Trouble With Harry (19 page)

The familiar thunder and ground shaking was only slightly reassuring. Before she could blink, Edie and Harry stood in the shambles of her apartment. Tears pooled in her eyes. She wouldn’t let him see her cry. She wouldn’t. She stepped away from him and strode through her apartment. “Dad?” The apartment was a big empty mess, except for Harry and Edie. How long could she avoid looking at Harry? How long would it take to dry the tears? A long time, if she let them start falling. Edie knew once she started crying for Harry, she couldn’t stop.

“Your father’s here?” Harry asked.

With a gulp, Edie swallowed the lump rising in her throat. She tossed her head back and faced Harry. “He was when I left.” Edie squelched her growing feeling of loss, determined to fight depression with anger. She shoved his chest. “Which, by the way, was how I was able to get loose to save your butt. I don’t appreciate being tied up and left to beat my head silly against the wall.” She shoved him again.

“You would have been in the way. You could have gotten hurt.” He grabbed her shoulders to keep her from pushing him again. “You saw how dangerous it was out there.”

Just like her father, Harry had taken the decision out of her hands. Well, to hell with that! “I’m a big girl. I can make up my own mind. I don’t need you or my father telling me how to live my life. I can stand on my own two feet, thank you very much!”

For a brief moment, sadness passed across Harry’s face to be replaced by a slow, sexy grin. “Do you know you’re beautiful when you’re mad?”

“Don’t change the subject, Harrington Taylor the Third. I’m picking a fight with you and I won’t be disappointed.” Her voice caught on a sob. “I hate you, Harry.” She swatted at him with very little force and buried her face against his chest. “And you almost got yourself killed.” Her words were muffled in his jacket as tears streamed from her eyes. Damn! And she didn’t want him to see her cry. Harry was going to leave her. She knew it. How could a man as gorgeous and adventurous as Harry stay with a pathetic, ugly spinster like Edie Ragsdale?

He tipped her chin upward and kissed the tip of her nose. “But I didn’t die, did I?” His tongue snaked out and licked a tear from her cheek. “Salty. Just like you. I love the way you taste, Edie. Here.” He sucked her earlobe into his mouth and nipped. “Here.” Pushing aside the collar of her sweater, Harry’s mouth moved down to press a kiss against the base of her throat.

Edie groaned, her hands sliding up to lace in his hair. Wasn’t she mad? Didn’t she have a bone to pick with this man? Why couldn’t she remember when he was doing wicked things to her? “Shouldn’t we be more concerned about finding Mitch than making love?”

“We will—soon. Most likely, he’s somewhere in a bottle, and he’ll keep for the moment.” Warm callused hands slid up her waist beneath her sweater to cup her breasts.

The embers fanned to flame between her legs and Edie pressed into Harry’s body, her thighs opening to fit one of his between them. She rubbed her cunt against him wanting more.

Harry grabbed the hem of her sweater and ripped it up and over her head, tossing it to the corner.

Edie stood in front of him naked from the waist up, basking in his heavy-lidded gaze. The way he looked at her made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the entire world. And she wanted to be beautiful for Harry.

“You have too many clothes on.” She shoved the jacket from his shoulders.

He let it fall to the floor.

While he slid the sweat jacket off his shoulders, Edie’s hands followed the increasingly exposed skin running upward from his tight abdomen to the crisp curls sprinkled across his bronzed chest. “God, you’re beautiful, Harry.”

He laughed and tossed the jacket aside, pressing his chest against her bare breasts. “Men aren’t supposed to be beautiful.” Holding her close, his hands pressed against her lower back, sliding downward inside her jeans to cup her ass.

“Maybe not, but then how do you explain yourself?” She leaned forward and sucked a hard brown nipple into her mouth and bit down gently. Ripples of desire fanned out across her nervous system sending surges of excitement southward to pool in her groin. How much longer could she wait before she begged him to take her?

“I make it a point never to explain myself.” Harry reached for the hard metal button of her jeans and flicked it open. With deliberate slowness, he slid her zipper down the backs of his knuckles skimming against the mound of curly hair at her crotch.

