Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (155 page)

And Kurt, Mr. Seduction Central, was already
here.

Or was he?

“
Hi. I uh, I just thought
I’d check up on Kurt,” Mitch managed to say. “Is he
here?”

Lilith grimaced and Mitch almost laughed at
the expression on her face when she nodded. She met his gaze and
her smile dawned like a sunrise, her voice low and warm. “I’m so
glad you stopped by. I’m not sure I can get rid of him!”

Mitch barely had time to feel good about her
certainty he would help her before Lilith hauled him into her
foyer. She linked her arm deliberately through his as she turned
around, making the two of them seem like a team.

Mitch could smell that damned perfume of
hers again. The tangle of her hair was soft against his upper arm
and he felt his blood start to boil. He struggled to keep his mind
on the reason why he had come and pretty much failed.

It was then he noticed that Kurt was
standing in the doorway to Lilith’s kitchen, looking a little
dazed. Kurt squinted at Lilith, then shook his head, then eyed her
again. He leaned in the doorframe as though his balance was
off.

Either that or he was drunk. But there
hadn’t been nearly enough elapsed time for that.

What had happened? A cold hand clenched
Mitch’s gut and he wondered whether he had been too slow in
following his buddy. Certainly, Lilith’s linking arms with him
seemed to hint at presenting a united front, and one against his
old pal.

Had Kurt already come on to her?

Had she decked him or broken something over
his head? It took that much to get Kurt’s attention sometimes when
he was fixed on doing something.

Like seducing a beautiful woman.

“
Hey, is he bothering you?”
Mitch asked in a low voice.

“
Not any more.” Lilith
shook her head, then flicked a warm glance to Mitch.

And he felt a sense of relief that seemed
decidedly inappropriate given the circumstances. Or at least, given
the identity of the lady so determinedly pressing the soft curve of
her breast against his arm.

Mitch cleared his throat deliberately. “Hey,
Kurt, are you making trouble with the ladies again?”

“
Me?” Kurt straightened
with a grimace and shook his head once more. He reached back and
fingered a glass on the kitchen countertop as though it confused
him, too. He really was in bad shape. He even sounded groggy. “Nah.
Just had a little iced tea and am heading on my way.”

Kurt lumbered right past Lilith without so
much as a glance in her direction. Mitch couldn’t understand that,
but he could almost feel the laughter bubbling up inside
Lilith.

On the threshold, Kurt frowned, rubbed his
forehead and looked at Lilith as though he couldn’t quite see her
straight. He squinted, then rubbed his temples. “Hey Mitch, I’m
just going to finish that fence, then I’ll be on my way. See you
next Saturday?”

Mitch glanced sidelong at the lady beside
him. She was biting back a smile. It seemed she had somehow
persuaded Kurt to abandon his pursuit.

Which was saying something. Kurt was nothing
if not determined when he was, as he called it, ‘on the hunt’.

Mitch cleared his throat and frowned. “I
thought you were staying for dinner.”

“
Nope. A man’s got to run
wild on a Saturday night.” Kurt winked with a vestige of his
characteristic nonchalance and Mitch was slightly reassured. Then
he swaggered out the door. Kurt waved, without so much as another
peek at Lilith, and strolled between the houses, his whistle
carrying back to Mitch’s ears.

Kurt seemed to be all right, Lilith seemed
to be all right, but something strange was definitely going on.

Mitch looked at the lady and reassured
himself that she was every bit as lovely as she always had been.
That wasn’t the problem. But the devilish twinkle that was dancing
in her eyes hinted that she knew more than she was telling. “What
exactly happened here?”

Lilith grinned. “What do you mean?”

“
I mean, he came waltzing
over here determined to seduce you. It’s not like Kurt to just walk
away.”

Lilith fought to look innocent and didn’t
even come close to pulling it off. “Maybe I told him I wasn’t
interested.”

Mitch rolled his eyes. “That wouldn’t have
made any difference. Kurt always says he likes a challenge.”

“
Well, maybe I was too much
of a challenge for him,” she declared.

