Playing with Fire (27 page)

She grinned, pleased she’d finally be finishing months of concentrated and painstaking work. With each game she had created, she had challenged herself and, she hoped, the future players, by using new and different devices. But this time she’d done something no one had ever done before. She’d added voices that replied to the players’ questions, and even gave hints when necessary. But she’d never been able to “draw” human features very well on the computer, so she’d hit upon the idea of using real faces for the program graphics.
The face for Sir Morbid, her hero, had eluded her, though … until now.

Suddenly she remembered she still hadn’t made contact with the man whose face she wanted to use. Groaning at her worse-than-usual absent-mindedness, she began to look around the crowds of people, trying to spot him again.

“Excuse me.” said a deep, gravelly voice.

Startled, Diana glanced up, then gaped in astonishment as she stared into the Face’s deep brown eyes.

The man stared back at her, his straight, nearly black brows drawn together in a frown. As she’d first noticed, he was not truly handsome, but was extremely virile. His face was lean, rugged. Up close, she could see he was in his thirties. There was a cleft in his chin and his nose had a little bump that marred its straightness, indicating it had once been broken. The smile lines at the comers of his eyes and bracketing his mouth stood out sharply against his tan. His brown hair, brushed back from his forehead, had red and gold highlights.

As Diana gazed at the Face, a potent sensation sizzled along her nerve endings, accompanied by an awareness she’d never before felt. She found her attention focusing on the man’s faintly musky scent, his tall, hard body under the three-piece beige suit, his fingers gently clasping the wineglass.…

“Do you know you’re sitting in the shrimp pâté?” he asked, jarring her from her mesmerized perusal.

“It keeps the reporters away,” she said, not moving. Now that she’d been reminded of what she was sitting on, she noticed the damp chill spreading
ever farther across her derriere. At the same time she felt a hot blush creeping up her neck. Of all the times to be caught in the shrimp! This really was beyond embarrassment, she thought. She decided the best way to save herself from her ridiculous situation was just to bluster her way through it. Besides, if she left to clean off her skirt, she might lose the man in the interim.

Politely she asked, “Why? Did you want some pâté?”

His face went blank for a moment; then he replied, “Maybe later.”

“Good.” She took a deep breath for courage and leaned closer to him. “Could I ask a favor of you? What I want isn’t difficult, but it will be tiring.”

“You want me to rescue you from the shrimp and carry you off into the ladies room, right?”

She chuckled. He even thought like a knight. “Forget the shrimp. What I need is you. It’s very important to me, and I promise to give you credit when it’s done. You’re perfect, absolutely perfect. I’ve been searching for you all over, and I was getting desperate, but now I’ve found you. I’ll pay, too. After all, it will take up several hours of your time. Just please say yes, because I don’t know what I’ll do if you say no.”

It was his turn to gape in astonishment at her.

“Please,” she repeated, smiling, hoping her rambling speech hadn’t repelled him. “I’ve just got to have your face.”

His face!

Adam Roberts shook his head in bewilderment. Whatever he’d been expecting her to ask of him, it
certainly wasn’t to borrow his face. In fact, he’d had the distinct impression she’d been asking for something entirely different. And that request would have been even more improbable than this one, considering what his brother Dan had told him about Diana Windsor.

According to Dan, who owned a software company, Diana Windsor was a brilliant, much-sought-after, yet hermitlike computer-games designer whom the media had dubbed Princess Di. Computer-software companies competed almost viciously to have a Diana Windsor game, as she had a reputation for producing best sellers. Dan claimed her “Space Pirates” had sold in the millions and was still in the top twenty on software charts after five years. Diana Windsor, it seemed, was the crown jewel of programmers.

Dan had also said she was called the Virgin Queen.

As Adam gazed at her sweet heart-shaped face and huge, guileless violet eyes, he silently cursed whoever had given her that particular nickname. Still, he had to admit there was something virginal about her. He’d been watching her ever since Dan had pointed her out among the reception guests. In her plain skirt and blouse, she stood out like a peahen among the expensively and lavishly dressed peacocks here. And she wasn’t beautiful. Other than her eyes, there was nothing striking or exotic about her features, although he readily admitted he did like the way her nose turned up at the end. He also liked the dimple that had appeared when she smiled.