Edie moaned and pressed her body against his trapping his hand between them. “Are you going to stand there and play with my zipper or are you going to play with me?” She slid her hands behind him and into the elastic waistband of his sweats, pushing them downward until they fell loose around his ankles. His cock pressed like a hot poker into her belly, the iron rod encased in velvety soft skin teasing her into a frenzy. She wanted to wrap her legs around his waist and lower herself over him until he filled her with his thickness.

But first, she wanted him to be so hot he couldn’t leave without her. He’d want her by his side no matter what.

Remembering all she’d learned over the past two days, Edie stepped away from Harry, a slow smile curling the corners of her lips. She dropped her eyelids to half-mast and shimmied out of her jeans.

“What happened to the shy Edie I met a couple days ago?” Harry laughed and reached out for her.

Edie stepped backward out of reach. “She no longer exists.” She ran her hands up from her waist to cup her own breasts. “The new, improved Edie is here to please you.”

“Ummm, then come here and please me, vixen.”

“In a minute. First I want to build up a little anticipation.” Her heart in her throat, Edie swiveled her hips in a silent dance, her fingers massaging her breasts, teasing the tips to hard little points. She hoped she didn’t look stupid, not when she felt so wicked and sexy. Then she swept her hands down her sides and across her abdomen to thread into the hairs over her pussy. “Does this do anything for you?”

“Oh, baby, does it ever.” Harry’s cock stood stiff and straight, pulsing in his need. “But I don’t know how much more I can take. I need to touch you.”

With a shake of her head, Edie turned her back on him, spread her legs wide and touched her toes, giving him an open view of her ass and her pussy. She’d seen a porn flick where the girl had done that in a stripper bar and remembered how turned on she’d been just watching. Hopefully, it would have the same effect on Harry.

Coarse hands grabbed her ass from behind. “You’re too much.” Harry pulled her hard against him, sliding his shaft into her cunt all the way to her womb.

Edie grabbed for the back of the couch to steady herself, reveling in the rough treatment, loving the feel of his thick cock fitting tightly inside her. “Harder, Harry. I want you to fuck me like there’s no tomorrow.” Quite possibly there wouldn’t be for Edie and Harry. She wanted all she could get tonight.

He pounded into her, his belly slapping against her butt cheeks, the in and out motion making slurping sounds to the accompaniment of their moans.

Edie reached between her legs and parted her nether lips, drawing some of the lubricant from her pussy to her clit. She flicked and teased herself, adding to the growing tension in her belly and much lower.

When Harry’s pace reached maximum velocity, he shoved hard into her and leaned over, cupping her breasts in his hands.

Edie’s muscles contracted around his shaft, milking his cum, holding him firmly inside her. Her legs shook and, if Harry hadn’t been holding on to her, she would have sunk to her knees on the carpet.

He slid out of her turned her to face him, a smile stretching across his face. “Your turn.” Without preamble, he scooped his arm beneath the backs of her legs and swung her up against his body.

Edie squealed and held on to keep from falling. Before Harry, she’d never had a man carry her anywhere and the sensation was exhilarating and very, very sexy. Especially when she and the man were naked.

He carried her across the living room and into the bedroom where he tossed her on the mattress. The silk pajamas tied to the bedposts hung as limp reminders, not of being tied, but of the lovemaking in bondage of several hours earlier. Edie’s pussy quivered in anticipation of what Harry had in mind. She leaned up on her elbows, her knees falling open, exposing her cunt to his view. Her fingers found their way downward to toy with the entrance to her sex.

The light in Harry’s eyes flared. “Stop teasing. I already got mine. Like I said, it’s your turn.” He stalked toward her, his hands grabbing her ankles. He yanked hard, sliding her bottom to the edge of the mattress. Then he dropped to his knees and draped her legs over his shoulders. “I’m going to make you scream.”

“Takes a lot to make me scream, Harry.” Her words held as much false bravado as she could muster. She was already as close to screaming as she could be without actually making a sound. The nearness of Harry’s mouth to her pussy was enough to make Edie scream without even a touch. She knew the magic of his lips, his tongue and his fingers and her vaginal walls wept in anticipation. “Shouldn’t we discuss what to do about Mitch?” she asked, weakly, trying to diffuse her rising desire.

