She was lying on her stomach and his hands were working magic on her back making her toes curl. She could feel him lean over her and his breath on her ear, "Are you enjoying this?" he purred. She could only nod. "Open your eyes, Master."
That word was like a cold bucket of water and she gasped and sat bolt upright and scooted back on the couch. He was sitting at the opposite end with a wicked grin on his face. "There you are, I was getting worried."
"Ugh," she spoke smacking her face with her hands, "I was afraid you were still here."
"Yup! What did you think I was a figment of your imagination?"
"More like hoped" she grimaced moved to sit properly on the couch. "I can't even keep plastic plants alive and now I have to take care of YOU."
"Actually, no, I'm here to take care of you!" he spoke moving to stand in front of her. He stood in a very commanding pose which made her heart stutter in her chest.
"Sorry?"
He rolled his eyes, "Wow I haven't had to give this speech in awhile; I'm afraid I'm a little out of practice; my name is irrelevant for You are my Master. I will grant your every wish and your Every desire. I…"
She rolled her eyes, "It's 3 right? I get three wishes and then you go poof back into your bottle and get on your merry way?"
He moved in blink to her, leaning over to trap her within the confines of his arms. "In the hundreds," his voice low and lethal, "And I do mean hundreds of years that I've been doing this, I've NEVER been interrupted." He spoke agitated.
"Well get over it. I have a life that is totally uncomplicated and You are now definitely a complication I don't need. So let's get this moving and you can go and grant away to someone else." He just shook his head and stood up shaking his head.
"Rude much?" he spoke going to where his lamp lay. He picked it up and carried to her bed room
"Hey, where are you going?" she followed him.
He set it on her night stand, and then sharply turned to face her. "I'll allow for this one little set back in our relationship."
"What relationship, YOU POPPED OUT OF A BOTTLE!" she argued.
"It's a lamp goldilocks." He answered. He crossed his arms over his chest. "And I'm not going to come back out until You want me to."
"HA! Like that's gonna happen. You will be waiting a long time there sweet cheeks." She smirked.
He stalked to her slowly like a predator that has found his next meal and circled until he was behind her. He leaned in and all she could do was hope he couldn't tell how much he affected her. He moved his head to be next to her ear so she could feel his breath against her ear lobe, "Really? I don't …think….so……" he stood up straight and smoke began to encircle him, "and the lamp is staying put." as he disappeared back into his bottle.
Chloe stood up straight, infuriated. "Ohhh, I'm gonna Kill Lois Lane." She went to her night stand and tried to lift the bottle, lamp, what ever; and it wouldn't move. She turned and marched right out of the room.
'Oh goldilocks,' he thought watching her try to move his bottle. 'You are a stubborn one.'
--
"Pick up, pick up, pick up" Chloe spoke pacing her living room on her phone. "Oh I hate voicemail. Lois, you had better call me back. We seriously need to talk about that bottle you sent me. You are a dead woman. CALL ME." She slammed the receiver down. She yawned and wanted to go to bed. She went to the door way of her bed room and stared at the bottle with contempt. She ran grabbed her favorite blanket and went back to her couch. She flopped onto it, covered herself up, and tried to go to sleep.
She was lying on her side, warm and comfortable. Then she felt soft kisses across her back like butterflies fluttering across the surface of her skin. They had her sighing in contentment, "wow." She sighed.
A large hand slid down her arm then moved to her hip. "Let me see you." She whispered as the hand moved to her abdomen than up to her chest just barely tracing the outside of her breast.
"You don't need to see me you know who I am. You know me." His voice was like liquid silk. The timber sent chills down her spine. The kisses moved to her shoulder and then her arm.
"Please?" She whispered. Trying to turn to face him,
"Uh uh, let me serve you; your pleasure, Master."
She sat bolt right up panting. She looked at her clock on the wall and it was midnight. She fell back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling.
