Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (178 page)

But the sight of him did absolutely nothing
for Lilith.

“
A little upgrade, you
know,” Sebastian confided. “I wanted a slicker package this time,
something with some
serious
style.” He flashed a very white
smile. “Like it?”

Lilith swallowed, not having it in her to
lie and knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the truth. “How did you get
in here?”

Sebastian’s smile broadened. “I hate to be
the one to tell you this, baby, but you’ve got a seriously inferior
grade of lock on your door. It was like picking my teeth.”

Lilith swallowed her gasp of outrage. “You
broke into my house?”

“
I didn’t break anything,”
he retorted. “I’m a pro!”

Her destined love was a professional
criminal. Lilith pressed her fingertips to her temples. This was
getting better and better.

What had she done to deserve such a
fate?

“
I thought you would have
shown up sooner,” she commented quietly. “Where have you
been?”

“
All over the place,”
Sebastian confessed with a vague wave of his hand. “Spreading the
wealth, you know. I’ve got to tell you that I’ve had
action
in this life, like you wouldn’t believe. Yet there are women
everywhere who haven’t yet made my acquaintance.” He examined his
nails with a smile. “I do what I can to set things to
rights.”

“
What?” His confession
brought Lilith to attention with a snap. “You’ve been with other
women?”

“
Hundreds of them, baby.”
Sebastian smiled and shrugged. “Maybe even thousands. Over the
years, I’ve lost count.”

Lilith sputtered in her indignation. “But
you’re supposed to be my one true love!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Women and the
stuff they come up with,” he mumbled, then smiled engagingly once
more. “Sure, Lilith baby, whatever you think is fair.”

Lilith leaned forward in her chair. “Don’t
you think we’re destined lovers?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Well, that’s what the
crowd said when the interrupted a truly great seduction about a
week back.” His eyes gleamed. “I was on the Riviera, you know, in
this great little hotel, all the amenities, if you know what I
mean. And I had met this blonde with hooters out to tomorrow…”

“
What crowd?” Lilith shook
her head. “What are you talking about?”

Sebastian blinked as he sought the element
of his story that had caught Lilith’s interest – it took him a
moment because it wasn’t the element that interested him. “The
crowd? Oh, yeah, this whole party bust into my room.” He snapped
his fingers. “Just like they came out of nowhere. It was weird,
truly weird. I never did figure out how they got in, and that is my
area of specialty.”

Lilith’s mouth went dry. Her Gift sparkled
like starlight and gave her a definite nudge in the direction of a
conclusion. “Who were they?” she asked, suspecting that she already
knew the answer.

“
Some council, they said.
Pretty hoity-toity name, I don’t remember, but they had some really
fancy tricks.”

“
The Grand Consulting
Council of Immortals,” Lilith whispered reverently, awed that they
had taken an interest in her plight.

“
Could have been.”
Sebastian shook a finger at her, more than ready to get back to his
story. “Now, this blonde was wearing a bikini, or actually not
wearing it…”

But Lilith wasn’t interested in the blonde.
“What did they say to you?”

“
Huh? Oh, that I had some
obligation from a past life or something equally weird. Freaked out
the blonde, which didn’t thrill me particularly, I have to say.
After she took off, they laid a lot of goofy doom and gloom on the
table. I didn’t know what they went going on about until one of
them touched my forehead. I suddenly remembered all these past
lives. It was pretty bizarre.”

“
So you didn’t remember
anything before that?” Lilith asked, wondering why she didn’t find
that very reassuring.

“
No, but then, it was all
right there. Just to make matters more strange, they insisted that
I had to come here, that you were waiting.” Sebastian leaned
closer, no doubt turning what was his best smile on Lilith. “If I’d
known you were such a looker, baby, I wouldn’t have argued as much
as I did.”

A sick feeling coiled in Lilith’s stomach.
“You mean you didn’t want to come?”

