CHAPTER 2 – I'M IN LOVE WITH A WONDERFUL GIRL

(rated M: Mature: sexual references, language)

Howard sat at the desk at work – he refused to call it "his" desk since he was determined to get back to flight status as soon as possible. He left Patty at home and made her promise not to come and find him at work. After explaining why, she understood and said something like "Tish-ma"-something . Howard looked puzzled, so she explained, "That is Persian for I Promise. I cannot break that promise or it is grounds for bottling me up again." Howard missed her but he didn't want to be seeing a psychiatrist, nor did he want to lose her.

Patty's name was written all over the desk calendar. Like a lovesick schoolboy, Howard had written it there. In a couple of places, he tried "Patna Borden" and "Patty Borden." It would work! But all he could think of at work that day was Patty, and how he felt about her.

He thought about the things that made him fall in love with her. She was always happy, even when he did things that displeased her, and had never expressed a negative word to him even when he deserved it. Patty had a vulnerability to her, though. They both seemed to have a sense of family values, though from what Howard could see, Patty had no family left – she said she had no siblings, her mother had been killed when she was young, and never mentioned her father so Howard assumed he was out of the picture as well. She loved to travel like he did. He suspected that inside that young and feminine exterior was a fiery, sexy woman just waiting to get out.

When he got home that night, Patty noticed Howard's temporary reticence, but misinterpreted it. "Master, are you not feeling well?"

"Huh? Me? Sick? No, I'm fine," he told her.

"Are you sure? Because I am making a traditional Persian dish for you to try for dinner. I could easily switch it to chicken soup, if you are not feeling well."

"I'm okay, Patty." He sat in the living room, staring at her back in the little kitchen. She was wearing her harem outfit, which was fine with him – he loved that outfit, it stood for what she was and was as beautiful as she was. Finally, he stood up and went into the kitchen behind Patty, slid his arms around her waist, and pulled her in close to him.

"Ooh!" Patty was delighted and didn't argue at all. The chemistry between the two was unmistakable. "My master is affectionate?"

Howard leaned down to Patty's face and kissed her cheek. "Yes," was all he said, and kissed her cheek again. "And dinner smells great."

She reeled around and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you." That was all the invitation Howard needed. He leaned down again and planted a very tender kiss on Patty's lips, short but with feeling. "Mmm," she told him. "I liked that." They kissed again, tasting each others' lips slowly but tentatively.

"Patty – I – I – I'm glad you're here with me," Howard said, breaking off the kiss and from her arms. It wasn't what he wanted to say, but maybe it wasn't time yet.

"Master…" Patty said, "I am glad you are my master, too."

That evening, Howard taught Patty how to play checkers, and she was so good at it that she beat him at most games. It was 11:00 pm when Howard knew he'd better head for bed in order to get up early enough for work the next morning. He kissed Patty goodnight, again very tentatively and cautiously. Her bottle was still on the coffee table, where she retired for the night.

Patty got up and made Howard his breakfast the next morning. She knew she was like his wife in that way, because he told her there wasn't any room for servants in the small apartment. She liked being like his wife, but there were other duties that a wife would provide that she could not. However, she sent him off to work that morning with two things he ordinarily didn't leave with – a goodbye kiss that knocked him for a loop, and a lunch. For the last few days he'd had to buy his lunch and he was tired of the traveling canteen, or "roach coach" as he explained to her. When he came through the apartment door after work, she was there for him again, greeting him with another kiss to equal the morning's. At this rate, he better tell her what he wanted to tell her.

"Patty, I wish we could go to a romantic restaurant," he told her. He was still dressed in pants and sports jacket, and she in her harem outfit.

"Oh – certainly, Master, but I do believe we should be dressed a little differently," and she blinked them into dressy clothes – Howard into a blue Brooks Brothers suit (the likes of which he'd never had) with a starched white shirt and blue silk tie, and herself into a long turquoise, v-necked dress with a tightly cinched waist to emphasize her figure. "Do you not think this is better, Master?"

"Wow, Patty – this is a NICE suit!" He admired the new shoes on his feet, leather Florsheim dress slip-ons. He usually wore either his uniform shoes or sneakers.

"Master – I think you should have an entire new wardrobe. I do like your clothes, but some of them are getting old." She blinked again, and Howard's closet was filled with new clothing, leaving his airline uniforms the same.

"You look beautiful – you should have nice clothes, too," he told her. "Now…I'd like to take you to Cipriani's – it's a favorite Italian restaurant of mine. It's in the south suburbs, though. We could go by Metra."

