Rescuing Diana

by Linda Cajio

  “And in the meantime,” Dan added, “you sell the distribution rights to the game. Then Jim is in a lot more trouble than just breaking and entering, which is probably the worst he can be charged with now. Hold a press conference first thing Monday and publicly announce the sale. Also announce it on all the electronic bulletin boards. Maybe even give a little preview of the game—just enough to make it instantly recognizable. No bulletin-board systems operator will accept the game anonymously then.”

  “Do you still want the game?” Angelica asked him.

  “Of course I still want the game.”

  She held out her hand. “Give me a dollar. With the understanding that terms and further payment will be negotiated at a later date.”

  “Reasonable terms and reasonable payment,” Dan said with a grimace, pulling out his wallet.

  “Oh, we’ll be reasonable,” Angelica said sweetly as she took the dollar.

  “You’ll bleed me dry,” Dan grumbled, then said in awe, “A speaking adventure game. I’ll be damned!”

  Angelica held up the dollar. “We herein witness on this day the transfer of rights to Starlight Software to distribute the game in question. The contracts will be predated just to be safe, and let’s all pray we don’t have to perjure ourselves in court.”

  Everyone laughed. Except Adam.

  He nodded curtly at his brother and Angelica. “You two get started on whatever you have to do for this. Diana, though, is still vulnerable to a possible personal attack. I’ll be staying with her until the press conference. Then my responsibility in this is over.”

  Twelve

  Adam turned out the last of the living-room lights and settled on Diana’s white-and-gray-striped sofa. He sighed. This certainly wasn’t where he’d envisioned spending the first night of his weekend.

  Disgusted with his thoughts, he turned his mind instead to the events of the morning. Each remembered step of Diana’s “investigation” of him only brought more pain. And he welcomed it. He had been so damn honorable with her. He had known making love with her meant commitment, and he had been more than ready for that step. He had loved her.

  He still did.

  He knew he should feel nothing toward her now. Underneath that innocence was a first-class schemer, who had used him. It hurt even to admit that. He thought of how he’d been toweringly angry at her believing Angelica’s accusation. But while driving back to Oakland, he’d calmed himself enough to think. He had eventually realized how his brother’s machinations could have caused Diana’s confusion. So he’d dragged Dan back here to prove his innocence to her. And then he’d discovered the real truth.

  All this time she had thought he’d been playing her for a fool, and she had deliberately played him for one. And she’d done it damn well, he acknowledged, because he felt like the world’s biggest fool right now.

  There was only one disturbing question that continually found its way through his anger. Why had she made love with him the night before? Surely she hadn’t meant to go that far. Her inexperience had been obvious and genuine from the beginning. And yet she had given herself so freely and with such joy. With—

  Don’t be a fool again, he ordered his heart. Of course she didn’t love him. That didn’t make any sense at all, considering the revelations of the morning. But still …

  He lay down on his side, trying to get comfortable on his makeshift bed. He thought of the double bed upstairs and its beautiful single occupant, and cursed fervently. He sternly told himself that he only felt this one final responsibility to Diana. He refused to admit he hadn’t been able just to walk away this morning. Instead he reassured himself that she needed a protector one last time, and he’d only elected himself to the post since he’d been the one to first provoke Griegson.

  In a way, it was the final proof of his innocence and honor, he decided, grimacing. And Diana hadn’t protested. In fact, she hadn’t said much of anything to anybody, and least of all to him. All afternoon and evening she’d been hidden away with her computers, getting together a preview of the game for Monday’s press conference. Angelica and Dan had worked like fanatics to call the press and also settle the details of the agreement between Starlight and Diana. Adam scowled. All he’d done was revise the sketches for the hotel annex and wander around the house checking the locks. Tomorrow and Sunday didn’t look to be any different either. Still, Dan’s first telephone call had been to the magazine Griegson worked for. Word of the conference must have reached Griegson by now. Things might perk up anytime, Adam thought, smiling grimly. And he was very much looking forward to it.

  Thinking again of the excellent sleeping accommodations upstairs, he groaned.

  It was going to be a long weekend.

  The next evening Diana sighed, and listlessly pushed at the spaghetti on her plate. Her stomach churned at the idea of actually eating.

  “Are you planning to starve yourself?” Adam asked brusquely from across the small kitchen table.

  She shook her head and forced herself to take a bite of the dinner he’d made. She managed to swallow, although her stomach protested violently. Adam was right, she thought. She’d barely touched anything yesterday, and today had been worse.

  It was his unapproachable attitude that had caused her loss of appetite. He was entitled to punish her with his brooding and his coldness. It was the least that she deserved for the way she had hurt him. But how was she supposed to sit across the table from the man who would walk out of her life in two days, and be expected to eat too? That was asking too much of anybody.

  “The spaghetti’s delicious,” she finally said, smiling tremulously. “So is the sauce. What’s the recipe?”

  “Two large jars of SauceKing with onions,” he replied. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

  Praying his smile indicated a tiny easing of his anger, she risked a stronger one of her own. “I’ve used that brand and it never tasted this good.”

