*
Andrea swept into the dining room with every bit of her usual style and grace. She smiled at the maitre d’ and accepted his arm, her chin held high as she was led to her seat. It was a perfect evening for romance: the chandeliers glittered like starlight and the band was playing marvelous music. The crystal tinkled, there was a low murmur of conversation.
Despite herself, Andrea felt her anticipation rise. She was reminded of nights spent dancing to big band music at Casa Loma with her second husband - well, not actually with him. Walter had always escorted her, then sat with a drink and watched others twirl Andrea around the floor. Walter knew she loved to dance and had been quite philosophical about his own inabilities.
The memory made Andrea smile.
She thought then of her first husband, Bernard, and the way he compelled the younger partners in his law firm to waltz with her at least once at every Christmas party. Those were parties! Glittering fêtes at the Park Plaza or the Royal York, either hotel more than competent at elegant little canapés and conjuring the perfect festive mood.
Like the one tonight.
Andrea took her seat and thought of Nate. Now, there was a man who had stolen the key to her heart and never surrendered it again. He had been the only one who wouldn’t encourage others to dance with her, a regular old bear when it came to keeping Andrea by his side. She had loved him so much, she just didn’t mind. On a night like this, he would have ordered champagne, commandeered a table in the corner, and bent his attention on making her laugh.
Yes, Nate had been a wonderful man.
Andrea blinked back her tears and smiled at her dinner companions as they exchanged introductions. Directly opposite her was a very handsome man of about her age, one who Andrea had not seen about the ship as yet. His green eyes twinkled, seeming to hint at a joke only he could discern. An equally handsome wife sat at his side, turning her wedding band around and around her finger as she leaned against her husband and whispered anxiously in his ear.
A pair of elderly sisters from Paducah sat beside them, a besotted young couple beside the sisters stirred themselves long enough to confess that they had just been married on the last island. A retired librarian named Ethel, whom Andrea had already met and whose wry jokes she quite enjoyed, slid into the seat beside Andrea with a smile.
“Lovely, isn’t it?” Ethel asked.
“Wonderful,” Andrea agreed, consciously masking her disappointment.
Because the Captain himself greeted them all from behind his chair, his presence finishing the seating. Ethel had already confided that the Captain was happily married, that his wife would be joining him for the next circuit of the cruise.
Andrea stared at her salad plate and recalled Lilith’s assertion that she would not immediately recognize her soul mate, that he would seem unavailable. Well, barring the possibility that Ethel was hiding her true sexual identity, or that the Captain had a liking for women twice his age and was prepared to risk his wife’s opinions on the matter, or that the handsome wife would suddenly drown in her lobster bisque, it didn’t appear that Andrea’s destined lover had troubled to show.
Well, Ethel was good company.
Andrea turned to the friend she had already made on this trip and - quite deliberately, very defiantly - sparkled.
Andrea was in the act of declining another waltz with a man who seemed to have a rare gift for stepping hard on her toes, when a smooth British accent interjected.
“Perhaps I might have the honor of this dance?”
Andrea turned to find the man from her table with the sparkling green eyes. “Nigel Farnsworth,” he reminded her, with a slow smile. “I’ve made it my personal duty to dance with every lovely lady from our table this evening. Would you indulge me?”
Andrea’s gaze flicked back to the table. “Your wife won’t mind?”
Nigel’s lips quirked. “She might if I had one, but I don’t.”
Andrea frowned. “But you were sitting - “
“With my sister. Widowed a year ago and moping ever since.” He glanced back to the table himself and the twinkle faltered. “I was hoping this cruise might cheer her a bit, but so far, no luck. She’s spent most of the cruise sulking in the cabin and insisting I remain with her.” He looked back to Andrea, his expression rueful. “I had no idea the cabins would be quite so small.”
Andrea giggled despite herself. “You’ve managed to escape.”
