Time Travel Romances Boxed Set

by Claire Delacroix

But the light was wrong. It was too dim in the room to see whether anyone lurked in the depths of Mitch’s eyes or not, though Lilith’s Gift whispered to her of the truth.

  They weren’t a perfect lovematch, at least not anymore. She didn’t have to see to know. Sebastian’s return had changed everything.

  Lilith knew that the future is a constantly changing array of possibilities, a world of options that changes with every choice that each person makes. It didn’t make her feel any better that somehow her choices, or Mitch’s choices, had led to a fork in the path they walked together, a fork that would compel them each to walk in different directions.

  But Lilith couldn’t summon the words to explain all of that before Sebastian unfolded himself like a large version of D’Artagnan and strolled across the floor. He halted right in front of Mitch, and poked a finger in that man’s chest.

  “Beat it, pal. We’ve got destiny on our side.” Sebastian smiled coldly. “And three is a crowd.”

  “Lilith?” Mitch made one last appeal.

  “I’m sorry, Mitch.” Lilith swallowed, the words not tasting good in her mouth. “This is how it has to be.”

  Mitch swore, pivoted and stalked out the door.

  And Lilith felt suddenly as though she had lost everything that had ever mattered to her, even knowing that her destined lover had returned to her embrace.

  Surely, she and Sebastian had just gotten off on the wrong foot. Surely, once they were alone together, the passion that had united them once would flicker to life again.

  Surely, Lilith couldn’t have made as big of a mistake as she felt quite definitely she had.

  *

  Mitch couldn’t believe it. He was furious with Lilith for refusing to see the truth. For a woman who talked about destiny and love all the time, she was really missing the road signs on this one.

  He loved her. And Mitch knew she loved him.

  He wished he could say something that would convince her of the truth. But Mitch had laid out his best arguments, to no discernible effect. And he knew that Lilith wasn’t easily persuaded to abandon whatever whimsy she took to heart.

  Maybe she hadn’t taken him as close to heart as Mitch had thought.

  That thought stung, but Mitch knew better. He’d been following his gut instincts long enough to know a reliable lead when he found one. Lilith was the woman for him, Mitch knew it in every fiber of his being.

  All he had to do was convince her of the truth. It was hard to walk away from her, doubly hard to leave her in the company of the wretch who had kept her waiting for so long, but Mitch knew an argument that couldn’t be won when he saw one.

  And he wasn’t going to persuade Lilith of anything today.

  Mitch took a deep breath as he reached his own back porch, and fought to compose himself. He’d need answers for the kids, reasons for Lilith’s quick departure and for her inevitable absence.

  Because she wasn’t going to be out of his life for long. No way. Mitch had taken one look at this Sebastian and recognized a man of Kurt’s ilk. Sebastian wasn’t the man for Lilith.

  Mitch was.

  She’d see the truth soon enough. The guy had some hold on her, that link in the past, but Lilith would see her way through that. This was something she had to work through, like his reassessment of his former marriage. Mitch respected Lilith’s intellect and knew she’d make the right choice. And when she did, Mitch would be waiting.

  He didn’t care how long it took.

  And then Mitch would start wooing Lilith in earnest. After all, the lady had appointed Mitch her champion and that was a role he took pretty seriously. It was a role he was damn good at.

  It was a role he was going to surrender without a fight.

  *

  Lilith sat down weakly in the closest chair and stared at Sebastian, unable to get things into any kind of order in her mind. The strange thing was that the sight of Sebastian did absolutely nothing to her pulse rate.

  In fact, the man before her didn’t appear to be her type at all. He looked very slick and more than a little unreliable. He didn’t even look the way Sebastian had looked all those years ago. And there was a decided absence of magick in the air since Mitch had left. If Sebastian hadn’t known about the card, Lilith would have thought he was a complete stranger.

  She still felt as though he was.

