Mitch glanced sidelong at the lady beside him. She was biting back a smile. It seemed she had somehow persuaded Kurt to abandon his pursuit.
Which was saying something. Kurt was nothing if not determined when he was, as he called it, ‘on the hunt’.
Mitch cleared his throat and frowned. “I thought you were staying for dinner.”
“Nope. A man’s got to run wild on a Saturday night.” Kurt winked with a vestige of his characteristic nonchalance and Mitch was slightly reassured. Then he swaggered out the door. Kurt waved, without so much as another peek at Lilith, and strolled between the houses, his whistle carrying back to Mitch’s ears.
Kurt seemed to be all right, Lilith seemed to be all right, but something strange was definitely going on.
Mitch looked at the lady and reassured himself that she was every bit as lovely as she always had been. That wasn’t the problem. But the devilish twinkle that was dancing in her eyes hinted that she knew more than she was telling. “What exactly happened here?”
Lilith grinned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, he came waltzing over here determined to seduce you. It’s not like Kurt to just walk away.”
Lilith fought to look innocent and didn’t even come close to pulling it off. “Maybe I told him I wasn’t interested.”
Mitch rolled his eyes. “That wouldn’t have made any difference. Kurt always says he likes a challenge.”
“Well, maybe I was too much of a challenge for him,” she declared.
“Color me skeptical,” Mitch murmured. “I don’t think there’s a beautiful woman alive who’s too much of a challenge for Kurt.
Lilith smiled sunnily. “Well, thank you.”
Mitch felt the back of his neck heat again as he realized what he had said. “Well, you know...”
“Shh!” Her fingertips landed against his lips. “Don’t spoil a compliment with an explanation,” she whispered. Lilith’s eyes danced and she wrinkled her nose playfully before her smile flashed once more. “Maybe I just cast a spell on him.”
And Mitch chuckled. He couldn’t help it. The glow in Lilith’s eyes and the softness of her fingertips against his skin made Mitch wonder why the hell he was worried about Kurt. The guy could take care of himself.
And besides, wasn’t he glad that Kurt hadn’t hit on Lilith with any success?
“Let’s talk about something much more interesting,” Lilith whispered. She leaned against Mitch’s chest, her curvy lips well within range. “Why did you leap in to protect me from his wiles?”
Mitch tried to shrug off the question. “Kurt doesn’t treat women well. I wouldn’t want him to hurt you or anyone else.”
Lilith smiled. “You’d champion me, even though you’re worried I’m trying to con Andrea?”
She had him there. Despite himself, Mitch felt an admiration for the lady’s clear thinking. She was doing better than he was, come to think of it.
And maybe that was why Mitch found it a lot harder to use his cover story than he had expected. Or maybe it was just that strange sense that she could read his thoughts.
Either way, Mitch didn’t say exactly what he had planned to say.
“Maybe I was wrong,” he admitted softly.
Lilith’s eyes widened with delight and she stretched to her toes, as though so anxious to hear his words that she had to be closer to his lips. Her eyes were wide and bright with anticipation. “Do you remember, then?” she asked breathlessly.
Mitch’s heart began to pound in his ears. He stared down into Lilith’s eyes and knew what she was hoping his answer would be. And he knew what he should say, at least if he was going to follow his plan of “going inside” to get the real story.
But there was something about this woman that made Mitch loathe to lie to her. It had seemed like such a good idea, but now, when he stood before her, Mitch couldn’t summon that lie to his lips.
“I’d like to,” was the best he could do.
Much to Mitch’s own surprise, as soon as he uttered the words, he knew they were true. In this moment, in this place, he wanted to remember that this woman and he had once been together, had once been in love, had once trusted each other completely.
It was crazy and it made no sense at all, but for once in his life, Mitch didn’t care. Standing in Lilith’s foyer, with her almost in his arms, being with her seemed to be the only thing that did make sense.
