Love Potion #9

by Claire Delacroix

  And he was in love with the most unlikely woman of all. A winsome witch who believed only in things she couldn’t see, an imaginative and delightful woman who spread fairy dust throughout his house, a generous and giving soul who asked for nothing but his love in return.

  He was ready to give it to her. Because Mitch loved Lilith, as he had never imagined he would love a woman.

  For a long time, Mitch had believed that he would never find love, that he would never take a chance again, that it just hadn’t been worth it. But Lilith had challenged his preconceptions, she had made Mitch rethink all those conclusions that he thought were set in concrete for all time.

  Now, Mitch couldn’t imagine his life without her. He couldn’t imagine his heart not doing this goofy little jump every time she smiled at him, or her image popping up in his mind unexpectedly. To not hear that low voice again, or hear the tinkle of her laughter, or see her dark eyes dance was completely unthinkable.

  Mitch felt as though he had always loved Lilith, though he smiled at that echo of her own conviction. She was starting to infect his nice, orderly thinking with her crazy ideas.

  And oddly enough, he didn’t mind in the least.

  Mitch stepped into the room, not intending to wake her, but Lilith stirred as though she had been waiting for him. Her eyes opened slowly, her gaze fixed on him and she smiled so warmly that Mitch tingled from head to toe.

  “You’re home!” she murmured, with a delight that made Mitch’s heart do that goofy jump. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow,” she whispered, her pleasure at his change of plans undisguised.

  It felt damned good to be missed.

  “Couldn’t stay away,” Mitch admitted huskily. “You’ve been busy.”

  Lilith stretched, her toes pointing, then curling contentedly. She nestled into his pillow and smiled sleepily. “I wanted to surprise you. I would have finished the ceilings by tomorrow.”

  “Well, now you’ll have to deal with inexperienced help underfoot.” When Lilith chuckled, Mitch came and sat on the edge of the bed, unable to resist the urge to brush her hair back over her shoulder. “And you have surprised me,” he said gently. “Both kids’ rooms done already is a pretty impressive feat. Especially with them around.”

  Lilith smiled. “All you need is a little creativity.”

  Mitch smiled back. “No magic?”

  Lilith wrinkled her nose, her gaze warm. “It can’t hurt.”

  Her hair was as soft as silk beneath his hand. Mitch run his fingers over it, the dark tendrils curling around his fingers as though they would snare his hand in their softness. He didn’t want this moment to end. “So, what colors are they? I couldn’t see in the darkness.”

  “Mmm, mauve and aqua and mint, nice safe colors for Jen. A sea-washed haven for her. And a crisp yellow for our intrepid explorer.” Mitch caught his breath at the easy way she said “our” but Lilith didn’t notice. “You’ll be amazed how much bigger and brighter the house looks, just with the ceilings repainted.”

  Lilith nestled closer, her hand landing on his. Her fingers were warm and soft, Mitch turned his hand over and held hers tight.

  “What are you going to do in here?” he asked, mostly because he didn’t want her to stop talking. She could do anything she wanted with his bedroom, as far as Mitch was concerned.

  Lilith smiled. “True blue,” she confessed as she met his gaze warmly. “And maybe some silvery stardust to keep things interesting.”

  Mitch grinned. “I like the stars in the kids’ rooms.”

  Lilith rolled to her back and stretched. “Jason had to have planets too, but I refused to lay them out according to the star map enclosed.”

  “You’ll never live that down.”

  “I know,” Lilith sighed and squeezed Mitch’s fingers. “Maybe you can fix them for him.”

  Mitch really liked her implication that they were in this together. Lilith eased back, making room for another on the mattress without slipping free of his hand. She smiled, her voice dropped low. “Get naked and come to bed, Mitch. I want to touch you and know you’re really home.”

  The invitation was everything Mitch could have hoped for. He certainly didn’t need a second request. He peeled off his shirt and dropped his trousers, leaving them in a pile with his socks and shoes. Down to his Jockeys, he slipped between the sheets with a sigh of contentment and reached for Lilith.

  But she hooked a finger in the elastic of his briefs.

