Read Online The Accidental Genie by Dakota Cassidy - Free Book Online Page A

remember every word my adorably fed up husband Greg said, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to heed those words, because I do not want my head chopped off at dawn in front of my entire clan of vampires. No chopped heads. None. It’s messy, and neither Wanda nor myself can fit your beheading into our tight schedules. Not to mention, I find myself faltering on what to wear to a beheading.”
    Nina ripped Marty’s hand from her chin with a snide smile. “Maybe you should ask Mistress Sloan?”
    Marty slapped her hand back over Nina’s mouth.
    Jeannie was instantly on her bejeweled feet, the chair the girls had so graciously sat her in tipping over and clattering to the floor. The look of panic on her face made Sloan want to reach out and squeeze her hand in comfort.
    Oh, ick
. Comfort her? If it weren’t for her, he’d be home right now, watching the game. This girl thing—this sympathizing with a woman he hardly knew—was work, not to mention everything he hated.
    Jeannie’s stiff frame straightened. “Okay. You had me at the head-chopping thing. I don’t know what that means, and while I’m sure you’d all be good enough to explain it, because you’ve been nothing but gracious to me. Well, except for on the drive over when I thought Gina, Trina, Farina was going to attempt warp speed, and she so awesomely offered to do something I can’t even repeat to my intestines if I didn’t stop backseat driving. But that was just a simple misunderstanding. I mean, I’d threaten to eat someone’s intestines like they were a spaghetti dinner if they interfered with my audition for NASCAR, too. It’s only natural. So no explanation needed. I’ll just go. You know. Home. To my house . . . I think I can figure this out on my own.”
    “It’s fucking
Nina
.”
    Jeannie nodded absently. “Right. Sorry. Fucking Nina. The vampire who turned her sister into a vampire, too.”
    Wanda, Sloan noted, sensed Jeannie’s rising panic and went instantly to her side. She wrapped an arm around Jeannie’s shoulder and patted, steering her back to the chair. “It’s all right, Jeannie. I can see you’re panicked. But I promise you, if you go home, you’ll only be right back here again in need of our help. Don’t be frightened. We would never hurt you.” She eyed Nina with a familiar warning look Sloan often saw pass between the women.
    He watched Jeannie’s shoulders go rigid through eyes that were sticky with mascara. Until she looked deep into Wanda’s compassionate eyes, and then he saw her face transform from frightened deer in the headlights to one of tentative trust.
    He’d give Wanda that. She had a way of creating calm in the midst of complete chaos. She was always who soothed Nina when she went off on a tirade, and she was the peacemaker between her friends. Jeannie was in good hands with Wanda.
    Sloan crossed the room, his ankles buckling at awkward angles in his heels, in order to place his hand on Jeannie’s shoulder and give it a squeeze. “It’s all good, girlfriend. Wanda will take care of you,” he reassured her, then realized he’d called her
girlfriend
.
    Jesus and fuck.
    Sloan eyed Jeannie as she took a deep breath. “Okay, so let me get this straight because everything’s very crooked right now. What we have so far is this: I can grant wishes, and I’m responsible for Sloan’s cramping and the ugliest high heels I’ve ever seen in my life.”
    Nina snorted, but her lips remained compressed. Good thing, too, Sloan noted, or now he’d officially be able to take a bitch out and get away with it. Being a woman and all.
    Wanda’s eyes went warm when they focused in on Jeannie. “I think you did, honey, and until we know what’s going on, I think we’ll all have to be very careful about the things we say out loud. On our way over, I googled genies and the djinn. While I’ll admit to watching a lot of
I Dream of Jeannie
as a child, I guess I just always thought Hollywood had Westernized