Trouble With Harry (3 page)

“Put it back.” She jabbed the stick into his side.

“You don’t understand.”

“Yes, I do. You’re trying to steal what belongs to the museum.” She poked him again. “Put it back.”

“Edie!” A voice echoed off the exposed beams.

The woman jerked back, her gaze darting from him to the end of the aisles.

“Look, I’m not here to start trouble.” Until he knew exactly what had happened, Harry didn’t want anyone else to know about him or the stone. “You have to believe me.”

“Why?” she whispered, her gaze darting toward the source of the voice.

Why, indeed? “Because, you’re the only one who knows I’m here and apparently I need your help.”

“Edie!” Mr. Baumgartner called out again.

Edie jerked around. “That’s my boss. I should turn you over to him.”

“But you won’t, will you?” he said, his voice soft and persuasive.

He sounded sultry and dangerously sexy, very much like the pirate in her daydream. And his wickedly black hair hung down to his shoulders, just as she’d envisioned. Shoulders so broad, she longed to run her hands across them to see if they were as hard as they looked.

“Edie!” The voice moved closer, blocked from view by several high rows of crates and boxes.

Damn! What should she do? The proper employee would report the naked stranger to her boss. But the man’s deep brown eyes pleaded with her. She’d seen similar tactics used by puppies in the pet store window. Her stomach knotted. Should she or shouldn’t she? Her boss was only a few steps away, and Edie couldn’t decide. “Oh, I wish you’d just go back to wherever you came.”

The floor beneath her trembled and a sudden gust of air lifted the hem of her skirt.

“Uh-oh,” the naked man said. “It’s happening again.” His body shimmered and dissolved into a transparent image. The apron drifted to the floor and the stone slipped from his fingers to land among the apron’s folds.

Before Edie’s unbelieving eyes, the man turned to smoke and was sucked into the blue-green bottle at the foot of the sarcophagus. Edie stared at the apron and back to the sarcophagus. What the hell? Had she been daydreaming again? Or had she slipped over the edge and gone into nutso lunatic land? She squeezed her eyelids closed, counted to four and opened them again. Still no man, only the apron on the floor.

Chapter Two

“Edie, where the hell are you?” Mr. Baumgartner’s voice was sharp and nasal. The nasal sound being more pronounced when he was highly irritated.

For a very brief moment, Edie stood in stunned silence, unwilling and unable to digest what had just occurred. When she pinched her arm through the white cotton of her blouse, her nerve endings sent pain messages to her brain. She wasn’t asleep, nor was she dreaming. A naked man couldn’t have disappeared before her eyes, could he?
Obviously, Edie Ragsdale, you’re suffering from terminal Virginitis
. Why else would she imagine handsome pirates everywhere?

“Hide the bottle and the stone,” the missing naked man called out.

Edie jumped. She knew she wouldn’t find him, but she darted a glance around the sarcophagus. Nope, he wasn’t there.

“Hide them, Edie,” a tiny voice called out.

“Edie, is that you? There are too damn many rows in this warehouse.” Mr. Baumgartner groused, still out of sight, but his footsteps indicated he was nearing the end of the rows and would be within view momentarily.

“Please, Edie,” the man hissed. “Hide the bottle and the stone.”

Edie snatched the gold-banded bottle out of the sarcophagus, scooped the apron, stone and all, from the floor and shoved them behind another stand of boxes. Just as Mr. Baumgartner stepped around the end of the row, she brushed her skirt down and tried to appear natural. “Mr. Baumgartner, what can I do for you?”

“Answer me when I call, for one.” Lyle Baumgartner strode straight for the sarcophagus. “Just got a call from a collector about this find.”

“You did?” Edie’s stomach churned. As hot as her cheeks burned, she knew her face had to be a case study in guilt. Could Mr. Baumgartner tell she had something to hide?

“She asked if there was a stone in the case. Have you seen anything resembling a stone?”

If she said yes, she’d have to produce the stone. If she said no, she’d be lying. “What stone?”

Mr. Baumgartner leaned over the ancient sarcophagus, his nose wrinkling. “Old dead bodies still smell like dead bodies. Disgusting. The woman said something about a stone in the shape of a two-headed dragon over the mummy’s head. Did you see anything like that?”