  “Everything,” she insisted, the mischievous twinkle in her eye making Mitch’s heart pound.

  “I thought it was too late.”

  Definitely too late for talking,” Lilith confirmed, then winked.

  There was no doubt what she meant.

  Mitch’s mouth went dry. “You’re sure?”

  Her smile broadened. “I missed you. Besides, you’re the one who had to make up your mind,” she teased. “Are you sure?”

  Mitch was.

  Without a doubt.

  But things still weren’t simple.

  He frowned. “Lilith, I wasn’t planning this. I don’t have any condoms.”

  She seemed untroubled by this confession. “So?”

  Mitch might have shed a lot of assumptions, but he hadn’t lost all his practicality. He knew he was as clean as a whistle, but he didn’t want Lilith worrying about anything later.

  “Lilith, it’s the nineties. Aren’t you worried about little biological souvenirs?”

  She laughed then and tapped a fingertip on the end of his nose. “The only man I’ve ever been with, one way or the other, is you. And we didn’t have any condoms those other times either.”

  There really was no arguing with her on that. And she had been supremely unconcerned so far, even though they had done it without protection once.

  Of course, there was one other issue, but Mitch wasn’t going to raise that question again. In fact, he couldn’t think of anything more wonderful than Lilith conceiving his child. She’d be a terrific mother.

  And he’d have another point in his favor when he proposed.

  Let the lovemaking begin.

  Mitch stripped off his Jockeys and cast them across the room with a flourish. He grinned at Lilith’s whistle of admiration, then flicked a finger at the sleeve of her dress. “And what about you?” he challenged softly.

  Without a word, Lilith sat up, then got to her feet. She held his gaze while she unbuttoned her dress with theatrical leisure, bared one shoulder as though dancing to a band only she could hear, then covered it up and playfully bared the other.

  “Tease,” Mitch charged and Lilith laughed.

  “You’re the one determined to take things slowly.” She turned her back on him and shook her shoulders so her dress fell down her back. She tipped back her head and laughed at Mitch when he made a great show of trying to see some flesh behind the curtain of her hair.

  When she spun back to face him, her dress was back on her shoulders but open the whole way down the front. Mitch glimpsed her matching lingerie, the smooth creaminess of her belly. Her legs flashed and he realized he’d never seen them before.

  “You always wear dresses.”

  “It’s my Rom roots showing,” she admitted with a smile and an ease that surprised him. “We’d rather show our breasts than our knees.”

  With that, she flicked back her hair and wriggled the dress off her shoulders. The dress fell around her ankles in a floral swirl, then Lilith stepped out of it, like Botticelli’s Aphrodite stepping off her seashell.

  Mitch’s mouth went dry. Her skin glowed like sun-kissed sandalwood in the pale light. She was smooth and curved like a goddess. She was wearing a feminine froth of a brassiere, the openwork of the white lace contrasting with the golden hue of her skin. Lilith’s curves were achingly feminine. In those lace-edged panties, she was a sight infinitely better than any skinny model in a lingerie catalog.

  When Lilith knelt on the bed beside him and reached to unfasten her bra, Mitch
captured her hands in his.

  “Let me,” he whispered. Her eyes shone as she lifted her hands away, and Mitch ended up with her breasts cupped in his palms. They fit perfectly – as though she had been made for him to love. Or maybe the other way around. Kismet. Mitch grinned at the whimsy of that thought.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Perfect fit.” He arched a brow and met her gaze. “Must be destiny.”

  Lilith smiled in turn, her lips brushing against his. “Kismet indeed,” she whispered. Her perfume swallowed Mitch like a cloud.

  His thumbs slid across her nipples and despite the gossamer layer of silk covering them, Lilith gasped at his touch. Mitch felt her nipples bead, then he bent and kissed her lips more thoroughly. Lilith sighed and leaned against him, as warm and as welcoming as she always was in his thoughts.

  Mitch closed his eyes and tasted her skin, inhaled her scent. He let his hands run over her curves, let his lips trail across her collar bone, down her throat, across those full breasts. He bracketed her waist with his hands and suckled her through the bra. She cried out and clutched his hair.

