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      CONTENTS

      CHAPTER ONE

      CHAPTER TWO

      CHAPTER THREE

      CHAPTER FOUR

      CHAPTER FIVE

      CHAPTER SIX

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      CHAPTER EIGHT

      CHAPTER NINE

      CHAPTER TEN

      CHAPTER ONE

      “FOR those of you just joining the Jack Hendley Friday Night Live show broadcasting from New York, we have the gorgeous Ms. Mallory Ellis in studio with us this evening.”

      The band played a little theme music and the audience clapped.

      “If you have eyes in your head, you could be forgiven for thinking she’s a world-class supermodel or top box office movie star, but you’d be dead wrong. At twenty-nine years of age, Ms. Ellis has the distinction of being one of the youngest female executives ever featured in Financial Wizards of Wall Street.

      “A top honors graduate in corporate law from Yale University, Ms. Ellis was snapped up by Windemere Cosmetics, a struggling Los Angeles based firm. In three short years under her guidance, the company not only has a new name, ‘Lady Windemere Cosmetics,’ it has also gone global. So far the profits keep rising which is good news for the employees who now own stock in the company.

      “According to the magazine article, her undisputed genius lies in profit and loss savvy, but tonight we’re hoping she’ll reveal some of the secrets of her phenomenal success story.”

      From far away, the audience couldn’t tell the TV host’s eyes glittered as he studied her. “According to a source close to you, you’re a woman who knows what women want, and you put women with the right credentials in charge. Did you always plan to be a big female tycoon?”

      There was an edge to his question rather than a teasing tone. She’d seen him in action before. Jack Hendley was a male chauvinist who had fixed ideas about a woman’s place in life. That was all right with Mallory. A lot of insecure men had the same problem.

      Coming on this show was the last thing she’d wanted to do. But when Liz Graffman, the seventy-year-old widow who owned Lady Windemere Cosmetics, received a call from the television network asking that its vice president fly to New York and be on the Jack Hendley show, Mallory couldn’t say no to Liz’s plea.

      Lady Windemere Cosmetics would get the kind of exposure on his show you couldn’t buy at any price.

      Over the last thirty-six months, Mallory’s relationship with Liz had become like that of a favorite great-aunt and niece. Surely Mallory could stand a half hour of being patronized by one of television’s longstanding night talk show hosts.

      “A tycoon by definition implies someone who owns a company or many companies. I only work for one,” she corrected him with a friendly smile. He didn’t smile back which was no surprise since he could sense she was refusing to play ball with him.

      “However to answer your question, when I was old enough to think about the world, there was only one thing that drove me; my insatiable love for surfing.”

      His eyes flared because he hadn’t been expecting that response. “Where did you grow up?”

      “Huntington Beach, California.”

      “That explains it. Were you a good surfer?”

      “I won a few western regional championships at Redondo Beach and Malibu.”

      Several wolf whistles resounded along with the clapping from the listening audience.

      “At this juncture I’m sure every eligible male watching would like to know if there’s a future Lord Windemere waiting in the wings somewhere.”

      The man was so predictable she had to stifle a moan before she said, “No.”

      “Does that mean—”

      “It just means no,” she broke in on him with a purposely engaging smile that lit up her brilliant blue eyes. Mallory had done her share of dating. She loved men as much as the next woman, but she didn’t confuse her personal and professional life by getting too close to any one man. In fact she couldn’t see it happening in the foreseeable future. Maybe one day.

      “So what happened to turn you from a surfer into a corporate attorney?”

      She’d made him uncomfortable with her brief, unrevealing answers. Good. It was about time he’d asked her a question relevant to her being on the show in the first place.

      “If I wasn’t surfing, I was reading beneath a beach umbrella. At an early age I became addicted to comic books. My father has a huge collection dating from the forties to the present which he treasures to this day. I must have read every one of them and particularly liked the stories about the Amazon women from Paradise Island with their secret powers.”

      He turned to the audience. “Put her in one of those sexy little outfits, and she’d look just like them.” His remark provoked more whistles and cheers.

      Mallory ignored the remark. When the din died down she said, “During the WWII years, the man who created that series once said that if women were given a little more time and the added

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