Mitch looked up into the rheumy old eyes of the man who must be Lilith’s other neighbor. That man offered a bouquet of roses, evidently cut from the plants surrounding his house. His gnarled hand shook as he handed the flowers over the short hedge.
“These, too,” he said hoarsely. “Tell her Joe sends them.” He smiled, as if the expression was unfamiliar. “Joe next door. It’s good just to know that they’ll be close to her.”
There was definitely something wrong with the drinking water in this neighborhood. Mitch would have to start buying the bottled stuff for the kids.
All the same, he couldn’t bring himself to be rude. He juggled his load and made his way to the door, more than aware of his expectant audience. Before he rang the bell, Mitch reminded himself why he had come.
Right. He was mad. Lilith was a crook, or at least she hid her trail like one, and he was convinced that she was trying to swindle Andrea. Mitch wasn’t going to let his stepmother get ripped off. Since he couldn’t change Andrea’s mind, he intended to persuade Lilith to find other prey.
That was it. Mitch took a deep breath as he rang the bell and tried to look forbidding. It was pretty hard to summon indignation with an armload of romantic gifts, but Mitch did his best.
He rang the bell again, then again, then knocked on the door. Lilith might have hidden herself away from the world, but she wasn’t hidden from him. Nope, Mitch was on to her, he smelled a story and his instincts were never wrong.
They were going to get this straightened out right now.
*
5
The Pope
“I’m coming!” Lilith called as the doorbell rang and rang and rang. The person was even knocking at the door, as if she could miss all that noise!
What could be so important? Lilith was rattled, having escaped the bookstore by a narrow margin and come home to find a growing legion on men on the sidewalk.
But everything was wrong in the stars for a counter-spell. So, Lilith had barricaded herself in the house to wait it out. She distrusted the fact that her bell rang now.
It was probably one of Those Men.
Well, Lilith was ready to tell them what she thought of their behavior. She’d been trapped in her house long enough and was done with it. Yes! She would give them a piece of her mind - and if they were looking to win her affections, that would finish that!
“Well? Where’s the fire?” Lilith demanded as she hauled open the door, then her mouth fell open in shock.
Because it seemed that Mitch wasn’t as immune to her spell as he’d insisted, after all. Gifts of a most romantic sort cascaded from his arms, he even clutched roses. He looked mildly startled by her greeting, but Lilith was delighted.
He remembered!
That alone made every trial of the day fade out of Lilith’s mind. Everything was finally falling into place. Lilith lunged out the door and cast herself into Mitch’s arms.
Actually, she landed in the midst of his packages and Mitch couldn’t do much about it. Lilith didn’t care. She landed a seriously yummy kiss on Mitch and embraced him with all the ardor she’d been saving just for him.
He made a little growl of protest, but much less than he had the first time, and maybe only because he was going to drop that great big box of chocolates. They’d probably cost a fortune, but Lilith didn’t care about the box. She wasn’t much for chocolate anyhow.
There was another kind of sweet treat she had in mind.
The box fell, the chocolates rolled, Lilith framed Mitch’s face with her hands and kissed him harder.
Mitch swore under her breath, shivered, and nearly lost his balance. Then he abruptly dropped everything else and caught Lilith up against him. His hands cradled the back of her waist possessively and he pulled her right to her toes. His lips slanted across hers with purpose and Lilith’s heart began to thunder.
He remembered!
This time would be even better than the last. Lilith joyously pressed her breasts against Mitch’s chest and took a deep breath of the warm masculine scent of him. She twined her fingers into the thickness of his hair and ran one bare toe up the back of his leg. He was so strong, so muscled, so perfectly delicious.
And he was really back.
Lilith rolled her tongue between his teeth and Mitch groaned. She felt the evidence that their thinking was as one in this and arched herself against him. Mitch gripped the back of her waist even tighter, he plundered her mouth with his. Sunlight danced in Lilith’s veins, she rolled her belly against his raging erection.
