Love Potion #9

by Claire Delacroix

“And probably just as hard to stop.”

  They looked to the dog in unison, who lifted his head hopefully. “Cooley the wolfhound,” Mitch said by way of introduction. “Seldom bites and never very hard.”

  Lilith chuckled. “He looks very friendly.” Cooley’s tail thumped against the ground.

  “You stay there,” Mitch advised the dog. “You’re still in trouble.”

  “In the doghouse,” Lilith corrected, a smile lurking in her voice.

  Mitch chuckled, met her dancing gaze and was snared for a long hot moment. When he realized what he was doing, he deliberately turned to frown at the remnants of the fence. “Well, I’ve got a buddy who’s a real carpenter. He’s coming up next weekend to help me decide where to start inside, but we’ll replace this fence first.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “But I want to.” Mitch was suddenly very serious. “I’m really sorry, Lilith. Again.”

  Lilith folded her arms across her chest, a smile playing over her full lips. “The fence was bound to go sooner or later. The posts were really getting rotten.”

  “But I wish it hadn’t fallen on your plants.”

  Lilith shrugged philosophically. “Well, cut flowers all around. I’ll give you some for your kitchen.”

  The woman was just too nice to be believed! “Lilith, you don’t have to do that.”

  “We might as well enjoy them. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? And at least some of the cuttings can start your garden.” She wrinkled her nose, her dark gaze fixing intently on Mitch and making him feel hotter than he was. “Are you sure you don’t mind about Jason starting a garden? It’s a lot of work.”

  Mitch gave her his best smile, immensely relieved that she had accepted his apology. “I’d kind of like to have a garden. Grow some vegetables that aren’t doused in pesticides, you know?” Lilith nodded easy agreement. “But I don’t know how to start.”

  “I’d be glad to help.” They shared a smile so warm that it curled Mitch’s toes.

  Then Lilith waved a hand at the fence. “But why bother to fix the fence now? You could just leave it down until the weekend.”

  Mitch granted his dog a significant glance. “We’ll all sleep better with a fence around him.” He dared to meet the lady’s gaze again. “I’ll pay for the whole thing, so don’t worry about that.”

  “Mitch! That’s not fair.”

  “It sure is.” Mitch cleared his throat, unwilling to name the precise reason he felt so guilty. “Look, Lilith, we haven’t started out on the right foot here.” He couldn’t hold her gaze, so frowned and stared at the nail in his hand. “I, uh, I’m not proud of how I behaved yesterday. I usually have more self-control.”

  She took a step closer, the curve of her shoulder in his peripheral vision. Mitch didn’t look up.

  “Do you regret what happened?” she asked, her voice low and sweet.

  Mitch closed his eyes, certain the temperature in the yard had just doubled.

  Maybe trebled.

  But he couldn’t lie to Lilith. He’d never guessed that sex could be so hot and impetuous. He’d never imagined that he could want a woman so desperately - or that a woman could want him the same way. Just thinking about it made his shorts tight again.

  But that didn’t mean he could accept his own behavior. Mitch forced himself to meet her gaze steadily. “No,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t change anything. We’re probably going to be neighbors for a while and I want to make this right. I want to do this, Lilith. Let me.”

  She bit her lip and seemed suddenly very young. A flush rose over her cheeks, a feminine blush that made everything inside Mitch go tight. She looked away and he took advantage of the opportunity to study the soft sweep of her jaw line, the lush thickness of her ebony lashes. She then impaled him with a bright glance, those lips quirking in a smile once more.

  “I shouldn’t let you,” she said quietly, a mischievous glint in her eye. “But it’s just too tempting. That would be really nice, Mitch.”

  His name sounded impossibly exotic on her tongue. Mitch felt his neck heat, but told himself it was just the sun. “To have a new fence?” he asked as evenly as he could manage. He lined up another nail, fully expecting her agreement.

  She grinned mischievously. “Well, that too. I was thinking about having a handsome man toiling in the yard,” she teased. Mitch nearly missed the nail when her fingertips fluttered unexpectedly against his shoulder. “Promise me,” she whispered wickedly “that you won’t wear a shirt this weekend either.”