And when she looked deeply into his eyes, then flushed slightly and smiled, Mitch knew she was the most irresistible woman he’d ever met.
He didn’t want her to ask him any more questions. He didn’t want to lie to her. He just wanted to get past this moment. He told himself that it was for lack of any better options that he gave in to temptation.
Mitch captured Lilith’s fingers in his hand and pressed a kiss into her palm. She caught her breath, their gazes locked, then slowly, feeling like a fish being towed in on a lure, Mitch bent and touched her lips with his. He felt the barest twinge of guilt before Lilith cast her arms around his neck with undisguised delight.
And once she started kissing him back, well, anything other than the taste of her just seemed a petty technicality. Mitch braced his feet against the floor, leaned back against the wall, and gathered the lady into his arms with purpose.
Her kiss was so sweet, so warm and welcoming, so downright wonderful that Mitch very quickly forgot everything else but Lilith. He didn’t care about getting to the bottom of a story, he didn’t care about the truth, he didn’t even care how Lilith managed to evade every kind of record-keeping there was.
He only cared that she kissed like a goddess. Mitch might have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque, but he wasn’t going to stop and ask for directions now.
Unfortunately, the moment wasn’t destined to last long at all.
* * *
Lilith was so relieved that she barely noticed the agitated barking from the backyard. She abandoned herself to Mitch’s kiss with a vengeance. Something had happened, something had broken free inside him.
Because when he admitted he’d like to remember, Lilith had found a teeny tiny mirror image of herself waving back from the depths of his eyes.
Whatever obstacle had stood between them was banished and Lilith wasn’t holding anything back.
Everything was going to be fine.
The volume of the barking grew louder. Mitch lifted his head, muttered a curse that told Lilith just whose dog was responsible, then gave her a crooked smile.
“He is a great dog, really, and not usually so noisy.”
Lilith shrugged, but a very feline yowl echoed from the back of the house before she could admit her own cat’s almost certain role in this. “D’Artagnan!”
“Cooley!” Mitch muttered.
They turned as one for the kitchen just as the cat rocketed through his cat door and flung himself into the kitchen. It seemed every hair of fur D’Artagnan had was standing on end as he skated down the expanse of tile. Cooley barked from the yard, Lilith heard the dog’s nails on the porch. Through the kitchen window, she saw a huge shadow lunge against the back door.
“Oh no!” Mitch seemed to know what was going to happen right before it did.
Right after it was too late to do anything about it.
Even knowing it was too late, he still ran. The door creaked, the dog barked, and with a resounding screech, the screen surrendered to Cooley’s weight and popped from its frame. Cooley landed in the kitchen with a thump, amidst a tangled pile of screen. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, his gaze fixed on D’Artagnan. He growled and fought for traction on the tile.
“Cooley, sit!” Mitch raced the length of the room, bellowing in a most authoritative tone, but the dog was oblivious to anything other than his prey.
Cooley’s nose quivered, his ears stood up, his bark resonated through the house when D’Artagnan leapt to the counter.
Lilith knew that things were going to rapidly get worse.
“No!” Mitch dove for the
dog’s collar but he didn’t have a chance.
“No!” Lilith cried when the cat raced down the countertop. It was so disgusting when he did that! All her little pots and canisters wobbled dangerously, several teetered and broke.
But to Lilith’s horror, it got a lot worse. The dog leapt and made it up onto the counter, as well. Everything scattered in the wake of a decidedly flawed landing. Chaos reigned briefly, both Lilith and Mitch shouted to no avail.
Until Cooley reached the sink.
The dog froze, sniffed, and appeared to forget all about the cat. He hunkered down and proceeded to vacuum up Lilith’s potion.
“Cooley! No!” Lilith cried. D’Artagnan quietly slid out the door and headed for safety in some dog-proof zone.
“Cooley! Off!” Mitch roared.
The dog evidently knew he’d be challenged on this, because he gulped the contents of the pot with record speed. His gaze tracked how close the two humans were, his tongue moved like it was jet-powered.
