by Linda Cajio
Nodding, Diana scrambled out of the car. She jammed the wool watch cap farther down over her ears and ran inside.
A short, wiry man stood inside the doorway. His arms were folded across his chest, his foot tapping impatiently.
She skidded to a halt in front of him. “I’m Diana Windsor, Angelica’s cousin—” she began.
“Who cares?” the man said caustically. He was obviously Raoul. “I assume you’re hiding whatever garbage you’ve done to your hair under that ridiculous hat.”
Before she could stop him, he yanked the watch cap from her head.
Raoul screamed in horror.
“But, Raoul, you’re the only one in the city who has the talent to pull her together,” Angelica was saying a short time later.
“The Bay Area,” Raoul corrected her haughtily as he peered at Diana’s reflection in the mirror.
“The West Coast,” Angelica almost purred, and winked at him.
“I want streaks,” Diana said stubbornly from her place in the swivel chair. “Sexy-looking streaks.”
“You see! She’s impossible,” Raoul yelled as Angelica moaned.
“I want streaks,” Diana repeated as forcefully as possible, ignoring her cousin’s strong grip on her shoulder.
“Raoul, surely you can give her streaks, or something,” Angelica said in a soothing voice. “After all, you’re a master craftsman. The best in the country.”
“Welllll …”
Diana kept her mouth shut. She knew a rescue when she saw one. By some miracle, her cousin had managed to calm down the temperamental hairstylist and wheedle him into agreeing to repair her hair. She was positive Angelica could pull this off too.
“After I put the red pigments back in the hair shafts,” he finally said, “I suppose I could weave the color around some of the already stripped hair. But it will be very difficult.…”
“The price is no problem,” Angelica said. “A complete make-over comes to—what?—about five hundred dollars?”
Diana gasped and bolted upright in the chair.
“And then there’s your bonus.…”
“Trudy! Barbara!” the little dictator suddenly shouted around the booth’s partition. “Ms. Windsor is getting the works!”
With a resigned sigh, Diana sank back down. For the price she was paying, Adam had better be more than stunned into speechlessness.
He’d better pass right out on the floor.
Eight
“Maybe I should go with you,” Angelica said as she straightened the clutter on the bathroom counter.
Diana shook her head. “No. I have to be the one to teach the brothers Roberts a much-needed lesson.” Especially one of them, she added to herself. “Well, do you think I look confident and sophisticated?”
Angelica laughed. “I think you’ll knock their socks off!”
“I can’t thank you enough for your help—”
Angelica waved a hand in dismissal. “I had a blast, but I’d better get going just in case they arrive early.” She gave Diana a hug. “Knock ’em dead, kid!”
After Angelica left, Diana sat in her living room and tried to calm her jumping stomach. She admitted she was just a little nervous about Adam’s reaction when he saw the new Diana. At least she didn’t look nervous. She still found it hard to believe the exotically glamorous woman she’d seen in her mirror was actually her!
When Raoul had said “the works,” he certainly hadn’t been kidding. The sarcastic hairstylist had miraculously brought her hair back to its natural color, while leaving threadlike dramatic blond streaks in it. Then he’d cut her hair to a manageable shoulder length and styled it off her forehead and face, rather like a lion’s mane.
But that had been only the beginning. Her face had been analyzed, mud-plastered, and creamed. Her eyebrows had been ruthlessly tamed with tweezers. Her nails had been sculpted an inch longer in a process that still mystified her. Rather than feeling as if the fake ends would pop off at any moment, she wondered how she would ever remove the thick, rosy-pink acrylic without resorting to dynamite. They’d shown her how to use makeup to emphasize her eyes and give herself model-perfect looks. She’d been forced to make up her face five times, until everyone was satisfied that she wouldn’t stab herself in the eye with the mascara brush. She’d then carted home a bag of “goodies” that had to have weighed at least ten pounds.
