Mission: Irresistible (27 page)

Inch by agonizing inch, she worked her way to his primal spot. When she finally arrived, she took firm hold, wrapping a hand around his throbbing shaft, while at the same time gently scratching his scrotum with her little finger.

He couldn’t stand it. Wouldn’t let things finish this way. He had to be inside her. Didn’t want to come without her.

“Come here,” he groaned and pulled her up to straddle his waist, his penis pulsating against her behind.

He kissed her again, building her up, raising the tension until they were both crazy for it. They thrashed against each other, breathing hard, trembling and tingling, their bodies filled with lust and passion and desire.

“Ride me,” he begged.

Cassie pulled her mouth from his, her long blonde hair trailing over his chest.

“Condom,” she gasped and splayed a palm against his chest. “We gotta have a condom. Hang on. I’ll be right back.”

He groaned and grasped his hair with both hands as she slid off him and padded away in the dark. Seconds later she came running back into the bedroom, fumbling with her purse, fingers grasping at the clasp.

“Ooh,” she wailed. “You’ve got me so charged up I can’t get it open.”

He propped himself up on an elbow. “Here, let me help.”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it.”

The clasp popped open and she dug around inside, pulling out lipstick and cash register receipts and ink pens. She excavated loose change and a set of car keys and a tin of cinnamon Altoids.

“I know I have a condom in here.”

“Try the zippered pocket,” Harrison said, amazed he could stay so calm.

“I never put anything in there.” She frowned, but slid the zipper open anyway. “Ooh, ooh.” She pursed her lips and her face lit up. “You were right. I feel something.”

Me too, babe; me too.

And for once, Harrison did not want to deny what he was feeling.

Then Cassie pulled a round, flat object from her purse.

“Hey!” Her nose crinkled. “This isn’t a condom.”

She held the ring up to get a better look at it in the light seeping from the bathroom, and Harrison recognized it instantly.

It was one-half of the magical brooch amulet.

“But I don’t understand. “Cassie ran a hand through her hair. “How did it get into my purse?”

Had she stolen it? Harrison immediately felt disloyal for the thought. How could he believe that about her after everything they’d just shared? There had to be another explanation. He knew in his heart of hearts that she was not a thief. Come what may, he was on Cassie’s side.

They turned on the overhead light and sat in the middle of the bed. Cassie put on her bathrobe, and Harrison tugged the sheet over his waist. With their ardor cooling, he felt suddenly vulnerable being so naked in front of her.

“I’m guessing Adam must have put it in your purse. You took it with you into the courtyard when you went to meet him, remember? Osiris found it in the bushes after the lights came back on at the museum.”

“That’s right,” she said.

“This is absolute proof that Adam is the mummy. That’s not Kiya’s half of the amulet. The markings on the rings are different.”

“So this is Solen’s half.” She turned it in her hand. “Adam must have had to put it in my purse before Kiya’s half was stolen.”

“I’m certain of it.”

“And I’ve been running around with it in my handbag all this time?”

“I’m willing to bet that’s why your place was ransacked and why we were followed to Clyde’s place.”

“I don’t understand how anyone knew I had it.”

“Maybe they didn’t. Maybe it was just a stab in the dark because you’d been helping Adam make arrangements for the exhibit.”

She met Harrison’s eyes. “But then where’s the other half?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.”

“We have to put Solen’s amulet in a safe place,” she said. “Right now.”

“Yes.”

“But where can we put it until morning? It’s eight o’clock at night, the banks are closed, and so is the museum. I’m not about to get Phyllis or Ahmose involved. I want this thing as far away from me as I can get it. It’s caused nothing but trouble.”

“Tom Grayfield has a safe. We can ask him to keep it for us until we can get it back to the museum in the morning. Where’s your phone? I’ll give him a call.”

“The battery on my cell needs charging. I’ll go get the cordless from the living room.”

“Never mind. I’ll come with you.” He threw back the covers and tried to act nonchalant as he slipped from her bed to search for his pants. He wasn’t accustomed to strutting around a lady’s apartment buck naked and having her appraising eye on him.

