Love Potion #9 (23 page)

“There was only one answer I could give,” she murmured. Her gaze flicked to his, Mitch's heart skipped a beat in anticipation, then Lilith reached to brush her lips across his.

It was a tentative and cautious embrace, as sweet as a young girl's first offering, as different as the first kiss Lilith had given Mitch as night and day. Mitch tasted Lilith's vulnerability, and knew he couldn't take advantage of her dismay.

Obviously, the telling this story was not easy for her, even if Mitch wasn't sure why. He tipped Lilith's chin with gentle fingers and kissed her lightly, wanting only to ease her distress. Mitch savored the sangria-tinged taste of her lips for the barest moment, then lifted his mouth slowly from hers.

Lilith's breathing was rapid, her eyes were luminous. Her lips were slightly reddened from Mitch's kiss, her hand rested against his chest. She looked puzzled, despite the flame in her eyes. “Why did you stop? You didn't then.”

If nothing else, she was honest about her desire.

Mitch's certainty that Lilith wanted him - again - was all he needed to be ready to repeat their first meeting, with ease. But Mitch didn't want to do that.

There was something too precious at stake.

Mitch caught Lilith's hand in his and ran his thumb across her palm as he watched its course. He wondered how he could explain to her that he wouldn't surrender his self-control again.

The task might kill him, but Mitch was not an impulsive kind of guy. He wasn't like Kurt, he didn't love ‘em and leave ‘em, he deeply believed that lovemaking was an expression of commitment between two people.

If he and Lilith ever made love again - and Mitch was starting to think it was a serious possibility - it wasn't going to be on impulse. It wasn't going to be one night fling or a one time deal, it was going to be for all the right reasons. It was going to be for good. If Mitch ventured back onto the field of love, he was going to get it right.

Lilith deserved as much.

He wanted to know her, he wanted to love her, he wanted to believe as ardently as she did that they were destined to be together.

It was kind of a weird certainty she had, and an illogical one, but now that he knew it was harmless, it was starting to grow on Mitch. He smiled down at her. “Because you didn't finish the story. What happened?”

To Mitch's surprise, Lilith's eyes clouded and she bit her lip. He frowned, having expected roses and sunshine from this point forward.

“We made love,” Lilith admitted softly, her voice breaking over the words. “All the night long.”

She traced a little circle on Mitch's T-shirt with her fingertip and he watched her tears inexplicably well up, even though he couldn't imagine what had made her so sad.

“One of my uncles saw you leaving my tent in the morning. He demanded the truth and I didn't lie.” Lilith swallowed. “He went to the town to demand a bride price.”

That sounded pretty medieval. “A bride price?”

Lilith lifted her chin. “You had taken my virginity. I had given it to you willingly, and I refused to lie about it. I didn't care who knew we loved each other. My uncle declared that you owed compensation to the
kumpania
, whether you wed me or not.” Lilith inhaled sharply and Mitch was surprised by the obvious strength of her feelings. “I knew that you would marry me, because you had pledged to return to my side.”

Mitch had a definite sense that things hadn't gone well from this point. Lilith's tearful defiance was not a good sign. “And?”

“You did not come.” Lilith frowned and pursed her lips. “Not the next night or the next. My uncle could not find you, all shunned me in the
kumpania
. They were certain that a
gadjo
had used me for his pleasure and cast me aside.”

Mitch watched her, more than a little troubled by the toll her story obviously took from her, yet not knowing quite what to do about it.

“Then, suddenly, we were summoned to a hearing in the town square. All the cards and signs in the wind declared that the meeting would be one of great import.” She straightened and squared her shoulders, but her voice was small. “We went.”

Lilith licked her lips and stared resolutely at the middle of Mitch's chest. He felt her tremble. “It had been three days since we laid together, three days and nights that you had not kept your pledge. I was so worried, half-afraid something had happened to you, half-afraid that my uncle was right and that you did not love me, after all.”