“The lid to the sarcophagus had a carving in the shape of a two-headed dragon. Does that help?” She wasn’t lying, exactly. But she sure felt like it. The tips of her ears burned. Had her father been standing in front of her, he’d have known immediately. Thank goodness, Mr. Baumgartner wasn’t quite as observant.

Edie shot a glance toward the stack of boxes concealing the stone and the talking bottle. Could this day get any more bizarre?

“I’m certain the lady meant a jewel or stone of some kind, although she only said stone. I’ll have to call her back for clarification. She seemed quite excited.”

The shipment hadn’t been in the warehouse more than a day, and someone was already inquiring on it. That stone must be more important than even Mr. Baumgartner knew. “What’s so special about the stone?”

“I don’t know, but it’s worth researching. In the meantime, make sure you review this mummy with a fine-tooth comb and catalog everything, down to the length of her fingernails.”

“Yes, sir.”

Mr. Baumgartner dusted his hands off. “Well, I don’t see anything to get excited about. Let me know if you find anything. You can reach me on my home phone.”

With that, her boss left. No “See ya tomorrow” or “Have a nice night”, just the usual departure without pleasantries.

She followed Mr. Baumgartner to the end of the row and watched him until he disappeared through the office door. With a sigh of relief, she turned back to fish the bottle and the stone out of the hiding place between boxes.

“Hey, naked man. Where did you go?” She stared down at the items in her hand and then around the empty warehouse.

“I’m in the bottle.”

Edie almost dropped the beautiful blue-green bottle. She’d seen him transform to smoke and disappear into it, but she didn’t want to believe it. “No really, come out where I can see you.”

“I don’t know how.”

She stared down into the bottle, but really couldn’t see anything. “Good grief. I covered for you. Hell, I practically lied to my boss. I wish you’d come out before I get really mad and call the police.”

The bottle shook in her hand, and a wisp of smoke grew into a six-foot high cloud. The naked man materialized next to her, no longer smoke, his body solid flesh and bone down to the musky male scent.

“Yow!” he yelled, shaking back his hair. “I was inside that bottle.” He stared at the colored glass in her hand. “Did you see that?”

“Yes, but I’m not believing it.” She touched his arm. The warmth of his flesh seeped through her fingertips, sending sparks along her nerve endings. Hell, she was standing within touching distance of a naked man. How often in her lifetime had she been this close to the opposite sex, in the flesh?

Try never.

With a shaking hand, she set the bottle back in the sarcophagus, afraid that if she didn’t, she’d drop the thing, shattering it into a million pieces. She clutched the apron and the stone to her chest like a shield.

Apparently unconcerned that he was once again standing buck naked in front of her, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Why do you let your boss talk to you that way?”

“Huh?” The question startled Edie. She hadn’t expected it, considering all the issues she had about smoking bottles and his naked self. Edie shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“You’re a smart woman. He should respect that.”

His words stung. How often had she told herself the same thing? Yet, she did nothing to change the situation. “Assuming you really are from the past, that’s a surprisingly unchauvenistic comment.”

“Unchauvenistic?”

Edie allowed a little grin to curve her lips. He was good playing the part of a man from the early twentieth century.

The naked man reached up and brushed a thumb across her mouth. “You should smile more often.”

Despite the roughness of his skin, the caress was gentle and to Edie’s hard-core virgin sensitivities, sensual.

Her breath caught and she fought to keep from leaning into his touch. If she wasn’t careful, she might actually touch
IT
.

After an involuntary glance downward, heat rose up her neck, into her cheeks and to the tips of her nose and ears. She shoved the apron into his arms. “Put this on while I go see if there’s something more substantial you can wear.”

Edie raced for the janitor’s closet. To hell with the fact she’d just left a complete stranger alone in the warehouse with millions of dollars of valuable artifacts. She had to get away from his overpowering maleness and her illogical reaction to him.

Edie ducked into the closet and flipped on the light switch. She slammed the door behind her and collapsed against it, sucking in air. After several moments, her cognitive skills returned, and she remembered she was in the janitor’s closet for a reason. To find something to cover all that bronzed and buff body, especially the part she wouldn’t let herself name. She just wanted
IT
covered so she wouldn’t constantly be aware she shouldn’t be looking
THERE
. But Lord, she’d never seen anything quite so…impressive.

