Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (154 page)

“
She’s single,” Mitch
supplied tersely, not at all liking the smile that curved Kurt’s
lips. It suddenly seemed like a critical error to have forgotten
Kurt’s seducing ways. “Look, Kurt, leave her alone. She’s a nut
anyway.”

“
What do you
mean?”

Mitch instinctively decided to make things
sound worse than they were. He would not consider why. “I mean she
thinks she’s a six hundred year old witch and that she casts spells
on people that work. Nutty as a fruitcake.” Mitch rolled his eyes,
trying to convey the ridiculousness of that.

But Kurt was unpersuaded. “A witch!” Kurt
eyed Lilith’s house pointedly. “Wow. That would be something
different.” He slanted a glance at Mitch. “What do you think it’s
like? Being with a witch? You think it’s freaky?”

It really mattered to Mitch that he keep
Kurt from going next door. “Isn’t there an old story that witches
make things shrivel and fall off?” he asked idly as he hammered
home a nail.

“
Things?”

Mitch looked Kurt dead in the eye. “One
particular
thing
.”

Kurt whistled, his speculative gaze drifting
back to Lilith’s house. “Yeah, but what would you know about it?
You’re too much the family man, ol’ buddy.”

Mitch concentrated on hammering that nail
and ignored the heat on the back of his neck. Sunburn. Plain and
simple.

Kurt exhaled through his teeth, his
attention fixed again on Lilith’s house. “I think that a little
witchy action might be just what the doctor ordered today.”

“
What?” Panic rolled
through Mitch. “Look, Kurt, leave it be. She’s my neighbor, after
all!”

“
Yeah, so. I’m not expected
you
to do the mogambo with her.”

That sunburn was hotter than hot. Mitch
tried to sound as grim as he could, though why he imagined he’d win
this battle, he didn’t know. “Kurt, don’t. It would be more than
awkward. She’s just a fortune-teller…”

“
What’s she look
like?”

Mitch might have lied - his own astonishment
over that uncharacteristic urge was the only reason the words
didn’t jump out in time - but Lilith chose that moment to make an
appearance on her back step. She let her cat out, glanced up and
granted Mitch a warm smile.

His heart thumped in a way he was quite sure
it wasn’t supposed to. And he couldn’t catch his breath. She was
every bit as gorgeous as Mitch recalled, her smile ever bit as
breathtaking as he remembered. Maybe even more so.

She really made it hard to keep all the
dastardly things he knew about her straight in his mind, never mind
the way she took advantage of people. That sweet slow smile made it
hard to believe that she was a master criminal who had somehow
ensured that her identity had been erased from all files. Maybe it
was those dark eyes with that twinkle lurking in their depths that
did Mitch in.

Mitch was surprised to realize that he
didn’t really care. He just wanted to smile back at Lilith all day
long.

But the lady had other ideas. She waved and
ducked back inside, her cat curled into a watchful ball on the back
step. In fact, she was already back in the house by the time Kurt
whistled in admiration.

“
Wow! You didn’t tell me
she was
gorgeous
!”

“
Well…”

“
Trying to keep her for
yourself, huh? Can’t say I blame you.” Kurt put his hammer down and
scooped up his t-shirt. “But hey, I’m on to you now. Open field.
All’s fair in love and war, right?”

“
Wait a minute! Where are
you going? It’s too early to quit.” Mitch gestured impatiently to
the nearly finished fence. “Let’s get finished. We’re almost
done.”

Kurt sighed theatrically and put a hand over
his heart. “But I suddenly feel this burning desire to have my
fortune told.” And with a wink, Kurt swaggered through the gate and
headed for Lilith’s front porch.

Mitch had to stop Kurt from going in there!
“But she’s an opportunist!” he called.

Kurt’s grin flashed in the shadows between
the houses. “And you don’t think I am?” he joked.

Mitch hated with newfound passion that Kurt
was both so classically good-looking and so successful in pursuing
women. The guy looked like some kind of love god! And he spread his
affections around as though he had invented sex.

If Lilith pounced on Kurt the way she had
pounced on Mitch, the pair of them wouldn’t come up for air until
Tuesday.

