Chapter Two

      After a long Labor Day weekend of visiting salons, shopping and long discussions over choices at the makeup counter, Sarah sat on the fat khaki chair in her living room across from Carmella Lopez and Emily Winters, daughter of Lloyd Winters, owner of Wintersoft.

      When Sarah had called Carmella Friday night, Carmella had suggested they enlist Emily’s help with Sarah’s makeover because Emily bridged the gap between Carmella’s and Sarah’s generations. And she had been correct. Using bits and pieces of the experience of three females of varying ages, they had turned Sarah into a stunning woman. With a closet full of new clothes, a new hairdo and just the right makeup, she now had as much confidence about her looks as she had about roping cattle.

      “So, are you nervous about tomorrow?” Carmella asked, setting her teacup on the wooden coffee table, right beside the vase of white roses that had started all this.

      Sarah looked lovingly at the white blooms. “Surprisingly, no. I know I asked for your help as part of a plan to show Matt I could be feminine, but something else happened. I feel like I’ve finally found the real me.”

      “Finding the real you is actually the point of a makeover,” Carmella said with a short laugh.

      “And simple and sensual is definitely you,” Emily agreed. A satisfied smile curved her lips, and her sapphire-blue eyes sparkled with approval. “You look great.”

      “I feel great. I feel confident enough to conquer the world.”

      Carmella frowned. “I hope this doesn’t mean you’ve changed your mind about Matt!”

      “No!” Sarah said. “I really like Matt. If he’s interested in me, I want a chance with him, too.”

      “Well, if he doesn’t get that message from your new look, then he’s blind,” Carmella said, rising from the sofa.

      “Right,” Emily agreed as she also rose. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Remember, come to work a half hour early. The weather report says rain, so you may want some time to pull yourself together before you make the walk down the hall to your office.”

      Already at the door, Carmella asked, “Are you sure you’re not uncomfortable making an entrance?”

      Sarah laughed. “I think it’s what I need to do. Go for the shock value, get my new self out in the open right off the bat and see how he reacts.”

      “I think so, too,” Carmella said and squeezed Sarah’s hands. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

      Sarah let her new friends out of her apartment, then closed the door behind them, wondering if she would get any sleep. She wasn’t nervous about seeing Matt. But she did know he might not react the way Emily and Carmella believed he would because she hadn’t exactly done as he had asked her to do.

      For the first time since she’d received the flowers, she was glad for the secret admirer cover. Just as Matt had used it to get his point across to her, Sarah planned to use it to get her point across to him. Looking for her femininity had brought out a sexy side of her personality that even Sarah hadn’t known she had. But when she considered her natural boldness, she knew being confident about her sexuality was her true personality, a part of who she was, and she couldn’t change that. If Matt didn’t want her as she really was, it would break her heart, but at least they would have the cover of anonymity so no one besides Carmella and Emily would know the exchange had occurred.

      Matt looked up from his desk Monday morning and the sight that greeted him caused his breath to catch and his mouth to fall open in awe. Sarah walked up the aisle to her workstation, her head high, a smile on her lips.

      Her long red hair had been cut and her braid had been replaced by a hairdo that could only be described as sensual. Fat locks of looping curls cascaded to her shoulders and bounced with every step she took.

      Her cinnamon-colored suit looked like suede. The skirt was short and Matt could see enough of her legs to realize she hadn’t been hiding just a feminine woman beneath the bland skirts and jackets she usually wore. She had been hiding a goddess.

      He rose from his seat and cautiously made his way to the workspace she shared with Sunny Robbins.

      ‘Sarah?’

      “Oh, good morning, Matt.”

      She greeted him as if there was nothing different about her appearance today, and for ten seconds Matt couldn’t decide if he should say something or let it alone. He knew he had been the one to tell her to change the way she dressed, but he hadn’t expected she would turn into a completely different person, and he wasn’t sure his real reaction to her new look would be appropriate. What he wanted to do was whistle.

      She bent to toss her little brown purse into her desk drawer and Matt’s gaze traveled the curve created by her shapely derriere, down the long length of leg to brown high heels of stiletto proportions and he felt as if his heart stopped. His common sense, boss instincts and attraction all got jumbled and before he knew what was happening, he gasped, “What did you do to yourself?”

      Sarah straightened quickly, a stricken look on her face. “You don’t like it?”

      “Like it? Dear God. You’re going to give half the men on staff coronaries.”

      Her face brightened. Her well-painted lips curved into a smile. “So, I did okay?”

      “Okay? Sarah, you look like a totally different person.”

      Her stricken expression returned. “I hope you mean that in a good way.” She paused and bit her bottom lip. “Because this is the real me.” She caught his gaze. “And I want my secret admirer to see the real me.”

      The quivering that had set up residence in Matt’s abdomen turned to a rock of misery. He might have been the one to instruct Sarah to change a bit for her secret admirer, but, at the time, the guy had seemed more theory than a real person. With that comment, Sarah turned Matt’s “theory” into a living, breathing male. No longer a concept, but competition. “You did this for your secret admirer?”

      “You said I needed to be more feminine.”

      “I said feminine,” Matt argued, not because he didn’t like her look, but because he did. He really did. But he couldn’t have her. Some other guy would be the recipient of all this femininity. “I didn’t say…”

      “Sexy?” Sarah said, interrupting him. Her enthusiasm returned and she smiled broadly. “That was my idea.”

      “Why?”

      Sarah walked around her desk and stood directly in front of him. “Because after talking to Carmella and Emily on Friday night, I realized that feminine for me would be sexy.”

      Matt’s brow furrowed. “Carmella Lopez