The Waiting Game by Unknown Page B

didn’t you?" he muttered, leaning his head back against the chair. "Who or what are you hunting?"
    Whoever Kincaid’s quarry was, Adrian didn’t have any doubts about the outcome. Lowell had been out of the business for a long time, but he’d once been the best there was at what he did. He’d get his man.
    In the meantime, Adrian knew exactly what was required of himself. Kincaid had assigned him the task in that phone message. His responsibility was to take care of Sara.
    "We also serve who only sit and wait," he paraphrased, mockingly solemn.
    The fact that someone had actually approached Sara that afternoon was eating at him, fueling his unease and gnawing at his mind. His instincts were to run with her, take her as far away as he could, and hide her well. But when he left emotion out of the process and concentrated on logic, he knew she was safest here in the house. The alarm system Kincaid had helped him install was good. The best. The place was a walled fortress. Actually, when he thought about it, most of his life had become a walled fortress. Strong, secure, protected, with everything under control.
    Until he’d walked into his den the other evening and found the lady with the crystal apple standing in the filtered gold of a setting sun.
    He really should be trying to get some sleep, Adrian thought. He wasn’t doing himself any good sitting here fantasizing about a woman with an apple. And there was no need to stay on guard all night in this chair. There would be ample warning if anyone tried to get to Sara while she was here. But somehow the thought of going off to a lonely bed was depressing. It didn’t make any sense, because he was used to a lonely bed. But tonight the prospect bothered him.
    Forcing his mind away from the tantalizing image of Sara undressing for bed down the hall, Adrian wondered just where Lowell Kincaid was at the moment. The older man had dropped out of sight and would probably stay out of sight until it was all over. Good, logical strategy. In the meantime all Adrian could do was wait and keep watch over the woman in his care.
    Patience, he had told her that afternoon, was of great value. He wasn’t sure she had believed him. The thought edged his mouth with a wry flicker of amusement. The lady did things with a certain impulsive flair. He could see why she probably wasn’t cut out for the corporate world in the long run. She didn’t have the patience for elaborate strategy and she didn’t show any interest in restraining her
    impetuousness. In the short time he’d known her she’d enthusiastically broken into two private houses, comprehended and been a little shaken by the gut-level action of Phantom, nearly gotten herself abducted, and fixed him a celebration dinner with all the excitement of a woman who genuinely cared about his success. She’d topped that off by serenely taking herself off to bed as though she were simply a visiting relative rather than a woman who’d been subtly tantalizing him all evening.
    Yes, he could see why she probably couldn’t have gotten too much further in the corporate world. They liked flair in that world, it was true, but they liked it coupled with a certain amount of predictability and internalized respect for the corporate image. Adrian had a strong hunch Sara didn’t have any such thing as an internalized respect for that type of image. Just as she probably hadn’t had any for the academic image or the artistic image. She would play at maintaining the corporate facade the same way she played at being a yuppie. After a while, upper management would probably have figured out that she wasn’t one hundred percent committed to their world.
    Apparently she had figured it out first and decided to make a graceful exit.
    The same kind of exit she’d made tonight, Adrian concluded grimly. Did she know he was sitting here, his body in a state of semiarousal while his mind tried to anticipate the next move the guy outside in the shadows might