Love Potion #9

by Claire Delacroix

  “You’ve got to stop doing that!”

  “Why?”

  “Well, just because.” Mitch lifted a hand as though he would wipe away her kiss, but his fingers lingered against his lips. Lilith liked when he looked disheveled, surprised and slightly uncertain of himself. It was very sexy to know that she could rattle this man’s cage.

  Because he definitely rattled hers.

  Mitch’s gaze slid to meet Lilith’s, then his eyes narrowed. “”Do you do that to everybody who comes to your door?”

  Lilith laughed. “So, that was what was bothering him! “No, of course not.” She wrinkled her nose. “Just you.” She walked her fingers up his chest and smiled at him. “I only have one absolutely perfect soulmate, after all.”

  Mitch’s eyes flashed golden, a markedly good sign to Lilith’s way of thinking, before he cleared his throat. She leaned closer, but he gripped her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “I don’t really think we’re talking about the same thing here,” he began, but Lilith wasn’t interested in any further disclaimer.

  This was silly. Mitch had remembered and that was no small thing. It called for a celebration! And Lilith was more than ready to get down to the business of celebrating.

  Their future could begin right now.

  “The reason I came…” Mitch would have continued but Lilith landed a fingertip firmly against his lips. He swallowed and stared at her, as though he was helpless to step away.

  “Enough talk,” Lilith whispered. “This calls for a celebration and I can think of the perfect one.” Mitch’s eyes flashed as Lilith pressed herself against him. She replaced her fingertip with her lips and felt Mitch shiver right to the core.

  Oh, yes, they could try out every single room in the house tonight. Their reunion was a little later than she had expected, but better late than never. Lilith’s heart sang. Mitch was so much more than she remembered him being as Sebastian. Now that he had remembered, well, Lilith wanted to share everything that had happened in the many years they’d been apart. She lifter her lips from his and felt his heartbeat under her fingertips.

  It was racing just as fast as her own.

  “We just have to talk,” she assured him with a slow smile.

  But Mitch took a deep breath, gripped her shoulders and set her an arm’s length away from himself. The distance he had put between them seemed to restore his solemnity.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said grimly. “We sure do.”

  “No doubt he had lots of things to share with her, too. Lilith danced down the hall to the kitchen and beckoned to Mitch.

  “Let’s have a glass of wine and toast the moment first.” Lilith snatched up a bottle of Valpolicella and twisted the corkscrew into the cork. She’d waited so long for this! “The celebrating could take all night.”

  “Funny,” Mitch commented, his footsteps falling heavily in the hall behind her. “I don’t think it’s going to take very long at all.”

  There was a resolve lurking in his tone that made Lilith pause in the act of tugging out the cork. For a man who had just found his one true love, Mitch didn’t sound very excited.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Lilith pivoted and studied Mitch for a long moment, noticing only now the tightness of his lips and the determination in every line of his figure.

  Her heart fluttered. He looked very male amidst the bright cheerfulness of her kitchen, maybe because men seldom entered it.

  And, Lilith realized, Mitch looked very annoyed.

  But that wasn’t how he should be looking right now.

  What was going on? Lilith bit her lip. Mitch certainly didn’t look smitten, or even very pleased to be welcomed into the haven of her kitchen. Belatedly, she realized that he had said that he didn’t think they were talking about the same thing.

  Uh oh.

  Lilith cleared her throat. “What exactly is going on?”

  Mitch’s brows rose and he folded his arms across his chest, the move making him fill her doorframe. “That would be my question.” He cocked a brow. “What in the hell are you trying to pull?”

  Lilith felt suddenly that the conversation had taken a sharp left without signaling. She looked down at the bottle of wine and knew he wasn’t referring to the cork. In fact, she had a funny feeling that there might not be anything to celebrate after all.

  Lilith put the bottle deliberately back on the counter and straightened. She tried to keep her disappointment out of her voice. “Are you saying that you don’t remember being Sebastian, being with me? Isn’t that why you’re here?”

