Ready & Willing Read Online Free PDF

anyone Nathaniel might need to call or do business with would probably be breaking for lunch, anyway. Plus, Irene said Ms. Magill promised she would only take a few minutes of his time. What cinched it, though, was that he caught a glimpse of Audrey Magill standing just beyond the door and decided he could spare more than a few minutes for the woman, because she was, in a word, stunning.
    So stunning, that he was momentarily taken aback when she strode into his office. The reaction surprised him, since she wasn’t what he would have normally called beautiful—at least, not by his own definition of beautiful. She was too wholesome-looking by his standards, with her fresh-scrubbed face and hair pulled into a simple ponytail and attire that was better suited to a Sunday brunch than any kind of corporate affair, something that indicated she wasn’t here on business. Which was just fine with Nathaniel, since a woman who looked like Audrey Magill didn’t exactly inspire businesslike responses in a man.
    Even though she wasn’t conventionally beautiful, she was stunning. Had he mentioned that? The ponytail might have been simple, but it was nearly as thick as her wrist, holding razor straight, ink black hair that spilled to almost the middle of her back. It was the kind of hair that made a man itch to unfasten it, so he could thread his fingers through the silky tresses . . . and then splay them across the pillow on the other side of the bed. And her eyes. Good God. They were huge and abundantly lashed, as blue and clear as a Caribbean bay. She was slim but curvy, her generous hips and breasts only enhanced by the straight khaki skirt and pale blue T-shirt she was wearing. Her only jewelry was a gold chain that disappeared beneath the scooped neck of her shirt and gold hoops in her ears.
    Not only was she not conventionally beautiful, but she wasn’t the sort of woman to whom Nathaniel was normally attracted, either. He preferred women who went out of their way to play up their attributes, the kind who took hours to put on their makeup and fix their hair and choose their outfit for a date—provided they were ready when he got there and didn’t make him wait. Women who wore lots of jewelry that swayed and glittered, and who chose outrageously feminine clothing meant to exaggerate their, ah, assets. Where a lot of men felt cheated by something like a Wonderbra, Nathaniel kind of liked them—though, naturally, he couldn’t wait to get a woman out of one.
    Wholesome-looking Audrey Magill, however, didn’t seem like the sort of woman who would go for a Wonderbra. Which meant whatever she was packing, it was entirely hers.
    Hell, yes, he could spare a few minutes for her. He even straightened his sapphire necktie and smoothed a few non-existent wrinkles out of his charcoal suit as he covered the few steps necessary to greet her.
    “I might as well get right to my point, Mr. Summerfield,” she said after shaking his hand. “I know you must be very busy.”
    Her handshake surprised him, too, as it was solid and masculine, the sort of handshake he didn’t normally receive from a woman, even those who worked at the same corporate level he did. She took the seat he indicated on the other side of his desk, seeming in no way intimidated by his office environment, which he’d deliberately decorated in Early American Despot specifically to intimidate people. She just sat up straighter in the leather wing chair and met his gaze evenly over his expansive mahogany desk.
    Then she had to go and ruin everything by asking him, “Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Summerfield?”
    Nathaniel hoped his feelings didn’t show on his face. Because at that moment, what he mostly believed was that he should pick up the phone and call security, because stunning or not, he didn’t have time for a nut job. Hopefully that didn’t show in his voice, however, when he replied, “Ah . . . ghosts, Ms. Magill?”
    She nodded. And said, “It’s Mrs.