Love Potion #9

by Claire Delacroix

  “Nana, let me see!” Jen launched herself across the yard, muddy fingers outstretched for this feminine delight, but Andrea whisked the dress out of harm’s way in the nick of time.

  “It’s for Nana’s trip,” she said sweetly. “For dancing.” And she punctuated that last word with a glance at Mitch.

  Though he’d fought the good fight, Mitch was smart enough to know that he had lost this one - big time. No doubt Andrea would come to him to do damage control - and knowing himself, Mitch knew he wouldn’t even have the heart to say he’d told her so.

  He tried not to growl. “Nobody says you’ll find anyone who can dance well enough for you.”

  Andrea snorted. “Lilith says and Lilith knows.”

  At the sound of a woman’s name - any woman’s name - Kurt looked up with interest. “Lilith? Who’s Lilith?” He nudged Mitch hard and grinned. “Got a new girlfriend I can steal?”

  “You should have stolen the last one,” Andrea commented dryly.

  “Hey!” Mitch shook a finger at her.

  Andrea rolled her eyes then held up a hand in surrender. “Okay, I know, I know. That topic’s off limits.”

  Mitch checked but the kids weren’t listening.

  “Where’s the ice cream, Nana?” Jen asked as Jason listened avidly for the answer.

  “Lilith’s just our neighbor,” he said firmly, concentrating on hamming a nail home.

  “Lilith is the most lovely person,” Andrea confirmed.

  “Lillit has a kitty,” Jen contributed.

  “And really neat bugs,” Jason amended.

  “And she tells fortunes for a living!” Andrea concluded. “She can tell you how to find your one true love.” References apparently completed, Andrea herded the children toward the kitchen. “Now, who wants ice cream?”

  The clamor was enough to deafen anyone unprepared for it. Cooley barked and bounded after the trio, pressing his nose hopefully against the screen door when Andrea firmly shut him out.

  The dog whimpered, to no avail.

  “A fortune-teller? No kidding.” Kurt glanced to Mitch and Mitch saw a familiar gleam in his buddy’s eye. “The ditzy ones are a lot less trouble. This Lilith have a true love of her own?”

  “She’s single,” Mitch supplied tersely, not at all liking the smile that curved Kurt’s lips. It suddenly seemed like a critical error to have forgotten Kurt’s seducing ways. “Look, Kurt, leave her alone. She’s a nut anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Mitch instinctively decided to make things sound worse than they were. He would not consider why. “I mean she thinks she’s a six hundred year old witch and that she casts spells on people that work. Nutty as a fruitcake.” Mitch rolled his eyes, trying to convey the ridiculousness of that.

  But Kurt was unpersuaded. “A witch!” Kurt eyed Lilith’s house pointedly. “Wow. That would be something different.” He slanted a glance at Mitch. “What do you think it’s like? Being with a witch? You think it’s freaky?”

  It really mattered to Mitch that he keep Kurt from going next door. “Isn’t there an old story that witches make things shrivel and fall off?” he asked idly as he hammered home a nail.

  “Things?”

  Mitch looked Kurt dead in the eye. “One particular thing.”

  Kurt whistled, his speculative gaze drifting back to Lilith’s house. “Yeah, but what would you know about it? You’re too much the family man, ol’ buddy.”

  Mitch concentrated on hammering that nail and ignored the heat on the back of his neck. Sunburn. Plain and simple.

  Kurt exhaled through his teeth, his attention fixed again on Lilith’s house. “I think that a little witchy action might be just what the doctor ordered today.”

  “What?” Panic rolled through Mitch. “Look, Kurt, leave it be. She’s my neighbor, after all!”

  “Yeah, so. I’m not expected you to do the mogambo with her.”

  That sunburn was hotter than hot. Mitch tried to sound as grim as he could, though why he imagined he’d win this battle, he didn’t know. “Kurt, don’t. It would be more than awkward. She’s just a fortune-teller...”

  “What’s she look like?”

  Mitch might have lied - his own astonishment over that uncharacteristic urge was the only reason the words didn’t jump out in time - but Lilith chose that moment to make an appearance on her back step. She let her cat out, glanced up and granted Mitch a warm smile.

