www.millsandboon.co.uk

       Alexandra Lowell’s blog, pre-girls’ weekend in Vegas:

      This trip to Las Vegas may be sudden and unplanned (my good friend Serena’s great idea after our friend Jayne was left at the altar), but I think it’s going to be a fantastic experience for all of us—not just Jayne.

      All of us—Molly, Serena, Jayne and I—could use some time just to kick back, and Las Vegas is the kind of place to do it. I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen all the ads. Las Vegas—a place where people have no past and no future. How cool is that?

      We’re going to stay in a first-class hotel: McKendrick’s. On the website it looks gorgeous. Sumptuous. The kind of place where a girl goes to get pampered and forget her troubles.

      I’ve had my share of troubles, so I can’t wait for this weekend. Just my friends—girls out for a supercharged vacation with no men to complicate our lives. What could be more fun than that? Let me repeat that. NO MEN TO COMPLICATE OUR LIVES!!

      Stop back soon, when I’ll update you on just what happened during our wild weekend. (But I can assure you that none of it will involve men, or anything remotely liable to lead a girl into something as crazy as love. That is just not going to happen.)

       Excerpt from Alexandra Lowell’s profile:

      Hometown: San Diego, California (where I am going back to after this trip to Vegas!).

      Relationship Status: single forever. (There’s no reallife Prince Charming, and I’m okay with that. Really, I am!)

      Interests: my friends, my business—certainly not Wyatt McKendrick, my new boss

      Favorite Quotations: “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”—William James; “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”—Katherine Hepburn

      About Me: I love cute and silly dangly earrings. I’m a little bit driven, prone to doing ten things at once, and I love feeling that I can make a real difference in someone’s life. In fact I have this teensy little problem with trying to help people too much at times. Especially guys. I help them, I fall for them, they’re grateful and then they’re gone.

      Employer: back in sunny San Diego I work as a hotel front desk clerk, and I own a San Diego travel website. That, however, has changed (temporarily). A weekend in Las Vegas turned complicated, and I am soon to be (temporarily, as I said) working for Wyatt McKendrick, owner of McKendrick’s exclusive resort. Wyatt is tall, gorgeous, dark, mysterious, totally unattainable, and being around him is enough to make a girl crazy. Thank goodness I’ll be leaving Las Vegas soon. (Because I am so very temporary.)

      PROLOGUE

      ALEXANDRA LOWELL stared up at the shining façade of McKendrick’s of Las Vegas, the most exclusive hotel she would probably ever enter in her life, and hoped that this weekend wasn’t a mistake. Her bank account was practically sobbing at the expense, but her friend Jayne was in desperate straits and in need of some serious escapism, so Alex was going to forget about that poor bank account. For now.

      She smiled at her three friends. “I’m setting my mental countdown clock. We’re going to have one awesome weekend in an alternative universe,” she told them cheerfully.

      Serena chuckled. “Alternative universe, Alex? It’s Las Vegas, not another planet.”

      Alex gave her friend a patient smile. “Serena, come on. You’ve been in my apartment. I love it to pieces, I love finally having my own home, but it’s a little box. This is…it’s…”

      “An alternative universe,” Molly agreed with a laugh.

      “Okay, you’re right,” Serena said. “This place is breathtaking, isn’t it? Look at all these people, the bustle, the sounds, the over-the-top opulence of it all.”

      “And we’ve got a whole weekend,” Jayne said. “Darn it, we’re going to have fun, aren’t we?”

      Her smile was bright, but Alex knew she was only wearing it for their benefit. Jayne was supposed to have been getting married this weekend, but that wasn’t happening. Alex’s heart hurt for her. Friends just didn’t let friends go through heartbreak alone. Friends did everything possible to cheer each other up.

      “Absolutely,” Alex agreed. “This was a great idea, Serena.” Serena had been the one to suggest a Las Vegas escape, and already the excitement of an adventure was starting to build until Alex could barely contain herself.

      “So…do you think it’s true that lots of unmentionably wild things happen here?” Molly asked.

      “I certainly hope so,” Jayne said with dogged determination. “We deserve a little wildness. For this weekend, San Diego and everyone in it ceases to exist.”

      Which was fantastic advice, Alex couldn’t help thinking. Jayne wasn’t the only one at a turning point in her life. Alex had her own issues she wanted left at home.

      “Absolutely,” Molly said. “The only people who matter this weekend are you, my very best friends. We’re out to set the world on fire.”

      “And no regrets,” Serena said.