  Mitch caught his breath in surprise, Lilith laughed, then she stepped away as Jason reappeared, lugging a pair of pails. Her feet flashed under the hem of her skirt, the bare soles slightly dirty.

  She had called him handsome.

  Mitch concentrated on hammering that nail home, telling himself her comment just didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that she really wanted him, it didn’t matter that she was so sweet and helpful, it didn’t matter that her eyes twinkled in a way that made him want to stare into them forever.

  Lilith was a New Age nut, after all.

  Although it was awfully hard to remember that right now.

  “Well, consider it done,” Mitch concluded in his most businesslike voice, unwilling to examine why he wanted to snare Lilith’s attention again. “If you want it different from the last one, just say the word. Taller, shorter, lattice on top, whatever.”

  “Whatever you want to do.” She laughed over her shoulder. “You know better what will stop that freight train special of yours.”

  Mitch grimaced. “Sinking the posts into concrete for a start.”

  “Are you sure you should start this weekend? You have so much to do at your place.”

  Mitch arched a skeptical brow and feigned astonishment. “Is it that obvious?”

  Lilith laughed aloud, the hearty sound coaxing Mitch’s own grin. “Uh huh.”

  “Well, it’ll wait. Righting wrongs is always first on the agenda.” Mitch picked up the next section of fence and set it into position. He looked around for his assistant, but Jason appeared to have found the toad. The boy was hunkered down, the pots abandoned, his concentration fixed on a dark shadow.

  Mitch looked at Lilith. “Would you mind holding that for a minute? I’ve just got to get a couple of nails and I seem to have lost my helper.” He inclined his head toward Jason and Lilith smiled.

  She gripped the fence where he told her, their hands brushing in the transaction. Mitch tingled, knowing he didn’t imagine the luscious scent of her perfume.

  Or the sweet undertone that had to be the scent of Lilith’s own skin. Mitch was well aware of her gaze following him as he bent over.

  He really, really hoped he didn’t have plumber’s butt.

  “We’re nothing compared to toads,” Lilith commented drily just as Mitch got a pair of nails between his teeth. He nearly spit them in the grass as her unexpected comment, and glanced back to find her grinning.

  His heart skipped a beat. Mitch let himself forget for the moment that Lilith was bananas. Instead, he stood beside her, nailing the fence into place, and let himself enjoy the moment. The thing was, Mitch had a weakness for funny, clever, sexy women and it wasn’t nearly often enough that one crossed his path.

  Even one who was convinced that she was a real, live witch.

  The section of fence stood on its own and Mitch was trying to think of something clever to say when Jen’s howl from the kitchen effectively ended the moment.

  “Daddy!”

  And there was nothing else in Mitch’s world. He dropped his hammer and bounded to the porch at one glimpse of Jen’s tear-streaked face. Even Andrea looked alarmed, as well as incapable of settling her tiny stricken charge.

  Mitch scooped Jen into his arms, Bun and all, and bounced her on his hip as he murmured to her. “It’s okay, I’m right here.” Jen’s plump arms locked around his neck and she sobbed as though her heart had been ripped in two. Her fair hair cu
rled against Mitch’s chin like soft down, her weeping made him cringe.

  “It’s okay, we’re all right here. See? There’s nothing to worry about.” Mitch sat on the step and cuddled his daughter close, intent on consoling her. He should never have left her sleeping. He should have guessed that she would be frightened. Jen was always afraid of being left alone, left behind, and Mitch knew exactly why.

  Knowing it was all his fault never made him feel any better.

  “We were right here,” Jason said with five-year-old scorn. Jen ignored him as she sniffled and peeked, taking silent inventory of everyone in attendance. Mitch gently stroked her blond curls back from her brow. Meanwhile, Andrea skillfully steered the little boy over to the buckets he had dropped and the fallen plants, leaving Mitch to make everything better.

  As usual. Fortunately he’d gotten pretty good at it.

  “See? Everything’s just fine.” Mitch tickled Jen under the chin. She squirmed and wiped her tears with Bun’s blue ear. “Guess what I did this morning?”