“
Color me skeptical,” Mitch
murmured. “I don’t think there’s a beautiful woman alive who’s too
much of a challenge for Kurt.

Lilith smiled sunnily. “Well, thank
you.”

Mitch felt the back of his neck heat again
as he realized what he had said. “Well, you know…”

“
Shh!” Her fingertips
landed against his lips. “Don’t spoil a compliment with an
explanation,” she whispered. Lilith’s eyes danced and she wrinkled
her nose playfully before her smile flashed once more. “Maybe I
just cast a spell on him.”

And Mitch chuckled. He couldn’t help it. The
glow in Lilith’s eyes and the softness of her fingertips against
his skin made Mitch wonder why the hell he was worried about Kurt.
The guy could take care of himself.

And besides, wasn’t he
glad
that Kurt
hadn’t hit on Lilith with any success?

“
Let’s talk about something
much more interesting,” Lilith whispered. She leaned against
Mitch’s chest, her curvy lips well within range. “Why did you leap
in to protect me from his wiles?”

Mitch tried to shrug off the question. “Kurt
doesn’t treat women well. I wouldn’t want him to hurt you or anyone
else.”

Lilith smiled. “You’d champion me, even
though you’re worried I’m trying to con Andrea?”

She had him there. Despite himself, Mitch
felt an admiration for the lady’s clear thinking. She was doing
better than he was, come to think of it.

And maybe that was why Mitch found it a lot
harder to use his cover story than he had expected. Or maybe it was
just that strange sense that she could read his thoughts.

Either way, Mitch didn’t say exactly what he
had planned to say.

“
Maybe I was wrong,” he
admitted softly.

Lilith’s eyes widened with delight and she
stretched to her toes, as though so anxious to hear his words that
she had to be closer to his lips. Her eyes were wide and bright
with anticipation. “Do you remember, then?” she asked
breathlessly.

Mitch’s heart began to pound in his ears. He
stared down into Lilith’s eyes and knew what she was hoping his
answer would be. And he knew what he should say, at least if he was
going to follow his plan of “going inside” to get the real
story.

But there was something about this woman
that made Mitch loathe to lie to her. It had seemed like such a
good idea, but now, when he stood before her, Mitch couldn’t summon
that lie to his lips.

“
I’d like to,” was the best
he could do.

Much to Mitch’s own surprise, as soon as he
uttered the words, he knew they were true. In this moment, in this
place, he wanted to remember that this woman and he had once been
together, had once been in love, had once trusted each other
completely.

It was crazy and it made no sense at all,
but for once in his life, Mitch didn’t care. Standing in Lilith’s
foyer, with her almost in his arms, being with her seemed to be the
only thing that
did
make sense.

And when she looked deeply into his eyes,
then flushed slightly and smiled, Mitch knew she was the most
irresistible woman he’d ever met.

He didn’t want her to ask him any more
questions. He didn’t want to lie to her. He just wanted to get past
this moment. He told himself that it was for lack of any better
options that he gave in to temptation.

Mitch captured Lilith’s fingers in his hand
and pressed a kiss into her palm. She caught her breath, their
gazes locked, then slowly, feeling like a fish being towed in on a
lure, Mitch bent and touched her lips with his. He felt the barest
twinge of guilt before Lilith cast her arms around his neck with
undisguised delight.

And once she started kissing him back, well,
anything other than the taste of her just seemed a petty
technicality. Mitch braced his feet against the floor, leaned back
against the wall, and gathered the lady into his arms with
purpose.

Her kiss was so sweet, so warm and
welcoming, so downright wonderful that Mitch very quickly forgot
everything else but Lilith. He didn’t care about getting to the
bottom of a story, he didn’t care about the truth, he didn’t even
care how Lilith managed to evade every kind of record-keeping there
was.

He only cared that she kissed like a
goddess. Mitch might have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque, but he
wasn’t going to stop and ask for directions now.

Unfortunately, the moment wasn’t destined to
last long at all.

*

Lilith was so relieved that she barely
noticed the agitated barking from the backyard. She abandoned
herself to Mitch’s kiss with a vengeance. Something had happened,
something had broken free inside him.