As she attempted to adjust nonexistent glasses on her nose, she chuckled. Her transformation hadn’t ended at the beauty salon. Yesterday she’d been fitted with contact lenses. And afterward she must have visited every department store and boutique in San Francisco—with Angelica’s help. Her cousin had insisted on taking a day off to accompany her. Diana was immensely grateful; she’d been terrified that she’d pick the wrong outfit and completely ruin the effect she’d wanted. Angelica, though, had had great advice. Angelica also had a streak of daring.
Diana looked down at her dress of shimmering, baby-pleated crepe. That streak of daring must run in the family, she thought.
The violet-blue bodice was sleeveless, with a low scoop neck, and ended in a point just below her belly button. The ankle-length skirt was a deep royal blue. Elliptical cutouts on either side of her waist bared a goodly portion of skin. The dress was daring, deceptively simple, and decidedly elegant. Flat diamond clusters with dripping diamond ropes hung from her ears, and thick white-gold bangles covered her wrists.
She’d never looked so good in her life, she decided. She was positive Adam would never again think of her as a helpless, naïve innocent who could be seduced into a business deal.
Hearing car tires crunch on the gravel driveway, she swallowed back a sudden tidal wave of butterflies and sternly told herself to smile—and just keep smiling. “When it comes to business, always keep ’em guessing, kid,” Angelica had said.
She crossed the room, keeping her steps slow and steady and sending heavenward a prayer that she wouldn’t teeter off her silver high-heeled sandals and break an ankle. Despite hours of practice, she still wasn’t completely at ease wearing them.
The doorbell rang, and she counted to ten before opening the front door.
“Good evening, Adam,” she said in a low voice.
Diana fought her laughter as Adam’s jaw dropped in astonishment. There was a long silence. Then he blinked once and made a noise as if to speak. Nothing, though, came out of his mouth. Instead he stared at her, his gaze traveling down her body and up … and down and up again. He focused on her face with each pass, as if trying to discern that the Diana he knew was really there.
His reaction was everything she’d hoped for—more, even—and she realized there was a subtle, very feminine power in reducing a man to stunned silence. But she sensed there was also a risk when the man’s power affected the woman. And Adam had always affected her that way. Instead of congratulating herself on a needed victory, she warned herself to keep all the detachment and distance possible with him.
She turned her attention to Adam’s brother, who was also staring in surprise.
“You must be Dan,” she said sweetly, and held out her hand to the younger, bespectacled version of Adam. “I’ve heard a great deal about you.”
Taking her hand, Dan smiled. “I was very sorry I missed meeting you at the reception last week.”
His hand caused no jolts or nervousness, and she realized that Dan was simply the catalyst for her game. Adam was her true opponent.
“But I’m very happy to finally meet you, Diana,” Dan went on, releasing her hand. “May I call you Diana?”
“Of course,” she said. “Would you like to come in for a drink before we go to the restaurant?”
“No!” Adam exclaimed, finally coming out of his trance.
She waited a moment for him to say something more. When nothing was forthcoming, she said, “Fine. I’ll just get my bag.” She turned to the entry table and picked up a tiny white-gold beaded clutch. “I’m ready.”
“Don’t you need a coat or someth
ing?” Adam asked. His eyes narrowed in pointed meaning as he stared at her dress.
“I don’t think so. It’s very warm out tonight,” she said, smiling.
“Get a coat.”
Dan suddenly laughed. “You don’t want to hide all that beauty under a coat, Adam.”
Diana tilted her head. “Why, thank you, Dan. What a nice compliment.”
Without waiting for another protest from Adam, she slipped out the door and shut it behind her. She activated her alarm, then turned and faced the men.
“I’ve been looking forward to this dinner ever since Adam called me this morning to arrange the final details. Shall we go?”
She smiled at Adam when he took her elbow, and, enjoying herself immensely, stepped between the brothers to enter the field of battle.