When they reached the living room, she picked her cordless phone from its docking station on the end table and passed it to Harrison.

“Hey,” she said. “My answering machine’s unplugged.”

“It must have happened when your place got ransacked.”

“No wonder I haven’t been able to check my messages. I thought I’d forgotten to turn it on.” Cassie plugged the machine in. The red message light winked.

“Look. I’ve got a message.” She checked the caller ID. “Blocked call. It came through at four-fifteen yesterday afternoon, when we were preparing for the party. Hold on. Let me check the message before you get on the phone.”

She hit the play button.

“Cassie.” The voice was low and urgent, but Harrison recognized it right away. “It’s Adam. Lost your cell number but luckily had your home number programmed in my speed dial.”

On the tape, Adam hesitated. In the background they could hear the roaring sound of an airplane taking off.

“Adam must have been at the airport when he called,” Cassie said.

“I’ve discovered something very disturbing,” Adam continued after the plane had passed over. “This is vitally important, so listen carefully. I’m being followed, and my life is in grave danger. I’ll be at the party wearing a mummy costume to give you the details. If something happens and I don’t get to see you, then you’ve got to get a message to my brother, Dr. Harrison Standish.”

Why had Adam called Cassie instead of him? Harrison wondered.

“Tell my brother the secret to the Minoan scroll is in the math. He’ll know what I’m talking about. Don’t say a word about this to anyone else. Harrison is the only one you can trust. Did you—”

The answering machine beeped and then fell silent. It had cut him off.

“Did he call back?” Harrison asked. “Was there another message?”

Cassie checked the machine and shook her head. “What was he talking about? What math?”

“I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.”

He went out to the Volvo, got the scroll from the glove compartment, and brought it back up to Cassie’s apartment. He spread it out on her coffee table atop the half-finished jigsaw puzzle of New York City.

The secret is in the math. The secret is in the math.

Harrison stared at the scroll, his fingers tracing the impenetrable hieroglyphics. Did his brother honestly expect him to decipher something no one else in history had ever been able to decode?

Adam had done it.

The secret is in the math?

What in the hell was he talking about? Harrison took the djed from his pocket and passed it from palm to palm. The electromagnetic properties helped him think.

Math had been the one subject Adam had excelled in over Harrison.

Okay. So? How did math help translate the scrolls?

He paced Cassie’s living room, hands clasped behind his back rubbing the djed, his thoughts totally absorbed by the task. Cassie sat curled up on the couch, her legs tucked underneath her. She looked so gorgeous he had to remind himself to keep his attention on the job at hand.

The secret is in the math.

What math? Solen’s birthday? Kiya’s birthday? The day of their deaths?

Dammit. He didn’t have time for parlor games.

Except it wasn’t a parlor game. Adam was in serious trouble over whatever he’d learned from deciphering the scroll.

Think.

The secret is in the math.

The Minoans were seafaring people and merchants. Most scholars believed their hieroglyphics were nothing more than ledgers and accounts.

Math.

Harrison clutched a handful of hair in desperation and started to push his glasses up on his nose before he remembered that Big Ray had busted them in the fight and his extra pair was in his locker at the museum.

Solen had been a Minoan scribe. Until he’d been sold into slavery and ended up in Egypt. Until Ramses IV had recognized his talents and sent him to learn Egyptian hieroglyphics. Solen would have acquired much new knowledge in the pharaoh’s house. He would have honed his skills, obtained new ways of communicating.

What if Solen had combined the old skills with the new? What if the scroll Adam found in Solen’s tomb was a hybrid of Minoan and Egyptian hieroglyphics? What if the scroll had been written by Solen himself?

The secret is in the math.

Numbers. Numerology. The stars and moons and planets. Astrology.

The sun.

In the time of Ramses IV, the Egyptians had worshiped the sun.

Yes, so what, big deal.

Math of the Sun: The Immortal Egypt.

The title popped into Harrison’s head. It was the name of a book Diana had given both him and Adam when they had graduated from high school.

“It’s the seminal work on how math affected religion in ancient Egypt,” his mother had said. “Read it.”