The night was rough as she couldn't go back to sleep. She got up and made coffee. It was Saturday, cleaning day. She wore her grubbies and attacked her condo with a vengeance. It only took a few hours to clean. She was hot and sweaty and decided before she showered up she would get in a workout. She went into her spare room where her treadmill was and went for a run. After her work out she decided to rearrange her kitchen and maybe make a cake and some cookies. It was now early evening and she managed to avoid her bedroom all day until her cell phone rang.
She groaned because her phone was on her night stand, next to that confounded bottle. She dashed quickly and grabbed it and answered it and left the room.
"Lois, you get your Ass here now, we need to talk!"
"Chloe I am not going anywhere. I finally have Clark to myself on the beach and I'm not giving that up. Didn't you like my gifts?"
"The fertility statue is hilarious but where did you get the bottle?"
"What bottle Chloe?"
"Don't play with me Lois where did you get that green bottle?"
"Listen, Chlo, I know that you're stressed being the super reporter but I swear to you that I bought you that fertility thing and some blankets. I have no idea what you're talking about."
"So you didn't send me a green bottle that looks like it could be a perfume bottle?"
"NO!" Lois yelled. "It must have gotten switched in customs."
"The box had your handwriting on it."
"Listen short stuff, I don't know what to tell you? I can't get away until Monday."
Chloe sighed, she had to talk to the Genie.. 'damnit' she gritted. "You still there Chloe? You okay? Are you in trouble?"
"No,No, I'm good, I'll call you Monday."
"All right..Bye"
"Bye Lo."
--
"What do you mean you lost the lamp?" The lady shouted, slamming her fist on her desk. "I gave you a simple task. Find me that lamp, what part of that don't you get?"
"Sorry Ms. Mercer" her PA spoke. He looked nervous and very well he should be.
"Sorry won't cut it. I was this close to having it in my possession. I have studied that lamp for years, and if I'm right it holds a great power. Lex got denied his dream and this might be just the pick me up that he needs to get back into his game." She sat down. "So you had better find it. It was being sent from Egypt. You have until tomorrow to know more or you're fired." She got back to work a clear sign of dismissal and the young man turned and walked away.
Chloe paced and then peaked into her bedroom. She knew that if she touched that bottle he would gloat, and why that irked her she had know idea. This was a mystery and she loved them, practically lived for them. Loved to take them apart and dissect until only the naked truth remained. 'Hmmm naked…' her mind began to drift. "Stop it Sullivan." She chastised herself. 'Lois didn't send this'. She just shook her head.
After about an hour of weighing the pros and cons she gave in to her insatiable curiosity and marched into her bedroom with sheer determination. She grabbed the bottle by the neck and hoisted it keeping it arms length and marched right out of her bedroom. She set it on the coffee table and then flopped onto the couch. She stared at it for another half hour until she just couldn't stand it anymore and rubbed the smudge that she had rubbed before, green smoke and then hot guy appeared in only a pair of green silk pajama pants with an intricate design that started at his left hip and seemed to wrap around his entire left leg, weaving in… and…. out…...
"Master!" he spoke grinning knowing where her eyes were traveling. She snapped back to attention and looked at the arrogance on his face. "I told you you'd want me out of the bottle." he spoke smugly.
She just groaned. "Look here buster,"
"That isn't my name,"
"So? You have a lot of explaining to do."
"Are you going to interrupt me this time?" he spoke standing in that arrogant pose of his.
"No."
"Good!" he smiled and relaxed his stance. " As I mentioned before, my name is irrelevant for I AM your genie. You have rubbed the bottle and I am here to serve you. You have 4 Official wishes….for a wish to be Official you must use the words…Genie, I wish. After the use of said wishes, I return to my bottle, and in the great history of my people the bottle will disappear and move onto my next Master."
"Your people huh? So there are more of you?" He only nodded, "Do I have to keep calling you Genie? Do you have a real name?"
He paused and thought, "Yes, but, I've been around along time, have been in many different places and been called many things so you may call me what ever pleases you."
"How about Oliver, you look like an Oliver."
