Dreams Claimed (Warfield's Landing, #1) Read Online Free Page A

with acrylic paint. This pair featured an Op Art pattern in an homage to the Sixties. She dressed for practicality and comfort.
    Stevie had mentioned meeting someone who had bought some of her work last week, but Nic wasn’t about to lose most of a paint day to get dressed up.
    If the guy bought paintings, he could meet the painter... with paint. She glanced down at the paint stained shirt tails, and shrugged to herself. She checked her hands. They had paint on them, too, but at least it was dry paint!
    Her back to the door, she was reaching in for her paintings when she heard it open. Without turning, she spoke to Stevie, “I have five new pieces here today, but two others needed some final touches. I’ll bring them over next week. Can you give me a hand?”
    She felt warmth behind her and movement beside her as a strong, masculine arm reached past her ear. The canvas she had been struggling with was carefully pulled out as she scooted out of the way. She opened her mouth to object — she didn’t let strangers handle her art, but sparkling blue eyes stopped the protest. She noted dimples, a square jaw—cleanly shaved, and a straight aristocratic nose. The eyes smiled at her and her gaze slid back to the dimples. Dimples. She had a weakness for dimples.
    As she looked, the beautiful firm lips formed a sentence.
    “Hi. I’m Daniel Sterling. Nice to meet you.” When she failed to respond, the smile widened and the deep voice asked, “Where do you want me to put this?”
    With an effort, Nic pulled herself out of her trance and back into the real world. Some stranger was standing there holding one of her new paintings. She opened her mouth in protest, but caught sight of Stevie. Her good friend was behind the stranger, dancing maniacally and gesturing urgently — giving enthusiastic thumbs up signs.
    Nic closed her mouth and looked back to the stranger, watching those luscious lips grin outright. She could even hear the laughter in his voice as he repeated the question.
    “Where do you want me to put this?”
    Nic scowled, gave herself a mental shake and said, “Stevie can show you where to put it.” She turned back to the van.
    A short time later, she, GG - Gorgeous Guy—and Stevie were standing in the storage room of the gallery, her newest painting propped against the wall.
    While GG was looking them over carefully, Stevie, always one of her biggest supporters, was oohing and aahing.
    What WAS his name? He’d introduced himself... maybe? Maybe not.
    She’d been lost somewhere between his blue eyes and sexy mouth, with a detour at the dimples. She liked dimples. REALLY liked them.
    Stevie, mindful of her role as gallery representative, was ready to jump in if GG had any questions.
    Finally, after an eternity, GG looked over at her and smiled. Had she mentioned she LOVED dimples?
    “I’ll take all of them.”
    “But...” Nic tried to make a coherent sentence. Her eyes locked with his and her ears buzzed.
    It was Stevie. “Daniel.” Stevie raised her voice slightly, to get GG’s attention. “I’ll be happy to write this up. Let’s go into the office.”
    GG, or was it Daniel?—winked at her, as Stevie led the way out of the store room. Nic hurried after them.
    *****
    D aniel followed Stevie to the office. He hoped he hadn’t overplayed his hand with his little artist. Had he been too quick? He’d planned to be cool about everything. Plan A had been, Step 1 - Meet Nic, Step 2 - Charm Nic, Step 3 - Take her out for coffee, then, Step 4 - Ask her on a real date...
    There hadn’t been a Plan B, let alone a plan to buy five paintings the first time he saw them. There was enough wall space in his condo for these and his purchases from last week, but if he continued like this, he was going to run out of room... fast.
    He’d felt an immediate connection to this woman when he saw her across the Metro platform, but he’d never expected to have such a visceral reaction to her work. Last week, her paintings