Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (167 page)

He could never imagine Janice this way.

Because Janice had never been as giving as
Lilith.

The words resonated with truth. Mitch
frowned in thought as he tucked the children into their pajamas and
then into their beds. He had always been sure that the fault in his
failed marriage was his, that he had brought something out in
Janice that otherwise would never have found voice, that his
failure to love her enough or understand her intuitively or
something
he had done had been at the root of her lack of
interest in their children.

Now, he wondered whether Lilith was right in
her insistence that it wasn’t all his fault.

Maybe he wasn’t so bad at relationships,
after all.

Mitch met Lilith at the top of the stairs,
and was snared by the flash of her smile. He paused beside her and
stared into the shadows of her eyes.

He thought about kissing her and her smile
quirked.

When Lilith reached out and touched his jaw,
it was as though she read Mitch’s thoughts. Or that their thoughts
were as one. Either way, the tingle beneath his skin became a roar
and he edged closer, unwilling to leave any distance between
them.

“
You were right, you know,”
Lilith whispered, her voice low and musical. She stepped closer,
her breasts almost touching his chest, and the heat in the hall
escalated.

Mitch let his hands fall on Lilith’s waist,
his fingers gripped her slenderness. He drew her minutely closer.
“About what?”

“
Something
did
change,” Lilith admitted. Her eyes shone. “I’m not immortal and
it’s all because you’re here.”

Relief surged through Mitch, mingled with
pride that Lilith was making such good progress in coming to terms
with whatever demons haunted her. She had only to stretch toward
him before he bent and met her halfway, his mouth closing over hers
resolutely. He didn’t care if she knew how much he wanted her, he
didn’t care if she guessed how he was feeling. This time he backed
Lilith into the wall, loving how she responded to his touch.

There was no hesitation in her ardor, no
strings on her passion, no negotiations necessary to win a single
kiss. Mitch realized suddenly how Janice had cheated him with her
constant complaints, her raw dislike of any show of affection.

He wondered suddenly whether she had even
loved him.

Lilith insisted she did love him and gave of
herself openly. Lilith never turned away, Lilith never snarled,
Lilith gave and gave and gave.

And Mitch liked that very much. He knew that
whatever this was between himself and Lilith was just the beginning
of something very good, something that would improve with time,
like fine wine.

But no sooner had Mitch lifted his lips from
hers, than Lilith hauled the rug out from beneath him and
challenged his conclusions once again.

He ought to be getting used to that by now,
but he wasn’t.

Not by a long shot.

*

“
Maybe you
were
sorceror in one of your past lives,” Lilith mused as she stared up
at Mitch. Her heart was hammering in the wake of his kiss, but she
was fighting her urge to drag him off and ravish him.

She had agreed to his terms, after all.

“
What do you
mean?”

Lilith slid her hands up the strength of
Mitch’s neck and let her fingers wind their way into his hair. “We
certainly do make powerful magick between us,” she teased. “It’s
worth sacrificing immortality, there’s no doubt about it.”

Mitch froze. “Sacrificing? I thought you had
realized you were mortal?”

“
I am
now
.”

His gaze flickered, but otherwise Mitch was
as still as a statue. His voice was very low. “Maybe you could run
through that a little more slowly for me.”

“
I was immortal, for five
hundred and” - Lilith did some quick math – “sixty-seven years, I
guess it would be.”

She smiled because Mitch looked suddenly so
very grim. “But that’s all right, because once my love was back by
my side” - she stretched and gave him a quick kiss so he wouldn’t
have any confusion over who that individual was – “the elixir
apparently wore off.”

“
Just like that?” Mitch
asked dryly. He pulled back slightly and gave her a skeptical
glance.

“
Magick!” Lilith declared
and chuckled under her breath. “Honestly, I couldn’t have planned
it better myself. The great forces have given us the greatest gift
of all.”