"Master, it might be faster if I take us there by blink," Patty told him. "You just think of the restaurant, where it is and what it looks like, close your eyes, and I will take us there." Howard remembered doing this to get someplace in Washington, D.C., years ago. He closed his eyes, thought of Cipriani's, and Patty blinked. They landed right in front of the restaurant, surprising people just walking up.

Once inside the restaurant, Howard ordered for both of them since Patty wasn't too familiar with Italian foods. Over salad, they talked, but suddenly, Howard stopped talking.

"What is the matter, Mas- Howard?" Patty asked him, switching in public to his first name as he had wished her to do.

"Patty, I – I…" he knew what he wanted to say, and had something in his pocket, too.

"Do you need courage?"

"Yes," he responded. She blinked as inconspicuously as she could, and he felt a minor jolt. "Patty – I – I've fallen in love with you."

She gulped. At first she said nothing, then looked down at her plate. "Master, if I had known that was what you needed courage to tell me, I would not have given you that blink."

"That's not all, Patty," he went on, ignoring what she was saying. He dug into his pocket and laid a small box on the table. "I'm asking you to marry me."

Patty gasped. "Oh, Mas- Howard, there is nothing I would like better, for I am in love with you, as well," she said. "But..."

"But what?" Howard was about to panic.

"I cannot marry you. You are not a …" she lowered her voice…"djinn."

"So? People mix marriages all the time these days. Why would that be any different?" He opened the box and showed her the ring he had purchased that day for her, on his lunch hour. Patty picked up the entire box to look at the ring wistfully, then reluctantly placed it back on the table.

"The ring is beautiful, Howard, and I would give most anything to be able to wear it. But it is Haji's Law, and I cannot break it again."

"What's Haji's Law?"

"A genie cannot marry a human, no matter how much in love they are. It is especially true that I cannot marry my master."

"So we'll give up the master-thing and I'll just become your husband."

She shook her head. "Howard – I love you – and I would love to do just that – but you must understand – I cannot. I may be bottled again and then you will lose me forever. You must be content to just be my master."

After dinner, Patty blinked them back home. Howard was determined to figure out how to marry her and not get this Haji person involved. The two sat and talked quietly on the sofa, until Howard realized that this was something engrained in all djinn for years and one night was not going to undo it. He decided to be content with things the way they were – for awhile.

"All right, I'll wait. But I'm going to figure out how to get us around Haji, one of these days. You understand?" he asked her.

She smiled, melting at his determination and the love on his face. "Yes, Master, I do understand. I just wish I could change that. But I cannot."

Howard took her in his arms and kissed her, tenderly, on the lips. She reacted as a woman in love, returning the kisses. Gingerly, realizing that he probably did not have an experienced woman in his arms, he opened her mouth and timidly began to explore it with his tongue. Patty had never been kissed like that and at first was surprised, then delighted at how it made her human bones tingle and gave her other unusual sensations. They kissed that way for several minutes before coming up for air. "Patty, I love you," Howard repeated.

"What do you call that kind of kissing?" she asked him, innocently.

He smiled, knowing now she was fresh and ripe. "Well, some people call it open mouth kissing and others call it French kissing."

"Well, I like it. Let us do that some more!" She began to kiss him again, and this time their mouths opened mutually. Howard couldn't stop at just his tongue, however. His hands began to caress her, first her back, then her shoulders, then one hand tentatively slid around and touched her breast lightly. She gasped but didn't say no, so he tenderly fondled it, still outside of her evening dress, as they continued to kiss. Her arms were still around his neck and he wanted her hands to stroke him, but he knew he better take his time with her. The one hand went back to her back, and the other hand came around to caress her other breast, finding the nipple protruding and rubbed it. She gasped again in delight with the way it made her feel. His one hand found the zipper on the back of the dress and began to slide it down. She stopped abruptly and pulled away from him. "No….you must not do that."

"What? I thought you were…"

"Master, I cannot do that. It is against Haji's Law."

Howard huffed and folded his arms. "What's against Haji's Law now? You can't marry a human. Now what are you saying this Haji won't let you do?"

"His law says that I must not allow a man to undress me until we are married."

"Oh, for Pete's sake. I can't marry you and I can hardly show you how much I love you! Just because of some guy named Haji! I'd like to meet this guy and tell him what I think!"

"Master – You must not. You will lose me if you do, for certain. And you have said you do not wish to do that."

Howard stood up, angry. "Goodnight, Patty." He trotted into his bedroom, and closed the door.