She had an aura of innocence, in spite of the most spectacular female body he’d ever seen. Her
breasts were high and full, the rounded slopes beckoning to a man. Her waist was tiny, her stomach flat. Her hips flared dramatically, and her legs were shapely, her ankles trim. She had had her back to him at one point earlier, and he would have given a fortune to see her sable-brown hair let loose from its bun to tumble down the perfect line of her spine. More worldly females seemed to pale in comparison to her virginal allure, and he’d been drawn to her for that reason.

There was something very intriguing, too, about a woman blithely sitting in shrimp pâté while telling a man she wanted his face.

Naturally it was intriguing, he thought. It made one wonder whether she really was Diana Windsor or a psychiatric-ward escapee.

“Well, yes or no?” she asked.

No, Adam told himself. He was better off staying away from women who sat in shrimp and asked men for their faces. The whole business was crazy, and, besides, he still had no idea what she wanted with his face. But still …

“Yes,” he said, acknowledging that intrigue did win over common sense sometimes.

“Wonderful!” she exclaimed, smiling at him. “This is great! I finally have my Sir Morbid.”

“Sir Morbid?”

“That’s you.”

Before Adam could question her further, she rose from her squishy seat. He watched in amusement as half the shrimp pâté rose with her.

“Yuck,” she said, trying to see over her shoulder to access the damage. “I think I was better off staying put.”

“Probably,” he agreed, and reached for the serving knife next to the platter. “Shall I scrape?”

Diana hesitated for a moment, not sure what would be the least dumb thing to do right now. Then she realized the man was perfectly at ease with his suggestion. Sighing inwardly, she attempted to match his aplomb by giving him a lopsided grin. “Scrape away,” she said. “Please.”

He spread one hand across the back of her waist to keep her skirt steady, and Diana instantly felt the temperature in the room rise at least twenty degrees. She forced herself to stand as still as possible and ignore his almost intimate touch.

As he leaned forward and began removing the muck off her skirt, Adam realized she hadn’t allowed him to do the dirty work as a kind of male/female game playing. There had been too much amusement in her eyes when she’d said “please.” Sexually aware and interested women usually signaled something else, and Diana hadn’t.

Lord, he thought, what if she really and truly were a virgin?

“Well, Diana, you’ve done it again.”

Adam instantly stop scraping at the sound of a stranger’s voice. Straightening, he saw a man smiling smugly at Diana, who let out a loud groan.

“Jim Griegson! You
would
have to show up now,” she said in a disgusted tone, shaking her head.

“Problem?” Adam asked, coldly eyeing the man. Inwardly he was surprised at the sudden urge to protect his shrimp-sitting possible virgin.

“No problem,” Griegson replied, raising his eyebrows. He pointed to the hors d’oeuvres now littering the floor. “What is that stuff, anyway?”

“Shrimp pâté,” Diana said. “I suppose I’ll be reading about this in ‘The Last Byte.’ ”

Griegson laughed. “Definitely. Actually, Diana, rumor has it that you’re writing programs exclusively for the Omega.”

“I am?”

“That’s what the reporters who talked to you are saying. Bill Osmond was very excited to hear it too. Seems even he didn’t know anything about it.”

“But I never said anything like that to them!” Diana wailed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “They just shouted questions at me, pushed me into the shrimp pâté, then took off.”

“So that’s how it happened,” Adam murmured as he watched consternation pull her forehead into a frown. He turned to the other man. “Obviously they didn’t give her a chance to fully explain when they crowded around her earlier.”

“So I realize. Who are you?”

Adam almost laughed at Diana’s look of anticipation. He wondered if she was just realizing she’d never asked “Sir Morbid” his real name. “Adam Roberts.”

Diana smiled.

“Adam Roberts …” Griegson said musingly. “Are you the new production manager with Peach Computers?”

“Not me. I barely know where a computer’s ‘on’ switch is.” He returned Diana’s smile. “I’m an architect, and just a guest of a guest today. Who are you?”

Griegson raised his brows as if insulted by the question. “I’m Jim Griegson, and I write the ‘Last Byte’ column for
CompuWorld
magazine.”

Adam’s smile widened as Griegson then gave him a dismissive nod and turned back to Diana. “Well, you’d better remember whatever it was you didn’t say, Diana, because they’ll be back.”