  His heart thumped in a way he was quite sure it wasn’t supposed to. And he couldn’t catch his breath. She was every bit as gorgeous as Mitch recalled, her smile ever bit as breathtaking as he remembered. Maybe even more so.

  She really made it hard to keep all the dastardly things he knew about her straight in his mind, never mind the way she took advantage of people. That sweet slow smile made it hard to believe that she was a master criminal who had somehow ensured that her identity had been erased from all files. Maybe it was those dark eyes with that twinkle lurking in their depths that did Mitch in.

  Mitch was surprised to realize that he didn’t really care. He just wanted to smile back at Lilith all day long.

  But the lady had other ideas. She waved and ducked back inside, her cat curled into a watchful ball on the back step. In fact, she was already back in the house by the time Kurt whistled in admiration.

  “Wow! You didn’t tell me she was gorgeous!”

  “Well...”

  “Trying to keep her for yourself, huh? Can’t say I blame you.” Kurt put his hammer down and scooped up his t-shirt. “But hey, I’m on to you now. Open field. All’s fair in love and war, right?”

  “Wait a minute! Where are you going? It’s too early to quit.” Mitch gestured impatiently to the nearly finished fence. “Let’s get finished. We’re almost done.”

  Kurt sighed theatrically and put a hand over his heart. “But I suddenly feel this burning desire to have my fortune told.” And with a wink, Kurt swaggered through the gate and headed for Lilith’s front porch.

  Mitch had to stop Kurt from going in there! “But she’s an opportunist!” he called.

  Kurt’s grin flashed in the shadows between the houses. “And you don’t think I am?” he joked.

  Mitch hated with newfound passion that Kurt was both so classically good-looking and so successful in pursuing women. The guy looked like some kind of love god! And he spread his affections around as though he had invented sex.

  If Lilith pounced on Kurt the way she had pounced on Mitch, the pair of them wouldn’t come up for air until Tuesday.

  And that bothered Mitch a whole lot more than he knew it should.

  “But she’s a witch!” he hissed, making the only other protest he could think of.

  “Hey, I’ll let you know if anything falls off!” Kurt chuckled, then vaulted onto Lilith’s porch without a backward glance.

  No, this wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Not at all. It wasn’t in Mitch’s script - and he sure as hell didn’t like the revision.

  His hormones had plenty to say about it, but Mitch deliberately listened to his logic. Maybe he was right about Lilith’s interest in Andrea’s money, maybe he was wrong. Maybe there was some other explanation for her not being in any of the files she should have been in.

  Either way, he wasn’t going to find out the truth by his usual means. Conventional research had yielded a big fat zero.

  But Mitch was by no means out of options. The sudden idea that popped into his head was just too good to ignore. He put aside his own hammer and scooped up his t-shirt, tugging it quickly over his head. Of course, he was only doing this for Andrea’s good, and for the sake of uncovering a story, maybe of exposing a fraud.

  But as Mitch stalked down the alley between the houses, he wasn’t thinking about any of those things. He was thinking of stopping Kurt from making Lilith another notch in his well-adorned bedpost.

  It didn’t make any damn sense to worry about protecting a woman who seemed to prey on others for a living, but Mit
ch didn’t have time to think about it too much right now.

  He had to do something. And he had to do it now.

  And pretending to remember being Sebastian was the best plan Mitch could come up with in such short order. Lilith would certainly buy it, given her consistency with that concept.

  Yep. Mitch was going Under Cover to get the truth. He was definitely on familiar ground.

  For the moment, at least.

  * * *

  Cooley eventually realized that he was alone in the yard. He whimpered and pressed his nose to the screen - nosing it distinctly inward as he watched more than one glop of ice cream drop to the floor uncontested.

  He sniffled to general disinterest.

  No one was letting him in. Andrea finally glanced his way and shook her head sternly, dishing out more ice cream, all of it tantalizingly out of range.

  Cooley’s ears drooped. He turned, then sprawled across the edge of the porch, practically covering its surface, and whimpered when he dropped his nose to his paws. Thoroughly ignored, he looked across his new haunt dejectedly.

  A certain grey cat tiptoed across the back fence.

