Rescuing Diana (6 page)

“I lose more weekends this way,” she muttered good-naturedly.

Deciding to take a short break, she rose from the chair and stretched her arms over her head. As her body creaked and protested, she acknowledged she
had
been working much too long. But she had finally picked the different expressions she wanted for her game and had actually begun the painting-over process. The game was nearly done.

And in the hour’s worth of continuous tape of Adam that she’d analyzed, she’d never once seen even a nuance of an expression that said he was anything more than a man playing knight for a day.

She groaned, remembering how many times she’d caught herself just staring at one of the pictures of his face, and how she’d had to force herself to think of him as work. But after what she’d seen—or rather hadn’t seen—she was more confused than ever about Adam. Was he involved in some scheme to get her to sell to Starlight, or wasn’t he? She’d been trained to think in a logical, sequential manner, and that training was useless for this. She just didn’t know how to approach the problem. If she ever saw him again, maybe she should just ask him … but would she believe a denial?

She groaned again, wishing she’d had more experience with men—

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” a metallic voice intoned, shattering the quiet of the workroom.
Klaxons blared and a calliope of dogs began barking viciously.

“Omigod!” Diana gasped, startled and deafened in the same moment.

The noise was her computer’s first alarm. She forced herself to calm down, drawing in a deep breath, but her heart still insisted on pounding wildly.

Probably an animal had tripped one of the sensors scattered on her property, she thought. Charlie, her household computer, would continue the klaxons and recorded barking dogs for five more minutes before shutting itself down. Its second alarm would be triggered if and when someone actually touched one of the doors or windows. Not only would the klaxons and dogs start again, but Charlie would also call the police. If it wasn’t a raccoon or a deer …

“Just stay calm and stay in the house!” she told herself, while swallowing back her fear.

Suddenly someone began pounding furiously on her glass doors, and she screamed.

“Diana! It’s me! Adam!”

“Oh, Lordy,” she muttered, placing her palms against her heaving chest in relief.

She raced over to Charlie and, fingers flying over the keys, turned off the alarm system before it could dial the police. Then she ran to the doors, flung the curtains back, and unlocked the glass panels.

Sliding the doors open, she glared at her intruder and asked, “Why didn’t you knock at the front door?”

“When did you get dogs?” Adam asked, glaring back as he stepped into the room.

“It’s just a recording,” she said, rubbing her
suddenly aching forehead. Only Adam, thank goodness, she thought.

“A recording! It sounded like the hounds of hell were after me!”

At his astonished expression, she began to giggle. “It’s supposed to scare off burglars, among other things.”

“It scared ten years off my life, woman!” he exclaimed.

“Which is what you deserve for leaving the frontdoor area,” she retorted indignantly. She couldn’t imagine why he was so annoyed, when
he
had been the one to set off the alarm.

His brown eyes narrowed, and he pointed a finger at her. “Which I would not have had to do if you had bothered to answer twenty minutes’ worth of pounding on that same door.”

Diana felt a hot flush scald her cheeks. She looked down at the floor and muttered, “I didn’t hear you.”

There was a silence, and she finally glanced up at him. His hands were on his hips and he was shaking his head.

“Just tell me one thing,” he said. “How did I set off the alarm? All I did was walk around the house to see if you were home.”

Becoming aware that this was
Adam
standing in front of her, Diana belatedly realized how awful she must look. She wished she could just press a button and magically change into Miss America. Since that was impossible, she decided the best thing to do was just act mature and ignore her appearance.

Edging away from him so she wouldn’t offend more than necessary, she said, “Only the front
drive and the door are cleared for visitors. There are light sensors everywhere else, and my computer automatically assumes anyone who triggers one is up to no good, so it sounds the first alarm. It can’t distinguish between animals and people. The barking-dogs recording usually scares off the animals—”

“I’ve got news for you, honey,” Adam interrupted, grinning. “People won’t see the inside of their bathrooms for days after hearing that klaxon either.”

“Adam!” she exclaimed. “Let’s just say I went a little crazy when I built the system.”