Mitch felt a lump rise in his throat for this trusting young girl. He was half-afraid himself that she was right about her Romeo's motives.

He wondered suddenly whether this story was a way she dealt with a painful, but much more recent memory. That would make an awful lot of sense.

Mitch wondered how he could find out for sure.

“In the square, they said a widow had been murdered, that the culprit was found and would be punished.” Lilith lifted her gaze to meet Mitch's and he saw pain shining there.

No doubt about it, Lilith was hurting.

Mitch's protectiveness surged to the fore and he instinctively put a hand on her shoulder. She leaned against him in a way that seemed markedly out of character. Mitch had already seen how independent and strong Lilith could be.

But this story cut deep. He wished belatedly that he hadn't asked her for it. Mitch's gut told him that it was only going to get worse. He pulled Lilith into his arms without another thought.

She was shivering, as though it wasn't hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk, and she clutched two fistfuls of his shirt.

“It was you,” Lilith whispered unevenly. Mitch blinked, then he realized that she meant him as Sebastian.

Lilith's words suddenly gained momentum. “They said you had been possessed by demons, tainted by laying with a Gypsy whore, they said you were a criminal. I knew it wasn't true, I knew it was a lie, I knew that you would never hurt another, but they would not listen to me.”

Her voice dropped low and for the first time, Mitch heard bitterness in her voice. “I was just the Gypsy whore, after all.” Lilith halted and swallowed awkwardly, her fingers tapping restlessly on Mitch's chest. She caught her breath, she trembled, and the words tumbled out of her.

“And then, before all of us, they hung you until you were dead.”

That startled Mitch, no less the way that Lilith's tears began to fall in earnest. They fell like scattering jewels, splashing on his skin in an endless torrent.

This had gone far enough.

Mitch closed his arms tightly around Lilith, his voice dropped with low urgency. There were psychologists who specialized in treating emotional trauma, all sorts of experts who could help Lilith deal with whatever had happened to her and put in securely in the past.

And Mitch decided right then and there that he would ensure she got that help.

“But, Lilith, that can't be...” he began, but got no further before she laid a firm finger across his lips. One look into the intensity of her eyes silenced him, at least for the moment.

“You don't know the rest of it,” she declared. “You
can't
. They said it was my fault, they said they would burn the Gypsy whore who had poisoned one of their own sons. They chased us from the town with flames, all of us, and set fire to the woods behind us. We fled with the speed of the wind and they could not catch us.”

As delusions went, this one was pretty thorough. Mitch tried to find something good in all of this drama. “But, in the end, your
kumpania
sheltered you, right? You all stuck together?”

Lilith's lips twisted and her tears welled again. “Of course not! They could not. They cast me out.”

“What?”

“I was declared
mahrime
. Unclean.” Lilith's words were flat, although Mitch guessed her tone hid a wealth of emotion. “It was bad enough that I had lost my maidenhead to a
gadjo
, but the fact that he did not pay the bride price was an insult that could not be endured. No
Rom
man would have me, then. A
mahrime
person can infect others with their pollution. I could not be permitted to remain. My presence was a risk to the cleanliness of all.”

Okay, things had gotten even more medieval in her mind.

But the truth was clear to see, at least to anyone who looked. Mitch heartily disapproved of what he perceived Lilith's family had done. So, she had been caught as a young woman in a compromising position - her family had no right chucking her out into the world.

Suddenly, a lot of puzzle pieces surrounding Lilith fell into place - Mitch would bet that all those missing records were registered in her real name, whatever that might be.

And she had simply taken another name for the purposes of day to day living - Lilith for the Old Testament woman who could not control her passions. That would be a result of whatever nonsense her parents had dumped on her. And Romano, perfectly fitting with this whole Gypsy thing she had concocted as an alternative to the truth and now ardently believed
was
the truth.

It wasn't that Lilith didn't exist - it was that Mitch had been looking for her in the wrong places.