  Of course, nearly six hundred years was a long time. People grew in their own ways. It wouldn’t be easy to just pick up where they left off.

  And destiny really was on her side this time. Lilith pushed the sight of Mitch’s hurt out of her thoughts, deliberately stomped down on the ache of her own heart, and focused on the issue at hand.

  As reunions went, this one hadn’t been particularly celebratory so far. Maybe she could get them back on the right track.

  “So, you are Sebastian.” Lilith said deliberately, as though stating his name would make everything make sense.

  It didn’t. His name didn’t even linger deliciously on her tongue the way it had for many centuries.

  Lilith frowned and told herself not to fight things she couldn’t change.

  “Yeah, that’s me.” Sebastian grinned and preened, clearly expecting Lilith to admire his physique. He did have the build of a legendary Latin lover, bedroom eyes, golden skin and ruffled dark hair.

  But the sight of him did absolutely nothing for Lilith.

  “A little upgrade, you know,” Sebastian confided. “I wanted a slicker package this time, something with some serious style.” He flashed a very white smile. “Like it?”

  Lilith swallowed, not having it in her to lie and knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the truth. “How did you get in here?”

  Sebastian’s smile broadened. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, baby, but you’ve got a seriously inferior grade of lock on your door. It was like picking my teeth.”

  Lilith swallowed her gasp of outrage. “You broke into my house?”

  “I didn’t break anything,” he retorted. “I’m a pro!”

  Her destined love was a professional criminal. Lilith pressed her fingertips to her temples. This was getting better and better.

  What had she done to deserve such a fate?

  “I thought you would have shown up sooner,” she commented quietly. “Where have you been?”

  “All over the place,” Sebastian confessed with a vague wave of his hand. “Spreading the wealth, you know. I’ve got to tell you that I’ve had action in this life, like you wouldn’t believe. Yet there are women everywhere who haven’t yet made my acquaintance.” He examined his nails with a smile. “I do what I can to set things to rights.”

  “What?” His confession brought Lilith to attention with a snap. “You’ve been with other women?”

  “Hundreds of them, baby.” Sebastian smiled and shrugged. “Maybe even thousands. Over the years, I’ve lost count.”

  Lilith sputtered in her indignation. “But you’re supposed to be my one true love!”

  Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Women and the stuff they come up with,” he mumbled, then smiled engagingly once more. “Sure, Lilith baby, whatever you think is fair.”

  Lilith leaned forward in her chair. “Don’t you think we’re destined lovers?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “Well, that’s what the crowd said when the interrupted a truly great seduction about a week back.” His eyes gleamed. “I was on the Riviera, you know, in this great little hotel, all the amenities, if you know what I mean. And I had met this blonde with hooters out to tomorrow…”

  “What crowd?” Lilith shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

  Sebastian blinked as he sought the element of his story that had caught Lilith’s interest – it took him a moment because it wasn’t the element that interested him. “The crowd? Oh, yeah, this whole party bust into my room.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like they came out of nowhere. It was weird, truly weird. I never did figure out how they got in, and that is my area of specialty.”


  Lilith’s mouth went dry. Her Gift sparkled like starlight and gave her a definite nudge in the direction of a conclusion. “Who were they?” she asked, suspecting that she already knew the answer.

  “Some council, they said. Pretty hoity-toity name, I don’t remember, but they had some really fancy tricks.”

  “The Grand Consulting Council of Immortals,” Lilith whispered reverently, awed that they had taken an interest in her plight.

  “Could have been.” Sebastian shook a finger at her, more than ready to get back to his story. “Now, this blonde was wearing a bikini, or actually not wearing it…”

  But Lilith wasn’t interested in the blonde. “What did they say to you?”

  “Huh? Oh, that I had some obligation from a past life or something equally weird. Freaked out the blonde, which didn’t thrill me particularly, I have to say. After she took off, they laid a lot of goofy doom and gloom on the table. I didn’t know what they went going on about until one of them touched my forehead. I suddenly remembered all these past lives. It was pretty bizarre.”

