?”
“Maybe it’s my superpower.You grant wishes, I have good hair.Notice too that’s it’s not thinning or going gray, and my hairline’s not receding.”
It was one of the first times Achilles had heard Dee laugh, and it was nice to know that he was responsible for that.Just then an epiphany hit Achilles.“Dumb jokes are a form of hope.So are soft kisses and fresh shaves and bowls of pasta.I think they all count, they all help.In a small way, sure, but if you accumulate enough grains of sand you can build a giant dune.”
“Or create a whole desert.”Dee waved toward a window, although it was too dark outside for the landscape to be visible.
“Deserts are surprisingly diverse in terms of flora and fauna.A fair number of NHSs make their homes in deserts too.”
“Yeah.”Dee moved back a little but didn’t break eye contact.“Is sex hope too?”
“It can be, sure.There’s a reason people get horny after facing and surviving death.Was that a proposition?”
“Maybe?Would you even consider having sex with someone who’s not, um, human?”
This time Achilles managed to suppress the laugh.“Not a problem.I’ve been with a few friendly NHSs over the years.There was this vampire once, for instance?—”
“Male?”
Taken aback, Achilles blinked.“Uh, yeah.I may not be picky about species but I’m at least a Kinsey five.”
“How do vampires get hard-ons if they’re undead and their blood isn’t circulating?”
“I have no idea.If we survive all of this, and once things calm down, you can ask our archivist, Diana Afolabi.She probably has a file on the subject somewhere.”
Dee seemed to mull this over for a moment before giving his head a small shake, perhaps to clear his thoughts.“Okay.So fucking a genie?”
