“Hello?”
The called-out greeting, coming from the front of the house, interrupted Rachel’s examination of her appearance. Her client was here. And five minutes early! Rachel appreciated people who were punctual.
That being said, she knew she should have been in the front of the house to greet her client when she arrived instead of back here in the bedroom examining her appearance yet again.
Damn!
Hurrying out of the bedroom and hoping her doctor referral streak wasn’t about to come to an end, she hustled down the hall, turned the corner…
And came to a dead stop.
For the briefest of moments—which nonetheless felt like several minutes—Rachel wondered if she had her appointments mixed up. If today’s client wasn’t, in fact, a doctor. Because this wasn’t a doctor who was standing in the empty front room of the Havershams house.
It was a movie star.
But that couldn’t be. Rachel knew she didn’t have any movie star clients.
Which meant that this…vision of a woman was Dr. Ainsley Janowicz, her client.
And when did I start using words like “vision” to describe a woman?
But she couldn’t help it. Dr. Janowicz was stunning!
No, Dr. Janowicz was gorgeously stunning!
And suddenly, Rachel’s head was filled with very alarming thoughts. It was silly, really. It was her head, her brain…certainly she could expect to have a measure of control of what went on in there! But apparently, that was not the case. Appare
ntly, she was not allowed to prevent the images suddenly playing in her mind of…things to do with Dr. Janowicz.
Despite what was going on in her head, Rachel was nonetheless able to clock the appraising down-and-up glance her client gave her. It was so quick—just a flick of those sapphire-blue eyes. Down those eyes flicked from Rachel’s face to her feet before flicking right back up again. Quick as a flash but Rachel was sure that Dr. Janowicz noticed everything in between.
A flutter began in her chest.
Was she just checked out by this unbelievably attractive woman?
She told herself to stop. Dr. Janowicz, being a professional woman who was here on pretty serious business about a major life purchase, was probably just making sure the real estate agent she was entrusting with said major life purchase looked polished, competent and fit for the job.
Managing to ignore the fluttering in her chest and the alarming images in her mind, Rachel stepped forward, her hand outstretched.
“Dr. Janowicz?” she said. “Hi, I’m Rachel Hamill.”
After shaking hands, Dr. Janowicz said, “Good job pronouncing my name! Most new people screw it up.” And she gave Rachel the most devastating smile which made those damn flutters even stronger.
Laughing—and feeling herself blushing—Rachel said, “Well, I cheated. I didn’t want to screw it up and so last night I watched one of those ‘how to pronounce’ YouTube videos on it.”
“And they actually had Janowicz?”
“They did!” Rachel said. “I guess I’m not the only one with clients named that. Anyway, did you have any trouble finding the house, Doctor?”
“Oh my god, call me Ainsley, please!”
Ainsley…
Rachel had known her client’s first name was Ainsley, of course. But hearing it spoken by the woman herself, with that incredible soft voice of hers, transformed it somehow.
Was Rachel mistaken or was Ainsley the sexiest name on the planet?
“Nobody calls me Dr. Janowicz,” Ainsley went on, “except the people at the hospital and my father.”