Man of Her Dreams by Debra Webb (good ebook reader txt) 📕

of protection. The officer in charge hadn’t asked about her friend and she hadn’t offered any information. Aidan had said that he’d been involved on some level with the ongoing case. Detective Willis was likely well aware of Aidan’s presence in her life. Still, she’d be sure to mention it later.

She was very lucky to have a man like him on her side.

She unlocked the front door and disarmed the home’s security system. The vaguely unpleasant smell of disuse assailed her nostrils. Though she kept the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter, there was still a lingering staleness. The lack of steam rising from showers…the varied and distinct aromas that accompanied the preparation of family meals…perfumes and body sprays. All of those things were missing, leaving the house to smell like an unused closet rather than a home where life happened. Those same old sentimental feelings tugged at her emotions. When would she stop missing them so?

Aidan closed and locked the door. “Very nice,” he commented as he surveyed the soaring entry hall.

She considered the massive curving staircase and the towering second-story landing and wondered if his childhood home or homes had been similar to this. Her parents had not been exactly wealthy, comfortable more than anything. They were older when they’d elected to adopt, their finances in good order with wise investments. When they’d died, there hadn’t been that much money to inherit, but there was the property, which was more than enough. She would trade it in a heartbeat to have them back in her life.

Darby tossed her purse onto the bench part of the antique coat rack stationed a few feet from the door. “Well, let’s get to it.”

She and Aidan had discussed how best for her to look into her past. He had offered to go through his own sources but she had declined, feeling more comfortable without the involvement of others. What she didn’t tell him was her fear of putting her name out there where the wrong people might see it or somehow have access. She’d never really bothered to dig through the family files, not in depth anyway. All the estate documents had been filed appropriately, not requiring her to do any real searching. Since the accident she’d had no reason to think about her past…not really.

Not until now, anyway.

She would start with her father’s study.

The richly paneled, masculinely decorated room drew a smile to her lips. Her father had worked at home most of the time, choosing to be with his family as much as possible. His position as board member for one of Louisiana’s premier development companies had allowed him that luxury.

She settled into his big leather chair and started with the files in his desk, then moved to the credenza and eventually on to the file cabinets that lined one wall. Drawer after drawer, folder after folder. She found nothing related to her adoption.

The file detailing her trips to the doctor and dentist. All routine checkups, never an illness or even a cavity. Eye exams—20/20 vision. Nothing out of the ordinary.

She looked up and found Aidan enthralled with family photo albums. Her mother had meticulously kept the matching albums up to date, each labeled with the years they contained. Darby was five years behind…pictures tucked in drawers or wherever they happened to land after she picked them up from the One-Hour Photo.

Her gaze dropped back to the medical file in her hand. “Do you realize I’ve never been sick a day in my life? Not once. And only one broken bone…not the first stitch.”

He looked at her over the top of the album currently holding his attention. “That would please most people.”

She tucked the folder back into place and closed the final drawer, disgusted with her search. “I’m not complaining, it just seems odd.”

He shrugged. “Not so odd. I’ve never been sick. Perfect health is a good thing.”

“But unusual.” She folded one arm over her middle and braced the other one there so that she could tap her chin. Maybe she’d call her father’s attorney. She hadn’t talked to him in years. Maybe now he would tell her what he knew about how her parents had come to adopt her.

“Come here.”

Aidan’s voice elicited a pang of longing, made her want to listen to him speak for hours. Her gaze moved to the dark one focused on her. “What?”

He beckoned to her with the long fingers of one hand. “Come.”

She pushed to her feet, skirted the desk and sidled up next to him, unable to resist taking in his tall frame from head to toe and back. His penchant for black fit so well with her love of the mystical, her relentless obsession with the city she loved so much. She wanted to know more about him…to know everything.

“Tell me about this.” He pointed to a picture of her dressed in her senior prom gown. “What was the special occasion?”

Aidan listened as she told him about her senior prom and how she’d gone with a guy who was just a friend, hadn’t managed to snag herself a boyfriend. He watched her animated expressions as she spoke. Followed the movement of her lips, his own hungry for the taste of her. He wondered what it would be like to dance…to hold her in his arms as the other man had done at her prom.

They grabbed armfuls of the albums and retreated to the family room, where she curled up on a sectional sofa next to him and led him through her life with the Shepards in pictures. She’d gone from a sullen unhappy child at ten to a breathtakingly beautiful girl at twelve.

Aidan considered his own life during those same stages as she moved through her well-documented past. She’d had many friends, had participated in numerous extracurricular activities. Dance lessons, piano lessons. She had blossomed into a young woman so fascinating he could scarcely take his eyes off her. Not once in the life she recalled had she