Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (142 page)

The lady chuckled, her breasts pressed
against his chest as she backed Mitch into the door. Mitch’s
nostrils flooded with the scent of that wondrous perfume, his hands
itched to close around her slender waist.

He stared at the ceiling and knew he was in
big trouble.

“
Well, I never told you
directly,” she admitted. “But it was in the spell I cast to summon
you.” She winked when he looked at her in astonishment, those
fingertips sliding up his neck and into his hair. “You
must
have heard me.”

A little bit too late, Mitch understood her
words and remembered his neighbor’s stock in trade. “What spell?”
he managed to ask

“
The spell that brought you
here.” The woman chuckled under her breath. “I’m a witch now. I
guess you didn’t know.” Her manner was easy, as though she was
confiding something mundane, like a fondness for chocolate. It made
it even harder for Mitch to make sense of what she was saying. “I
make spells, read fortunes, all of that stuff.” The tip of her
tongue slid into Mitch’s ear and he closed his eyes against a tidal
wave of desire. “Right now, though, I’d rather make
love.”

Mitch grasped her upper arms, put as much
space between them as he could, and seized on her claim. He was
more than ready to set the record straight. “No, you see, you’ve
got it all wrong. No spell summoned me. I just came to find out
about your sign…”

But her hearty laugh startled him into
silence. “Sebastian! We’ve known each other long enough that we
don’t need to play games.”

Mitch stared at her as his blood turned to
ice.

Sebastian? Why did she call him
Sebastian?

Because, obviously, she thought he was
someone else! Suddenly the enthusiasm of her welcome made a whole
lot more sense. Mitch had just made one hell of a mistake. She was
going to slap him when she learned the truth.

Or worse.

He straightened, frowned, and cleared his
throat. “I’m sorry, but I’m not Sebastian,” he admitted. The woman
blinked, her surprise obvious. “You must have me confused with
someone else.”

She said nothing at all.

As awkward moments went, this was a biggie.
“Uh, Mitch Davison. Your new neighbor to the left.” He released her
shoulders and stuck out his hand, but she just stared at it and
frowned.

And no wonder. She had just mistaken him for
some other guy and ravished him as a result. No wonder she looked
so stunned - she must be really embarrassed.

Well, she couldn’t be any more embarrassed
than Mitch was. He cleared his throat and wished he were anywhere
else on the face of the earth.

Or that the floor would yawn open and
swallow him whole.

No luck on either front, so Mitch shoved one
hand through his hair and unlocked the deadbolt behind his back
with the other. He took a deep breath. “Look, I’m sorry we got our
wires crossed here. We’ve certainly gotten off to a rocky start and
I can only apologize for my part in this.”

The lady stared at him as though she didn’t
understand what he was saying. This conversation had died and was
well beyond revival. Mitch tried for his most charming smile,
without any noticeable result in her response.

Oh, he was batting a thousand here.

“
Maybe it would be best if
we just forgot this ever happened,” he managed to
suggest.

Then, her slender hand snapped out and
abruptly gripped his chin. Mitch froze in surprise at the strength
of her grip. Her perusal was so thorough, her gaze so cat-bright,
that the hair on the back of Mitch’s neck started to stand on
end.

He had just concluded that things were
definitely a little weird on this side of the property line, when
the lady went one better.

“
No,” she concluded, the
word barely more than a breath. It fanned against his lips and made
Mitch’s toes tingle again. “You
are
Sebastian. There’s no
doubt about it.”

“
No,” Mitch said firmly.
“I’m not.”

“
Yes,” the lady said
equally firmly. “You are.”

Enough was enough. Mitch tried very hard to
be polite. “I think,” he said with surgical precision, “that I
would know if I was this Sebastian person.”

The lady’s full lips quirked and she lifted
one brow, her expression unexpectedly mischievous. “Really?”

Mitch frowned. “Really.”

She obviously bit back a smile, as though he
had said something particularly funny. Her response pushed Mitch
too far. He had had quite enough of whatever flavor of bizarre was
being served here.