  Jen flicked a glance at him and sniffed.

  Mitch took that tiny hint of curiosity as encouragement. “I made fruit salad,” he tapped the end of her nose, “just for you.”

  Jen’s eyes lit up at the mention of one of her favorite foods – and the only one Mitch approved of – but she pursed her lips. Negotiation was a good sign, to Mitch’s way of thinking. “With grapes?”

  “Extra grapes,” Mitch confirmed.

  Her little lips tightened as she considered him. “Green grapes?”

  Mitch smiled, knowing how she loved the green ones. “Lots of them.” He tickled her tummy. “Didn’t I say it was special for you?”

  The little girl’s expression turned coy in a way that made Mitch dread the day she would become a teenager. Jen tapped Bun on Mitch’s shoulder. “Can I have some? Now? And Bun too?” She granted her daddy the gift of a smile.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Mitch teased. “I thought you were going to sleep in this morning.”

  “Woody the Woodpecker woke me up,” Jen confided cheerfully, then tapped her finger on Mitch’s chest. “Bang, bang, bang.”

  Mitch mimicked the cartoon character’s laugh and Jen giggled right on cue. He grinned with relief. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard that complaint this morning,” he said, then stood, intending to share the joke with Lilith.

  But Lilith was gone. The screen door to her kitchen swung slowly, but there was absolutely no sign of the lady.

  Mitch was honest enough with himself to admit that he was disappointed.

  * * *

  Lilith had never experienced such a sense of being desperately alone. But when Mitch scooped up his daughter, his features drawn with concern, and the little girl clung to him for solace, Lilith had fully understood, perhaps for the first time, just how alone she was.

  Immortal and alone. Lilith was effectively frozen in time, locked forever in the moment when the elixir slid through her veins. She would always be thirty-three years old.

  Lilith stood still while time swirled around her.

  For the first time, Lilith didn’t think that was such a good thing. She had lived in solitude for almost six centuries. Even D’Artagnan was a recent concession. There had just been her plants and countless houses and thousands upon thousands of strangers with secrets of love hidden in their eyes. They went on to find their lovers true, to have children, to grow old in the circle of their love.

  But Lilith stayed alone. Always alone. The sight of Mitch and his daughter had made that point painfully clear.

  It had made Lilith suddenly want to cry.

  So she had run, as much from the sight of the closeness of Mitch’s family as from her realization. But inside her house lurked the memory of the Empress card she had drawn this very morning.

  The pregnant Empress who governed fertility and parenthood.

  Lilith saw the card lying on her nightstand, and she dropped to her bed and wept. It was not exactly a reminder she needed right now. Lilith thought about little babies and faded assumptions that she would rock untold numbers of her own children in her arms.

  Because Lilith could never have a child of her own – her monthly cycles had ceased when she drank the potion. That naïve expectation – now destined to remain unfulfilled – left Lilith feeling barren and empty, cold despite the heat. She cried, certain her womb had shriveled like an old piece of fruit.

  Even though she had never let herself cry since she had walked away from the Rom kumpania.

  It must be the weather that was finally getting to her. Or the anticipation of having Sebastian on the periphery of her life again.

  But Mitch had his own children. Although she hadn’t expected them, maybe Lilith could live vicariously. She certainly had enjoyed her first encounter with Jason.

  That made her feel better. Lilith sniffed and wiped away her foolish tears, determined to put this unwanted emotion behind her. She wrapped her arms around herself and paced. Lilith certainly had never been bothered by any of this before.

  But no matter how fast she walked, Lilith just couldn’t erase the image of Mitch’s daughter’s tears from her mind. Even that tiny girl had someone to turn to when everything seemed wrong.

  Lilith had only herself and she would have only herself until Mitch remembered their entwined destiny. It had been that way for so long that she had almost forgotten life could be any other way.

  Almost, but not quite.

  * * *

  Lilith jumped hours later when there was a rap on her kitchen door.

  “Hellooooooo!” Someone called from the back porch and Lilith recognized Andrea’s voice with relief. She was more than ready for a bit of company.