“
Naw! I mean I remembered
the other time, but it was hardly anything to chase after, no
offense. You were just a skinny kid, not bad looking, but that
blonde had you beat hands down. And you couldn’t touch her in terms
of experience.” His lips quirked in a smile. “Nothing personal,
baby, but I’ve got to look out for number one.”

Lilith forced her words past the lump in her
throat, knowing she had to have everything absolutely clear. “So,
you do remember being Sebastian before?”

“
Well, now, yeah.” He
shrugged. “Kind of a gruesome way to go, but that’s life. At least
I got to come back a few dozen times. And since those council types
visited me, I can remember all those babes!” He winked confidently.
“Pretty neat that my name is the same this time, don’t you think?
Just like
destiny
or something.”

He grinned.

He’d reincarnated dozens of times, yet he
hadn’t come looking for her. He’d been too busy “spreading the
wealth”, as it was.

Lilith didn’t like this at all.

She folded her hands together carefully and
held Sebastian’s gaze. “Tell me – if you hadn’t been arrested all
those years ago, would you really have come back to me?”

He smiled coolly and Lilith knew the
truth.

No. He’d never cared for her. He’d only
wanted to seduce her. Her uncle had been right – and Lilith had
been foolish enough to believe otherwise for much longer than she
should have.

Her blood ran cold at the realization that
this man was still her destined companion for the rest of her
days.

“
But see, baby, there’s
wasn’t a lot of chance of my coming back, anyway.”

Lilith blinked, almost having forgotten
where they were. “What do you mean?”

“
Well, I was caught
red-handed, as they say.” Sebastian tapped his temple. “I remember
it all now.”

Red-handed? Horror rose in Lilith as she saw
the truth in his eyes. “You did kill that widow!”

Sebastian shrugged. “Hey, it was an
accident. I didn’t mean to kill her, but you know, she liked it a
bit rough.” He winked. “If you know what I mean. Things got a
little out of control that night.” He shrugged again, supremely
unconcerned. “Happens.”

Lilith could barely choke back her anger. It
was bad enough that Sebastian had taken her virginity, made her all
sorts of promises, then gone to another woman’s bed. But he had
killed that widow and still didn’t feel a pang of remorse.

He was worse than pond scum.

She had been an idiot to believe his
lies.

The worst part was that she had pined for
this pathetic excuse for a man for almost six centuries. Mitch, now
there was a man worth pining for.

But he wasn’t the man destined for her.

Lilith decided right then and there that
destiny sucked.

“
Hey, Lilith, baby, you
look like you could use some cheering up.” Sebastian leaned closer,
his eyes gleaming. “And I’ve got just the medicine you need. What
do you say to a healthy doze of Sebastian for
breakfast?”

“
No!” Lilith bounded to her
feet.

Sebastian’s eyes flashed before he smiled
with smooth charm. “Hey, you called me. I sure wouldn’t have come
to this city all on my own. There’s nothing going here.” His eyes
narrowed. “Besides, I heard that you said you were going to make it
worth my while.”

It didn’t help that he was exactly
right.

But Lilith still didn’t want to keep her
word. She eased toward the door, intending to slide out the door.
But Sebastian lunged to his feet to stop her.

Lilith fled, ripping down the hall and to
lock herself in the kitchen. Sebastian’s footsteps echoed behind.
Lilith closed her eyes tightly and chanted a spell to make the lock
hold, her heart nearly stopping when Sebastian jiggled the knob
forcefully.

The knob stopped moving and Lilith took a
wary step back.

“
You can’t resist my charm
forever, Lilith baby,” Sebastian whispered through the keyhole.
“After all, it’s destiny.”

But Lilith was already hauling her cauldron
toward the stove, determined to conjure up an eviction spell. She
had been such a fool. Somehow there had to be a way to make things
come right.

Lilith flicked on the radio so she wouldn’t
have to hear Sebastian breathing on the other side of the door. She
was encouraged to hear Gladys Knight singing about her lover taking
the midnight train to Georgia. With every “he’s leaving” that the
Pips echoed, Lilith tossed another pinch into the pot.

She couldn’t conjure quickly enough.

