CHAPTER ONE

      Aries—Your love life has been in a lull. Expect to meet someone new who’ll stir your passions.

      No, thank you, I’ll pass.

      ‘IT’S every girl’s dilemma.’

      Tahlia Moran pushed open the front door to their office building, turning and holding it for her friend. ‘What is?’

      ‘The right timing to get seriously into finding one’s life’s partner, of course,’ Keely said, pushing her handbag strap up her shoulder.

      The words hammered right through Tahlia. First the horror-scope and now Keely. Did she have ‘seriously single but feel free to cure me’ tattooed on her forehead?

      ‘You know,’ Keely offered. ‘It has to be soon or there won’t be any single, straight men left for you. All the good men are getting snapped up.’

      Tahlia had to admit her two best friends were doing their bit, going from seriously single to seriously taken in what seemed like a snap. ‘I’m fine. I don’t need anybody just now.’

      ‘Tahlia—’ Keely moved slowly through the doorway, resting her arm on her protruding belly, full of arms and legs. ‘I know a lot of women just wait for him to appear, like magic. But we do encourage him to turn up by dating, pitiful though it may be, every single man around.’

      ‘Just in case he doesn’t,’ Tahlia stated dryly, glancing down at her friend, who was a good six inches shorter than her now that Keely had traded in her heels for flats that didn’t add to the swelling she seemed to be experiencing in more places than just her belly.

      ‘Mr Right turned up for me and Em. He will for you too, but you have to date. It’s a given, an unwritten agreement with Cupid.’

      Tahlia let the door go. ‘I’m thrilled for you both, you know that, but I have things to do right now and those things have nothing to do with arrow-wielding midgets or men.’ While a partner was on her to-do list he wasn’t a priority just now. And when it came to relationships she was in uncharted territory—a place she’d rather not be.

      Keely sighed. ‘Okay, but he could just appear out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet.’

      She didn’t want to be swept; she was thinking more of being quietly and calmly romanced into a sane and sensible partnership that would prove companionable and satisfying for the long term, some time in the future.

      ‘What does your horoscope say?’

      Tahlia tucked her bag tightly under her arm. She’d had quite enough of horoscopes. It wasn’t as if they were always right. In fact, they were hardly right at all…so it didn’t really matter what it said today.

      ‘Oh, look, there’s George.’ Tahlia veered towards the guard’s desk, sneaking a quick glance at her friend to see if she’d successfully avoided discussing her horror-scope and its nebulous prediction of a certain stirring someone entering her life. ‘I’ve got to thank him for letting me out last night.’

      Keely continued across the large marbled foyer towards the lifts. ‘Locked in again, eh?’

      Tahlia nodded, straightening her suit jacket. There was only one way to guarantee being the only choice for the position of Marketing Executive and that was to out-work and out-perform everyone else.

      There was no doubt she’d get the position when the big boss, Raquel, stopped running around the place trying to tell everyone how to do their jobs, and do hers by finally filling the position.

      Tahlia couldn’t help but smile. Raquel’s job