And that bothered Mitch a whole lot more
than he knew it should.

“
But she’s a witch!” he
hissed, making the only other protest he could think of.

“
Hey, I’ll let you know if
anything falls off!” Kurt chuckled, then vaulted onto Lilith’s
porch without a backward glance.

No, this wasn’t how things were supposed to
go. Not at all. It wasn’t in Mitch’s script - and he sure as hell
didn’t like the revision.

His hormones had plenty to say about it, but
Mitch deliberately listened to his logic. Maybe he was right about
Lilith’s interest in Andrea’s money, maybe he was wrong. Maybe
there was some other explanation for her not being in any of the
files she should have been in.

Either way, he wasn’t going to find out the
truth by his usual means. Conventional research had yielded a big
fat zero.

But Mitch was by no means out of options.
The sudden idea that popped into his head was just too good to
ignore. He put aside his own hammer and scooped up his t-shirt,
tugging it quickly over his head. Of course, he was only doing this
for Andrea’s good, and for the sake of uncovering a story, maybe of
exposing a fraud.

But as Mitch stalked down the alley between
the houses, he wasn’t thinking about any of those things. He was
thinking of stopping Kurt from making Lilith another notch in his
well-adorned bedpost.

It didn’t make any damn sense to worry about
protecting a woman who seemed to prey on others for a living, but
Mitch didn’t have time to think about it too much right now.

He had to do something. And he had to do it
now.

And pretending to remember being Sebastian
was the best plan Mitch could come up with in such short order.
Lilith would certainly buy it, given her consistency with that
concept.

Yep. Mitch was going Under Cover to get the
truth. He was definitely on familiar ground.

For the moment, at least.

*

Cooley eventually realized that he was alone
in the yard. He whimpered and pressed his nose to the screen -
nosing it distinctly inward as he watched more than one glop of ice
cream drop to the floor uncontested.

He sniffled to general disinterest.

No one was letting him in. Andrea finally
glanced his way and shook her head sternly, dishing out more ice
cream, all of it tantalizingly out of range.

Cooley’s ears drooped. He turned, then
sprawled across the edge of the porch, practically covering its
surface, and whimpered when he dropped his nose to his paws.
Thoroughly ignored, he looked across his new haunt dejectedly.

A certain grey cat tiptoed across the back
fence.

Cooley straightened, his nose twitched.

The cat turned to look at him, then flicked
its tail in a silent dare.

“
Go ahead,” that tail
declared. “Make my day.”

The wolfhound exploded off the porch in a
frenzy of barking. He landed hard, but bolted for the back fence.
The cat took one look and ran like greased lightning to the
neighbor’s yard.

But the fence in between wasn’t done. And
Cooley was through the gap in record time.

He was going to get that cat, for once and
for all.

*

Lilith almost immediately regretted opening
the door. She had only done so because she had seen that it was
Mitch’s friend knocking and she wondered whether something was
wrong.

Something
was
wrong - but it was
having this amorous wolf in her house when she was alone.

Even D’Artagnan, a fairly indifferent
champion at the best of times, was out into the yard. Lilith’s
potion for Those Men was cooling in the sink and she was too tired
in the wake of concocting it to deal with this challenge.

Because it was clear that this man intended
to launch a full assault, frontal or otherwise.

“
Hi! I’m Kurt, Mitch’s
friend. We’re working next door, you know.” He folded his arms
across his chest and flexed a few muscles Lilith couldn’t name. His
eyes twinkled in what was doubtless his interpretation of an
engaging way. “Mitch tells me you read fortunes.”

Lilith retreated from the hungry gleam in
Kurt’s eye and found herself in the foyer. He shut the door and
smiled at her in a way that made her feel like the Special of the
Day.

And that Kurt hadn’t eaten in a while.

Because from one glimpse, it was more than
clear that Mitch’s friend thought he was Goddess’ gift to women
everywhere. He was blond and tanned, his physique an obvious result
of countless hours spent in the gym. His hair was boyishly ruffled
to perfection and Lilith was certain he took longer to get ready
for anything than any six women she could name.