It was bad enough that he had acted on
impulse, it was bad enough that he hadn’t been able to control
himself, never mind that she was consistently driving his desire
toward the sky again. There was something about the flick of her
glance, the quirk of her smile, the low whisper of her voice that
gave Mitch half a mind to accept her offer, to pretend that he was
this Sebastian, and accept the lady’s invitation to the
bedroom.

That in and of itself was so out of
character that Mitch could barely wrap his mind around his
undeniable urge.

It was too much for her to turn him inside
out
and
insist that he didn’t even know who he was.

Mitch propped his hands on his hips and
glared at the woman who was consistently tying his gut in knots.
“Look, I don’t know what your deal is or why you think I’m this
Sebastian guy, but trust me, I
know
who I am!” His mood
worsened when she still looked like she was going to laugh. “Look!
I don’t even know anybody named Sebastian!”

The lady folded her arms across her chest
and regarded him. Her eyes danced. “You’re very sure of yourself,”
she commented.

“
And that’s a surprising
accomplishment? To be sure of my own name?” Mitch rolled his eyes
in exasperation. “Thank you very much.”

She laughed aloud, the merry sound almost
enough to dismiss Mitch’s mood.

“
You’re welcome,” she said,
completely unrepentant, then tossed her hair. It wasn’t quite fair
that she kept smiling like that, that she kept looking so damn
delighted to have him here in her foyer. Now, she smiled warmly at
him. “But then, you always were so confident.”

“
Were?” Mitch echoed. “I’ve
told you that I’m not who you think I am. And we’ve never met
before…”

The lady interrupted his argument. “So, Mr.
Mitch Davison, why do you believe that you’ve come here?”

“
Believe? I
know
why
I’ve come here!” Mitch declared with exasperation. She won the
award for infuriating, no doubt about it. “There’s no question of
believing or misleading myself.” He jabbed a finger through the air
towards his new house. “I just moved in next door!”

She shrugged easily. “Because you were
summoned. I called you just a few hours ago.”

Mitch’s usual skepticism finally found firm
ground. “Look, no spell of yours brought me here. I bought that
house months ago! And it wasn’t because anyone summoned me - it was
because it was what I could afford!”

There was a galling little confession he
would have preferred not to have made.

But the lady seemed delighted by this
news.

“
You bought it
months
ago? Really?” Her smile flashed briefly again and
Mitch was confused to feel himself respond to her obvious pleasure.
“So, you
were
already on your way! That’s wonderful!” She
clasped his jaw in her hands and kissed him so quickly that Mitch
didn’t have time to step away.

He stared down at her, hearing his heartbeat
thunder in his ears. She must be a nut. There was no other possible
explanation for her behavior.

Because Mitch knew that there was no such
thing as witches, and certainly no such thing as spells that
actually worked.

“
I guess I didn’t have
enough faith, after all these years,” she confessed with glowing
eyes. “I’m so sorry I underestimated you.”

Mitch pushed a hand through his hair, not
quite certain where to start in untangling this woman’s
misconceptions. “Look. I don’t actually know you,” he said firmly
but gently. To his relief, she didn’t interrupt. “I can’t apologize
enough for my behavior - it was wrong.”

“
It was perfectly right,”
she breathed, then smiled again. “And that’s why you couldn’t stop
yourself.” She nestled closer and clasped his neck, stretching to
kiss him again.

But Mitch evaded her touch as he frowned
anew, disliking an intuitive sense that she had hit the nail on the
head. “It can’t have been right,” he argued carefully. “Because
I’ve never met you before in my life.”

Her calm confidence didn’t waver, much to
Mitch’s dismay. She arched one dark brow, as though amused by his
protest. “Which particular life do you mean?”

“
What was that?”

“
Just because we haven’t
met in this life, doesn’t mean we haven’t met before.” Her tone was
surprisingly matter-of-fact. “You may not remember, but I certainly
do.”

She remembered all her past lives. Oh boy,
loony tunes. Mitch should have paid more attention to that sign.
There was no way he would be able to argue his way free of this
one.