“And only just.” Nigel smiled, his eyes twinkled and Andrea’s heart skipped a beat. “One must make the most of one’s opportunities. Shall we?”
“Of course,” Andrea said and took his hand. The band struck up a waltz and Nigel swung Andrea out onto the floor with the grace of a man who had been dancing from the cradle.
Andrea sighed with delight. “You can dance,” she murmured.
Nigel chuckled. “Let me guess - your toes thank me.”
Andrea smiled at him. “Every single one of them is charmed.”
Not to mention a good part of the rest of Andrea. He was a devastatingly good dancer, guiding her effortlessly through the throng of inexperienced dancers, leaving the perfect distance between them, moving so gracefully and so in tune with Andrea that she felt as though they’d been dancing together forever.
And he wore a very sexy cologne.
“I must confess,” Nigel murmured moments later ‘that I’ve been shamelessly eavesdropping on your conversation with your friend.” His voice dropped low, his accent making Andrea’s bones melt. “You must tell me where the most intriguing woman on this ship has managed to hide for an entire week.”
Andrea laughed at his compliment. “Not in my cabin.”
“Nor in mine, clearly.” The corner of Nigel’s lips tweaked. “It seems I missed more than the shuffleboard tournament.”
Andrea looked into the twinkle of his very green eyes and couldn’t quit catch her breath.
Everything froze around her as she studied Nigel’s smile and realized belatedly that everything was just as Lilith had said. Andrea hadn’t guessed that Nigel was available, although she had noticed him immediately. And he could dance, there was no doubt about that. She liked the glint of humor in his eyes. She liked how trim he was. She liked the stylish cut of his tux and the tang of his cologne. She liked that he was worried about his sister.
And she liked that he had finally put his foot down.
Andrea stared up at Nigel and her heart seemed to have stopped beating. It suddenly felt as if someone had tied a great big ribbon around her heart and knotted it tight.
It felt as though, one more time, a man had stolen the key to her heart while she wasn’t watching. There was a glint of determination in those green eyes and Andrea knew with complete certainty that Nigel wouldn’t surrender that key without a fight.
She liked that just fine.
The music changed and Andrea arched a brow at her partner. “Dare I hope that you can tango?” she asked, fully certain of what the answer would be.
Nigel feigned an aristocratic scoff. “What man of substance cannot?” Then he winked, flicked Andrea into a perfect spin, and they were off.
They merengued and they waltzed and they polkaed until Andrea was sure there were holes in the soles of her shoes. They laughed and they talked and they didn’t even notice that nearly everyone was wandering off to bed.
Because they danced some more.
When the band finally called it quits in the wee hours of the morning, Andrea peeled off her shoes and Nigel cast off his jacket. He snagged a bottle of champagne from the maître d’ along with a pair of flutes and they laughed as they escaped into the moonlight like naughty children. The bubbles were delectable, the conversation was lively and his puns were horrible.
When the sun painted the horizon pink, Nigel and Andrea were still slow-dancing barefoot on the upper deck. The tingle of champagne bubbles lingered on their tongues, and Nigel hummed “The Blue Danube” into her ear. As she watched the last star fade into the mornin
g sky, Andrea knew there was nowhere else she wanted to be.
And that was before Nigel kissed her.
*
18
The Moon
Lilith leaned against the hall door to listen.
Nothing.
She turned the key carefully and eased open the door to the foyer, half expecting Sebastian to pounce on her.
Still nothing.
She strained her ears and couldn’t hear a thing.
“Sebastian?” Lilith waited and called again. She could feel the house breathing all around her, hear distant sounds of children playing outside.
But no hint of her unwelcome guest. She couldn’t even sense his presence, and she had before, as soon as she stepped into the house.
Could Sebastian have left, without imbibing of her special brew?
That would be almost too good to be true. Lilith picked up The Fool card from the floor and peered into the living room. Relief surged through her at that room’s emptiness. She ran upstairs, checking every corner, but already certain what she would find.