Mitch didn't really care about such practicalities right now. It made him damned mad to think of what Lilith had endured at her family's behest. He couldn't imagine that either of his kids could anything bad enough that he would just toss them out the door to fend for themselves. It was wrong. It was unfair.

It was not in the parental job description.

Mitch didn't want to frighten Lilith with his anger, but he couldn't just say nothing at all. He wanted her to know that he was on her side. Mitch forcibly kept his tone even. “It's pretty cruel to leave a young girl alone like that,” he confined himself to saying.

To Mitch's surprise, Lilith smiled thinly. “I wasn't destined to be alone. You swore to return to me and repeated your vow on the gallows. I knew you would find me.” Her eyes saddened again. “Even though I never imagined it would take so long.”

Mitch saw the full weight of the loneliness he had only glimpsed in Lilith earlier. She seemed to be wrung out emotionally by sharing this story, even in its disguised version, though Mitch supposed that made sense. It hadn't been easy for her, and she had said she refused to even think about it any more.

He was humbled that she trusted him enough to share this with him. Lilith leaned against Mitch, her cheek against his heartbeat and Mitch felt her tears dampen his T-shirt again. This time, though, they ran silently.

“I'm so glad,” she whispered softly and unevenly, “that you're finally here.”

There was an ache in Lilith's voice that made Mitch want to make everything come right in her lopsided little world. Someone was hurting, someone expected him to make it all better, someone was counting on him.

Mitch was securely back on familiar ground.

He wanted to apologize for taking so long, even though he knew Lilith wasn't talking about him or maybe even aware of the truth anymore. But he wouldn't lie to her, at any cost. So, the only way to reassure her without uttering a lie was with his touch. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to do, the one thing his heart had urged him to do all along.

The difference was that Mitch had finally decided to listen to its urgings. Whatever the cause, whether it was the lady's own allure, her vulnerability or her concoction, Mitch was completely enchanted by his neighbor.

And he couldn't bear her tears. Mitch gathered Lilith into his arms, cupped her chin and gently touched his lips to hers. He gave her plenty of latitude to pull away, but she immediately parted her lips beneath his own.

She still wanted him. Mitch's heart thumped. But that wasn't what this was about. He wanted to reassure her, to ease away her fears, to make sure she slept without nightmares tonight.

Mitch tilted Lilith's face upward, he brushed away her tears with his fingertips. He kissed her brow, her temple, her eyelids, he tasted the salt on her flesh. He nuzzled her earlobe, he swallowed every last tear as though he would take her hurt into himself and wipe it away forever. Lilith sighed and leaned against Mitch, her fingers found their way into his hair.

She caught the back of his neck and deepened their kiss, her need firing Mitch's desire. He let his hand slid down her throat, he cradled the ripe curve of her breast in his palm. His thumb moved surely across her breast and her nipple tightened beneath his touch in silent demand. Lilith made a tiny cry of surrender and Mitch knew then that mere kisses wouldn't do.

She needed more reassurance than that - and Mitch knew just what that would be. He scooped the lady up and headed into the house, having no desire to entertain his new neighbors more than he already had.

 

* * *

 

Lilith's heart sang when Mitch swept her into his arms and strode into the kitchen. His gentleness was more than reassuring, his touch made the pain of recollection fade to nothing. Everything had been so vivid in her mind, Lilith felt as though she was standing in that square again. She could smell the flames, she had seen Sebastian go limp and felt the wave of loss roll through her.

It was wonderful to be able to clung to the solid strength of his shoulders, to know that they were together again, to be certain that all had come right in the end.

Mitch kissed her and Lilith forgot everything except the feel and the taste of him, the here-and-now of him. She locked her arms around Mitch's neck and kissed him back, willing him to understand her fear and her relief. Lilith couldn't wait, she wanted to make love with him immediately, again and again and again.

They had waited long enough.

She had waited too long. She needed his touch this night the way a fish needed water and a bird needed air. Lilith needed her one true love.