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Chapter 1

The first entry in Leslie Stewart's diary read:

Dear Diary: Thisto marry

It was a sihtest portent of the dramatic chain of events that was about to occur

It was one of those rare, serendipitous days when nothing could go wrong, when nothing would dare go wrong Leslie Stewart had no interest in astrology, but that ton Herald-Leader, a horoscope in an astrology coluht her eye It read:

FOR LEO (JULY 23RD TO AUGUST 22ND) THE NEW MOON ILLUMINATES YOUR LOVE LIFE YOU ARE IN YOUR LUNAR CYCLE HIGH NOW, AND MUST PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO AN EXCITING NEW EVENT IN YOUR LIFE YOUR COMPATIBLE SIGN IS VIRGO TODAY WILL BE A RED-LETTER DAY BE PREPARED TO ENJOY IT

Be prepared to enjoy what? Leslie thought wryly Today was going to be like every other day Astrology was nonsense, mind candy for fools

Leslie Steas a public relations and advertising executive at the Lexington, Kentucky firs scheduled for that afternoon, the first with the Kentucky Fertilizer Con she orking up for the: "If you want to s ith the Breeders Stud Farton Coal Company Red-letter day?

In her late twenties, with a sli, exotic look; gray, sloe eyes, high cheekbones, and soft, honey-colored hair, which she wore long and elegantly simple A friend of Leslie's had once told her, "If you're beautiful and have a brain and a vagina, you can own the world"

Leslie Steas beautiful and had an IQ of 170, and nature had taken care of the rest But she found her looks a disadvantage Men were constantly propositioning her or proposing, but few of theet to know her

Aside from the two secretaries orked at Bailey & Tomkins, Leslie was the only woman there There were fifteen male employees It had taken Leslie less than a week to learn that she was ent than any of them It was a discovery she decided to keep to herself

In the beginning, both partners, Jiht, soft-spoken man in his forties, and Al Toer than Bailey, individually tried to talk Leslie into going to bed with them

She had stopped them very simply "Ask me once more, and I'll quit"

That had put an end to that Leslie was too valuable an employee to lose

Her first week on the job, during a coffee break, Leslie had told her fellow employees a joke

"Three rant each one a wish The first enie blinked, and the man said, 'Hey, I feel smarter already'

"The second enie blinked, and the s now that I didn't know before'

"The third man said, 'I'd like to be one hundred percent smarter'

"So the genie blinked, and the ed into a woman"

Leslie looked expectantly at theat her, unamused

Point taken

The red-letter day that the astrologer had pro Jim Bailey walked into Leslie's tiny, cramped office

"We have a new client," he announced "I want you to take charge"

She was already handling more accounts than anyone else at the firm, but she knew better than to protest

"Fine," she said "What is it?"

"It's not a what, it's a who You've heard of Oliver Russell, of course?"

Everyone had heard of Oliver Russell A local attorney and candidate for governor, he had his face on billboards all over Kentucky With his brilliant legal record, he was considered, at thirty-five, the ible bachelor in the state He was on all the talk shows on the ton - WDKY, WTVQ, WKYT - and on the popular local radio stations, WKQQ and WLRO Strikingly handsome, with black, unruly hair, dark eyes, an athletic build, and a war slept with ton

"Yes, I've heard of hi to do for him?"