  Cooley straightened, his nose twitched.

  The cat turned to look at him, then flicked its tail in a silent dare.

  “Go ahead,” that tail declared. “Make my day.”

  The wolfhound exploded off the porch in a frenzy of barking. He landed hard, but bolted for the back fence. The cat took one look and ran like greased lightning to the neighbor’s yard.

  But the fence in between wasn’t done. And Cooley was through the gap in record time.

  He was going to get that cat, for once and for all.

  * * *

  Lilith almost immediately regretted opening the door. She had only done so because she had seen that it was Mitch’s friend knocking and she wondered whether something was wrong.

  Something was wrong - but it was having this amorous wolf in her house when she was alone.

  Even D’Artagnan, a fairly indifferent champion at the best of times, was out into the yard. Lilith’s potion for Those Men was cooling in the sink and she was too tired in the wake of concocting it to deal with this challenge.

  Because it was clear that this man intended to launch a full assault, frontal or otherwise.

  “Hi! I’m Kurt, Mitch’s friend. We’re working next door, you know.” He folded his arms across his chest and flexed a few muscles Lilith couldn’t name. His eyes twinkled in what was doubtless his interpretation of an engaging way. “Mitch tells me you read fortunes.”

  Lilith retreated from the hungry gleam in Kurt’s eye and found herself in the foyer. He shut the door and smiled at her in a way that made her feel like the Special of the Day.

  And that Kurt hadn’t eaten in a while.

  Because from one glimpse, it was more than clear that Mitch’s friend thought he was Goddess’ gift to women everywhere. He was blond and tanned, his physique an obvious result of countless hours spent in the gym. His hair was boyishly ruffled to perfection and Lilith was certain he took longer to get ready for anything than any six women she could name.

  “I do, but not today. I’m sorry.” Lilith smiled with pert professionalism. She waved her hand as though she was a bit dotty and said the first silly thing that hopped into her head. “Venus in Taurus, you know. My crystals are out at the cleansers. Not a good time.” She reached to open the door to toss this man out, but he unexpectedly captured her hand.

  “Hey, I’m just looking for a little inside scoop, you know?” He winked, in no doubt of his own allure. “Maybe you could help me out. You know, point me in the direction of Grand Amour.”

  Lilith took one look into Kurt’s eyes, an instinctive reaction to his request, and wasn’t surprised in the least by what she found. None other that Kurt himself smiled winningly back at her and she smiled slightly at this confirmation that the man could never love anyone as much as he loved himself.

  Unfortunately, Kurt took that tiny smile as encouragement.

  “Or maybe we could just chat for a couple of minutes, you and me,” he mumbled in a confidentially low tone. “Maybe over a quiet dinner somewhere.” Kurt smiled what Lilith knew he considered his winning smile and ran his thumb over the back of her hand.

  And Lilith suddenly had a very good idea.

  It was the best opportunity she was likely to have, after all.

  “You must be terribly thirsty,” Lilith said with feigned concern. “You two have been working so hard out there.” Kurt flexed his muscles once more, no doubt to impress her with his masculinity. “How about some iced tea?”

  His face brightened. “Hey, that would be great.”

  “It’s herbal, so it might taste a bit odd,” Lilith said airily and headed for the kitchen. She wasn’t surprised when Kurt followed hot on her heels. She whispered a silent entreaty that her potion would work, because otherwise she didn’t know how she’d get rid of him.

  And that could mean serious trouble.

  Lilith refused to think about that. Once an optimist, always an optimist. The potion would work. She ladled ice into a glass and tried to sound casual. “I try to avoid caffeine, so I drink a lot of herbal brews instead.”

  “Oh, yeah. You gotta watch that stuff.” He frowned at her cauldron. “That’s some kind of pot you’ve got there.”

  “Oh!” Lilith smiled and lied as fast as she could. “Family piece, you know. Good luck.”

  Kurt harumphed, his gaze fixed assessingly on her as he sipped. He grimaced and Lilith cursed the taste of the stuff. She hadn’t thought of that! She should have put some honey in it.

  Because if Kurt didn’t drink it, the potion couldn’t work. And if the potion didn’t work, well, Lilith didn’t want to think too much about evicting him from her house by herself.