"Oliver it is, if it pleases you." He nodded.
She scowled at him. "So… how did you get here?"
"You rubbed the words on the lamp and here I am."
"What?" She thought she must be loosing her ability to ask questions because that's not quiet what she wanted to know.
"Literally,you rubbed the words on the lamp. Essentially, the words, that I think are in Aramaic state, 'for power beyond compare, rub here.'"
"That's dumb."
"I never thought it was that it was especially bright either. I didn't put it there."
"How old are you?"
He closed his eyes and thought, "That's a tough one, days turn to years, to decades, to centuries; it all blends in to one. I lost count. I do know that it had been at least a decade till I…." he realized what he was about to say and paused abruptly. Chloe caught his flub but decided against pressing him, for now.
"How did you become a genie?"
"I was born a genie, as was my father, and his father, and his father, and his father…."
"I get the point" she spoke dryly.
"Why did you think I was cursed?" he asked amused.
"It did cross my mind."
He only shook his head, "This isn't something that I feel condemned to be. I am a genie. Raised to serve. Honestly, meeting you was a pleasant surprise."
She blushed, "Why do you say that?"
"Not all Master's are nice, and you haven't prattled off wishes already to be done with me. I wasn't lying when I told you it had been awhile since I had a real conversation with someone."
She studied his face and could see the shadow of loneliness in his eyes. "I'm confused about one thing though."
"Yes Master?"
"Oh please, my name is Chloe."
"Alright…Chloe?" he spoke trying it out.
"How did you end up with me? The box I found you in well…I mean your bottle…."
"Lamp."
"What ever, wasn't supposed to be there."
"Really? How strange." He spoke moving to walk around her living room looking at her shelves and the things she had on display.
"So you're avoiding…" she stood to follow him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about?"
"I'm a reporter; I have a nose for the truth, and you aren't being truthful."
He stopped and turned coming face to face with her. "That's a first too. I've never been called a liar." His expression was hard to read.
Chloe had him and charged forward, full throttle. "Usually when people avoid the truth, they are 1) scared, 2) Guilty, or 3) Just plain evil and wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and slapped them. I can't imagine you being guilty of anything, but it's possible. Evil, nope, don't see it. So that would leave scared, what would a genie have to be afraid of?" this time he scowled at her.
"I could ask you the same question. I see your home, plain, no color, no life. You're awards are consecutive, so you are driven to achieve greatness on a constant basis….."
"Soo? I'm passionate about my work, big deal?" She turned and stalked back to her couch.
"Right" he followed, "No big deal, but does your career keep you warm on a winters' night? Does it touch you? Make you feel as if you are the most precious thing in the world??" she gave pause as he seemed to be waxing nostalgic. "No! What else are you passionate for Chloe? What more in life do you want beyond this?" he gestured to her awards. "And did it ever occur to you that maybe just maybe the motive wasn't alterior? That fate decided you needed a helping hand in finding something else to be passionate about?"
"Listen, Oliver, I don't believe in fate, I believe in facts. I think you're hiding something, and I think you're using this genie act to avoid whatever it is."
"Act?" he spoke. She gulped as he seemed to appear larger and looking at his tattoos they were starting to glow, soft at first, and then brighter and brighter until they were white hot. "You think this is an act? I will have to go and tell my father that a millennia old tradition was merely just a stage play to amuse ourselves; that we denied our personal wishes to grant those of others because we had nothing else to do. If you are so inclined to live Your life in this…this….isolation, then please, take my bottle to the ocean and toss it in. I will find my way to someone who is open to the possibilities of fate and all her foibles." He clapped his hands and it was like thunder. He was gone, his bottle was on the coffee table and, she hadn't noticed before, that there was a seal on the lid. Chloe was stunned and hurt. Wait why was she hurt? Could there have been any truth to what he said? She had hurt his feelings. She sighed and went into her office and booted up her computer. She hit her search engine with a vengeance and began with simply, "Genie in a Lamp."