“I don’t know… Jake Chambers’s kind of stress might be worth a try. Think of him like a box of truffles-just a sinfully delicious treat. And when the last truffle is gone, it’s gone. Then it’s back to health food and the responsibilities of life.”

“If you’re so hot for him, Shelly, you go out with him. I’m sure he’s available.”

“Shelly’s lusting after Jim Balfour,” Zoe said with a wink. “He’s won her admiration for his studly way with the futures market. He pulled in a million in commissions last week, and apparently that’s Shelly’s aphrodisiac of choice.”

Shelly made a face. “Very funny. Not that money isn’t a turn-on, but Jim’s cute, too.”

Zoe grinned. “How cute exactly?”

Here’s where the ladies reverted to form, dissecting what most appealed to them in the male species. Liv sat back with her French martini the waiter had just delivered and listened with half an ear to the conversation. Her concentration kept slipping away to those male qualities in Jake Chambers that were still rattling her cage. There was something about him: a brute virility, a ruggedness not often seen in the world of the rich and famous, the challenging look of a man who hadn’t been housebroken and might never be. Jeez, snap out of it, she silently chided herself. Since when was she interested in whipping a man into shape?

Since never, that’s when.

And bottom line, if Jake Chambers didn’t want to be housebroken, he wasn’t going to be, no way no how.

Don’t even think about it.

He was a customer. No more. No less.

Zoe was talking about her oldest daughter, who could play the piano with considerable skill at age six. Liv concentrated her attention on the merits of a Montessori education that were being extolled and ordered another drink.