“A little! A jailbreak from Alcatraz couldn’t have set off that much noise.”

“Why are you here, Adam?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

He hesitated a moment before answering. “I have to go visit a site, and just thought I’d drop by first.”

Silently Adam cursed the lame excuse. It sounded like something a teenage boy would say to a girl he had a crush on, in the hope of sounding suave and nonchalant. At thirty-four he had no business acting like a teenager.

“Actually, I came to see you,” he admitted. “Though I really should go up to Richmond today. We’ve been asked to bid on an office complex near there. Hey, is that me?”

Having caught sight of the picture on the computer screen, he walked over to it, then stared in shock. Of course he’d seen pictures of himself before, but they always looked somewhat like the face he saw in the mirror every day. Painted over liberally, the human colors exaggerated, he now
looked like an overconfident, boorish … hero. There was no other word that better described the haloed burnished-gold locks, the jaw so square that it looked ready to crack, or the gleam literally bouncing off the blinding smile.

“It’s perfect,” Diana murmured lovingly as she looked over his shoulder.

“Perfect!” He turned and stared at her. “I look like an idiot!”

“Not you, Adam,” she corrected him. “Sir Morbid. And he looks exactly like the cartoon hero he is.”

“You never told me that!”

She raised her brows. “Well, what did you think a Sir Morbid was, anyway?”

“I didn’t think he’d be a clown!”

“Nobody’s going to recognize you from that, Adam. Trust me.”

He glanced back at the screen. He did have to admit that she’d cleverly changed his original features. Maybe she was right. He never looked like that. Nobody did.

“I don’t know what I expected,” he said in a grudging tone. “Just as long as it isn’t a caricature of what you think I am.”

She patted his shoulder. “I think you’re just a mild-mannered architect who grumbles at every rescue he makes.”

“I do
not
grumble,” he grumbled.

“Of course not.” She yawned, covering her open mouth with one hand. “I’m sorry. What time is it?”

“About one o’clock,” he replied, suddenly realizing how pale and tired she looked. She was still wearing the heavy sweater of the night before.
She’d probably had as much sleep as he had had—almost none. “How long have you been up working on this?”

“Actually, I haven’t been to bed yet,” she admitted. She glanced at the clutter on the worktable and groaned. “I hate coming off a hacker’s high.”

“Hacker’s high? What’s that?” he asked suspiciously.

“Soda, candy bars, and all night hacking in front of a computer until you get the bugs out of your program,” she explained. She leaned past him and began punching keys on the computer’s keyboard.

“Dan does that all the time,” Adam said, mildly surprised that there was actually a phrase for his brother’s penchant for staying up all night with a computer.

A whirring reached his ears, and he knew from his own limited experience with the machines that she was saving her program. Good, he thought. What Diana needed now was sleep, and it looked as though he’d been elected her keeper again.

She straightened, saying, “I really ought to finish this—”

“What you need is a long nap,” he interrupted. He pointed to the interior door. “Get moving.”

“Since when were you elected my boss?” she demanded, her eyes narrowing.

He took her arm and steered her in the direction of the hall door. “Since now. The vote was unanimous.”

“I didn’t get my ballot.”

“I voted for you.”

“I thought this was a democracy.”

“Ov course, ve haf a democracy,” he said in a heavy accent. “I am democracy.”

She sighed. “I’m too tired to start a revolution, commissar, but I have to reset the alarm after you leave.”

“I’ll reset it.”

She stopped on the threshold, nearly pulling her arm out of his grip. “You don’t know how to reset the alarm.”

“So tell me.”

She shook her head. “Sorry, there’s a password. Now, if you will—Hey!”

Deciding he’d had enough of words, Adam had lifted her in his arms. She grabbed at his shoulders to steady herself.

“If I’m not allowed to reset the alarm,” he said, “I’ll just have to stay and guard you while you sleep. But you’re going to bed now!”

“Don’t treat me like a child, Adam. I’m not one, you know.”

All too aware of the ripe feminine body he held, he gazed into her angry violet eyes. “Don’t tempt me
not
to treat you like a child, Diana.”