“Would you pass the lemon …”
As Adam looked at Diana to make the simple request, his voice trailed away. Cursing the speechless reaction he’d had every time he’d gazed at the absolutely stunning creature sitting beside him, he cleared his throat and tried again. “Please pass the lemon sauce, Diana.”
Smiling, she picked up the silver serving boat and handed it to him. He quickly turned away and began pouring more sauce over his lobster.
How, he wondered, was he supposed to get through dinner without constantly gawking at her? She was more beautiful than ever! It was only sheer luck that he’d managed not to crash his car on the drive from her house to L’Etoile restaurant in San Francisco. The more he’d tried to force himself not to look at her, the more his eyes had strayed—and stayed—of their own accord. Somehow, too, he had not given in to the overwhelming urge to carry her away and make every kind of love imaginable with her. Somehow. It hadn’t been easy to repress the urge to stake a thorough claim on Diana, especially as she now continued to draw the gaze of every man in the restaurant. Even his own brother’s eyes had briefly contained a gleam of primitive male interest, dammit!
Realizing that he hadn’t been paying attention to his actions and had drowned his lobster in nearly a pitcherful of lemon sauce, he cursed under his breath again. He set the pitcher on the snowy-white linen tablecloth. With his fork he scraped the excess off his food as unobtrusively as possible. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Dan and Diana, sitting across from each other, weren’t looking his way.
He was grateful that neither of them seemed to be aware of his sudden loss of social graces. He hoped their ignorance would continue, since he was obviously going to make an ass of himself the entire evening.
Dan took a sip of his champagne. “I’ve heard that Genesis Computers recruited you out of Berkeley in your sophomore year, Diana,” he said.
“Actually, they yanked me right after I finished my freshman year,” Diana replied. She daintily patted her mouth with a linen napkin and leaned back in her Louis Quinze chair.
Adam calmly decided he’d kill if he didn’t find those lush lips under his own before the night was gone.
“The companies were pretty desperate then for programmers,” she added, and smiled. “What year did they get you?”
“Pinnacle signed me in my freshman year, and I worked for them part-time until I graduated.” He sipped some more champagne. “I hope I never see another vacation condo in Hawaii again.”
Diana laughed, and Dan joined her. Adam wondered if he’d missed a joke somewhere, because he had no idea why vacation condominiums were so funny. His attention had been diverted by Diana’s exposed cleavage. Determined to pay attention to the conversation, he forced his gaze away from the voluptuous sight.
Dan continued. “I always preferred straight stock rather than the use of a condo whenever a company made an offer.”
“Yes,” Diana replied. “And of course generous royalties.”
“Ferraris were a nice inducement too.”
“I prefer Rolls-Royces.”
“A hefty salary never hurt.”
“A huge advance is better.”
“Management giving free rein on software development was always gratifying.”
Diana smiled a tiny smile. “Almost anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of computers could write his own ticket in those days, until the industry shake-out.”
Dan nodded. “Although the industry has stabilized, an innovative programmer or engineer is still considered a prized possession by a company.”
Adam shook his head, trying to sort through the confusing exchange. He’d grasped that they’d been talking about how they’d entered the computer industry, but there was an underlying current that he didn’t understand. It was as if each were trying to top the other with the offers they’d received in the past. Either that, or he was the straight man in a sophisticated repartee with Mr. Spock overtones.
Diana turned to him, her huge violet eyes alight with amusement. It was amazing how much sparkle had been hidden behind her glasses, he thought.
“I’m sorry, Adam. It was rude of Dan and me to reminisce about how fast the computer industry adopted several big-business perks.”
“I’m just pleased that you two are getting along,” he lied. Diana had more in common with his brother than she had with him, and the thought bothered him immensely. It was disconcerting, too, to admit Daniel wasn’t a scrawny kid anymore, but a man. A good-looking man. Adam sternly told himself that Dan might understand Diana’s livelihood, but only he had a more intimate understanding with her.
To his astonishment, Diana actually winked at his brother. “It surprises me that this one was never bitten by the computer bug, Dan.”