“
I do, but not today. I’m
sorry.” Lilith smiled with pert professionalism. She waved her hand
as though she was a bit dotty and said the first silly thing that
hopped into her head. “Venus in Taurus, you know. My crystals are
out at the cleansers. Not a good time.” She reached to open the
door to toss this man out, but he unexpectedly captured her
hand.

“
Hey, I’m just looking for
a little inside scoop, you know?” He winked, in no doubt of his own
allure. “Maybe you could help me out. You know, point me in the
direction of Grand Amour.”

Lilith took one look into Kurt’s eyes, an
instinctive reaction to his request, and wasn’t surprised in the
least by what she found. None other that Kurt himself smiled
winningly back at her and she smiled slightly at this confirmation
that the man could never love anyone as much as he loved
himself.

Unfortunately, Kurt took that tiny smile as
encouragement.

“
Or maybe we could just
chat for a couple of minutes, you and me,” he mumbled in a
confidentially low tone. “Maybe over a quiet dinner somewhere.”
Kurt smiled what Lilith knew he considered his winning smile and
ran his thumb over the back of her hand.

And Lilith suddenly had a very good
idea.

It was the best opportunity she was likely
to have, after all.

“
You must be terribly
thirsty,” Lilith said with feigned concern. “You two have been
working so hard out there.” Kurt flexed his muscles once more, no
doubt to impress her with his masculinity. “How about some iced
tea?”

His face brightened. “Hey, that would be
great.”

“
It’s herbal, so it might
taste a bit odd,” Lilith said airily and headed for the kitchen.
She wasn’t surprised when Kurt followed hot on her heels. She
whispered a silent entreaty that her potion would work, because
otherwise she didn’t know how she’d get rid of him.

And that could mean serious trouble.

Lilith refused to think about that. Once an
optimist, always an optimist. The potion
would
work. She
ladled ice into a glass and tried to sound casual. “I try to avoid
caffeine, so I drink a lot of herbal brews instead.”

“
Oh, yeah. You gotta watch
that stuff.” He frowned at her cauldron. “That’s some kind of pot
you’ve got there.”

“
Oh!” Lilith smiled and
lied as fast as she could. “Family piece, you know. Good
luck.”

Kurt harumphed, his gaze fixed assessingly
on her as he sipped. He grimaced and Lilith cursed the taste of the
stuff. She hadn’t thought of that! She should have put some honey
in it.

Because if Kurt didn’t drink it, the potion
couldn’t work. And if the potion didn’t work, well, Lilith didn’t
want to think too much about evicting him from her house by
herself.

He was big, really big. A good eight inches
taller than Lilith, even though she was tall. He clearly worked
out, a lot, and might have a good eighty pounds on her.

When Kurt fingered the glass and hesitated
after drinking only the barest sip, Lilith did the only thing she
could under the circumstances. She stepped closer and opened her
eyes wide in what she hoped was a hopeful expression.

“
Do you like it? It’s my
own very special mixture.” She pouted as though her teeny tiny
heart would be fatally wounded by any rejection of her tea. “You
wouldn’t hurt my feelings by not liking it, would you?”

“
Of course, I like it.”
Kurt smiled a slow sensual smile of intent, kept his gaze fixed on
her and pointedly drained his glass.

When he set it deliberately on the counter,
Lilith caught her breath and prayed.

*

Mitch didn’t trust the way Lilith’s door was
closed tight. He knew she was home, he knew Kurt was in there, and
it wasn’t a good sign that the heavy wooden door was closed on such
a hot day.

Nope, Mitch did not have a good feeling
about this. Remembering how quickly Lilith had gotten into his
shorts was not reassuring in the least. He spared a glance for the
vigilant crew on the sidewalk, frowned, then knocked.

To Mitch’s astonishment, he heard running
footsteps. Lilith opened the door almost immediately.

To his further amazement, she didn’t look as
though he had interrupted anything. Her dress didn’t appear in the
least bit rumpled and she seemed safely unravished.

It was then he noticed that those incredible
eyes glowed with pleasure. Mitch nearly dropped his teeth when he
realized it was because she was glad to see
him
.