To his satisfaction, confusion replaced her anger. As he carried her through the house, he felt a sense of pride for holding onto his honor … and hers. After all, she barely knew him. He admitted, though, that it would be best to get her to her room as quickly as possible. Honor only stretched so far.

“Where’s your bedroom?” he asked as he climbed the stairs.

“Second door on the right.” She began to fidget. “Adam, I am capable of walking.”

He grinned. “Diana, let me enjoy one rescue, at least.”

She stopped squirming. “
This
is a rescue?”

“It beats the hell out of slaying dragons.”

She opened her mouth in obvious protest, but a yawn emerged instead.

“No matter what I say, you’re going to insist on carrying me, right?”

“Right.”

She yawned again. “Okay. I know when to quit,” she said as they reached the bedroom.

“Smart lady.”

He gently dumped her on the bed, removed her glasses, and rolled her over on her stomach.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, trying to sit up.

Not answering, he pushed her flat on the bed while he sat on the edge. Slowly he began to knead the soft flesh of her shoulders through her sweater. As he had suspected, her muscles were tight.

“You’ll go to sleep faster if you’re relaxed,” he said as she tensed under his hands.

She eyed him sourly over her shoulder. “Is this democracy in action again?”

“Best damn democratic dictatorship you’re ever going to have.”

She sighed. “I know I ought to throw you out, but I’m too tired. Besides, I have to admit the massage does feel good.”

As his hands coaxed her body into relaxing completely, she sighed again and closed her eyes. She knew she really should be ordering him to stop. This was dangerous ground. But his hands were working magic on her body, and she just couldn’t find the words to object to his ministrations. Languidly
she stretched in counterpoint to his massaging fingers.…

Adam cursed silently at the innocent wantonness of her movements. He told himself she was just enjoying the massage. After all, he hadn’t started it with anything more in mind than getting her to relax. And she was relaxing. He just wished she wouldn’t relax in quite that way.

Gazing fixedly at her dark hair spread across the pillow, he found himself thinking of what was under the sweater and jeans. And what the sensations would be if he were massaging her soft skin. His hands would knead her back first, finding the length of her spine, and curve of her bottom. Her legs would be silk, her belly taut satin. His hands would delight in the gentle weight of her breasts. Her nipples would be swollen peaks from his kisses.…

An almost inaudible snore disrupted his imaginings, and Adam blinked. His hands slowing to a stop, he refocused his gaze on Diana’s face. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was very even, her body completely still.

She was sound asleep.

“Damn!” he muttered in self-disgust.

He stretched out on the bed next to her and tucked his hands under his head. Diana never moved.

Staring at the ceiling, he admitted he was no ladies’ man. Nonetheless, a woman had never fallen asleep on him in the bedroom before. Of course Diana had been up all night working; she was exhausted. He knew that. It wasn’t exactly chivalrous to wish the princess hadn’t fallen asleep so fast.

Still, that thought didn’t help at all the deflated feeling he now had. Obviously his body had been expecting an entirely different ending to the massage. He smiled wryly. He’d known his honor was in trouble. Unfortunately Diana’s Sleeping Beauty routine had saved it. He had to admit, though, that their relationship was moving right along. Two days, and they were already in bed together.

His smile turned into a wide grin when he heard a second soft sound from the bed’s other occupant. He wondered if Diana knew she snored.

The strident ringing of a telephone penetrated Diana’s deep sleep. She automatically stretched out a hand to answer it.

“ ’lo?”

She dimly wondered how she could answer the telephone without actually picking up the receiver. And why was her voice two octaves lower than normal?

The sound of the receiver being replaced reached her barely functioning ears, and the strange voice said, “They hung up.”

Opening her eyes, she saw that everything seemed normal.

In the next moment she realized everything was quite unnormal. Adam was in bed with her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked in shock, scrambling off the mattress. She stared at him as she backed away from the bed until her bottom touched the oak bureau behind her.

He stood up and ran his hands through his
obviously sleep-tousled hair. “Diana, it’s okay. I’m the rescuer, remember?”