  “So you didn’t remember anything before that?” Lilith asked, wondering why she didn’t find that very reassuring.

  “No, but then, it was all right there. Just to make matters more strange, they insisted that I had to come here, that you were waiting.” Sebastian leaned closer, no doubt turning what was his best smile on Lilith. “If I’d known you were such a looker, baby, I wouldn’t have argued as much as I did.”

  A sick feeling coiled in Lilith’s stomach. “You mean you didn’t want to come?”

  “Naw! I mean I remembered the other time, but it was hardly anything to chase after, no offense. You were just a skinny kid, not bad looking, but that blonde had you beat hands down. And you couldn’t touch her in terms of experience.” His lips quirked in a smile. “Nothing personal, baby, but I’ve got to look out for number one.”

  Lilith forced her words past the lump in her throat, knowing she had to have everything absolutely clear. “So, you do remember being Sebastian before?”

  “Well, now, yeah.” He shrugged. “Kind of a gruesome way to go, but that’s life. At least I got to come back a few dozen times. And since those council types visited me, I can remember all those babes!” He winked confidently. “Pretty neat that my name is the same this time, don’t you think? Just like destiny or something.”

  He grinned.

  He’d reincarnated dozens of times, yet he hadn’t come looking for her. He’d been too busy “spreading the wealth”, as it was.

  Lilith didn’t like this at all.

  She folded her hands together carefully and held Sebastian’s gaze. “Tell me – if you hadn’t been arrested all those years ago, would you really have come back to me?”

  He smiled coolly and Lilith knew the truth.

  No. He’d never cared for her. He’d only wanted to seduce her. Her uncle had been right – and Lilith had been foolish enough to believe otherwise for much longer than she should have.

  Her blood ran cold at the realization that this man was still her destined companion for the rest of her days.

  “But see, baby, there’s wasn’t a lot of chance of my coming back, anyway.”

  Lilith blinked, almost having forgotten where they were. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I was caught red-handed, as they say.” Sebastian tapped his temple. “I remember it all now.”

  Red-handed? Horror rose in Lilith as she saw the truth in his eyes. “You did kill that widow!”

  Sebastian shrugged. “Hey, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill her, but you know, she liked it a bit rough.” He winked. “If you know what I mean. Things got a little out of control that night.” He shrugged again, supremely unconcerned. “Happens.”

  Lilith could barely choke back her anger. It was bad enough that Sebastian had taken her virginity, made her all sorts of promises, then gone to another woman’s bed. But he had killed that widow and still didn’t feel a pang of remorse.

  He was worse than pond scum.

  She had been an idiot to believe his lies.

  The worst part was that she had pined for this pathetic excuse for a man for almost six centuries. Mitch, now there was a man worth pining for.

  But he wasn’t the man destined for her.

  Lilith decided right then and there that destiny sucked.

  “Hey, Lilith, baby, you look like you could use some cheering up.” Sebastian leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. “And I’ve got just the medicine you need. What do you say to a healthy doze of Sebastian for breakfast?”

  “No!” Lilith bounded to her feet.

  Sebastian’s eyes flashed before he smiled with smooth charm. “Hey, you called me. I sure wouldn’t have come to this city all on my own. There’s nothing going here.” His eyes narrowed. “Besides, I heard that you said you were going to make it worth my while.”

  It didn’t help that he was exactly right.

  But Lilith still didn’t want to keep her word. She eased toward the door, intending to slide out the door. But Sebastian lunged to his feet to stop her.

  Lilith fled, ripping down the hall and to lock herself in the kitchen. Sebastian’s footsteps echoed behind. Lilith closed her eyes tightly and chanted a spell to make the lock hold, her heart nearly stopping when Sebastian jiggled the knob forcefully.

  The knob stopped moving and Lilith took a wary step back.