“
Look. Believe it, don’t
believe it. We all make our choices,” he said lightly. “I’m your
new neighbor and that’s it as far as I’m concerned. No past lives,
no previous scores to settle, or bad karma leading to lives as
cockroaches. I don’t do mumbo jumbo. One life is just plenty for
me.”

“
So very practical,” she
teased with soft affection. “Why were you knocking on my door,
then?”

Mitch wished that knowing little smile of
hers didn’t make him want to kiss her quite so badly.

“
My stepmother has this
idea that people who tell fortunes are perfectly sane,” he
confessed. “I came over here to prove her wrong.” He didn’t finish
the argument, he didn’t think he needed to and he didn’t want to be
rude.

But the lady didn’t seem to get his
inference, which surprised Mitch. There was something in those eyes
that made him think she didn’t miss much.

Mitch pointed in the direction of the neon
sign. “You would be the Lilith of
Lilith’s Lovematches
?”

Her sudden smile was dazzling, and she stuck
out her hand in turn. “Lilith Romano: tarot card reader,
matchmaker, small business owner, damn good cook.” She quirked a
brow. “And perfectly sane, by all accounts.”

She was charming, Mitch had to concede that.
“Except for one small kink in the belief system?” he dared to
suggest.

Lilith laughed. The sound was rich and
rippling, it made Mitch want to laugh along with her. “Speak for
yourself,” she retorted.

Mitch couldn’t completely stop his unwilling
smile at her stubborn consistency. Nor could he refuse to shake
Lilith’s proffered hand.

It would have just been rude.

But he wasn’t expecting her touch to send an
army of little tingles over his flesh. The sweet recollection of
Lilith’s kiss flooded his mind once more, his gaze dropped to her
lips in time to see her smile knowingly again.

It was as though she knew what he was
thinking and that was a little bit too unsettling for Mitch.

Even if any red-blooded guy would be
thinking pretty much the same thing in the same circumstance. He
liked to think of himself as somewhat more ethical than the average
bear.

Mitch ended their handshake quickly, hauled
open the door and stepped out onto her porch. A big sunflower
bobbed to one side, its yellow petals seeming to have snared the
sunlight.

“
Well, I guess it’s a
question of perspective,” he declared, having no real idea what the
heck he meant. He had to say
something
.

To Mitch’s surprise, Lilith laughed easily
again. She leaned in the doorframe, her bare feet on the threshold,
her hair wild curls behind her. The grey cat Cooley had chased
twined around her ankles, but she ignored it. God, she was
sexy.

And very engaging, if wound a bit loose.
Mitch felt like an idiot for what he had done.

For what he hadn’t been able to
not
do. For a guy who prided himself on his self control, it was a
pretty pathetic showing.

Mitch shoved his hands in his pockets,
ashamed at his own behavior and feeling guilty as hell. “Look,
Lilith. About what just happened…”

“
Forget it,” Lilith
interrupted softly. “It was an honest mistake.”

Mitch flicked a glance her way, astounded by
this concession. But she appeared to mean it. “Sorry you got me
confused with someone else,” he said in a low voice.

Her smile flashed. “Sorry you don’t
remember.”

At least she stuck to her story. Mitch was
suddenly reluctant to hurry home and hose down the chocolate cake
that must be smeared all over his kitchen.

So, she believed in all that new age gunk.
She wasn’t the only one, by any means. And if Mitch ignored that,
Lilith was far and away the most intriguing woman he had met in a
quite a while.

Maybe ever.

“
So, when did you know this
Sebastian guy?” he asked impulsively.

Lilith’s full lips curved. “Oh, you and I
were together six hundred years ago.” She wrinkled her nose
playfully. “Give or take.”

Mitch stomped hard on his skepticism and
told himself he was just being polite. “That would be in a past
life?” he asked as mildly as he could.

“
Oh no.” Lilith shook her
head and frowned, much to Mitch’s surprise. “Well, speak for
yourself, at least.”

Just for himself? Their supposed meeting six
hundred years ago wasn’t her past life? That could only mean one
thing. Mitch felt his brows shoot skyward as he stared back at
her.