He was gone.
For now. Lilith wasn’t about to believe that he had abandoned her for good, not as easily as this.
And there was no telling when he would come back. Lilith stepped into the living room and made to put the card back in its place, chiding herself for being so unwelcoming to her destined lover. Sebastian must have some good qualities.
It looked as though she was going to have lots of time to find them. Lilith grimaced, then froze when she noticed how many of the cards had turned over during her stay at Mitch’s house.
The Death card was the last one she had seen turned up, and much to Lilith’s relief, they had clearly moved beyond that point. She pulled up a chair and stared at the cards, hoping for a guiding light of some kind.
Temperance was the card after Death, the woman on the card in the act of mixing water and wine, of combining two vastly different elements to create something new. Temperance didn’t always herald the creation of something good, Lilith knew. There were many different issues to be balanced when this card appeared, volatile elements to be combined, and the result could tip either to wine or vinegar.
That made her think of the argument she and Mitch had had this morning. There was more to that story, Lilith guessed, but things certainly hadn’t fallen from their lips in any sort of coherent manner. Hurt was like that - it tipped the scales in favor of misunderstanding.
Lilith pursed her lips and eyed the next card, not even interested in touching it. The Devil. She could make a pretty good guess whose arrival that card heralded. And it was a card that indicated physical temptation, an all too evident reminder of how all of this had started so many years ago.
The Falling Tower was the following card and Lilith wrinkled her nose at the sight of it. All of her preconceptions certainly had come tumbling down this morning - a bolt from the blue, just like the lightning bolt on the card, had struck right at the foundations of everything Lilith believed. The house of cards that was her conviction that she and Mitch belonged together had tumbled, not to mention that their entire relationship lay in ruins.
A more apt card to describe this day could not have been found in the deck.
The Star was next, a card of destiny fulfilled, of finding a guiding light, of hanging your hat on a moonbeam and sliding into happiness. Lilith couldn’t figure out what the heck that had to do with anything.
Was that what she was supposed to do with Sebastian? Was his return that ray of moonlight? Although Lilith might once have expected as much, Sebastian’s return to her life - and Mitch’s departure from it - had left her feeling less than enthused about the match. Eternal happiness seemed rather an unlikely prospect, given what she had already learned about Sebastian.
A thief and a womanizer. Maybe this was the lesson of her life - to learn how to love anyone, or how to discriminate between suitable loves.
Lilith half-wished she’d died and gone the cockroach route to atone for her sins instead.
Finally, the Moon was faced up. It was a portent of a crisis of faith, which was something Lilith could really relate to right now. The Moon was a card that hinted at the need to feel your way forward through the darkness, to find the true path with insufficient light.
Well, it was true that Lilith didn’t know what to do. She knew that you couldn’t fight destiny; she knew that the right choice was to cleave her path to Sebastian’s.
But she didn’t like him. Not at all. And she liked what he had done even less. She folded her arms across her chest, sat back and stared at the cards. Lilith’s intuition - solidly within the realm of the Moon, she realized suddenly - urged her to reconcile with Mitch.
But the very thought of defying destiny made Lilith dread the consequences. This wasn’t paltry stuff. She knew the Fates couldn’t be challenged, for if they were, they took a toll of their own invention.
The truth was that Lilith wouldn’t be afraid of paying any price herself. She was pretty sure the Fates would know that.
Which meant that Dame Fortune would take her toll for Lilith’s crime in the one place that would hurt Lilith the most. And Lilith knew where her vulnerability lay in all of this - it lay where she had entrusted her heart.
Lilith feared for Mitch.
The simple fact was that she loved him, regardless of what the cards or his eyes or even destiny had to say about it all. She didn’t want to see him hurt, or his fortune turn to the worst, or anything at all to happen to those darling children.
No doubt about it - as much as Lilith would have liked otherwise, indulging her own desire to be with Mitch couldn’t lead anywhere good.