Patty stood up. There was a tingling between her legs that she could not stop. It had started there when Howard kissed her with his tongue, and it became stronger when his hands had stroked her breasts, particularly the nipple. She sighed. Asmire's classes had told them about sex with their human forms, but had not told how strong a feeling it could be, and how tempting it would be to break the Law. Patty gathered up all of her strength and smoked into her bottle for the night. It was probably safer that way.

In the bottle, Patty stayed in her miniaturized human form, rather than a spirit form. She sat on the little divan inside the bottle and drew her knees up in contemplation about what just occurred between her and Howard. Oh, she loved the man. She had not realized that she was in love with him until a few days before, when he had come through the door after work with a big smile on his face. He was a big teddy bear, she realized, that needed a nurturing woman by his side. His emotions showed themselves easily and it was all she could do not to take him in her arms and tell him that things would be all right, if he was upset, or hug him with joy when he had a good day in flight. Sometimes his confusion irritated her, but she was willing to put that aside because of everything else he was. Listening to him talk about his son, which was quite often, she knew he loved having a family at one time though he had not made a success of either of his marriages. That bothered him, she knew, and he said if he ever tried again, he wanted to make that one work no matter what. She fell asleep with Howard in her mind – wearing the blue airline uniform that she loved seeing him in.

In the middle of the night, however, Patty realized that she couldn't sleep any more. In her red and gold silk pajamas, she smoked out of the bottle and saw that Howard's bedroom door was open. He was sound asleep, wearing just pajama bottoms, on one side of the double bed. His bed looked so comfortable, she thought, more comfortable than the little divan she had in her bottle for sleeping. Perhaps he would not mind sharing it. She walked into his room, and crawled into the bed next to him. He didn't wake even though she stared at his bare chest a little before falling asleep, her dark head on the other pillow in the bed.

In the wee hours of the morning, though, Howard rolled over, opened his eyes, and noticed that there was someone sleeping in his bed next to him. "Did I get drunk?" he thought to himself. No, he hadn't had anything to drink that night. Looking over, he realized it was Patty in his bed. Aloud, he said, tapping her, "Patty? Is that you, honey?" It was the first time he'd ever called her "honey". She rolled over and faced him.

"Yes, it is me. Your bed looked more comfortable than mine."

He didn't wait. He pulled her towards him in his long arms, caressed her back with his large hands, and kissed her. He was totally aroused by this woman. She responded to his kisses and stroked his back as well – until he reached under her pajama top to gently touch her breast nipple.

"No, you must not do that!" she told him, though it felt SO good.

Howard stopped and sat up angrily. "Then what are you trying to do to me!"

"Nothing, Master, I only wanted to enjoy being with you and sleep next to you."

"Patty – sleeping next to a man is an invitation for what you said is against Haji's Law. I can't be turned on and off like a light switch!"

She got up and folded her arms, preparing to blink. "Very well, Master, I shall go sleep in my own bottle." She blinked and smoked back into her bottle.

While Howard was gone during the day, Patty went to the grocery store with the money he had given her to pick up some necessities. She wasn't used to the American supermarkets, but she could see that this would be something that the women in old Baghdad would desire – everything in one place. She was used to going to the produce market, the dairy, the meat store, a mercantile…or just blinking whatever you needed.

She thought about how she had felt that morning in Howard's bed. She felt wanted, desirable, loved, and enjoyed by her master. She felt that this is what he wished for, and this is what she should be giving him if that is what he wished. And she loved him, desperately. Then what would make it wrong? She didn't know much about it, other than it could make her pregnant. She knew about genie cycles being different from human female cycles, and that Djinn Law also stated that a woman would bear as many children as Allah would choose to send her. Looking at Howard's human age – over 50 – she figured he wouldn't want another child. His son was just a little older than she.

Howard came home, intending to spend the evening in his bedroom with a book he wanted to read. He tried to avoid Patty except when he needed her – and he hated to live that way. Maybe it was going to be necessary to send her away, to give her bottle to someone else. Living with a desirable woman in the same house, platonically, was going to be very tough – almost impossible – now that he was in love with her. It would have been easier if he'd never have fallen in love with this beautiful young thing.

Patty greeted him at the door wearing her harem outfit. He could hardly look at her because of the reaction it would give him – love and lust. "Good afternoon, Master," she said.

"Hi, Patty. I've got a lot of work to do, so I'll be in my room all evening. You can go back in your bottle tonight, don't worry about dinner."

"But, Master…"

"Please, Patty."

"Yes, sir," she said, and smoked into her bottle as Howard went into his bedroom and closed the door. She was so disappointed, but knew that it wasn't something she could help. In her bottle, she thought and debated, and finally came to an idea. She knew how she could get around at least one of Haji's Laws!