Hanging on a metal hook was a faded, navy blue coverall with the name Ernie on it. She snatched it down and grabbed a pair of rubber boots leaning against the mop pail.

Items in hand, she had no other excuses to remain in the closet. She had to go out and face the naked man.

Good Lord, she had to find out what his name was. Calling him “the naked man”…well, she just didn’t feel comfortable. Okay, so she had to vacate the tight, safe confines of the janitor’s storage room. “On the count of three. One, two, three.” She couldn’t go back through the door. He was…too much.

“Edie? Are you okay? Are you going to come out of there?”

Blast! She couldn’t hide forever.

Edie fumbled for the door handle and shoved the coverall and boots out first. “I found these…” Holy cow, he filled her vision. Nope, a minute of sensory deprivation hadn’t dulled his impact to her senses. “Aren’t you going to get dressed?” Her voice squeaked and her cheeks heated as if they were ovens on broil. Could she be any more subtle? Perhaps she could drool a little for a more pronounced effect.

His gaze swept over her face. “I will, if you’d let me in that room to change.”

Mortified, she scurried out of the way, allowing him to enter the closet.

As he passed, she couldn’t help sneaking a peek at his tight, bare buttocks. Had they turned up the heat in the warehouse? “I don’t like lying to my boss,” she said through the metal door.

“Technically, you didn’t.”

“You heard what I said? Even from inside that bottle?”
Good Lord, the man had been in a bottle!
“How did you do that changing, shrinking thing? That…whatever you call it?”

“How’d I get in the bottle?” His voice was muffled by the door, but she could hear him clearly. “I’m not sure, but I think it has to do with that stone.”

“Oh yeah, the stone.” Edie ran back to the stack of boxes to retrieve the stone. The space stood empty. Her heart leapt into her throat. Then she remembered the stone had been safely tucked into the apron she’d shoved mindlessly at the naked man.

Images of skin and tight curly hair filled her head. Damn. A name—the naked man had told her his name, but she couldn’t remember, her brain was in a complete meltdown.

When she turned back to the closet door, the man stood framed in the doorway. He’d pushed his hair back from his face, exposing his angular features, but the coveralls barely fit, straining over his shoulders. The front gaped open because there wasn’t near enough material to cover his chest.

“Now what?” he asked.

Edie closed her drooping mouth with a snap. “You know my name, but I’m sorry, I missed yours in the confusion.”

“Harrington Taylor the third. But my friends call me Harry.” He shrugged. “Or at least they did.”

Even his shrug made her heart skitter past a few beats. What was it about him? “Harry.” His name rolled off her tongue. “Harry, assuming all you said is true, and I’m not saying I’m convinced, you can’t stay here.”

“I’ve got nowhere else to go.” Harry’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “My life is back in 1924.”

“That’s not entirely convenient.” Edie paced in front of him, pulse racing, edging toward panic. What did she do with him now? He was making a considerable dent in her normally ordered existence and she didn’t like that one bit. It made her feel off balance. And why was that? She didn’t exactly fear the man, she just couldn’t control her body’s reactions when he was around.

He raised his hands. “I didn’t make the rules.”

“We need to get you out of here.” But what could she do with him? A few unwarranted ideas sprang to mind involving the hot, passionate sex Edie had only read or dreamed about. “The security guard will come through on his rounds in less than an hour.”

“I could manage to hide in here. There’s enough stuff here to conceal an army.”

“That would be just fine, except Carlos brings a dog with him.”

“I could find a park bench outside for the night?” His face wrinkled in distaste. “Although, it might be a little too cold for a man fresh from the desert.” He used that puppy-in-the-window expression again.

Edie knew she was a fool, but she couldn’t think of anything else. “You can come to my apartment.” There she’d gone and done it. “But only until I can figure out what to do with you.” The statement gave her another slew of ideas a lonely virgin shouldn’t be thinking.

“No, I couldn’t.” He shook his head. “That would be inappropriate. What would your family think?”

Her father would be livid and he’d know within minutes. “I live alone.”

“What would your neighbors think?”