It was Lilith that reached him first and half of the liquid was gone.
“Cooley, no!” Lilith repeated as she drew near the dog. She reached out her hand to grab the cauldron.
But the wolfhound lifted his head and snarled at her.
Lilith snatched back her hand. “I thought you said he seldom bit.”
“My mistake.” Mitch groaned. “This is just getting better and better,” he muttered under his breath.
But Lilith suddenly guessed what the problem was. She took a step closer, just to be sure, and the dog showed her his teeth.
Lilith was delighted. Her potion did work! She hadn’t been positive when Kurt left whether the change in his manner was due to Mitch’s presence or her “tea”.
Now there could be no doubt.
“That’s it!” Mitch bellowed. “Cooley! Down! Out!”
The dog straightened suddenly, as though surprised at what he had done, then turned a mortified expression on his master.
“Get off that counter and out of this house,” Mitch told the beast grimly. “Right now.”
The dog had the wits to do as he was told. Or at least, if he didn’t literally understand the command, he knew he was in trouble and would be better off elsewhere.
Cooley almost fell off the counter, he was so busy trying to keep a low profile, and skulked to the back door. Mitch opened what was left of the door and pointed imperiously to his own yard.
“You know where to go,” he informed the dog, who returned guiltily to his corner of exile from the week before.
Mitch exhaled slowly, winced at the damage to the door, then turned toward Lilith. It seemed he couldn’t look her in the eye.
“Looks like I owe you another apology,” he said quietly. He nudged the remains of the screen with his toe and Lilith knew it would never go back in place. In fact, the door had bent beneath the dog’s weight and didn’t even shut right anymore. Mitch swung it back and forth, eying the damage with a wince. “And a new storm door, too.”
Lilith folded her arms across her chest, secretly too delighted that her potion was effective to worry very much about the door. She knew Mitch would do the right thing, and she didn’t really care very much about the door.
Everything, after all, was right back on track between them and that made Lilith feel all bubbly inside.
What she did care about was how upset Mitch was about his dog’s deeds.
“I had no idea dogs were so expensive,” she mused, keeping her tone deliberately light. Mitch’s head snapped up and he blinked at her smile as though he didn’t know quite what to do about it.
“I should have cast that spell years ago.” Lilith grinned outright and leaned one hip against the counter. “Just think of all the home repairs I would have all done. I could have been living in the lap of luxury all this time.”
Mitch grinned despite himself, then sobered. “It’s really not funny,” he insisted solemnly.
Lilith sobered in turn. “No, of course not. I was very attached to that ancient, warped and extremely well-painted storm door. I could have gotten, oh, a dollar in a garage sale for it. On a good day.” She scowled with mock ferocity. “No. Losing it is not funny at all.”
Their eyes met.
Their lips twitched.
They chuckled.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat move so fast,” Mitch said under his breath.
Lilith laughed. “Did you see D’Artagnan’s fur?”
Mitch snorted. “He looked like he’d caught the wrong end of an electrical wire.”
“Or fell into the dryer without fabric softener.”
Mitch leaned against the wall and chuckled. The smile tugging his lips made Lilith want to jump on him again. The light of concern that invaded his warm gaze was icing on the cake. “You think he’s all right?”
“Insulted horribly, I’m sure, but that’s hardly lethal.” Lilith held a hand to her lips as she remembered something else. “And the look on Cooley’s face when he was trying to drain that pot before we reached him. It was priceless!”
Mitch grinned. “Even though he knew he would dead meat for it. Talk about stubborn! That must be something you’ve cooked up there.”
Lilith smiled. “Oh, it’s a wicked brew. You know, a witch always has to have a little something on the boil.”
The words seemed to erase any trace of humor in Mitch’s expression. He frowned thoughtfully at the door, his gaze trailing to the repentant dog. When he spoke, his words were low with conviction. “Lilith, my dog growled at you. That’s not funny.” His frown deepened. “It’s really not like him to do something like that.”