  Mitch regarded her for a long moment, and when he answered, his tone had turned gentle. “I don’t remember that, Lilith. I’ve told you before, we’ve never met.”

  Lilith spun and put the length of the kitchen between them, unable to halt the unruly tide of emotion within her. Only in the face of disappointment did she realize how much she had been hoping…

  But that didn’t matter. Mitch didn’t remember.

  Which left the question of why he had come.

  Lilith took a deep breath and spun to face him again. He hadn’t moved, although his gaze was locked upon her. His eyes glowed, the way old amber did in sunlight, and Lilith was certain that she was the complete focus of his attention. “Then why did you come here tonight?”

  “I want to know who you are.”

  “But you know that already!”

  “Nope. Mitch shook his head. “I know what you told me, but other than that, there’s no hint that you even exist.”

  Lilith frowned, not understanding this assertion at all. “Of course I exist. I’m standing right here.”

  Mitch’s brows rose and fell. “Correction: there’s no sign that anyone named Lilith Romano exists. No birth record, no immigration record, no marriage record, no telephone bill or bank accounts.” Mitch surveyed her, his eyes bright with intelligence. “Where did you come from, Lilith? Who are you, really?”

  Lilith had been very careful over the years to make sure she didn’t arouse any suspicion wherever she lived. She was never going to be chased out of a village again for being different – and immortals were fundamentally different from everyone else.

  It wasn’t very reassuring to find doubt glistening in the eyes of her beloved. She had a definite sense that mysteries didn’t survive long once they’d attracted Mitch’s attention.

  Lilith took an unwilling step backwards, fear rising once more in her chest. She fought to keep her voice level, even as her heart pounded in recollection of running from gadje flames.

  “I’m Lilith Romano,” she said, her words falling in haste. “I don’t have a bank account because I don’t want one. Same for the phone. I don’t know what those other records even are.”

  Mitch shook his head. “That can’t be the truth.”

  “Of course it is!”

  “You must have spent a lot of money becoming invisible, Lilith,” Mitch explained, his voice low with conviction. “It wouldn’t matter, except that I want to know who’s sending my stepmother on a specific cruise. Mostly I want to know why.”

  “Why?” Lilith frowned. “But you know that Andrea’s going on that cruise to meet her one true love.”

  Mitch settled into the doorframe, looking markedly less certain of that. His gaze was relentlessly steady. “Understand that I don’t want her to be disappointed.”

  Lilith’s confusion melted away at this sign of Mitch’s concern. He was being protective of Andrea, a regular old bear, just as that woman had said he would be. He really did take responsibility for everyone around him.

  Lilith smiled in mingled relief and admiration. “But you don’t need to worry about this, Mitch. She’s going to meet the man of her dreams and be perfectly happy.”

  “Lilith, that doesn’t make any sense.” Mitch didn’t look reassured. “How could you possibly know such a thing?”

  “I do tell fortunes for a living, you know.”

  “And I sniff out swindles for mine.”


  Lilith’s smile disappeared with a snap. She bounded across the kitchen in her indignation. No one, but no one, insulted the merit of her Gift. It was real!

  “I’m not swindling anyone! How could you even think such a thing?”

  “Lilith, how could I think otherwise? Nothing else makes sense. No one can read the future…”

  “I can read the future!” Lilith poked herself in the chest. “I have a precious Gift! And I told Andrea what I saw in her future.”

  Mitch didn’t even blink. “How could you know such a thing?”

  “She brought it with her. It’s right there in her eyes for anyone who cares to look.”

  “Right.” Mitch’s skepticism was clear. “Isn’t it odd that you’re the only one who can see it there? Come on, Lilith, tell me the truth.”

  “I am telling the truth! Look at this!” Lilith snatched up dozens of wedding invitations when Mitch looked unimpressed – the haul of the previous week – and tossed them at him. “I send people to meet their one true love all the time. It’s what I do!”