“I tried my damnedest to convert him, Diana. But he was always a bear without a good night’s sleep, and you know that’s when most programmers tend to do their best work.”
To Adam’s further astonishment, she turned back and winked at him. “I suppose it all depends on what you’re willing to lose sleep over. Right, Adam?”
“Exactly,” he drawled, wanting to establish his right of claim over Diana to everyone at the table.
“Has your company gone public yet, Dan?” she asked.
“Our goal is to take it on the stock exchange next year,” he said.
Surprised by Diana’s question, Adam interjected, “I didn’t know you knew anything about the stock market, Diana.”
She grinned. “We Rapunzels have to take a look out of the tower window every so often, Adam.”
“Rapunzel?” Dan asked.
She nodded. “Meeting Adam has made me realize just how long I’ve been locked away from the world—a bit like Rapunzel. Now the world is a new adventure game for me, and I fully intend to test every path possible.”
Adam glared at her while wondering just how literally she meant her last remark. As far as he was concerned, they would test every path together. The sooner Diana learned that, the better.
“I’m not sure I understand exactly what you mean.…” Dan said slowly.
She waved a hand. “I’m sure Adam will be glad to explain it to you later.”
Adam sure would, Adam thought. But first he’d “explain” it to Diana. Obviously she was in need of several more lessons.
Throughout the rest of the dinner, he forced himself to hold up his end of the conversation—and repeatedly reminded himself that he should be pleased Diana and Dan had established a friendly rapport. It was harder, though, to accept the growing realization that the beautiful and provocative Diana would scarcely be in need of a rescue tonight.
Ten minutes after they’d been served coffee and dessert, Adam decided dinner had gone on long enough. “Ready to go?” he asked.
He ignored Diana’s glance at her barely touched boysenberry parfait and motioned to the waiter for the check.
“There’s no rush, Adam.…” Dan began to protest.
“You told me you had an early business appointment tomorrow,” Adam said, pointedly raising his eyebrows.
Dan stared at him in bewilderment, then coughed. “Oh … ah … yes. I’d quite forgotten.”
“Wha
t a shame the evening has to end so soon,” Diana said, smiling at Dan.
A damn shame, Adam thought. It was a damn good thing his brother had taken the hint.
And a damn good thing Diana hadn’t.
A short while later, Diana smiled at Dan as he gallantly helped her back into the passenger seat of Adam’s Trans Am. They were parked in front of his hotel.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the evening,” Dan said. “Thank you both for keeping me company. I’m glad we finally met, Diana, and I hope we … talk again soon.”
“I’m sure we will,” she murmured demurely.
“I’ll give you a call before I leave tomorrow, Adam.”
“Good night, Daniel,” Adam said dismissingly, and shoved the stick shift into first gear.
Dan had barely closed the passenger door when the Trans Am shot away from the curb with a squeal of tires.
Diana settled back in the bucket seat and closed her eyes. She had taken her contacts out before they left the restaurant, since she was only allowed to wear them for a few hours. She had brought her glasses, but, not wanting to spoil her glamorous image, hadn’t put them on. She could see well enough to get around without bumping into anything, anyhow. She definitely wasn’t going to need rescuing tonight.
It had been a long evening, but a very successful one. She decided sophistication and confidence were downright easy—once you had the proper tools.
She was quite aware that her little exchange with Dan on past business perks had actually been a subtle bargaining between them about what she might accept for her game. It hadn’t mattered what he offered, but it had mattered very much that she pretend to be open to an offer from him. And she’d done it very coolly and smoothly, she decided. Well, maybe she’d gone a little too far with the Rolls-Royce, but what the heck. Angelica would have been proud of her.
Remembering how more than one man had gazed and nodded at her during the evening, Diana smiled. Looking and feeling terrific certainly had its unexpected benefits. Still, none of that attention had affected her the way Adam’s looks had. It had been difficult to ignore the melting sensation inside her, and it had been more difficult to maintain her composure whenever his gaze touched her.