Because when he admitted he’d like to
remember, Lilith had found a teeny tiny mirror image of herself
waving back from the depths of his eyes.

Whatever obstacle had stood between them was
banished and Lilith wasn’t holding anything back.

Everything was going to be fine.

The volume of the barking grew louder. Mitch
lifted his head, muttered a curse that told Lilith just whose dog
was responsible, then gave her a crooked smile.

“
He is a great dog, really,
and not usually so noisy.”

Lilith shrugged, but a very feline yowl
echoed from the back of the house before she could admit her own
cat’s almost certain role in this. “D’Artagnan!”

“
Cooley!” Mitch
muttered.

They turned as one for the kitchen just as
the cat rocketed through his cat door and flung himself into the
kitchen. It seemed every hair of fur D’Artagnan had was standing on
end as he skated down the expanse of tile. Cooley barked from the
yard, Lilith heard the dog’s nails on the porch. Through the
kitchen window, she saw a huge shadow lunge against the back
door.

“
Oh no!” Mitch seemed to
know what was going to happen right before it did.

Right after it was too late to do anything
about it.

Even knowing it was too late, he still ran.
The door creaked, the dog barked, and with a resounding screech,
the screen surrendered to Cooley’s weight and popped from its
frame. Cooley landed in the kitchen with a thump, amidst a tangled
pile of screen. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, his gaze fixed
on D’Artagnan. He growled and fought for traction on the tile.

“
Cooley,
sit
!” Mitch
raced the length of the room, bellowing in a most authoritative
tone, but the dog was oblivious to anything other than his
prey.

Cooley’s nose quivered, his ears stood up,
his bark resonated through the house when D’Artagnan leapt to the
counter.

Lilith knew that things were going to
rapidly get worse.

“
No
!” Mitch dove for
the dog’s collar but he didn’t have a chance.

“
No
!” Lilith cried
when the cat raced down the countertop. It was so disgusting when
he did that! All her little pots and canisters wobbled dangerously,
several teetered and broke.

But to Lilith’s horror, it got a lot worse.
The dog leapt and made it up onto the counter, as well. Everything
scattered in the wake of a decidedly flawed landing. Chaos reigned
briefly, both Lilith and Mitch shouted to no avail.

Until Cooley reached the sink.

The dog froze, sniffed, and appeared to
forget all about the cat. He hunkered down and proceeded to vacuum
up Lilith’s potion.

“
Cooley! No!” Lilith cried.
D’Artagnan quietly slid out the door and headed for safety in some
dog-proof zone.

“
Cooley! Off!” Mitch
roared.

The dog evidently knew he’d be challenged on
this, because he gulped the contents of the pot with record speed.
His gaze tracked how close the two humans were, his tongue moved
like it was jet-powered.

It was Lilith that reached him first and
half of the liquid was gone.

“
Cooley, no!” Lilith
repeated as she drew near the dog. She reached out her hand to grab
the cauldron.

But the wolfhound lifted his head and
snarled at her.

Lilith snatched back her hand. “I thought
you said he seldom bit.”

“
My mistake.” Mitch
groaned. “This is just getting better and better,” he muttered
under his breath.

But Lilith suddenly guessed what the problem
was. She took a step closer, just to be sure, and the dog showed
her his teeth.

Lilith was delighted. Her potion did work!
She hadn’t been positive when Kurt left whether the change in his
manner was due to Mitch’s presence or her “tea”.

Now there could be no doubt.

“
That’s it!” Mitch
bellowed. “
Cooley
! Down! Out!”

The dog straightened suddenly, as though
surprised at what he had done, then turned a mortified expression
on his master.

“
Get off that counter and
out of this house,” Mitch told the beast grimly. “Right
now
.”

The dog had the wits to do as he was told.
Or at least, if he didn’t literally understand the command, he knew
he was in trouble and would be better off elsewhere.

Cooley almost fell off the counter, he was
so busy trying to keep a low profile, and skulked to the back door.
Mitch opened what was left of the door and pointed imperiously to
his own yard.