Dreams of Her Own Read Online Free PDF Page A

up,” Millie responded. Stepping back from the door, Millie let him in. “She’ll meet you in the nursery.”
    “Thanks.”
    He breezed past her, the scent of his soap or cologne, she didn’t know which, mixed with the hint of leather from his jacket, making her almost dizzy, he smelled so good. She had to concentrate on not inhaling like she’d just surfaced from the deep end of the pool, the fact that she couldn’t swim making her metaphor a bit absurd.
    She watched as he climbed the stairs, fascinated by the way his jacket bunched over the muscles of his back. And then there was the glute area, which his jeans hugged lovingly. Shaking her head at her own fancies, Millie forced herself back to the office to return to her work.
    She appreciated beauty, in all its forms. Painting, music, sculpture, and especially the written word. She was just appreciating the beauty of a fine male form, not unlike Michelangelo’s David . At least that was what she told herself, as she imagined Ian as naked as that famous statue. Jane and Rochester! Is it hot in here?
    No sooner had she settled back at the desk when Darcy called her to come up.
    Heaving a heavy sigh, Millie set the work aside yet again, and climbed the stairs to the second floor. When she entered the room to be renovated, Ian and Darcy were bent over the blueprints laid out on the bed, the only surface in the room large enough to accommodate them.
    “Come see the drawings,” Darcy said, her face beaming with excitement. She reached out and drew Millie between her and Ian.
    Ian glanced up at her, making her knees wobble and her heart stutter. This close, she got a good whiff of him, and he smelled like heaven . . . and leather. The heat of a flush engulfed her face. She’d once read that blood travels at about zero-point-seven miles per hour, meaning her flush took all of point five seconds to manifest itself.
    “This is where we’ll cut the door to the bathroom,” he was saying, “which will require us to move the shower/bath along this wall.”
    She tried to pay attention to the schematics, but all she could think about as she watched his fingers slide over the drawings as he pointed out details were how beautiful his hands were. Strong. Square. Capable. Not the pale hands of a man who spent his time in libraries researching dusty old tomes, like her father. But the hands of a man who clearly made his living with them. In other words, not the kind of man with whom she would have anything in common.
    Ian glanced up to gauge Darcy’s reaction and instead found himself looking into Millie’s face. She gnawed nervously on her bottom lip, drawing his eyes to her mouth. A mouth that featured a rosy, lush bottom lip.
    His eyes slid back to her face, where a faint blush had appeared. Jesus. Just a look was enough to make her blush?
    “I love it,” Darcy said. “What do you think, Millie?”
    “Um, yes. It’s—It will be very functional,” Millie stammered.
    “Millie, you okay?” Darcy asked. “You look a little flushed. I hope you’re not coming down with something.”
    As Ian gazed at Millie, the flush deepened.
    “I’m fine. I, uh, I just remembered, I need to call your publicist.” Millie spun on her heel, almost running into the doorjamb before he heard her practically sprint down the stairs.
    “Huh,” Darcy said as she stepped into the hall to watch her progress. “I wonder what’s got into her?”
    Besides a whole lot of strange? Ian rolled up the blueprints, securing them with a rubber band. “These are yours.”
    “Thank you.” Darcy took the blueprints from him. “When can you start?”
    “You don’t want to look them over with . . .?” He wasn’t sure what to say. The relationship between Millie and Darcy remained a mystery. Life partner? Housekeeper? Future nanny? Spinster sister?
    “My husband? Definitely. But he’ll defer to whatever I want,” she said with a shrug.
    A husband? Well, that solved some of the mystery. Sort