  Mitch caught the cards, then turned them over in his hands, no doubt reading all the grateful messages scrawled inside. He read them, one after the other, and his expression grew more drawn.

  Lilith had hoped to persuade him, but instead she saw a sadness dawn in his eyes. When Mitch eventually spoke, his words came low and flat, as though he was disappointed in her. “You really fool them, don’t you?” He glanced up suddenly and Lilith was shaken by the disillusionment she saw in his eyes. “I was hoping that you’d prove me wrong, Lilith.”

  “You are wrong!”

  Mitch shook his head and fingered the cards. “You really get them hooked. How long until your associated pull the rug out from under your starstruck victims?”

  “Mitch!” Lilith gasped. “They’re not victims! They’re happy!”

  Mitch grimaced and handed her back the cards. “For how long?”

  “Forever. Love is forever.”

  “Read that book and saw that movie.” Mitch shook his head and looked away. “That wasn’t the ending I recall.”

  An awkward silence descended in the kitchen and Lilith wished she knew what had happened in his marriage to so disillusion him.

  “I help people,” she maintained quietly, not knowing how to persuade him of her good intentions if he couldn’t believe in her Gift. “I really do.”

  Mitch smiled wryly and heaved a sigh. “I guess I’m wasting everyone’s time here.” He turned to leave, obviously thinking little good of Lilith.

  She shouldn’t have been surprised. The Emperor only believed in the tangible, after all.

  Lilith felt sick.

  “No, Mitch, wait. Please, let me try to explain.” Lilith had to try one last time. “I can look into people’s eyes and see their one true love. I can tell them where to find their soulmate. It’s not logical, it’s not sensible, but it’s what I do. I can’t even explain it myself. It’s the Gift that was entrusted to me. It’s my responsibility to use it.”

  Mitch paused in her hallway and glanced over his shoulder. He must have seen something that persuaded him to give her another chance, because he suddenly pivoted.

  “All right.” Mitch braced his hands on his hips. Lilith instinctively distrusted the challenge she heard in his tone. “Prove it. Go ahead and look. Tell me where to find my own true love.”

  It was a brilliant idea. This would convince him! Lilith immediately looked into Mitch’s eyes. She looked hard.

  Then, she looked again, just to make sure.

  But there was absolutely nothing lurking in the deep gold of his eyes.

  It couldn’t be. Lilith’s heart pounded. She looked one last time into Mitch’s eyes, studied him carefully, then took a slow step backward.

  Something wasn’t right.

  “There’s nothing there,” she admitted softly.

  “See?” Mitch shrugged, his manner less triumphant than Lilith might have expected.

  She didn’t know what else to say, didn’t know what to do other than watch him go.

  But Mitch paused on the front threshold, suddenly very still. His head was bowed and he didn’t look back. “Lilith, I’d like you to tell Andrea not to go on the cruise.”

  Lilith was appalled by the very suggestion. “Mitch, I can’t do that! She’ll miss a chance for love. Don’t you want her to be happy?”

  His lips tightened as he turned to confront her. “Of course I do.” His eyes glittered. “And I don’t want anyone taking advantage of her. That’s why I’m here.”

  Their gazes held for a charged moment and Lilith saw that she hadn’t come close to convincing him of anything. She didn’t know how to change his mind.

  She didn’t know how to make him remember.

  Lilith felt suddenly very small and very alone. She folded her arms round herself and held her ground. “I’m not taking advantage of her.”

  “A very wise choice,” Mitch murmured.

  And with that, he was gone.

  Lilith looked down at the invitations scattered on the counter and shook her head in bewilderment. Why couldn’t Mitch just believe in love, like everyone else did?

  Why wasn’t there any portent of love in his eyes?

  A lump rose in Lilith’s throat at the prospect of Mitch not even having a true love. She’d never seen anything like that before. How could it be so?

  Andrea’s earlier assertions rang in Lilith’s ears once more. She stared unseeingly at the invitations with their gold script and pearly roses, promised of fidelity and eternal love. Mitch had had these once: he must have believed once that he would be as happy as these couples were destined to be.