  Mitch eased Lilith back onto the bed and let his questing lips move lower. He traced the length of each rib with his kisses; he twisted his tongue into her navel; he reveled in the love thundering through him. He wanted to savor this woman. He wanted to pleasure her. He wanted to wipe everything out of her universe except his own tough.

  He wanted to do to her what she so readily did to him.

  Mitch pulled down her panties with his teeth, his hands roving endlessly over her, his tongue making her cry out with delight. He cast off her underwear and cupped her buttocks in his hands. He set to work coaxing her response with his tongue. Lilith moaned; she twisted; she writhed; she whispered his name; she arched her back off the bed.

  And she was wetter than wet. Mitch thought he would explode at the evidence of her arousal. He gave her no respite, though. He teased until she shivered and then he teased some more. He wanted this to be a night to remember. Lilith reached for him, but he caught her hands and interlaced their fingers.

  Lilith gasped. Mitch could almost feel the heat rising beneath her skin. His own erection was enormous, made more so with every hint of her rising passion. She came with a cry of victory, her back arched high, and he thought he couldn’t last.

  When she mumbled in contentment, Mitch slid up the length of her, nibbling her flesh all the way and making her shiver anew. Their fingers were still entwined when he braced himself above her. Her breathing was rapid and her eyes shone.

  “Okay?”

  “Wonderful.” Lilith’s smile made Mitch’s heart clench, then expand. He bent and captured her lips with his. They kissed hungrily, lingeringly. He felt her desire building to a simmer once again. Without breaking their kiss, she wrapped her legs around Mitch in silent demand. Mitch eased himself into her, his own eyes closing at the way her warmth closed securely around him.

  Again, a perfect fit.

  “Kismet,” he whispered against the perfumed softness of her throat. Lilith’s low laughter fanned his ear.

  And then, she rolled her hips beneath him.

  Mitch caught his breath at the surge of desire that fired through him. His blood pounded in his ears. Lilith smiled and did it again. Mitch braced himself on his elbows, then moved within her with slow deliberation. Lilith’s hands locked on his shoulders and she writhed beneath him so beguilingly that he knew he wouldn’t last.

  He couldn’t last.

  But this wouldn’t be the only time. They had decided to make love, and they were going to make love until they couldn’t make love any more. Lilith was going to know what she did to Mitch; she was going to understand how much he cared for her. Mitch didn’t care whether it took all night or all year.

  Or even all of his life.

  He moved with powerful strokes, aware of only the woman gasping beneath him. Mitch slipped his hand between them and his thumb found the spot he sought. Lilith shivered, then made a little cry of pleasure. He bent and swallowed the sound, kissing her, touching her, filling her.

  Again, the sight of her rising passion drove him on to greater and greater heights. Lilith’s ripe lips parted. She writhed in the dark tangle of her hair. Her fingers gripped his shoulders. The softness of that lacy brassiere brushed against Mitch’s chest.

  Suddenly, Lilith’s eyes widened and she cried out in pleasure. Mitch barely saw the flush race over her skin before his own orgasm thundered through him. For an incredible moment, time stretched out to infinity and Mitch touched the stars.

  Slowly, Mitch tumbled into the arms of his equally exhausted lady. He ran his fingertip along the edge of her bra and smiled when she shivered. “We didn’t even finish the job,” he mused, sliding his finger beneath the elastic strap.

  Lilith curled up against his side, all softness and femininity, her legs tangled up around his. “Next time,” she whispered, her eyes alight.

  Mitch grinned at the prospect. He enfolded her in his arms and rolled to his back, more than content with his situation. Opening his heart to this woman had changed more than his perspectives – it had changed Mitch himself.

  He was a new man, and he liked that just fine.

  “I love you, Lilith,” he whispered, his eyes drifting closed before he saw her answering smile.

  He was asleep by the time she stretched and kissed his brow.

  He never did see her take off that bra. When he awakened hours later, it was gone, although its absence was no impediment to their making love a second time.

  Or even the time after that.