  “It’s all in the secret herbs,” he said, and took a bite of his own dinner.

  “Secret herbs?” Good Lord, she thought in amazement, he was actually talking to her. Even teasing her a little.

  He nodded. His gaze dropped to her breasts, hidden beneath a cotton shirt, then quickly refocused on her face.

  His silence continued, but Diana was satisfied. He had finally spoken to her—even if it was only for a moment—and without being forced by circumstances to do so. And if he’d talked to her once, then he’d talk to her again. Maybe, just maybe, he’d eventually be willing to hear her apology. It was hard to dismiss his looking at her breasts as a sign of renewed interest in her, but she didn’t hold out hope for anything more than his accepting her apology. To do so would be foolishness, and she knew it.

  To her surprise, her stomach growled a loud request for nourishment. Taking it as a second good sign, she dug into her spaghetti with gusto.

  It was almost two o’clock in the morning when Diana finally gave up on the idea of sleep. With a sigh, she propped the pillows behind her and sat up.

  She silently berated herself for disappearing into her workroom after dinner. At the time she had thought it wiser not to press her luck with Adam. Maybe if she had, though, he would have lost control of his tightly held anger. After he had finished yelling at her, they might have been able to reach some level of understanding.

  Diana laughed mirthlessly. Not pressing her luck was a very nice excuse for her full-scale retreat this evening. She figured she had a choice. She could continue the little forays of civility like the one at dinner, until the short time she had left with him was gone. Or, if she wanted to come to terms with him within the next twenty-four hours, she could do something drastic.

  As she rejected several different ideas, she realized she’d never be satisfied with just an “apology accepted” before his goodbye. She wanted him—in her life and in her bed. She realized, too, that she’d do anything to get and keep him there. Although her experience with men was limited to one, she sensed that th
e Adam Robertses of this world were few. And more the fool she’d be if she didn’t try her damnedest to get him back.

  A thought occurred to her, and she grinned. Actually. Adam would be a fool to let her get away. After all, she was sweet, innocent, financially independent, and completely in love with him. What more could a man ask for? The true facts were becoming clearer and clearer.

  Adam was definitely in need of a rescue.

  Diana tossed back the sheet and scrambled out of bed. As she headed for the bathroom, she decided the simplest and most dramatic way to rescue him from a life without her was to seduce him. She forced away her panic at the thought. Sophisticated women were gutsy, even in situations of great emotional risk. This would be the greatest emotional risk she’d ever endured, but she wouldn’t allow that to stop her. One had to risk everything to gain everything.

  Twenty minutes later, as she tiptoed out of her bedroom and down the dark hallway, Diana reminded herself to turn on a lamp once she was downstairs. Adam should at least see the seductive Diana, for goodness’ sake! She hoped the nightshirt with its bawdy saying was seductive enough. She hadn’t owned a nightgown in years. She really had to get a new wardrobe, with lots of feminine lingerie. Adam would probably like that.

  She froze, suddenly aware that someone was quietly climbing the stairs. The carpet runner muffled his footsteps, but they still sounded louder than pounding hammers to her frightened ears. Trying to calm herself, she realized that the person on the stairs had to have gone through the living room, where Adam was sleeping. But Adam wouldn’t have let Jim get this far, unless …

  “Adam!” she screamed.

  Then she screamed again when the person rushed the rest of the way up the stairs.

  “I’ve got him, Diana!” Adam shouted, slamming her back against the wall. “Call the police!”

  “I will … if you take … your arm … from my throat,” she managed to gasp out.

  The band of iron squeezing off her air supply instantly vanished, and she slumped in relief against the wall. The man was determined to take years off her life one way or another, she thought with irony.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, pulling her into a hard embrace. “Did the bastard hurt you?”

  “No, the bastard didn’t hurt me,” she said, winding her arms about his waist. He was only wearing a pair of briefs, and she buried her face against his furred chest. “You only scared me half to death coming up those stairs.”

  “You scared me half to death screaming like that,” he whispered, hugging her even more tightly against him. “We’d better get out of here and call—”

  “Adam,” she broke in, pushing slightly away from him to look at his face. “I screamed because I thought you were an intruder.”

  “But you were coming to get me.”

  “To rescue you.” She paused, then decided to take advantage of the opportunity to confess the truth. The whole truth. “For two days I’ve been walking around here like a little mouse, afraid to make you more angry with me than you already are. But I’m sick of this wall I’ve put between us, and I can’t stand it any longer. I’m sorry I was so suspicious of you in the beginning, and I’m sorry I’ve acted so stupidly about everything. And most of all I’m sorry I hurt you. But you need rescuing if you think I’m just going to let you walk out of my life on Monday! I love you, dammit, and no amount of righteous anger on your part will change that!”

  “I’m not angry with you,” he said calmly.

  “You’re not?” she exclaimed. She searched his eyes, but it was too dark to read the expression in them.

  His answer came when his mouth covered hers in a searing kiss. Her blood throbbed through her veins, and she clung to him, not quite believing he really was in her arms.

  “I love you, I love you,” she chanted as he strung tiny kisses down her neck.