But Lilith didn’t want Mitch blaming the dog. “Maybe it wasn’t his fault.”
“What do you mean? Of course it was. He’s smart enough to know what he’s doing.” Mitch’s lips drew to a taut line and he cast a glance over the fence. “And he’s trained well enough to know better than that.”
“It’s not his fault.” Lilith shook her head and pointed to the half-empty pot in her sink. “No joke, that is a magickal brew, Mitch. Cooley drank half of a potion intended for forty men. It’s no wonder it had such an effect on him.”
Mitch folded his arms across his chest. One chestnut brow arched high. “Another love potion?”
Lilith laughed. “No, a love antidote.”
Mitch didn’t smile. “I don’t understand.”
Lilith was more than ready to explain. After all, there was no reason to keep secrets from her one true love. “It’s for those men out there. You see, they were caught up in the web of the love spell I cast for you. It seems to have worked really well on them, for whatever that’s worth, but I just can’t have them standing out there forever.”
Mitch’s expression was blank and Lilith had no doubt that was deliberate. She just couldn’t guess why.
But then, it was going to take time for them to learn all of each other’s secrets. Lilith was more than prepared to make the investment.
“So, you mixed up an antidote,” he said casually.
“Well, what else could I do? At least we know it works.”
Mitch shook his head. “We don’t know anything of the kind.”
“Of course we do. I gave some to Kurt and he changed his mind about pursuing me.”
Mitch peered at the green contents of the pot. “Kurt drank this willingly?”
Lilith smiled. “I told him it was my own special brew.” She fluttered her eyelashes tellingly and Mitch shook his head.
His eyes twinkled, then eyed the concoction dubiously. “It is amazing what he’ll do. Will it hurt him?”
“No.” Lilith tapped a fingertip on Mitch’s arm. “Of course, if I had known you were coming to save me,” she murmured, “I wouldn’t have had to even give him any.”
“I wasn’t...” Mitch started to protest, then fell silent. He frowned, looked at Lilith, then turned his attention back on the cauldron.
The back of his neck got red. Lilith smiled, liking very much
that Mitch was hesitant to name his own noble urges. Actions were the proof of good intent, after all, not just words.
“Kurt’s a good guy, but he has kind of a one track mind,” he said gruffly.
“It’s okay,” Lilith whispered and sidled up beside him. “Feel free to come to my rescue any time you like.”
Mitch’s eyes flashed, but Lilith reached past him for the cauldron. He stepped back as she hefted it over to the stove.
His tone was considering when he finally spoke. “And you’re saying this potion is why Cooley growled at you?”
“Of course! It’s clearly not in his nature. Kurt and Cooley - that’s proof enough for me.” Lilith gave Mitch a stern glance. “Two points do make a line, you know, at least last I heard. Honestly, Mitch, you just have to think these things through logically to see what perfect sense they make. It’s not hard.”
Mitch blinked and didn’t seem to have much to say about that.
Lilith frowned at the pot, intent on getting things back on schedule. “Maybe if I pick out the dog hairs and bring it back up to a boil, it will still be okay.”
Mitch grimaced comically. “After Cooley’s had his jowls in it? Remind me never to eat at this restaurant.”
Lilith threw back her head and laughed at his teasing. “You don’t have to drink it! Besides I don’t have enough ingredients to make up another batch.” She considered the pot and decided. “It’s just going to have to do.”
Lilith turned on the element, then glanced pointedly to Mitch. “So, will you pour for the first hour or should I?”
* * *
7
The Chariot
If anyone had told Mitch two weeks before that he would be offering a green brew in mismatched bone china cups and saucers to an unlikely gathering of men on the sidewalk in front of his new neighbor’s house, he wouldn’t have believed it.
And even a few minutes before, he wouldn’t have believed that those same men would have willingly drunk Lilith’s brew. The stuff had a wicked smell, even after she ladled a big glob of honey into it.
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