Mitch looked somewhat less than convinced.
But then, this was news to him while Lilith had been thinking it
through for a few hours. He’d see it her way in a minute, Lilith
knew. She linked her arm companionably through his and urged him
toward the stairs.

“
Just think about it,
Mitch. It wouldn’t be right if you aged and I didn’t, and it would
be very strange if neither of us aged at all. I can’t even imagine
how confusing it would be for Jen and Jason. And then, I would
ultimately be left alone again, which could hardly be part of any
divine plan.” Lilith shook her head. “No, this is absolutely
perfect.”

Mitch looked a bit dazed.

Maybe he was tired. Yes, he must be
exhausted after pulling that story together.

Maybe Lilith should make the sangria.

They were halfway down the stairs when a
sudden thought came to Lilith. “Oh!” She spun and locked her arms
around Mitch’s neck, treating him to a big kiss. “Mitch, maybe I
could even have children now!”

Exasperation flitted across Mitch’s brow.
“Lilith, those kinds of things don’t just change because people
meet each other…”

“
Don’t be silly, of course
they do. I couldn’t have children because my cycles stopped when I
drank the elixir. But if I’m mortal, they’ll start again!” Lilith
nearly danced down the remaining steps, knowing she had never been
so enthused about receiving her monthly visitor in the past. “And
all those hormones will get back to work! Ha! We
will
be
able to have kids!”

She spun at the bottom of the stairs
triumphantly and looked back at Mitch.

He remained on the third stair. He had his
arms folded across his chest and looked markedly less delighted
than Lilith about this news.

Oh no. Lilith sobered. “You don’t want more
kids?” she asked quietly, hearing the disappointment in her tone.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter, and you do have two little
darlings already…”

“
Lilith!” Mitch swore with
soft eloquence, shoved a hand through his hair and marched down the
stairs. He caught Lilith’s elbow in his hand and led determinedly
to the back porch. “We have to talk,” he said grimly.

Lilith bit her lip, unable to contain her
disappointment. “I suppose that if you feel strongly about
it…”

“
Lilith!” Mitch spun her to
face him when they reached the back porch and caught her shoulders
in her hands. “I
love
kids. I could have twenty of them, as
long as I could figure out how to feed them and send them to
university. That’s
not
the problem.”

Hope fluttered in Lilith’s heart. She felt
her smile dawn anew. “Really?”

“
Really.” Mitch visibly
gritted his teeth, then looked her dead in the eye. “But we are
getting a bit ahead of things here.”

Lilith folded her arms across her chest and
stared up at him, not liking the sound of this at all. “I can’t
imagine what you mean. You’re my true love, I’m yours - if nothing
else, the loss of my immortality proves that we’re destined to be
together…”

Before she could continue, Mitch
interrupted.

“
Stop! Let’s just linger
there for just a moment. Think for a minute about what you call the
loss of your immortality.”

Mitch was so serious that Lilith did what he
said. “Are you worried that I’ve not really become mortal?” she
asked carefully.

Mitch’s lips thinned. “Hardly that.” He
paused and looked into her eyes, his hesitation in choosing his
words making Lilith brace herself for whatever he was going to say.
“Lilith, were you ever really immortal at all?”

Lilith chuckled, she couldn’t help it. He
was so solemn - and his question was so ludicrous. “Of course I
was! How else would I survive the better part of six centuries?”
She shook her head at him. “People don’t live that long,
Mitch.”

If she hadn’t known better, she would have
thought he ground his teeth. “But Lilith, how could it just change?
How could it just go away?” Mitch flung out his hands.” How could
this elixir keep you from aging for so long, then just stop
working? How could it be cognizant of changes in your life? There’s
not a bit of it that makes sense.”

Lilith smiled easily. “Magick makes perfect
sense on its own terms.”

“
Magic
?” Mitch flung
out his hands and paced the width of the porch. He rubbed his brow,
muttered something about ‘making progress’, then came back to face
her again. His lips were drawn to a thin line, his eyes were devoid
of a twinkle. “Lilith, it’s time we got to the bottom of this. You
have to know that there is no such thing as magic, that potions
don’t work, that no one can see the future.”

