sure I can help. Is this like something you had in mind?’
He glanced at the screen, surprised at the speed with which she’d conjured up a pro forma. ‘Wow, you’re a whiz on that thing.’
She shrugged and turned away, as if uncomfortable with his praise. ‘It’s what I do. If you don’t like the layout or colour scheme we can change it easily, but I thought you might like this?’
She’d chosen a bold template with a black background and royal blue font—very contemporary, very eye-catching.
‘I like it. I’m that easy to read, huh?’
Once again, he caught a spark in her eyes that had him itching to close the short distance between them and haul her into his arms. He’d never had caveman tendencies before, but there was something about her that just begged him to show her his club and coerce her into heading back to his cave.
She folded her hands in her lap, probably to stop them fiddling, and looked directly into his eyes. ‘It’s a talent I have, reading people. It helps in my job, in delivering exactly what the client is after. And you seem easier to read than most.’
‘Is that so?’
She nodded, and he resisted the urge to reach out and tuck the strand of hair that swung across her face behind her ear. ‘You’re a successful man, determined to make it to the top of your profession. Image is everything to you and you don’t like people questioning your beliefs. Well-groomed, personable, charming—it’s all part of the persona.’
Oh, she was good.
‘Anything else to add?’
‘I know just the thing to complete the package.’
He leaned forward, eager to hear what she had to say. She’d switched to teasing mode and, with her eyes twinkling and her glossy lips curved in a semi-smile, she had him intrigued.
‘What’s that?’
She hit a button on the keyboard and the screen became animated with a host of fancy graphics flashing across it.
‘Ta-da! The perfect website, of course.’ Her proud grin sent a thrill through him. If she got this excited about her work, imagine her enthusiasm for pursuits outside the office…
He smiled, making an instant decision to take a risk.
‘I like it, though there’s something else that would complete the package much better.’
Her face fell for a moment, as if he’d unjustly criticized her. ‘What’s that?’
Before he could stop himself, he reached across, tipped her chin up with his finger and stared into her remarkable eyes. ‘The perfect woman.’
CHAPTER TWO
‘Accessorise wisely. Choose a man with as much care as you would a handbag to go with those divine shoes.’
Tahlia Moran, long-time friend and expert on men.
‘WHAT happened then?’ Emma leaned forward, hanging on every word.
Keely took a sip of her sparkling mineral water and shrugged. ‘Nothing. Lucy came barging into my office and we sprang apart like we’d been doing something wrong.’ She stabbed the last piece of lettuce from her Caesar salad and forked it into her mouth.
Tahlia swivelled her head between the two of them as if watching a Wimbledon Final. ‘So you think he was implying you’re his perfect woman?’
Emma frowned and answered before Keely had a chance. ‘Of course. What else could he mean? Besides, she said he was flirting with her before then anyway.’
Tahlia ignored Emma’s response. ‘Em, you’d see the romantic side of two ants meeting on a crack in a footpath.’
Keely grinned as her two best friends discussed her love life—or lack of one, more like it—as if she wasn’t even there.
‘Romance makes the world go round.’ Emma pronounced it as a fact rather than one of her favourite theories.
‘I think you mean money,’ Tahlia said dryly, beckoning the waiter over to take their coffee order before they rushed back to the office.
Emma shook her head. ‘Not everyone’s as money-oriented as you, Miss Director of Sales.’
‘I’m goal-oriented, not money-oriented. There’s a difference. Nothing wrong with wanting to make it to the top.’
‘What about the glass ceiling?’ Keely teased, knowing her response was guaranteed to get a reaction out of Tahlia every time and thankful that the focus of the conversation had turned away from her encounter with Lachlan Brant.
Tahlia’s green eyes flashed as she waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. ‘No such thing, honey. I’m going places in this company, just watch me. All the way to the top.’
‘Won’t the Rottie have something to say about that?’
Personally, Keely had every confidence that Tahlia would make it to CEO of WWW Designs, and she couldn’t wait for the day when Raquel was ousted from the top job. In fact, every employee would throw the party of the decade when that day came.
Tahlia tucked a strand of chestnut hair into her signature topknot and made an unladylike noise akin to a snort. ‘She won’t have a chance to say anything. I’ll muzzle her before keeping her on a short leash and locked away in her kennel.’
‘Meow!’ Emma made a clawing action with her perfectly manicured fingernails.
‘Hey, I wouldn’t be making cat noises around the Rottie. She’d eat you alive and spit out the bones for breakfast.’ Tahlia wiggled her fingers in a saucy wave at Andy, their usual waiter at Sammy’s, as he handed them the bill.
‘I can handle Ratchet Raquel,’ Emma said as all three of them leaned back in their chairs and watched Andy walk away, admiring the fit of snug denim to his butt.
‘Grrr…’ Tahlia growled.
‘Aah…’ Emma sighed.
‘Mmm…’ Keely allowed herself to be distracted for a moment—after all, she could appreciate a fine piece of anatomy like the next girl—before her dilemma niggled its way back into her mind.
‘So what do you think I should do?’ she asked, slipping her money into the folded bill without looking.
She had the same lunch at Sammy’s, the hippest café-cum-bar at Southbank—Melbourne’s hot spot for all things trendy—almost on a daily basis: sparkling mineral water with a twist of lemon, Caesar salad with low-fat dressing—hold the anchovies—followed by a fruit platter for one, capped off with a skinny latte.
Though she’d come to terms with her past, the feelings associated with spending years as an overweight, lonely teenager continued to dog her and she had no intention of ever feeling like that again. The trauma of what she’d gone through when she’d
