Rescuing Diana by Linda Cajio Page A

Easier said than done, she admitted as his arm seemed to burn her waist.
    As they walked to the elevators she congratulated herself on her choice of meeting place. The restaurant and bar were on the top floor of the hotel, overlooking Lake Merritt. If nothing else, they could talk about the terrific view.
    The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside.As she turned around to face forward, Diana almost gasped out loud as the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen rushed into the elevator just as the doors were closing. Light perfume filled the enclosed space. Diana completely forgot about Adam.
    “Morgan’s going to kill me,” the woman muttered as she pushed the already lighted button for the restaurant.
    Diana stared at the redhead’s pale yellow cocktail dress. Obviously expensive, the long-sleeved dress clung to the woman’s body as if it had been designed for it. Probably it had. It was barely held together by gold clasps at the shoulders, and the neckline draped impossibly low, exposing much of the woman’s cleavage. As Diana’s gaze drifted upward to the expertly made-up face, she noted that in spite of her comment, the woman looked gorgeous, confident, and … sophisticated.
    “That’s a beautiful dress,” Diana said to the woman. Normally she didn’t speak to people in elevators, but she just had to tell the woman how much she liked the dress.
    The woman turned and smiled, pleasure evident in her brown eyes. “Thank you. I hope my husband has the same reaction. Maybe then he won’t strangle me for being so late. The traffic over the Bay Bridge was terrible! That’s a pretty sweater you’re wearing. I love those silver snow-flake appliqués.”
    Diana thanked her, and decided that whoever the woman was, she was very nice. Then she became aware of Adam again and realized he hadn’t spoken a word since they’d entered the elevator. She glanced up to find him staring almost open-mouthedat the woman. She shifted her gaze back to the woman. She could understand Adam’s staring. After all, her own reaction had been the same. But was he attracted to her?
    She stiffened at the thought. The doors opened just then, and Adam suddenly came to life, whisking them both through the doors. Finally, he acknowledged the woman with a rather curt nod of his head.
    The woman smiled politely at him, then said to Diana, “It was nice of you to defy the elevator code of silence and speak to me. Those were probably the last kind words I’ll hear for the rest of the evening. Speaking of evenings, have a nice one yourselves. The hotel’s restaurant is supposed to be very good.” The woman’s smile turned into a mischievous grin. “Well, I’m off to make a grand entrance. My husband never has learned to cope with one of those.”
    The woman hurried away in the direction of a private reception room, and as she watched her go, Diana couldn’t imagine the woman’s husband even having the ability to speak after seeing that dress. Adam certainly hadn’t. It was even more depressing to admit that
she
hadn’t left him silently gawking as the redhead had.
    She forced a smile to her lips. She wasn’t about to let him know that his reaction to the woman had upset her in the least. “She was very beautiful, wasn’t she?”
    Adam grinned. “Yes, she was. But I know good fortune when I find it, princess.”
    More than good fortune, he thought as he smoothed his hand down the length of her spine.Diana, with her huge violet eyes and sexy naïveté, was much more beautiful than the redhead. He’d never had a woman obviously make herself look prettier because she thought it would please him. Diana had also given over a measure of trust to him last night, and he had never felt so honored in his life. Now he had to protect that vulnerable trust, nurture it. And he would. Women like Diana came along only once in a man’s lifetime—if they ever did. And if a man was very lucky, he’d recognize her. He
was
a very lucky