Lilith was just going to have to get over it.
She couldn’t help it if that prospect was less than inviting.
*
It was very early the following morning when a faint sound awakened Lilith. She had fallen asleep on the sofa, both waiting for and dreading the return of Sebastian. Lilith was momentarily disoriented to find herself still in the living room. She just had enough time to wonder what had awakened her, before the answer landed square on top of her.
Sebastian!
He landed with deadly accuracy, his weight knocking the breath out of her as he pinned her to the sofa. Sebastian snatched at her wrists when Lilith started to fight him and kissed her hard. He stank of cigarette smoke, his touch was rough and unwelcome.
“Hey, baby, I’m home,” he rumbled in her ear, loosing a stench of beer. The faint undertone of Shalimar clung to him and Lilith had a very good idea how Sebastian had wiled away the hours he was away.
She fought him, but he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“Easy, baby, you know you want me.” Sebastian grabbed Lilith’s wrists and leaned his full weight on top of her. She was captured and cornered, and she didn’t like it one bit.
Lilith decided in that moment that she’d live out her life alone - however long it might prove to be - rather than put up with having this man underfoot.
Or overtop.
He landed a wet kiss on her, clamping his lips down hard when Lilith tried to turn away. Sebastian slipped his tongue between her teeth and a repulsed Lilith bit it hard. At the same moment, she drove her knee up into his crotch.
Sebastian yowled, Lilith shoved his weight off of her, knowing that she only succeeded in tumbling him to the floor because he was shocked.
Lilith bounced to her feet and wiped Sebastian’s saliva from her lips with disgust. She wanted to scrub every inch of herself to get rid of his filthy touch.
But first she had to get rid of him. Her wrists still hurt from Sebastian’s cruel grip on them and she knew she’d be bruised.
She’d be lucky to have no greater scars.
Sebastian rolled into a ball on the floor and howled, a response that might have been comical if Lilith hadn’t been so mad.
“My tongue! I think you took the end off it!” He glared at her. “It’s your loss, baby. This
tongue is worth its weight in gold.”
Lilith spat at him and backed away. Sebastian’s eye flashed, he leapt to his feet and he lunged after her. He was bigger than her, he was stronger, he was drunk, and he was mad.
And he wanted one thing from her that Lilith didn’t want to give.
There was only one thing she could do to defend herself quickly. Before she could change her mind, Lilith called down a hex. Sebastian snatched at her as she started to chant, his handsome features contorted by a menacing snarl.
Lilith danced back, and she sang out the last line of the curse. She felt the power coil within her, she felt the heat of it seeking a direction. Sebastian swore and jumped as Lilith pointed her finger directly at him.
No sooner had the last word crossed her lips than Sebastian froze.
Lilith sank against the doorframe in relief, hearing her heart race. Her hands were shaking.
Just in time.
Sebastian was locked in the act of leaping after her. His hands were outstretched, his fingers distended, and Lilith knew that in another heartbeat, they would have been locked around her neck. His features were dark with fury, and his nostrils were even slightly flared.
And he wasn’t breathing. Lilith listened carefully just to make sure. He wasn’t dead. He was just …stopped. He wasn’t hurt or even uncomfortable.
Sebastian was simply stuck in one second of his life.
Lilith liked him much better this way.
She exhaled shakily once she knew for sure that her spell had worked. Although he was hardly the most tasteful sculpture she’d ever seen, in this state, Sebastian was no threat to her.
At least for the moment.
But Lilith still didn’t know what she was going to do. The hex would last for maybe a day. She couldn’t put this spell on Sebastian indefinitely and she knew he wasn’t going to be a good sport about this incident when he was back to his usual self.
She didn’t even want to look at him.
Lilith hated casting hexes. They were unpredictable, and could easily defy her mandate of harming none. She didn’t think she had had a choice, though. It had been her own safety or the hex.
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