Lady of Heaven (7 page)

Fox could have
sat there with her arm around his shoulders for the rest of his life.  He put a
hand up, capturing the hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. “Your daughter is
very gracious to allow me to do this, Mrs. Sherburn. It’s no trouble at all.”

Laura didn’t buy
it for a moment. “You will call me Laura,” she told him flatly, looking at her
daughter, who still had her cheek on the top of his head. “And as for you, it’s
getting late. I’m sure Dr. Henredon has to go to work in the morning.”

Morgan wasn’t
going to budge. “I can’t let him leave,” she told her mother. “I’ve chained him
to the chair and I don’t know where the key is.”

As Fox
snickered, Laura frowned at her daughter. “Let the man go home, Morgan,” she
lifted her eyebrows. “You and I have a busy day tomorrow as well. You need to
go to bed.”

“Actually,” Fox
spoke up, “I’m off tomorrow. This really is a fascinating piece of work and I’d
like to stay and finish it if I can.”

Laura appeared
dubious. “I don’t care if you stay, but don’t let Morgan force you.”

Fox squeezed
Morgan’s hand, still in his grip. “She’s not; I promise.”

Laura still
wasn’t convinced but didn’t argue. “Well,” she said slowly, her gaze moving
between the two. “If he gets too tired, we’ve got eleven bedrooms he can take
his pick from. Don’t let him drive home if he’s too sleepy.”

The last
sentence was directed at Morgan, who merely nodded. “I won’t, I promise.  He
can have the haunted bedroom.”

Fox lifted an
eyebrow, though he was grinning. “Thanks a bunch,” he said dryly.

Laura was back
to smiling now that everything was settled and bid them a good night with the
admonishment that Morgan not keep the man up all night.  Then she disappeared,
leaving Morgan still hugging Fox’s shoulder with her cheek on his head.  When
Morgan tried to move, he gripped her hand tightly so she couldn’t pull away.

“Where are you
going?” he asked quietly.

She grinned. “To
go lie back down on the couch.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t
sit here. I’ll be in your way.”

“Sitting on my
lap might be in my way, but you’re not in my way at all.”

She was silent a
moment. “Do you want me to stay?”

It was another
leading question but one that had brought all of their flirting to a head.
Finally, the question had been presented and it was up to Fox to respond. He
turned to look at her, the grin gone from his face but his black eyes blazing
with warmth and attraction.

“Haven’t I made
that obvious?”

Morgan gazed
steadily at him before a smile crossed her lips. “I’d say you’ve been flirting
pretty heavily with me since you showed up this afternoon at Bromley Cross.”

“Want me to
stop?”

“No.”

His grin was
back. “That’s good,” he pulled the hand he was still gripping to his lips and
kissed it gently. “Because I won’t. I’m a sucker for a woman with dimples.”

Morgan’s heart
began thumping so hard that it nearly burst through her ribs.  She couldn’t
breathe. Gazing into his obsidian-colored eyes, she finally burst into snorts.

“Are you like
this with all the girls, Dr. Henredon?” she asked frankly. “Because, quite
honestly, you’ve done nothing but charm the socks off of me since you showed up
this afternoon. Is that usual behavior with you or am I reading too much into
it?”

His dark eyes
glittered. “I’m not like this with all the girls. And my name is Fox.”

“So you’re
saying that you’re just like this with me?”

“Only women I
find blindingly beautiful, of which you are the only one.” He gazed at her,
pulling back a little. “If I’ve overstepped myself, I apologize.  Every time I
look at you, I just can’t help myself.”

She smiled
faintly. “You’re pretty cute yourself.”

He returned her
smile. “I’m glad you think so,” he said, suddenly feeling the urge to be
completely forthright.  The situation called for it. “Look, I’ll be honest; the
moment I saw you come into the museum, I thought you were the most beautiful
woman I’d ever seen.  I came out here today for a lot of reasons; I felt bad
about cutting our meeting so short, about not being able to help you, but I
also came because I wanted to help you if I could and I just felt drawn to see
you again.  Now, that may be completely out of line because even though you
said you weren’t married, surely you have a boyfriend and I’m sorry if I’m
crossing boundaries. But I just can’t help it.”

She was smiling
openly at him, touched by his honestly. “I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said
softly. “But you realize I live six thousand miles away, right?”

“I do.”

“So… what’s the
point of opening up to me like that? You just met me. You know I have to go
home.”

He nodded. “I’m
not sure what my point is,” he shook his head. “Just my luck I’d click with a
woman who lives half a world away.”

He seemed
depressed by the thought.  Truthfully, so did she. Morgan had no idea why she
did what she did in the next few seconds, only that it seemed like a good idea.
It might be her one and only chance.

Leaning forward,
she slanted her lips over his, delivering a warm, soft and titillating kiss
that had Fox audibly groaning within the first few moments. When she tried to
pull away, he wrapped his enormous arms around her and pulled her tightly
against him.

Morgan didn’t
resist; she let him hold her tightly, his tongue hotly invading her mouth.  She
invited him in, suckling his tongue, listening to him groan softly and feeling
him pull her closer.  She had been kissed many times in her thirty-one years by
many men, but never like this; there was something overwhelmingly virile and
heated about Fox’s embrace and wicked mouth. 

For a kiss she
had started, he was definitely taking the lead and loving every minute of it. 
Morgan wrapped her arms around his neck and simply held on while he went to
work. He was so big, she didn’t have much choice, but she frankly didn’t care.

Fox’s kisses
were hot and delicious and he wasn’t shy about sharing them. At one point in
the heat of passion he gave her a lovely hickey on her neck just below her left
ear.  Morgan felt the tingle-pain of it as he gently bit and suckled at the
same time, giggling to herself when she realized she was going to have a
beautiful love bite when all was said and done. She wondered what her mother
was going to say about it.  She hadn’t had a hickey in eighteen years.  She
wasn’t too sorry about getting this one.

