Dream Man Read Free Page B

suffered, exacerbated by her failure to respond to him as women always did. Some devil in him demanded that he break through that cool reserve of hers, make those smoky eyes flare with flames of excitement. Ah, yes. Good, old-fashioned lust. There was nothing to do but wait it out. It would go away in time, especially if he didn’t see her again. He remembered once when he was in college he’d gotten so dizzy over the sight and scent of a flight attendant that he’d wanted to ask for oxygen. At least the experience had proven to him that he was capable of going off the deep end momentarily, but that it would also pass. So he said what he’d come to say before he’d had it wiped from his mind by the sight of her tall slender body and slate-gray eyes.
    â€œYou can start by telling me your first name.”
    â€œJeanie.” She gave a tiny shrug, more impressed than she liked to admit when he didn’t automatically respond with the usual, “Jeanie with the light brown hair.” It amazed her how that phrase from a long-ago song hung on in the modern vernacular.
    â€œI’d like to know more about the job that requires a mature man who likes children, country life, and classical music, Jeanie.”
    To his surprise, her cool facade broke for an instant, and her eyes flared not with excitement or pleasure but with that hint of fear he’d seen before.
    She stared at him, reared back slightly in her chair, and said sharply, “No! Absolutely not.”

Chapter Two
    J EANIE FELT HER MIND go blank for a moment, then fill with tangled thoughts. She had known. On the most basic of levels, she had known the moment she saw him that he had come to her for one reason only, weeks late, maybe, but who was she to argue with destiny? Except that now she found she didn’t want him to know she had placed that ad personally, or why. What held her back she couldn’t say, but maybe it was because he was so right it terrified her. But she realized Sharon would never be able to handle a man like him, not in her present state of mind. He was too strong, too overwhelming. Too … male.
    â€œNo!” she said, shocked to hear the incipient panic in her voice. She shook her head to clear it, forced the fear down, and brought herself under tight control. “I’m sorry,” she said pleasantly, but firmly, keeping her gaze on his face, “but that job isn’t being offered any longer.”
    â€œOh?” His brows lifted. “It came over the ExecNet this morning on my brother’s fax machine.”
    â€œIt did?” Her shock was evident again, but she controlled it even more quickly than before. “If so, then it was sent out by mistake.” She pulled a wry face and sighed dramatically, rolling those gorgeous gray eyes heavenward.
    He smiled. “Cindy?”
    With a small laugh, she nodded. “I guess so. Poor Cindy.”
    â€œWhy not poor you? You have to put up with her.”
    She gave him a level stare. “I do not have to put up with her. I choose to. If you had ever been a young woman looking for office work, you’d understand why. So many ads read, Junior office clerk wanted. Must have at least two years’ experience. And then they offer a rate of pay so insultingly low that no male would ever be expected to live on it. I used to wonder how and where young women were supposed to gain experience if no one would hire them until they had some. So I take them on right out of school and train them whenever I get a chance and encourage my clients to do the same.”
    He smiled and reached across the table to touch the back of her left hand, drawing a blunt, white nail from the base of her ring finger to the tip. “You’re a nice woman, Jeanie Leslie.”
    She withdrew her hand slowly and looked at him, wondering why she was so fierce in her determination to keep Max and Sharon apart. She didn’t usually feel quite so strongly