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PROLOGUE

ANOTHER wedding celebration Star scowled as she studied the elegant invitation before throwing it onto her desk

She was very teo—but if she did her friend Sally was bound to pounce on her absence as a sure indication that she, Star, was afraid that the old-fashioned superstition that Sally had practised on the occasion of her oedding ht have some potency to it after all

Which was all nonsense of course Just because the other to with her had within sixbecooing to fall into the same trap No way Not ever

She scowled again, even more horribly this time The fact that Poppy, the other bridesot married had not come as all that much of a surprise to Star, but the announcement that Sally’s step—and was now holding a celebration party with her new husband for all his friends and relations in America Uneasily, Star stared out of her studyIt so happened that business was taking her across to the States so she could, in fact, o

If she didn’t go Sally would tease her un in that stupid, old-fashioned tradition that whoever caught the bride’s bouquet would be the next to marry

But weddings were not her thing at all—she had only gone to Sally’s because Sally was her oldest and closest friend After all, she had attended far too er in the durability of the supposedly lifelong vows that people exchanged in the heat of their e need to believe that those feelings would last for ever

No, weddings, or parties to celebrate thee even less so

But, that being the case, what had she to fear in going to Claire’s party? Wasn’t she, her will, her deterer than any foolish superstition? Of course she was, and, just to prove it, throwing open her , Star took a deep breath and said firoing to get married Not now Not ever So there

‘Now,’ shethe startled and slightly nervous glance of the elderly lady walking across the lawn in front of the apartment block, ‘do your worst, because, I promise you, it won’t eand no one’

CHAPTER ONE

STAR surveyed the crowd of happy ishers surrounding the recently married couple with cynical contempt

Howenthusiastically about the happiness that lay ahead of Claire and Brad now that they were married could truthfully put their hands on their hearts and swear that their es, their permanent relationships, had truly enriched their lives, had truly made them happy?

If they’d knohat she was thinking they would no doubt have questioned the ability of someone who had never been married and as so vehemently and vocally opposed to any kind of ee at all, much less to criticise it, but Star believed that she had access to far e actually was than most of them would be able to boast

‘Star Claire said you were going to be here’ Silently Star suffered the enthusiastic hug of her oldest friend

Sally’s voice voice htly by the thick, smooth, shiny sweep of Star’s dark red hair as she continued to hug her whilst telling her, ‘I’ to be living so far away It was a wonderful idea of Brad’s faether and to invite us all over to share it?

‘Has Brad confir the PR contract for the British distribution side of things?’ Sally asked as she released her

‘Not yet,’ Star told her calmly

‘But you are going to get the contract,’ Sally insisted

‘It looks likely,’ Star agreed sedately

‘There’s only you left now,’ Sally teased her friend, changing tack ‘Out of the three of you who caught my bouquet, two are now le’

Star gave a s

‘It was inevitable that Poppy would ot over her adolescent crush on Chris, and as for your stephtfully towards Claire, as standing arm in arm with her new husband, her head inclined towards hied a small, intimate smile

‘You can stop looking at me like that,’ she warned Sally firmly ‘I’m afraid I fully intend to be the exception to the rule, Sally I intend to stay very fir-term emotional commitment’

‘What if you fall in love?’ Sally probed spiritedly

Star gave her a contemptuously bitter look

‘Fall in love? You mean like my mother, who has fallen in love so many times that even she must have lost count, and who uses that state as an excuse for sub herself and everyone close to her in a swa that I should, perhaps, followchildren whose existence becootten when he moves on to a new love and a new commitment?’

‘Oh, Star,’ Sally protested re out to touch her friend’s sliesture of female sympathy ‘I’m sorry I—’

‘Don’t be,’ Star interrupted her crisply ‘I’ht, so ths the ht to pursue our emotional happiness, no matter what the cost, but tell enuinely happy in their relationships once the initial gloss has worn off’

‘You’re such a cynic,’ Sally coh

‘No,’ Star punched back ‘I’m a realist I accept what, at heart, most women know but cannot allow theenetically prograenes, just as far as he physically can, to inate as many woically impossible to remain faithful to one woman

‘And that is also why, in my opinion, if a woman wants to be happy she has to adopt his way of life, to enjoy herself sexually when it suits her and not him, to choose her sexual partners because they please her and to refrain fro emotionally involved with them, and to remember, if and when she chooses to have a child, that the chances are that she will be the sole emotional support to that child—!’

‘Oh, Star, that’s not fair,’ Sally interrupted her sadly, wincing when she saw the sardonic eyebrow that Star raised in silent ht, I know that there are men like your Men who do Men who can’t be faithful to one woreed ‘But not all men are like that’

‘Aren’t they? But then you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ Star asked her gri it, haven’t you?’ she added ‘Speaking of which, how are things between you and Chris at the moment?’