This was more like it! She had known that her one true love would be irresistible when he put his mind to seduction.
But just when everything seemed to be going exactly right for a change, Mitch suddenly gripped Lilith’s shoulders in his hands. He pushed her away from him, a steely glint of determination in his amber eyes.
“Not again,” he declared, his voice so low and gritty that it made Lilith tremble in anticipation. “Not like that again.”
Lilith blinked in alarm before she understood. No. Not on the porch. Or even in the foyer. Of course not. The house presented myriad, more private options.
What a marvel of practicality her man was!
Lilith snared Mitch’s collar and dragged him into the house. “Don’t worry. We can be very creative. Where should we start? In the living room? The bedroom? The kitchen?”
He frowned and planted his feet resolutely against the floor. “No. That’s not what I mean.”
Lilith was puzzled by his change of attitude. “You want to do it on the porch?”
At that suggestion, Mitch looked decidedly agitated. “No!”
“In the foyer again?”
Mitch looked at the carpet and swallowed, obviously remembering their first passionate encounter. When he looked back to her, the heat smoldering in his eyes made Lilith’s heart skip a beat. “Yes,” he said silkily, and reached out one hand to her before he suddenly checked his response.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute!” Mitch shook his head as though he was remembering something, or trying to shake something loose. “No!” He took a step back. “This isn’t what’s supposed to be happening here. This isn’t why I came!”
“It isn’t?” Lilith knew her confusion showed. “But I thought everything was going according to plan.”
Mitch impaled her with a bright glance. “Not my plan.” He shoved an hand through his hair and eyed Lilith with obvious exasperation. “What do you do to me, anyhow? How do you manage to make me forget the point, just like that?” He snapped his fingers, not looking too pleased about the situation.
But Lilith laughed. The answer was so perfectly obvious. “We’re destined to be together,” she said easily. “Of course, we have a powerful effect on each other.”
“Destiny,” Mitch muttered. “And here I thought you were going to blame it on a spell.”
Lilith smiled. “Well, maybe that didn’t hurt.”
Mitch took a deep and deliberate breath, then granted her a quelling glance. “Whatever it is, I wish you’d stop.”
Lilith blinked in surprise. “You do?” Then she smiled again, seeing his teasing for what it was. “You could have fooled me,” she purred, backing Mitch into the wall as she closed in for another kiss.
But Lilith never connected.
Mitch stepped quickly away, leaving her in mid-pucker. “Lilith!” He flung out his hands. “This has to stop! And it has to stop right now!”
“You’re the one who came bearing romantic gifts,” she felt compelled to observe.
But Mitch jabbed a finger toward the debris on the porch. “That stuff isn’t from me, so don’t go leaping to conclusions. I didn’t come to bring it either.” Lilith watched him, mystified as to what was his problem. He certainly was wound up. “It’s from them, so your gratitude is misplaced.”
Lilith looked to find that the army of men camped out in front of her house had grown. She winced. “Oh, no. I was hoping they were gone.”
“Well, they’re not.” Mitch sounded quite disgruntled about the whole thing, and rightly so, to Lilith’s way of thinking. “And they made me into their official envoy since I was coming here anyway.”
Lilith felt her lips quirk at this admission. Suddenly everything made perfect sense. Trust Mitch to be worried about only taking credit where it was due! So, he had remembered and come to tell her so, but he didn’t want her misunderstanding the source of these gifts. Her certainly had developed some noble traits in his character over the centuries.
She tried not to tease him, but she couldn’t resist. He was so serious about doing the Right Thing.
“And you only accept kisses that you think you’ve earned?” Lilith heard the laughter lurking in her voice, but Mitch didn’t smile. Lilith was undeterred. “So, do I have to wait until you bring me something to give you another kiss?” She playfully ran a fingertip up his bare forearm. “Or should we think of some other ways for you to earn a kiss?”
This time her lips brushed against his before Mitch caught his breath and took another step away.
“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 ex
plained, 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!”
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