  He was big, really big. A good eight inches taller than Lilith, even though she was tall. He clearly worked out, a lot, and might have a good eighty pounds on her.

  When Kurt fingered the glass and hesitated after drinking only the barest sip, Lilith did the only thing she could under the circumstances. She stepped closer and opened her eyes wide in what she hoped was a hopeful expression.

  “Do you like it? It’s my own very special mixture.” She pouted as though her teeny tiny heart would be fatally wounded by any rejection of her tea. “You wouldn’t hurt my feelings by not liking it, would you?”

  “Of course, I like it.” Kurt smiled a slow sensual smile of intent, kept his gaze fixed on her and pointedly drained his glass.

  When he set it deliberately on the counter, Lilith caught her breath and prayed.

  * * *

  Mitch didn’t trust the way Lilith’s door was closed tight. He knew she was home, he knew Kurt was in there, and it wasn’t a good sign that the heavy wooden door was closed on such a hot day.

  Nope, Mitch did not have a good feeling about this. Remembering how quickly Lilith had gotten into his shorts was not reassuring in the least. He spared a glance for the vigilant crew on the sidewalk, frowned, then knocked.

  To Mitch’s astonishment, he heard running footsteps. Lilith opened the door almost immediately.

  To his further amazement, she didn’t look as though he had interrupted anything. Her dress didn’t appear in the least bit rumpled and she seemed safely unravished.

  It was then he noticed that those incredible eyes glowed with pleasure. Mitch nearly dropped his teeth when he realized it was because she was glad to see him.

  And Kurt, Mr. Seduction Central, was already here.

  Or was he?

  “Hi. I uh, I just thought I’d check up on Kurt,” Mitch managed to say. “Is he here?”

  Lilith grimaced and Mitch almost laughed at the expression on her face when she nodded. She met his gaze and her smile dawned like a sunrise, her voice low and warm. “I’m so glad you stopped by. I’m not sure I can get rid of him!”

  Mitch barely had time to feel good about her certainty he would help her before Lilith h
auled him into her foyer. She linked her arm deliberately through his as she turned around, making the two of them seem like a team.

  Mitch could smell that damned perfume of hers again. The tangle of her hair was soft against his upper arm and he felt his blood start to boil. He struggled to keep his mind on the reason why he had come and pretty much failed.

  It was then he noticed that Kurt was standing in the doorway to Lilith’s kitchen, looking a little dazed. Kurt squinted at Lilith, then shook his head, then eyed her again. He leaned in the doorframe as though his balance was off.

  Either that or he was drunk. But there hadn’t been nearly enough elapsed time for that.

  What had happened? A cold hand clenched Mitch’s gut and he wondered whether he had been too slow in following his buddy. Certainly, Lilith’s linking arms with him seemed to hint at presenting a united front, and one against his old pal.

  Had Kurt already come on to her?

  Had she decked him or broken something over his head? It took that much to get Kurt’s attention sometimes when he was fixed on doing something.

  Like seducing a beautiful woman.

  “Hey, is he bothering you?” Mitch asked in a low voice.

  “Not any more.” Lilith shook her head, then flicked a warm glance to Mitch.

  And he felt a sense of relief that seemed decidedly inappropriate given the circumstances. Or at least, given the identity of the lady so determinedly pressing the soft curve of her breast against his arm.

  Mitch cleared his throat deliberately. “Hey, Kurt, are you making trouble with the ladies again?”

  “Me?” Kurt straightened with a grimace and shook his head once more. He reached back and fingered a glass on the kitchen countertop as though it confused him, too. He really was in bad shape. He even sounded groggy. “Nah. Just had a little iced tea and am heading on my way.”

  Kurt lumbered right past Lilith without so much as a glance in her direction. Mitch couldn’t understand that, but he could almost feel the laughter bubbling up inside Lilith.

  On the threshold, Kurt frowned, rubbed his forehead and looked at Lilith as though he couldn’t quite see her straight. He squinted, then rubbed his temples. “Hey Mitch, I’m just going to finish that fence, then I’ll be on my way. See you next Saturday?”