Lilith blinked. Then she laughed. “I don’t
know any such thing!”

But Mitch didn’t smile. He watched her and a
sadness dawned in his eyes.

Lilith sobered as cold dread slithered down
her spine. She took a step closer to not miss any change in Mitch’s
eyes. “You’re not serious?”

Mitch held her gaze unflinchingly. “That was
my question.”

Lilith gasped, the conviction in his golden
eyes doing nothing to reassure her. Thank goodness she was still
there in the shadows of his eyes!

But was her image getting smaller?
Fainter?

How could Mitch not believe in magick?
Lilith had to persuade him! “Of course there’s such a thing as
magick! The world is full of magick, everywhere you turn you catch
another glimpse of the great forces at work.”

Mitch looked decidedly unconvinced.

“
What about Kurt?” Lilith
demanded. “What about Those Men? What about Cooley?”

Mitch just shook his head. “There has to be
another explanation. Potions and spells don’t work, Lilith. There
are no love spells, no antidote, no great forces of magic at work.
It’s just the world, just life. It’s just the way things are.”

Lilith knew she looked skeptical now. “You
aren’t going to try and tell me that
life
isn’t magickal, in
and of itself?”

“
Science -“

“
Phooey on science!” Lilith
interrupted sharply. “There isn’t a scientist alive who can
satisfactorily explain why those bean plants came out of those
seeds.” She pointed to the plants that had unfurled from the beans
she and Jason had planted just a week before. “Or what makes a
baby’s heart start to pound, or why a child is formed of sperm and
ovum some of the time and not others. Can you explain Jen and Jason
with mathematics and theorems?”

“
I can’t,” Mitch admitted
uneasily. “But I’m sure that someone could.”

“
No one can,” Lilith
replied with heartfelt urgency. “Because there’s something there
beyond the cell division and the genetics, something that no one
can put their finger right on. The whole reason
why
is
beyond our comprehension. The impetus in the first place is
unexplained, never mind the caprice of the same factors not always
leading to the same result. It’s magick, Mitch, it’s magick as old
as all the earth, which has a special kind of magick all its
own.”

“
Lilith, the earth is just
a great big rock…”

“
No. The earth is
magick
, right to its bones. There’s magick in the air and in
the ground and in the sea. No one can tell me why my roses grow
bigger and redder when I talk to them, or how all of a plant - or
even its blueprint - fits into a single tiny seed. No one can fully
explain how the birds know when to go south or how they find their
way to somewhere they’ve never been, or how my perennials know when
it’s really spring and not just a false start. It’s magick, a
magick that the creatures all around us understand and that we
willingly deny.”

Lilith waited, she hoped desperately that
her argument was going to make some impact. She just couldn’t
imagine living with and loving a man who didn’t believe in
magick.

Especially after all they’d been through
together. How could Mitch deny what had finally brought them back
together again?

But, much to Lilith’s disappointment, deny
it he did.

“
Well, I don’t believe in
magic,” Mitch declared with the definitive air of a man who has
closed an argument, for once and for all.

Lilith, however, was not prepared to let
this go so easily.

It was too important.

“
Really?” She leaned closer
and poked a finger into his chest. “Then how did I know you, and
how did you know me? How did you end up living right beside
me?”

“
Lilith, we’ve been through
all that…”

“
Clearly not, if you don’t
understand. This is
magick
, Mitch. There is something
special between us that no scientific theory can explain.” She let
her voice drop low and knew by the quick flick of Mitch’s gaze that
she had his attention. “Ask your scientists why my heart skips a
beat when I see you.”

Mitch glanced up suddenly at this admission
and Lilith smiled right into his eyes. “It’s not some textbook
biological mating urge, because it doesn’t happen when I see anyone
else. It doesn’t happen whenever a handsome healthy man crosses my
path. Just
you
. It’s magick, a magick that only applies to
you and I.”