She rolled her eyes. “Wonderful. I’ll just have to tell them it was all a mistake.”

Griegson wagged a finger at her. “They’ll never believe you didn’t accidentally spill the beans. After nine years in this business you really ought to know how to handle the press. You old college hackers fall apart once the companies let you loose on the world.”

“That’s very funny coming from an old hacker like you, Jim. So what do I say to them?”

He grinned. “You don’t have to tell them anything … if you give me the exclusive that you
will
be doing software for the Omega.”

“But I—”

“You’ll tell him nothing,” Adam broke in, deciding she’d been badgered enough by Griegson. This was probably how she’d gotten into trouble with the other reporters. In her naïveté she would no doubt say something she didn’t mean to—again. “What you will do, Ms. Windsor, is get the hell out of here. Then you don’t have to say anything at all to anybody.”

“But—”

“No buts.” He took off his suit jacket and draped it around her shoulders. It fell to the middle of her thighs. “There. No one will notice you’ve given new meaning to the term
doggie bag
. Let’s go.”

Taking her elbow, Adam began to lead her away from the table. Griegson blocked them.

“Here we go again,” Diana muttered to Adam.

“Diana,” Griegson began in a soothing voice,
“wait a minute. I really do want to help you. I can calm down the others and make sure they don’t start any false rumors. My column may contain occasional ‘rumors,’ but you know they’re only facts leaked by the companies themselves. All I’m asking in return for the favor is that you answer a few of my questions. It will be good publicity for you.”

Not giving Diana a chance to reply. Adam said, “I’ll bet many a sucker has heard that before. But it is up to Ms. Windsor to decide who she will—or won’t—talk to.”

“Who the hell are you? Her bodyguard?” Griegson asked indignantly.

“It certainly looks that way,” Diana said without rancor.

“And, as your new bodyguard, I suggest we get moving,” Adam said, noticing several reporters closing in on them from the left. “The rest of the press is heading back this way.”

“Bandits at two o’clock,” Diana said, pointing out two more on their right.

“Surrounded by the Indians!” Griegson said gleefully, and began laughing.

One glance at Diana’s worried face, and Adam knew she’d be scalped by those “Indians.” He wondered what Sir Morbid would do to rescue the princess from fire-breathing dragons, then realized there was only one answer to that question.

He pushed Diana away from him and “accidentally” bumped into Griegson. With a loud squawk Griegson tripped, and banged into the buffet table. The buffet table, in turn, shuddered backward several feet across the marble floor. Unfortunately several plates and glasses decided to stay
where they were. As they crashed on the floor, drawing everyone’s attention, Adam stepped over to Diana and took her arm again. Her mouth was open in an O of astonishment.

“Let’s go!” he ordered, pulling her away from Griegson.

Coming out of her shock, she half-ran with him past the rest of the surprised reporters and behind the buffet table to the nearest exit. In the ensuing commotion, nobody tried to stop them.

“Thank you,” Diana said breathlessly as the double steel doors banged shut behind them. “I think.”

“Believe me, you’re welcome,” Adam said, staring down the long, cinder-brick-lined corridor.

“I’m not very good with reporters,” she admitted. “And I have no idea where we are. I came in through the hotel lobby to the reception.”

Adam nodded, having used the same entrance. In the distance he could hear voices and the clatter of dishes. “This way sounds like the kitchen,” he said. “We ought to be able to get out through there.”

“But I really should say good-bye to a few people.”

He turned to her in shock. “After what I just went through to rescue you?”

Diana groaned at the idiotic words that had just emerged from her mouth. She’d only been thinking of several people with whom she hadn’t yet spoken. Somehow she wasn’t managing to look like a mature, normal woman with this man. Shrugging, she said, “I guess we did say our good-byes, didn’t we?”

“Damn straight we did.”

Adam knew he should have curbed the impatience in his voice, but an unreasonable anger
was building up inside him. He’d made a complete fool of himself in there by bumping the reporter into the buffet table. He’d never done anything like that before. His brother would probably disown him for humiliation by association. When Dan had asked him to come along with him today, Adam had only thought it would be interesting to see how a reception for a computer was conducted. If only he’d known what kind of trouble he’d be getting into.…