“No.” The word was clipped and followed by his attack on her control. He traced his tongue along the inside of her right thigh, until he reached the crease between thigh and buttock. Harry inhaled deeply and swiped his flattened tongue across her pussy like he was licking ice cream from an ice-cream cone. When he reached the outside rim of her entrance he paused, sharpening the point of his tongue to tickle the sensitive inner lips around her vagina. He traced a path to her anus and prodded the tight opening with the tip of his tongue.

With a gasp, Edie leaned forward. What was he doing? Then she relaxed, confident Harry knew exactly what he wanted and what would please her.

His fingers slid up her thighs to part her cheeks, his thumb sliding into her asshole at the same time three fingers pushed into her pussy.

Edie squirmed, the added pressure on her asshole accentuating the sensations on her cunt. Pleasure spiraled to her core and she pressed upward wanting him to lick her clit. Dare she ask? Hell yes! “Please, Harry, lick me, too.”

The coarse stubble of his beard rubbed against her labia when he bent to the task of laving her clitoris, the additional abrasion an added bonus, pushing Edie to the edge.

Another flick and a long slurping suck catapulted her to another dimension, where bright lights flickered sending pulsing electrical shocks cascading through her senses. Edie screamed, clutching Harry’s hair, pushing him away, but pulling him back, the sensation so intense she couldn’t decide if it was pain or pleasure.

When she tumbled back to earth, she heaved a huge sigh.

Harry crawled up beside her and pulled her into his arms, warming her now chilling skin.

“I wish—” Edie’s words were cut off when Harry’s finger pressed over her lips.

“Don’t.” He dropped a kiss to her temple. “Wait until morning. There’s time enough for wishing tomorrow.”

She snuggled against him and yawned. All the worry and wrestling with the bad guys had finally taken their toll on her. “You’re not going to tie me up again, are you?”

“No, Edie,” Harry said, the sound rumbling against her ear. “I’m not going to tie you up.”

“Promise?” She buried her nose in his chest hair, inhaling the scent of her soap and sex. Ummmm.

“Promise.” His arm tightened around her shoulders and he pulled her to him for one last deep kiss that seemed like it could go on forever.

“Promise me you’ll stay?” she asked, another yawn practically splitting her jaws.

“Go to sleep, Edie.” He settled the blankets around them and tucked her into his arms.

“I love you Harry.” As Edie drifted off to sleep, a niggling sad thought skittered through her mind. Harry had promised not to tie her up, but he hadn’t promised to stay.

Chapter Thirteen

Harry hovered over Edie at seven o’clock the next morning. Her alarm clock wasn’t set to go off until seven-thirty, still every fiber of Harry’s being wanted to touch her, love her, drive deep inside her and stay forever. Yet, he couldn’t shirk his responsibility to Will and Mitch. He had to find and free them from the mess he’d gotten them into when he’d discovered the tomb of Vashti. With a reassuring pat to the ill-fated stone in his pocket, he considered all the trouble one little black rock had produced and wished he’d never found it. He had to take it with him to avoid letting it fall into anyone else’s hands and to help him undo the curse plaguing himself and his friends.

In order to find them, he needed Edie to wish him to their location and possibly time, otherwise he would have left in the middle of the night, slipped out while Edie slept. Much as he wanted to, he couldn’t take her with him. His mission was too dangerous to bring her along. So he had to do something he really despised doing— more than tying her to the bedposts with the silk pajamas that still hung there.

He had to convince her he didn’t love her and didn’t want her with him. This would be the hardest thing he’d done in his life because he had committed the ultimate folly. In just a few short days Harry, the incurable adventurer, had fallen deeply, madly and irrevocably in love with the intelligent and passionate Edie Ragsdale.

Her courage, tenacity and red-haired beauty fired longing in his soul. When he was with her, he never felt more alive. How ironic that the person who owned his body should also be the one to own his heart. Fate or God’s will had played him into Edie’s hands, dragging Harry across eight decades to find her. And now he had to leave her behind.

Angelic in sleep, her pale skin framed by auburn curls, Edie was stunning. The sheet fell below her bare breasts, her soft rosy areolas shone smooth and full.

Harry’s mouth watered and his jeans grew uncomfortably tight as his cock strained against the fabric. With a gentle touch, he smoothed his fingertips over the curve of one plump circle.

The velvety nipple puckered and hardened into a tight, round bead and Edie rolled to her back, a moan escaping her lips. “Ummm, Harry?” Her hand patted the empty bed beside her.