Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (177 page)

No wonder Mitch had been so stunned when she
jumped on him. He hadn’t understood the import of their entwined
fates, because their fates
weren’t
entwined.

Lilith’s destiny was sitting right in front
of her, grinning smugly. There was something about Sebastian’s
smile that made Lilith want to slap it right off his face, and she
certainly didn’t like being called ‘baby’ by anyone.

Surely they had just gotten off on the wrong
foot.

Lilith glanced from Sebastian to the door
Mitch was knocking on and knew there was no point in delaying the
inevitable. However disappointing the truth might be, Lilith knew
she couldn’t challenge destiny.

It simply wasn’t done.

She had to tell Mitch the truth.

Lilith opened the door just as Mitch let
loose an eloquent stream of cursing. He stopped as soon as he saw
her, his eyes widened and he lifted his hands in a plea for
truce.

“
Lilith! Just give me five
minutes to explain…”

“
You don’t have to
explain,” Lilith said flatly. She ran a hand over her brow, feeling
suddenly very tired. She couldn’t help it - finding her destined
lover wasn’t as wonderful as anticipated, since it meant giving up
Mitch. “There’s nothing to explain. I was wrong about everything. I
know it now. Good-bye, Mitch. I’m sorry that you got tangled up in
all of this.”

Mitch’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

“
I’m sorry.” Lilith didn’t
know what else to say.

Mitch frowned. He looked to his house, then
back to Lilith, uncertainty in his eyes. “Did I miss something
here? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we just spend an awesome
night, not to mention make a very promising start to the morning?
Aren’t we making up from an argument?”

“
No, Mitch.” Lilith heard
the defeat in her tone. “We’re ending whatever we had
begun.”

Oh, she had his attention now. “What?”

“
We aren’t destined to be
together, after all.” Lilith tried to shut the door and turn away,
the whole conversation making her want to cry.

But Mitch’s eyes flashed gold and his hand
snapped up to stop the progress of the door. “What the hell do you
mean? Okay, okay, I was wrong, but come on, Lilith, give me a
chance!”

Lilith shook her head despondently, wishing
she could give him a different answer than the one she had to give.
“It’s no good, Mitch.”

Mitch folded his arms across his chest,
planted his feet in her foyer and looked about as ready to move as
the Rock of Gibraltar. “What exactly changed in the last five
seconds?” he demanded, his voice dangerously low. “Give me one good
reason why I should walk out this door.”

“
Everything has
changed.”

“
We had a
misunderstanding,” Mitch insisted stubbornly. “It changes
nothing.”

“
No, you just don’t
understand.” Once Lilith realized that she wasn’t going to get by
with a quick explanation, she stepped back and gestured to the
foyer. “Come in and you’ll see. You have a right to know the
truth.”

Mitch’s lips tightened. “I can’t leave the
kids. Why don’t you come back and have breakfast?”

“
Because what you have to
see is right here,” Lilith said softly. She managed a half-smile
for him. “This won’t take long. Soon you’ll see exactly what I
mean.”

“
Lilith,” Mitch said her
name softly and hesitated, his gaze lingering on her as though he
would find the truth in her eyes. Lilith averted her gaze, not
wanting him to see the misery surging through her, not wanting him
to guess that she wasn’t finding it easy to do the right
thing.

Because Lilith knew that they didn’t have a
choice.

Mitch made a frustrated noise in his throat,
then strode further into the house. There was purpose in his step
and a part of Lilith was pleased that he was not ready to surrender
their relationship.

Even if she didn’t dare savor to that thrill
for long.

Without a word, Lilith gestured toward the
living room. Mitch evidently thought she was inviting him to sit
down and headed immediately in that direction, looking as though he
was preparing to argue a court case.

One that he had no intention of losing.

But Mitch froze on the threshold of the room
and stared, in an unconscious echo of Lilith’s return home just
moments before.

“
Who the hell are you?” he
demanded of the man Lilith knew was lounging there. “And what are
you doing in Lilith’s house?”

Sebastian smiled wolfishly just as Lilith
entered the room behind Mitch. “I’m Sebastian, come to claim my one
true love.”

“
What’s he talking about?”
Mitch turned and frowned at Lilith. “I thought
I
was
Sebastian?”

“
So did I,” Lilith
conceded. She shrugged sadly and tried to hide her tears from
Mitch’s perceptive eye. “I guess we were both wrong.”

But Mitch shoved a hand through his hair
impatiently and scowled at the newcomer. “How long has this guy
been here? Has he been bothering you all weekend?”

“
Bothering her?” Sebastian
swept to his feet. “I’ve returned to my destined love because she
summoned me.” His eyes flashed. “And it seems that I’ve arrived
just in time!”

“
Don’t worry, Sebastian,
Mitch always does the right thing.”

Mitch swiveled to meet her gaze. “Which
would be what?”

“
Leaving,” Lilith said
simply, then laid a hand on Mitch’s arm, wishing she could make
this easier for him.

Never mind easier for herself.

“
Go home, Mitch,” she urged
gently. “Go home to your kids.”

But Mitch’s eyes flashed. “You can’t be
serious about ending this?”

“
We don’t have a
choice.”

“
The hell we don’t!” Mitch
gripped her shoulders when Lilith didn’t say anything more, as
though he wanted to give her a shake. Instead, his voice dropped
low. “Lilith, listen to what you’re saying! I’m sorry, I made a
mistake, but let’s talk about it. There’s something good growing
between us, don’t just throw it away.”

But Lilith knew better. She dropped her
voice and looked into Mitch’s eyes, even managed a smile though her
heart was aching. “Mitch, you don’t understand…”

He spun away from her, clearly seeing that
he was making no progress. “No! I don’t!” Mitch retorted in
frustration, then gestured angrily at Sebastian. “This guy just
shows up and that’s good enough for you? You had, what, one night
together some six hundred years ago? What about us? What about the
time we’ve spent together? What about last night?” Mitch’s gaze
clung to hers, all amber intensity, and he didn’t have to give
voice to his real question.

What about his confession of love?

Lilith knew it hadn’t been easy for Mitch to
let himself care about her, but maybe that was all part of some
divine plan. Maybe she was hurting now so that he could go on to
find his one true love. Maybe he had to hurt to learn to love
again. Lilith didn’t know and right now she didn’t much care.

But she had to do what was right. There was
no point in trying to cheat Dame Fortune.

Because the Fates could be vengeful.

“
Mitch, we can’t fight
destiny…”

“
Why the hell not?” Mitch
leaned closer, his gaze dangerously compelling. “What happened to
you, Lilith? What happened to fighting for what you wanted, what
happened to not surrendering regardless of the odds? It isn’t like
you to just let something go, particularly something very
special.”

Mitch took a deep breath and slid his thumbs
across her shoulders. She shivered despite herself, unable to keep
herself from responding when a smile tugged at his lips and his
voice dropped low. “Lilith, it isn’t like you to ignore
magick
.”

Lilith’s heart skipped a beat as she stared
wordlessly back at him. Mitch’s determination, as well as his
acknowledgement of the magic between them, made Lilith want to
throw her arms around his neck and surrender.

But she didn’t. Instead, she took a deep
breath and looked into his eyes.

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.