*

Sebastian could have broken the lock. He was
sure he could have picked it, but clearly Lilith needed a moment to
think. Women were like that. But they always came around.

Besides, a little pause in the action wasn’t
such a bad idea.

Because this wasn’t the way Sebastian had
envisioned this deal. Not at all. Nobody had said anything about
fighting off competition. Of course, that council hadn’t been
prepared to listen much to Sebastian’s point of view, but he’d been
sure that there was a little bit of something curvy in this deal
for him.

And that it – she - would be easy
pickings.

Clearly, though, Lilith was holding out on
him. And she was going to keep doing so. Since that was completely
contrary to her passionate response of several centuries ago,
Sebastian guessed that the fault lay outside of her nature.

It was that guy net door. He’d been playing
in Sebastian’s pond while Sebastian was otherwise occupied. It
wasn’t pertinent that Sebastian had had no intention of seeking out
Lilith before the council intervened.

He was here now-an entire ocean away from
civilization as he knew it – and if nothing else, Sebastian wanted
what he had come all this way to get.

He was owed.

He’d give Lilith time to calm down, then
come back and win her over with a healthy measure of his undeniable
charm. Sebastian grinned to himself.

She’d forget that jerk next door in nothing
flat.

Sebastian slipped out of the house with a
whistle on his lips, confident that no matter how Lilith tried to
barricade against his return, he could get back into that
house.

Guaranteed.

*

Andrea couldn’t hide from the fact that she
was disappointed. Eight days into her cruise and she still hadn’t
met anyone even remotely interesting.

Could Lilith have been wrong?

The worst thing about that would be that it
would prove Mitch’s skepticism right.

She hated proving Mitch right - mostly
because it happened too often.

Andrea sighed and took her new swirly blue
dress from the tiny closet. She held it up to herself and smiled
for her reflection. Tonight was the night Andrea was to sit at the
captain’s table, although she really wasn’t excited about the
prospect.

She was tired of old women and men who
couldn’t dance, honeymooners staring into each other’s eyes and
children bored to death after days at sea. She was tired of bingo
and skeet-shooting and buffets that only seemed to be cleared to
make way for another lavish meal. She didn’t want to sunbathe
anymore, or learn to play shuffleboard, or be marched through an
island village in a convoy of tourists. She didn’t even want to
languish on an endless beach.

Andrea wanted to dance. She flicked the hem
of the skirt and considered the prospect of having her toes trodden
upon yet again. She hadn’t seen a single man on this ship who
seemed to have a talent for dancing, much less one as interesting
as Lilith had promised.

And Andrea had had a good look. She pouted
at the possibility that Lilith was mistaken, the reflected gesture
reminding her so much of Jen that she laughed aloud.

That made Andrea feel better. She’d do some
shopping for the kids tomorrow - as though they needed more
souvenirs of her trip than she had already acquired. Watching Mitch
growl about them getting spoiled would mitigate the disappointment
of seeing him proven right again.

Andrea chuckled to herself at the prospect.
“If you don’t play, you can’t win,” she informed her mirror image
sternly and hung the dress on the bathroom door with purpose.
Andrea hadn’t gotten this far in life by sitting in a corner and
feeling sorry for herself, and she wasn’t going to start now.

And she was going to go out with a bang.
Partner or no partner, tonight, Andrea was going to dance - and
dammit, she was going to
sparkle
.

*

Andrea swept into the dining room with every
bit of her usual style and grace. She smiled at the maitre d’ and
accepted his arm, her chin held high as she was led to her seat. It
was a perfect evening for romance: the chandeliers glittered like
starlight and the band was playing marvelous music. The crystal
tinkled, there was a low murmur of conversation.

Despite herself, Andrea felt her
anticipation rise. She was reminded of nights spent dancing to big
band music at Casa Loma with her second husband - well, not
actually with him. Walter had always escorted her, then sat with a
drink and watched others twirl Andrea around the floor. Walter knew
she loved to dance and had been quite philosophical about his own
inabilities.