  Lilith stepped quickly through the kitchen and summoned a smile. “Hello, Andrea. Come on in!”

  Andrea did as she was bidden, her gaze quickly trailing over Lilith’s spotless red-and-white kitchen. “Oh, this is lovely! We’ll have to show Mitch – he’s been muttering about potential and cursing realtors all day long.” Her eyes twinkled. “I honestly don’t think the man knows where to start.”

  Lilith’s smile broadened. “You have to have a vision of what you want the house to be.”

  “Well!” Andrea heaved a sigh and glanced over the kitchen once more. “You clearly have an eye for such things.”

  Lilith warmed to the older woman, not because of her praise but simply because she said what she thought. “I enjoy it.”

  Andrea smiled. “I can tell.”

  Lilith bit her lip in sudden recollection and had to ask. “Is your granddaughter all right? She seemed quite upset this morning.”

  Andrea sobered immediately. “Oh, Jen. She’s such a sweetie but she really doesn’t handle change well at all. Mitch worries so much about her.”

  Lilith’s heart contracted for both father and daughter. “What about her mother?”

  Andrea snorted. “There’s a story and a half there, that’s for certain.” She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Mitch has sworn that he’ll hunt me down and hurt me if I ever breathe a word of what happened to anyone. Unfortunately” – she winked, a disclaimer if ever there was one – “I believe him.”

  “Surely it can’t be that bad.”

  Andrea waved off the comment. “Mitch just doesn’t want those two little angels ever to hear anything bad about their mom. I can’t blame him for a little over-protectiveness.” Andrea shrugged and a wicked twinkle glinted in her eye. “Even if there isn’t much good to say about her.”

  Lilith was so shocked by this comment that she didn’t have time to hide her response. “Andrea!”

  “It’s true,” the older woman declared unrepentantly. “She never knew what she had – God bless us for small mercies – otherwise, she’d still be here.” Andrea rolled her eyes in silent assessment of that. “Suffice to say, the man blames himself, but then he was always too quick to take responsibility for the woes of this world.”

  Andrea stra
ightened with a sudden primness, as though she had just realized she’d said too much. “But that’s all I have to say about that.”

  Andrea’s words were certainly consistent with Mitch’s tight-lipped response about not being married anymore. Something nasty had happened, unless Lilith missed her guess.

  “Well, I’m glad your granddaughter is all right.”

  Andrea smiled again. “More than all right, although Mitch is fretting up a storm. He’s a regular old mother hen. He’s asked me to stay a few days so Jen doesn’t have to go to a new day care tomorrow.”

  “That might be a good idea,” Lilith conceded, touched by his concern for the little girl’s fears.

  Andrea grinned. “Oh, it is. I think Mitch’s exact words were that it could be a seriously ugly proposition to make her go.” She arched a brow. “But just because he’s right doesn’t mean I won’t tease him about being such a worrywart.”

  The two women exchanged a warm smile and Lilith decided it was time for a change of subject. “Why don’t you come into the front room?” she suggested. “That’s where I usually read.”

  Andrea turned in the direction Lilith gestured. “Oh, this is so exciting. I just can’t wait. You know, I have the strongest feeling about you, Lilith. As soon as I saw your sign, I knew you would have something to tell me.” She flicked a pert glance over her shoulder. “Do you think that’s crazy?”

  Lilith shook her head. “No.”

  She didn’t think it was crazy quite simply because it was true. The portent of Andrea’s future love was right there in her eyes. Lilith had seen it immediately. A person just had to know where and how to look.

  Too late, Lilith wished she’d had a better look into Mitch’s eyes.

  A reassured Andrea danced ahead, anticipation in every line of her figure. Her gaze roved openly over the furnishings of the front room. Lilith trailed behind her, granting her the opportunity to look.

  If there was one place where Lilith most actively and obviously denied her Rom roots, it was in her place of business, her fortune-telling parlor. The room was furnished in mission-style furniture, the clean lines of the oak and warm finish of the oxblood leather emanating a definite sense of this world.