He’d found the work deadly boring and never looked at it after the initial attempt. But he still owned it. It was on the top shelf of the bookcase in his apartment.

The secret is in the math.

Could the answer be in that book?

But the book Diana had given them was about Egypt. This was a Minoan scroll in Minoan hieroglyphics.

And Solen had been a displaced Minoan in Egypt, learning the culture, absorbing the religious beliefs. It was worth a shot. He didn’t have anything else to go on.

“I think I might have a chance at translating this thing,” he told Cassie.

“Okay,” she said.

“The problem is that it could take me a long time, and even then I might not be able to translate it. Should I waste time even trying, or should we just be out there looking for Adam?”

“We don’t know where to look, and at least you do have a clue on how to translate the hieroglyphics. I think you should do it.”

“We also need to get the amulet locked up someplace safe before the people who were after Adam figure out we’ve got it and come after us. We already know they’re ruthless.”

“I could take the amulet to Tom Grayfield while you translate the scroll,” Cassie offered.

He liked the idea. She would be out of her apartment. Both she and the amulet would be safe with Tom. Then he could totally concentrate on unlocking the secret of Solen’s scroll, knowing Cassie was in good hands.

“I’ll call Tom,” he said, “and let him know what’s going on.”

While Cassie got dressed, Harrison called Tom’s cell phone number.

“Ambassador Grayfield’s phone,” Anthony Korba answered in his distinctive gravelly voice.

“Anthony. It’s Harrison. Am I disturbing you?”

“No, we’re on our way back from a meeting with the governor in Austin.”

“May I speak to Tom? It’s urgent.”

“But of course.”

Thirty seconds later Tom came on the line. “Harrison, what’s up?”

Quickly Harrison told him what had transpired, except he did not tell him about the scroll. It was pride that held him back. He would hate to admit defeat where Adam had succeeded if he failed to translate the hieroglyphics. “I need someone to look after Cassie while I take care of a few things. Can you keep her and Solen’s amulet safe for me?”

“You don’t even have to ask. I’m there,” Tom said. “We’re still an hour out of Fort Worth, but give me her address. We’ll drop by and pick her up on the way.”

“Thanks, Tom, I owe you big-time.”

Tom laughed. “We’ll work it out. See you later.”

Harrison cradled the receiver and looked up to see Cassie in the doorway, dressed in her Cadillac jeans and a sexy turquoise tank top. Her hair shone in the light. Even without his glasses he could see she was a knockout.

She crossed the room toward him and his heart careened into his chest. He took her hand and pressed the amulet into her palm. “Tom’s sending a car for you.”

“Thank you for looking out for me.” She curled her fingers around the amulet. “I promise to guard it with my life.”

CHAPTER 20

H
arrison’s heart was pumping hard and fast when he let himself into his apartment with the scroll tucked under his arm. Part of his erratic pulse was due to the excitement of trying to translate the scroll, but most of it was attributable to his changing relationship with Cassie.

He was having feelings he shouldn’t be having, and he didn’t know what to do about them. He had always protected his heart by disengaging from tender feelings. He analyzed his emotions. He did not wallow in them.

Except he was wallowing now, and he’d never felt anything this intense.

It’s just the thrill of the danger. Don’t worry about it now. Find that book. Translate the scroll. Figure out what had Adam running scared. Later. You can think about Cassie later.

He hurried into his office, spied the book he needed on the top shelf. He stood on his toes, stretching to reach it. It hit the floor with a solid
thunk
. He picked it up and opened it on his desk. Then carefully, reverently, he unrolled the scroll. Somewhere, among the old books and the arcane knowledge, he was determined to find the answers.

He was determined to find his brother.

And he was determined to shut down these inappropriate feelings for Cassie before they got completely out of hand.

Cassie was in the backseat of Tom Grayfield’s black stretch limo making small talk with the ambassador when her cell phone rang. Thinking it might be Harry, she smiled at Tom. “Do you mind if I take this call? I know it’s rude to talk on the cell phone when you’re having a conversation in person, but this might be important.”