  He raised his head. “I know. It took me a while to realize you never would have risked making love with me if you didn’t. Everything fell into place then. In spite of the things you thought I was capable of doing, you fell in love with me. It took an incredible amount of trust to act on that love. You opened yourself up for more hurt than your ‘investigation’ gave me. Of course, I’m not exactly crazy about being thought of as the dregs of the male species.”

  “Here comes the yelling,” she murmured.

  “You’re going to be spending quite some time making up for that, you know.”

  “I’ll be the best little maker-upper you’ve ever seen,” she promised, planting kisses across his chest. “In fact, I was about to start making it up to you before you so rudely interrupted me. I was coming downstairs to seduce you into forgiving me.”

  He chuckled. “I was coming upstairs to seduce you into loving me again, but I like your way better.”

  Pressing herself against him, she ran her hands over his back, then slid her fingers under the waistband of his briefs. “I can seduce you now.”

  He sucked in his breath as she skimmed her hands over his buttocks. “Be my guest.”

  She pulled him down to the hall floor and seduced him with gentle caresses. She seduced him with hot kisses and honest need.

  She seduced him with love.

  “No silk sheets,” she apologized sadly once they were settled in her bed.

  Adam burst into laughter. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

  “Probably not,” she admitted. “Do you suppose we’ll ever manage to get to a bed beforehand?”

  He lazily stroked her back. “Probably not. You’re too damn sexy.”

  And she was, he thought. She had been earthy and innocent and incredibly loving in her seduction of him. Without fail, she made him forget such gallantries as nice, soft beds for her comfort. Of course, this time he had been gallant enough to be on the bottom. It was a terrific sacrifice, and one that would be enthusiastically repeated many times in the future if he had his way.

  “Adam? Was I really sexy, or did I just look sexy?”

  “Sweetheart, that hallway was so dark I thought you were Griegson at first. Naturally, you’re a tad sexier than he is—ouch!”

  “A tad sexier?” she asked, her fingers poised at his waist to take another pinch.

  “You’re the sexiest creature in the world,” he exclaimed in a loud voice. “And I’m the luckiest man in the world, because you have bestowed your bounteous favors on humble me.”

  “You bet your bippy, Roberts.” She straddled him and bent down to kiss him. Laying her head on his chest delicious minutes later, she murmured, “I don’t think I was ever so scared in my life than when I thought I’d lost you.”

  “You didn’t. You couldn’t. I love you too much,” he assured her. “And I’m going to kill my brother for his part in this mess.”

  “It’s not all Dan’s fault. If I had only been open with you from the beginning, we could have straightened this out then.”

  “I gave that a lot of thought all evening, and I came to the conclusion that I would have needed a lot of convincing if I had been in your place.”

  “I never believed you were involved in the theft, Adam, and I told Angelica that. Just for a brief instant I … wondered. Mostly because Angelica’s reasoning fit in with what I’d first thought about you.”

  “It’s behind us now,” he said, holding her tightly. “Where it belongs. What do you think of children?”

  Her head snapped up. “Children?”

  “Sure. How many kids do you want after we get married? By the way, I’ll do the dishes and take out the trash if you’ll cook. I hate to cook.”

  To his shock and dismay, she began to cry.

  “Diana! Lord, I’m sorry. I rushed you again.…”

  “No, you didn’t,” she said, sniffling back her tears. “It’s just that I didn’t expect you to want to marry me.”

  “Of course I want to marry you. You don’t think I’m going to let all this seducing go to waste, do you?”

  She chuckled. “I guess I don
’t have very much experience in love.”

  He sighed. “Diana, if you had any more experience I’d be a dead man.”

  “I’ll try to be more careful of your aged condition—”

  He pulled her mouth down to his to stop her teasing. As her tongue mated with his, he happily decided he’d created a sex maniac from a shrimp-sitting virgin.

  What man could ask for more?

  “I hope to hell I never again have to cram two weeks’ worth of work into a weekend,” Dan said in a tired voice as the four of them sat around the kitchen table Sunday evening. The dinner dishes had been cleared away earlier. “Especially with this one,” he added, and pointed a thumb at Angelica, who scowled at him.

  “Is everything finally settled?” Adam asked in an obvious attempt to divert the conversation.

  As the other three talked, Diana felt a growing tension inside her. Her thief had said he would call this evening, and she’d jumped every time the phone rang. She had no idea why she should be so nervous. After all, she knew exactly what she was supposed to say. She hoped Jim had been scared away when his magazine had been informed about the conference, and now wouldn’t even call—

  The telephone rang.

  Diana whipped around and stared at the kitchen wall phone as it rang again.

  “Go ahead, sweetheart,” Adam said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Answer it.”

  Taking a deep breath, she rose from the chair and walked over to the telephone. She took another deep breath and picked up the receiver on its fourth ring.

  “Hello?” she asked, vaguely surprised that her voice sounded normal. Her hands were shaking.

  “Got the money?”

  She took a third calming breath and replied, “I’m not paying you. I’ve sold the game to Starlight Software, and you are now in violation of federal law. We will prosecute. Return the source codes and—”