Breathless Read Online Free Page A

at the idea, she lifted the mirror to look at her face. Red hair cascaded in waves across the pillow, while green wide-set eyes stared back at her. Her lips were full, and she had a smattering of light freckles across her nose. All in all, not bad. And the pink color in her cheeks radiated health. She smoothed her right one, not sure if she liked being a few years older.
    But this body felt like it could chug along for a lot more years than Blue McCann’s, regardless of the extra handful of years Stella had already lived.
    “No, not a doctor, Stella, you’re a midwife. And a fine one at that.” But his tone sounded begrudging. The heat between them cooled at his tone.
    A midwife. Stella delivered babies and he didn’t much care for her career choice.
    Okay, this was officially off-the-charts weird, because Blue McCann was a doula, not a midwife. Doulas had no training in actual deliveries. She had trained to provide emotional support during pregnancy and to help with newborns, a kind of coach for new mothers.
    But helping to bring a new life into the world? No, not her. As much as she’d wanted the designation, she hadn’t been able to afford the courses.
    Stella delivered babies. Blue had wanted with all her heart to have the same career. Then, she’d gotten sick, and it had taken everything she had to hang on financially, emotionally, and physically. Was this a chance to have her heart’s desire? What a fantasy!
    She glanced in the mirror again, noted the healthy glow, and figured fantasy was better than reality any day.

3
    T hree days later, Blue was up to speed on everything she needed to know about Stella McCreedy. She felt stronger than she had in years. The only effects from the accident that still remained were some bruises and sore muscles. Her headaches were gone, her vision had cleared, and she’d been catching up on Stella’s life since her arrival at Perdition.
    Stella had been the mainstay of health care for the women who lived and worked as prostitutes in Perdition House. As a midwife, she had been able to see to their womanly complaints competently. She also provided the house with their supplies of prophylactics. Stella had been quick to see the added birth-control benefit of condom use.
    Dr. Colt Stephens had arrived in the area a month ago and had been happy to take the ladies on as patients when they needed help Stella couldn’t provide. The morning he’d arrived for a meeting with Belle, he’d taken one look at Stella and made the mistake of assuming she was one of the working girls. Their relationship had been prickly since then. But Colt was definitely ready to move to something warmer between them.
    Maybe even blazing.
    She had a feeling that Stella had been thawing toward him when she had her accident.
    The way Blue saw it, she needed to do three things. First, she needed to figure out why she’d taken up residence in Stella’s body. Once she understood the purpose of the switch, she might be able to complete whatever task was required. She was no expert, but things like this didn’t happen without some kind of unseen help. To her knowledge, there was also a damn good reason.
    Second, if this switch was permanent, she had to learn everything she could about life in 1913, so she could fit in.
    Third and most personally, she wanted to get Dr. Stephens into her bed, because she might have only one shot at having a fulfilling relationship before she went back to her own body and it gave out.
    It might be selfish, it might be wrong, but under the circumstances, she convinced herself no one would blame a young woman for wanting to live life to the fullest when she had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
    The way Colt talked about their more recent conversations, Stella had been attracted to him. Blue wondered if Stella had been afraid of acting on the attraction. These days were very different from Blue’s.
    As far as life today, she’d read all the newspapers she could get her hands on