But her warm,
delirious thoughts took a jolt when Fox’s big hand began to stroke the swell of
her left breast.  She suddenly put a hand on his fingers to still them, pulling
away from his seeking lips. He froze, meeting her gaze with a wide-eyed apologetic
look.  For a few moments, they just stared at each other; Fox was terrified he
had, in his lust, irrevocably offended her. But Morgan simply stared at him
before leaning forward to sensually peck him on the lips.

“Maybe I’d
better go back to the couch,” she murmured, running a finger along his lower
lip to wipe off the remnants of her pink lipstick. “You’ve got a papyrus to
translate.”

With that, she
climbed off his lap and wandered back to the couch, leaving Fox with a pounding
heart as he watched her go. He’d never in his life been so swept away with a
woman and he was still trying to wrap his mind around it. Morgan Sherburn, in
less than a day, had managed to get under his skin more than any other woman he
had ever known.  Her wit, beauty and pure sexuality had him reeling. He decided
at that moment that an airplane ride back to Los Angeles was not going to end
this. He was not going to let her go.

He smiled at her
as she sat back down on the couch and eventually lay down. Morgan returned his
smile, neither one of them saying a word. They didn’t have to. Silently, Fox
picked up his reading glasses and struggled to return his focus to the
papyrus.  He kept licking his lips, tasting her on them. When he glanced over
at her again just a few moments later, she was fast asleep.

He didn’t know
how long he stared at her before resuming his work.

***

Morgan awoke to
a gentle, warm kiss on her cheek.

“Wake up,
Beautiful,” Fox’s voice was soft.

Morgan gradually
came lucid, yawning as her eyes rolled up and fixed on Fox’s handsome face.  He
was bent over her, his big hand on her shoulder.  He smiled when their eyes
met.

“Hi,” he said
softly.

She smiled
sleepily, stretching. “Hi,” she whispered. “What time is it?”

He glanced at
his watch. “About five a.m.,” he murmured. “Get up; I’ve got something to show
you.”

Those few words
struck her and she blinked her eyes, forcing herself up from the couch. Fox
pulled on her arm to help her sit up.

“Did you find
something?” she yawned again, rubbing at her eyelids. “What is it?”

“Come over
here.”

He carefully
pulled her to her feet, helping her over to the table.  She was groggy,
struggling to wake up, but when she sat down and realized there was a steaming
cup of coffee in front of her, her brow furrowed.

“Is my mom up?”
she asked.

He sat down next
to her. “No,” he replied. “I made the coffee.”

She looked at
him, an incredulous smile on her face. “Do you cook, too?”

He met her
smile, aware that he was incredibly glad to be sitting next to her again. He
also realized something more; he couldn’t imagine anything greater than waking
up to her face every morning.  He didn’t know how or why, but in less than
twenty-four hours he had fallen in love with the woman. At least, he had fallen
in love what he knew of her. He was sure he would love the rest he didn’t even
know about yet.

“I do,” he said.
“I’ll prove it to you tonight when I make dinner for you.”

Her smile
broadened. “You really are a flirt, you know that?”

He laughed
softly. “I’m not flirting. I mean it.”

She yawned
again, giggling at him because he was smiling at her so intensely.  “Are you
asking me out on a date?”

He nodded,
tearing his gaze away to put his reading glasses back on. “That’s a start,” he
muttered, listening to her snort.  He focused on the copious notes in front of
him. “But we’ll talk about that later. For now, I thought you might like to
hear about this papyrus.”

She collected
the coffee and took a healthy sip. “Did you translate the entire thing?”

He nodded,
feeling her scoot up close to him and torn between loving the sensation of it
and the work spread before him.  He focused on the yellow legal pad with his
scribbled notes.

“I did,” he
said. “There really wasn’t that much text, but what text there was showed great
promise.  I also went through Fanny’s journal from start to finish.”

Morgan
interrupted him. “You went through both the papyrus and the journal in just one
night?” He nodded and she cut him off a second time. “You must be the fastest
reader on the planet. How did you do it so fast?”

He shrugged. “To
begin with, the papyrus only has six rows of hieroglyphs.” He pointed to the
papyrus, laid open in the middle of the table.  He gestured at the contents
with the eraser of the pencil. “There’s some writing along the base of the two
figures of Isis and Osiris as they face one another that is actually hieratic
writing, but for the most part, there really wasn’t a tremendous amount of
writing to decipher.  Secondly, this papyrus is written in a very archaic form
of hieroglyphics.  In fact, I’ve never seen such remote writings.”

“Remote?” she
repeated, trying to see what he was pointing at as he gestured at the faded
symbols. “What does that mean?”

“It means old,”
he told her, trying to figure out how to explain what he suspected. “Your
papyrus, material-wise, is archaic enough but the writing on it… well, it’s
just doesn’t match the manufacture date of the papyrus or the style in which
it’s written. It’s like…like somebody copied really old text onto this from
another source.”

“Another
source?” Morgan was confused. “Like what?”

He sat back,
took his glasses off and looked at her. “The closest thing I can equate it to
would be if Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom phase of Egyptian history came across
some kind of writing or tablets that were ancient even to them.  Maybe these
tablets were fading out, or breaking apart because they were so old, so they
took the script from the tablets and wrote it down on a papyrus to preserve the
message itself. Does that make sense?”

She nodded
slowly. “It does,” she looked at the fading papyrus in the dim light of the
dark, shadowed library. “It must have been an important message for them to do
that, don’t you think?”

He nodded.
“That’s just it,” he puffed his cheeks out and exhaled slowly. “Maybe I’m
punchy from having been up all night, but I think you were right.”