www.millsandboon.co.uk

      For Kelly Hunter and Anna Cleary,

      two fabulous writers

      who encouraged me to stretch my wings.

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘TWO shots of tequila and keep them coming.’

      Aleisha Gregory groaned at Kat’s choice of Friday-night poison as she reluctantly plonked herself on the bar seat next to the leggy blonde. Saturday night was usually tequila night and she knew from experience that the Mexican liquor had a nasty habit of making her friend’s clothes fall off, usually with wildly inappropriate men.

      Which was fine. Kat was a grown woman after all. Until the panicked phone call she always received at the crack of dawn the next day asking to be picked up from a strange address and the ensuing couple of days of vocal self-loathing.

      ‘Think I’d rather have something with an umbrella.’

      After years of drinking sessions with Kat, Aleisha had learned that cocktails went down slower. Besides, it was still Happy Hour and eight-dollar cocktails could not be sneezed at.

      Kat glanced at her friend and tisked. ‘Ali, Ali, Ali. You city girls, no stamina.’ She turned back to the boy/man behind the bar. ‘Make it two daiquiris instead. And if you could make them all pretty and pink you will hold a special place in my heart for ever.’

      Ali watched as Kat batted her eyes at the bartender. His pronounced Adam’s apple bobbed convulsively once, twice, before he practically fell over himself to fill Kat’s orders. Ali wouldn’t mind betting he could make a daiquiri with polka dots if Kat had requested it.

      She rolled her eyes at her friend. ‘He’s a child, Katarina.’

      Kat ignored her. ‘Right,’ she said, looking around the dimly lit, half-full bar, her keen eyesight scanning the offerings, probing into corners, assessing tonight’s selection of possibles. ‘Let’s get you hooked up.’

      Ali shook her head. ‘Kitty Kat, since when have I ever hooked up?’

      ‘Precisely!’ Kat poked Ali in the shoulder. ‘Maybe if you’d hooked up a little more often you might not have ended up with Terrible Tom.’

      Ali winced. Kat’s insights could be a little brutal from time to time. ‘Well, I didn’t end up with him, did I?’

      ‘That’s only because Two-Timing Tom is a jerk. Trust me, you had a lucky escape.’

      Ali blew a persistent curl out of her eye. Funny, she didn’t feel lucky. Tonight she was surprised to realise she still felt a little raw. Even a year down the track.

       Admittedly, it has been a particularly heinous year.

      The bartender placed their cocktails before them with a flourish and Ali watched him blush as Kat bestowed him with her you’re-such-a-big-clever-man smile and then totally ignored him.

      ‘What happened to your hand?’ Ali asked the besotted bartender.

      He looked down at the small red laceration gracing the back of his hand. ‘I was trying to break up a dog fight this arvo.’ He smiled at Kat. ‘One of them took exception.’

      Ali rolled her eyes at the lame attempt to impress. ‘Did you get a tetanus shot?’

      The bartender dragged his gaze to Ali. ‘Er … no. Should I?’

      Ali gave a brisk nod. ‘Absolutely.’

      He glanced at Kat, who shrugged. ‘Okay, I will … thanks,’ he said, before withdrawing to take another order.

      Kat shook her head at her friend. ‘You’re hopeless.’

      Ali sighed. ‘Sorry, can’t help it.’

      Kat grinned, then lifted her glass and clinked it against Ali’s. ‘Here’s to getting lucky.’

      Ali clinked automatically but knew in her heart she’d settle for just getting through. Getting through this night without completely breaking down and ending up curled in a foetal position on her bed. Mostly she’d been able to put the hurt aside and get on with things. But knowing what was going on over on the other side of town brought it all back into sharp focus.

      She looked into the creamy pink swirl of alcohol and figured that a few of these might just do the trick. She matched her friend’s giant-sized swig with one of her own and felt the almost immediate slug as the alcohol hit her square between the eyes.

      Ali placed the glass back on the bar. ‘I can do this,’ she said.

      Kat nodded. ‘Of course you can.’ And she took another swig. Then she nudged Ali’s shoulder. ‘Guy over the other side of the bar, he’s checking you out.’

      Ali thought it highly unlikely anyone would be checking her out when she was sitting next to God’s-gift-to-mankind. Seriously, why would a guy settle for Ms Average when he could take a shot at Ms Holy-Cow? But, used to humouring her friend, she followed Kat’s line of vision anyway.

      Okay-looking man. Nice suit. Nice eyes. Nice smile.

      Nice. Nice. Nice.

      Tom had been nice. In the beginning.

      Ali sucked in a breath. Tom’s betrayal with a sultry twenty-year-old redhead had shaken her perennial self-confidence and left her feeling old—at the advanced age of almost thirty—and ugly.

      Before that particularly awful experience she’d known, the way a woman did, that she was attractive. Sure, not in Kat’s league, but she hadn’t been blind to the fact that men checked her out. She had good hair, nice