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blue-green eyes, full lips curled into a wry
smile.
    Congratulations on your face, sir.
    I glance at the thick biceps peeking out of his T-shirt.
    And your body. Congrats on it all.
    He would be
Fuck
. Most definitely.
    Josh must notice my reaction because he quickly says, “Oh, she’s not my girlfriend. I mean, we used to date but I couldn’t keep up with her in the sack. She was insatiable. All
day, every day. I never knew one woman was capable of taking that much dick—”
    I squeeze Josh’s thigh until he squirms. “Please excuse my friend. He knows I’m going to kill him now, and fear of the afterlife makes him babble.”
    Mr. Fuck gives me a smile. Well, he gives it to both of us, but I’m claiming it because his gaze lingers on me longer. I’m fairly certain he checks out my boobs. It gives me tingles.
I haven’t had tingles this powerful for . . . well, ever.
    The hottie must approve of what he sees, because his tone is undeniably flirty. “So if your friend is the one getting killed, who are you going to fuck and who are you going to
marry?” The way he says it leaves no doubt in my mind which he’d rather be.
    He holds his hand out to me. “I’m Liam, by the way. Liam Quinn.”
    I take his hand and try to keep my expression passive as the feel of his skin lights me up more than all the giant billboards around us. “I’m Elissa. Holt.”
    “Very nice to meet you, Elissa.” He unashamedly stares as he continues to hold my hand.
    Oh, he’s good. No doubt he uses this technique all the time to turn girls into piles of goo. I’m a little irritated it works on me. I thought I was immune to this type of smug
self-awareness.
    Liam.
Even his name is sexy.
    Josh clears his throat. “Okay, so you guys have been shaking hands for a creepy amount of time, and now I’m super-uncomfortable. I’m Josh, by the way. In case you
care.”
    Liam laughs and shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Josh.”
    Josh gives him a skeptical nod. “Sure it is. Elissa, should we invite our new friend to have dinner with us?”
    That snaps me out of my tunnel vision. It’s one thing for me to lust after a handsome stranger. It’s another to do anything about it.
    “Uh . . . I’m sure Liam has better things to do.”
    Liam shrugs. “Not really. I’m seeing
King Lear
at eight, but considering I’ve been stood up, I’m at a loose end ’til then.”
    Josh’s scoffs. “
You’ve
been stood up?”
    “Well, ‘dumped’ would be a more accurate description. By the girl I’ve been with for a year.”
    “What the hell?” Josh seems more upset about it than Liam does. “But you look like one of those male-model dudes in the fancy magazines. Fussy woman, was she, your
ex?”
    Liam shrugs. “She liked me, but hated my bank balance. She’s now dating some rich douche from Wall Street.”
    “Fast rebound.”
    Liam gives a bitter smile. “Yeah. Not so much a rebound as an overlap, but whatever.”
    There’s a moment of uncomfortable silence before Josh says, “You know, Elissa was dumped as well. What a coincidence, right? Two single, attractive dumpees like yourselves having
this random meeting. It’s like fate.”
    Liam gives Josh a smile, then looks at me. “I totally believe in fate.”
    I look down at my hands. Fate or not, I don’t know that I’m ready for the emotions this man is bringing out in me.
    Over the past four years, I’ve had three boyfriends, and all three have thrown me over for other women. To say my confidence with men has taken a hit would be an understatement.
    When my last relationship ended in a blaze of abject humiliation, I decided I was done with men, at least for the foreseeable future. I have a very specific five-year plan, and getting destroyed
again isn’t part of it. Josh keeps hassling me to jump back into the dating pool with both feet, but I’m content to wade in the shallow end. It may be frustrating to never take the
plunge, but there’s zero chance of