  * * *

  14

  Temperance

  Lilith awakened when the first ray of sunlight poked through the bedroom window. She sighed and snuggled closer to Mitch’s warmth, then wrinkled her nose at the earthy aroma they emanated.

  Something had to be done.

  Lilith gave Mitch a friendly poke. “Wake up,” she whispered urgently. “We need to have a shower.”

  Mitch opened one eye and smiled lazily, a decidedly amorous gleam in that gold eye. “I like a woman who isn’t afraid to say what she wants,” he teased, then kissed her leisurely.

  Lilith sighed with contentment. The man was thorough, she would willingly give him that.

  And just about anything else he wanted from her. Lilith was tired in all the right places, and filled with a certainty that they had only just begun to explore something truly wonderful.

  But despite the gleam in Mitch’s eye, another bout wasn’t exactly what she meant. “The kids will be awake soon,” she whispered when he lifted his lips from hers.

  But Mitch rolled over and pulled Lilith purposefully against his side. He nuzzled her neck enough to make her toes curl. “I don’t care if they find us together,” he mumbled, then kissed that tingly spot right under Lilith’s ear.

  His words made a little glow launch around her heart. His kiss made numerous other - equally good - things happen.

  “No, not that,” she protested weakly. Mitch kissed her neck, his fingers sliding around her breast. “And not that!” she added breathlessly.

  Mitch lifted his head and met her gaze. “Then what?”

  Lilith sniffed and grimaced again. “It just smells a bit earthy in here, if you know what I mean.”

  Mitch deliberately sniffed in turn and made a comical face. “Phew! What’s been going on in this bed?” He grinned, then bounded from the bed. Lilith only had a moment to admire Mitch’s muscled legs and bare butt, before he pivoted and scooped her into his arms. In a heartbeat, he was headed for the bathroom. “I did mention that I have a weakness for clever women, didn’t I?”

  Lilith tapped him on the shoulder. “You only get to have a weakness for one woman now.”

  Mitch grinned, obviously untroubled by that. “Fair enough. As long as we’re both playing by the same rules.”

  “Of course.”

  Mitch kicked the bathroom door shut behind them, pulling Lilith clo
se and landing a bone-melting kiss on her. When she was certain she couldn’t even stand up on her own, he lifted his head.

  The twinkle in his eye should have warned her.

  But Lilith found herself dumped into the shower before she could protest. Mitch turned on the water, she sputtered, but he turned back to lock the door.

  “We don’t any little eyes or cold noses investigating,” he confided as he climbed into the tub beside her. After the initial cold spurt, the hot water had come and the shower was becoming quite cozy.

  Intent shone in Mitch’s eyes, one glance further south confirming exactly what he had in mind. His hands roved over her, starting little fires everywhere they touched.

  “Now, then,” Mitch purred as he backed Lilith into the tile wall. His chest hair tickled against her breasts, the warmth of his smile made Lilith’s heart pound in anticipation. He quirked one chestnut brow. “How about some good clean fun?”

  Lilith had only a moment to laugh before Mitch’s lips closed demandingly over hers. He caught her around the waist, his hands nearly encircling her, and lifted her so that her toes dangled off the ground. He imprisoned her against the wall and Lilith couldn’t imagine a better place to be. The water drummed down on his shoulders and Lilith closed her eyes with contentment.

  Mitch loved her.

  She loved him, they were together. That was the only thing Lilith had ever wanted and she had it right in her hands. Her heart sang and she knew she would treasure Mitch’s whispered confession for the rest of her days.

  She ran her toes up the back of his legs, giggling when he growled. Lilith locked her knees around his waist, more than ready to repeat their earlier activities. Mitch’s hands slid lower and he cupped her buttocks, a very wicked gleam lighting the amber of her eyes.

  “Why don’t you put your feet on the edge of the tub?” he suggested. Mitch gripped her cheeks tighter when Lilith followed his suggestion. “And don’t worry,” he breathed against her neck. “I’m not going to let you fall.” His erection pressed against her softness, his lips moved in her ear.

  And Lilith knew right then and there that they were going to run the hot water tank dry.