Patty smoked out of the bottle wearing the silky red and gold pajamas. Looking at the clock that Howard had in the kitchen, she noticed it was 9:00 pm human time, so in about an hour or two Howard was going to go to bed. He was still in his room with the door closed. Door closures don't mean much to djinn, though, so she blinked into his bedroom.

"Patty! My door was closed!" Howard objected. He was lying on the bed wearing a pair of long pajamas, red plaid, made of cotton. They were a pair she had provided, and he looked very appealing to her, wearing them.

"Yes, Master, I know," she replied and sat on the bed next to him.

"I don't think you should be sitting on my bed next to me if you want to obey Haji's stupid law."

"I know." She thought, smiled, and then said, "Master, what is it you really wish? Right this minute?"

"I WISH you could break Haji's Laws – sleep with me and become my wife, THAT'S what!" Howard said, somewhat grumpily. "Only – not just sleep. I wish you'd let me make love to you."

"Is that what you really wish, Master?"

"That's what I just said, wasn't it?"

Howard had just said the magic words. If Haji found out, all she had to say was that this was one of Master's wishes and she did not wish to disobey him. It was not breaking the main law that djinn could not interfere with human history. "Oh, Master!" Patty threw her arms around Howard. "That is what you needed to say!" She kissed him, and after a slight pause while Howard digested what Patty had just told him, he ravished her with tongue kisses again.

His hands went roaming all over her, on top of her pajamas, as she cuddled close to him. She couldn't believe how good this felt, to be touched all over. His hands explored her neck, her breasts, her stomach, the place where her legs met, her thighs, and even her feet, all over her pajamas. She allowed her own hands to run over his back, his bottom, his chest, and his legs. She'd never felt a human male, and didn't even really know what they looked like under their clothes. "Patty, have you ever been with a man like this?"

"No, Master."

"I'll teach you. I promise I'll be gentle. It will feel so good, but some of it may hurt. That's normal. But I'll make it hurt as little as I can."

"I do not understand how it can hurt when it feels so good right now, what you are doing to me." His hands were exploring her breasts, under her pajamas, and that special place was tingling again.

"You will, you will." Howard had deflowered three girls in his lifetime. Now he was going to deflower a genie. He wondered if it would be different. "Take off my pajama top for me." She went to blink. "No, this is something that I'd like done with your hands. They're so soft." Very slowly, she unbuttoned Howard's pajama top to reveal his slowly graying chest hairs.

"Master…you are beautiful." She ran her fingers through those chest hairs. They were so soft…as soft as she thought they might be, the night before when she had stared at him in his bed.

"In bed, honey, call me Howard."

"No, you are commanding me. This is your wish. I must call you Master." She took his top off and threw it on the floor. She was sitting on his lap and she felt something hard and strange by her bottom, unsure of what it was. Howard unbuttoned her pajama top, removed it from her, and threw it onto the floor, and touched each breast nipple gently. She gasped. "Oh, that feels so wonderful."

"You're beautiful. No, you're gorgeous." Her breasts were perfectly portioned to each other, very full and rounded. The nipples stood out as he stroked them with his fingers, then took one into his mouth.

"Oh my gawd," she gasped again. Her hands were gliding all over his back and chest as he moved from one breast to the other. "This is so incredible! Why is this so wrong in Haji's eyes!" He turned her to face him, moving her legs for her so that she straddled him. The bulge that she had felt before was now even more prominent, and the tingling in her was stronger. As his mouth ravaged her, his hands slid down her back to her bottom, which he'd already decided was perfectly shaped. Now he knew it was the perfect size to fit in his large hands. He kneaded her bottom, causing her to shimmy about a little against his arousal. She was breathing hard. He took his hands away and put them around her ribcage, lifting her up onto her knees so he could pull down her pajama bottoms. As he did so, he realized that she didn't wear any panties, and the view was breathtaking. She stood on the bed long enough for him to take her pajamas off, then sat back down on him, straddled over him. His hand flew around to touch her where her legs met, and gently stroked her. She gasped. "Oh, that is GOOD. Do NOT stop!" He continued to gently stroke her, wanting to give her a sensation that she had probably never felt before in her life. "Yes! Keep going!" She began to bounce on top of him, making him harder than he was before, but he did not stop. He put his mouth back on her left breast, his left hand stroked her right breast, and his right hand stroked her until she screamed with delight and her body pulsated with her first climax. He didn't stop until her body calmed down and she was breathing almost normally again. She fell into his arms. "My goodness, what did I do? What do you call that?" she asked, when she could.

