Undressing Mr. Darcy Read Free Page A

his face, revealing dark square-cut sideburns on his clean-shaven skin.
    “Of—of course,” Vanessa said. “My aunt wouldn’t think of your taking a cab.”
    “The English call an elevator a ‘lift,’ Vanessa dear,” Aunt Ella said. “We’ll see you at the lift,” she said to him and then lowered her voice for Vanessa. “If only you’d agreed to travel with me to England, you would know these little things. But you never wanted to go. I still can’t fathom it.”
    True. She’d been to France, Germany, and Italy . . . but never had the desire to go to England. She wasn’t the type to watch the young royals on TV or buy tea towels that said
Keep Calm and Carry On
. And tea wasn’t her cup of tea. She liked coffee.
    One of the two women next to Julian piped up, handing Vanessa her phone over the rope. “Wait! Will you take a picture of us with him? He’s so amazing! We had the
best
time sitting next to him on that flight!”
    He smiled. “Everybody needs a little Mr. Darcy in their lives, don’t they?”
    The women laughed and agreed.
    Vanessa wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t want to take a picture of them with him. She’d taken thousands of pictures of clients before; why not now?
    “Smile,” Vanessa said and took the picture, then she took another one with her phone to add to the social media sites. This phase of the PR job had begun in earnest, and to make sure everything would work out well for him, she had taken this week off from her other clients, but the e-mails and texts from them persisted. The twenty-four/seven of running her own business never really allowed her time off. “Here, take a postcard with all of his appearances on it. Hope you can make one of them!” She handed a postcard to the gay guy, too.
    Vanessa hadn’t read
My Year as Mr. Darcy
yet. It sat on her e-reader along with a litany of other books she meant to read. Getting all her other clients’ work taken care of so she could take this time to focus on him had absorbed so many late nights and weekends. Thankfully, she didn’t have a boyfriend at the moment—that, too, took time.
    “Nice to meet you, Mr. Darcy.” The blond woman who’d asked for the photo waved and winked.
    Julian delivered a nod.
    The other woman fluffed her red hair. “We’ll see you at one of your signings! And, like, thanks for inspiring us to read Jane—Jane—”
    Vanessa smiled. “That would be Jane Austen.” She had to admit, though, it was cool that he mingled with the masses so easily, took his “Mr. Darcy” persona so seriously, and clearly made Austen converts out of a younger market than she’d been targeting. All this would make her job easier, at least.
    The young woman who had asked for the picture signaled with her hand for Julian to call her and, just for emphasis, she mouthed the words with her shiny lip-glossy lips: “Call me.”
    “Call you what?” He bowed.
    The women laughed at the joke.
    He rolled his leather trunks along behind him.
    No wonder it had taken him so long to get through customs! Vanessa made a mental note that getting from A to B might take a little longer with a man who attracted so much—attention. But that was good, right? What she wanted in a client, really.
    She wheeled Aunt Ella around toward the elevators, thankful that she wouldn’t have to struggle getting him to wear the Regency outfit for the cable TV interview. He seemed to be more than into his role.
    Once at the elevators, she kneeled down alongside her aunt, asking the usual questions before any car trip. “Do you need to go to the washroom? Are you hungry? Thirsty?” But her aunt only wanted to get Julian settled in the guest room of her Gold Coast condo.
    Vanessa took a moment on her phone to upload the photo of him with the two women and key in on all the social networking sites she’d set up for him:
    Mr. Darcy has landed. #JASNAagm #UndressingMrDarcy
    A male cleared his throat, and out of the corner of her eye a pair of black