  “You can’t resist my charm forever, Lilith baby,” Sebastian whispered through the keyhole. “After all, it’s destiny.”

  But Lilith was already hauling her cauldron toward the stove, determined to conjure up an eviction spell. She had been such a fool. Somehow there had to be a way to make things come right.

  Lilith flicked on the radio so she wouldn’t have to hear Sebastian breathing on the other side of the door. She was encouraged to hear Gladys Knight singing about her lover taking the midnight train to Georgia. With every “he’s leaving” that the Pips echoed, Lilith tossed another pinch into the pot.

  She couldn’t conjure quickly enough.

  *

  Sebastian could have broken the lock. He was sure he could have picked it, but clearly Lilith needed a moment to think. Women were like that. But they always came around.

  Besides, a little pause in the action wasn’t such a bad idea.

  Because this wasn’t the way Sebastian had envisioned this deal. Not at all. Nobody had said anything about fighting off competition. Of course, that council hadn’t been prepared to listen much to Sebastian’s point of view, but he’d been sure that there was a little bit of something curvy in this deal for him.

  And that it – she - would be easy pickings.

  Clearly, though, Lilith was holding out on him. And she was going to keep doing so. Since that was completely contrary to her passionate response of several centuries ago, Sebastian guessed that the fault lay outside of her nature.

  It was that guy net door. He’d been playing in Sebastian’s pond while Sebastian was otherwise occupied. It wasn’t pertinent that Sebastian had had no intention of seeking out Lilith before the council intervened.

  He was here now-an entire ocean away from civilization as he knew it – and if nothing else, Sebastian wanted what he had come all this way to get.

  He was owed.

  He’d give Lilith time to calm down, then come back and win her over with a healthy measure of his undeniable charm. Sebastian grinned to himself.

  She’d forget that jerk next door in nothing flat.

  Sebastian slipped out of the house with a whistle on his lips, confident that no matter how Lilith tried to barricade against his return, he could get back into that house.

  Guaranteed.

  *

  17

  The Star

  Andrea couldn’t hide from the fact that she was disappointed. Eight days into her cruise and she still hadn’t met anyone even remotely interesting.

  Could Lilith have been wrong?

  The worst thing abou
t that would be that it would prove Mitch’s skepticism right.

  She hated proving Mitch right - mostly because it happened too often.

  Andrea sighed and took her new swirly blue dress from the tiny closet. She held it up to herself and smiled for her reflection. Tonight was the night Andrea was to sit at the captain’s table, although she really wasn’t excited about the prospect.

  She was tired of old women and men who couldn’t dance, honeymooners staring into each other’s eyes and children bored to death after days at sea. She was tired of bingo and skeet-shooting and buffets that only seemed to be cleared to make way for another lavish meal. She didn’t want to sunbathe anymore, or learn to play shuffleboard, or be marched through an island village in a convoy of tourists. She didn’t even want to languish on an endless beach.

  Andrea wanted to dance. She flicked the hem of the skirt and considered the prospect of having her toes trodden upon yet again. She hadn’t seen a single man on this ship who seemed to have a talent for dancing, much less one as interesting as Lilith had promised.

  And Andrea had had a good look. She pouted at the possibility that Lilith was mistaken, the reflected gesture reminding her so much of Jen that she laughed aloud.

  That made Andrea feel better. She’d do some shopping for the kids tomorrow - as though they needed more souvenirs of her trip than she had already acquired. Watching Mitch growl about them getting spoiled would mitigate the disappointment of seeing him proven right again.

  Andrea chuckled to herself at the prospect. “If you don’t play, you can’t win,” she informed her mirror image sternly and hung the dress on the bathroom door with purpose. Andrea hadn’t gotten this far in life by sitting in a corner and feeling sorry for herself, and she wasn’t going to start now.

  And she was going to go out with a bang. Partner or no partner, tonight, Andrea was going to dance - and dammit, she was going to sparkle.