Marie-Terese wasn’t so sure of that. Going by the looks of that brunette with him, he had no reason to buy sexual companionship—wait…that woman…she’d been here the night before, hadn’t she, and so had the other guy. Marie-Terese remembered them for the same reason they stood out tonight—they didn’t belong here.

As the trio sat down in a dark corner, Gina adjusted her wing-and-a-prayer bustier and pushed at her now-red hair. Last month it had been white and pink. Month before that jet-black. She kept this up and she was going to be sporting a Telly Savalas, thanks to all the chemical warfare on her roots.

“I think I’ll just go over and introduce myself. Laters.”

Gina sauntered off, her black latex skirt and stiletto boots the kind of thing she wore with pride. Unlike Marie-Terese, she got off on what she did for a living and even had ambitions to become what she referred to as a “major multimedia erotica star” along the lines of Janine Lindemulder or Jenna Jameson. Whoever they were. Marie-Terese knew their names only because Gina talked about them like they were the Bill Gates of porn.

Marie-Terese hung back and watched the drive-by. As Gina sauntered up, the woman in the white fur took one look at what was so obviously for sale and her stare went blade sharp. Which was unnecessary. Her businessman boyfriend didn’t give Gina a glance—he was too busy talking to his buddy. And all the back-off-that’s-my-man did was encourage the come-on: Gina positively preened in front of that territorial hatred, lingering until the man finally looked up.

He didn’t focus on what was in front of him, though. He gaze shifted past Gina’s latex buffet and trained on Marie-Terese.

Instant. Cosmic. Attraction. The kind you couldn’t hide from other people and you couldn’t bottle up and you couldn’t turn off if you ever got the chance to act on it. With their stares locked, they were both naked and in each other’s arms, not for hours, but for days.

Which meant she wasn’t going anywhere near him and not because he had a possessive girlfriend. If what she’d felt at first around her ex had been trouble, this moment between her and that stranger had the potential for catastrophe.

Marie-Terese turned away and wound through the crowd, seeing nothing in front of her or around her. Those steel gray eyes of that man consumed her, and though she knew he couldn’t see her anymore, she could have sworn she felt him staring at her still.

“Hey, honey.”