"That, honey, is called an orgasm. Did you like it?"

"I loved it. I would like to do that again, but I believe you were the one that wished for this."

"Contrary to some beliefs, there are wishes that require both parties to enjoy. You needed that experience to make mine even better," Howard said. They kissed passionately, and felt their skin to skin contact, her breasts against his chest. Howard whispered into her ear, "I wish you would remove my pajama bottoms."

"Of course, Master, that is only fair." Patty got off Howard's lap, and kneeled next to him on the bed. As she pulled his pajamas off him, he gazed at her beauty and knew he was going to teach her everything he knew and liked in lovemaking. When his arousal popped up from his bottoms, Patty jumped back. "Oh, my."

"You've never even seen a man naked, have you?"

"No." She looked up at him in his face, down his chest, but her eyes riveted to the part of a man that she had never seen. She so wanted to touch it, but hesitated.

"Go ahead and feel it if you want. A man likes that, as long as you don't pinch too hard."

"But what if I…?"

"I'll let you know if you do. But you won't deflate it by touching it," Howard encouraged her. He couldn't believe his luck – a 24 year old virgin.

Patty tentatively reached out and placed her index finger on it. It was hard! Gradually, she went from stroking him with one finger, to two, to three, until finally she grasped it in her hand. He showed her the movement he liked which when she did it, made him gasp. "Can you do what I did? Orgasm, I mean?" she asked him.

"Yes, but mine is different, and I'd like to do it inside you the first time. Keep doing that," he told her, as he reached towards the bedside table, pulled out the drawer, and grabbed something from it in a little packet.

"What is that, Master?"

"It's called a condom. Some men call it a rubber. It keeps a woman from getting pregnant."

"Master – I am a genie. Will that work on a genie?"

He contemplated that. "You have the same parts as a human, you tell me." She nodded. "Then I don't know why it wouldn't. If I get you pregnant, then Haji is going to HAVE to let you break that law and marry me. I can't wish marriage, can I?"

"No, Master, marriage is a change of human events." She continued to stroke him as he opened the packet, then he showed her how to help him put it on. He pulled her down to lie next to him, and kissed her. "I love kissing you, Master. And I love lying next to you naked like this." They kissed again, her hands exploring some of the rest of him.

"Mmm, I like what you're doing to me Patty, and I'm glad you're liking this, because I do too. This next part is going to hurt a little, only for a little while, but it will hurt. If I could figure out how not to hurt you doing this, I would. I don't want to hurt you, I love you too much."

"Yes, Master. I know you do not have a violent streak in you at all," she reassured him.

He laid her on her back, moved her knees apart with his own as he mounted her. She ran her hands over his chest, loving the feel of his chest hairs in her fingers. His hardness found the warm and very moist place between her legs that it needed, and he gently pushed. Instinctively, her legs tried to close. "No, sweetheart, leave your legs open. It will hurt less if they are open." Her legs opened again. He pushed a little more, feeling the extreme tightness and then the barrier that he knew would probably be there unless genies were different. "Here's the part that's going to hurt. Kiss me." As they kissed, tongues touching and searching, he rocked back and forth a little and broke through the barrier. A cry escaped her. "I'm sorry, honey, that's the worst of it." He pushed in further, confident now that he'd broken the entire hymen. He began to stroke, and the more he did, she began to moan.

"Oh, this feels so good!" she told him, drawing up her knees and meeting his strokes. "Oh, Howard, I love you!"

"I love you so much, Patty. I'm glad you made me wish this. I wanted so much to be able to introduce you to this."

"It is heaven!" She continued to meet his strokes. "Oh, Howard, love me! Love me! Make me do what I did before!" Their strokes became faster and faster, when suddenly, Patty burst forth with another climax and let out a "YES! YES! YES! IT IS GOOD!" As her pulses came, Howard followed with one of his own and some loud groans.

"Oh, Patty, that was wonderful!" Howard told her. "I love you."

"I want to do that all the time!"

Howard smiled and laughed a little, rolling them both onto their sides so he wouldn't leave her. "I think we'd get tired. Well….I would. I'm older than you." She looked disappointed. "But we can do that a LOT…as often as you want to, and I can keep up."

From then on, they lived as man and wife. Howard taught her much about life as a wife, but also as a lover. She smoked him into her bottle one time when there were salesmen on the apartment floor and they didn't want to be disturbed. It almost gave him claustrophobia until he forgot about it when she took him onto her divan.

Howard introduced Patty as his wife to most people. His work questioned it, but kept him on observation and a desk job, hoping that marriage would settle him down.