  Lilith wondered what kind of a woman could destroy those idealist convictions so very quickly. She wondered what kind of woman would leave two little children alone.

  Lilith had a feeling it was the same kind of woman who could steal a man’s heart away and leave a cold hollow in its place. Obviously, Mitch didn’t believe in love because he had loved his wife, and she had treated him badly.

  Meeting her true love again wasn’t working out the way Lilith had imagined it. Lilith sighed and fingered the cards, noticing only now that her hands were shaking. She had never anticipated that finding Sebastian again would prove to be so difficult. Lilith wasn’t one to give up easily.

  She’d think of something.

  Maybe Mitch would change his mind when Andrea found her love on the cruise. Maybe time would melt the frost around his heart. Maybe then, something would change in his eyes.

  Maybe.

  Or maybe not. Lilith’s fingers trembled. Because either way, one thing couldn’t be denied.

  Lilith Romano was not lurking in Mitch Davison’s eyes. And even knowing that the decisions of every passing moment affected the course of the future didn’t make that news less troubling.

  Not in the least.

  * * *

  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

  But then, that seemed to be becoming Mitch’s theme song. He wasn’t supposed to prove his instincts right and then feel like garbage. But he had and he did.

  Mitch wasn’t supposed to charge into battle to defend someone he cared about, win the battle, then wish he’d lost. He wasn’t supposed to forget every logical thought in his mind when he looked into his neighbor’s dark eyes, especially when he knew all sorts of suspicious things about her.

  But he had.

  At least, he didn’t have to like it.

  Mitch ate cold chicken stir-fry with stoic resolve and ignored Andrea’s worried frown. He smiled at Jen’s nonsensical stories and answered Jason’s endless questions about how everything worked, but Mitch’s heart wasn’t really in it.

  His heart was still next door.

  He wasn’t supposed to have lost control again. He wasn’t supposed to have kissed Lilith as though his life defended on it. She wasn’t supposed to taste so good. She wasn’t supposed to be the most attractive and delightful woman he’d ever
met. She wasn’t supposed to make him want to believe all sorts of wacky nonsense.

  She wasn’t supposed to tangle him up inside and make him feel as though he was sliding into quicksand, with no chance of resisting her charms.

  He wasn’t supposed to wonder why he was resisting at all. His hormones were supposed to be in cold storage, not running the show.

  They certainly shouldn’t have been interfering with his thinking, much less his ability to get the job done. Mitch’s gut told him that Lilith was a fraud, his mind told him there was something fishy about the business next door, but his heart – and heart that hadn’t had much to say for a good long time – told him to get his sorry butt back next door and apologize to the lady.

  Because his heart had never been a very trustworthy judge of anything, Mitch decided to sleep on its advice.

  And double-check those files in the morning. Mitch was going to get to the bottom of this, and Lilith’s allure wasn’t going to shake a seasoned reporter like him off the trail.

  It sounded like a good strategy, but Mitch’s heart – in league with his hormones – kept him awake all night long in the sticky August heat. It was as though, having finally found its voice, his heart intended to be heard.

  Or that it intended to make Mitch realize that in his concern for right and wrong, he’d just made a big mistake.

  * * *

  Lilith didn’t imagine the flash of bright blue in her garden Tuesday morning. She groaned silently and pulled open the kitchen door, half expecting to find one of Those Men in her yard, trying to peep through the window.

  But it was Jason who spun guiltily at the sound of the door opening. He was wearing a bright blue t-shirt. He clasped his hands behind his back and bit his lip, clearly certain he’d been caught at some crime. He was more fait than Mitch, though he had his father’s eyes. He would be a handsome boy when he grew up, Lilith acknowledged.

  “Well, hello,” she said.

  “I was looking for Ralph,” the boy admitted hopefully.

  Lilith smiled. “I didn’t see him yesterday because I was out, but maybe he’ll come today. He usually comes in the morning.”