Chapter 1

'What's the best sex you've ever had?' Jamie Nova asked her best friend, Madison Castelli. At twenty-nine Jamie was heartbreakingly lovely. A cool, willowy blonde with classic style and an impeccable pedigree, she was a cross between a young Grace Kelly and a contemporary Gwyneth Paltrow.

'Huh?' Madison said, glancing quickly at the adjoining table in the packed Manhattan restaurant. The couple sitting there were deep into their own conversation and had failed to hear Jamie's provocative question.

'You know what I mean,' Jamie said, brushing a lock of fine, blond hair from her forehead. 'Mind-blowing, earth-shaking down and dirty sex. The kind where you never want to see the guy again, but at the exact moment you're doing it -- anything goes.' A long wistful sigh. 'And I do mean anything.'

'Well...' Madison said, wondering where Jamie, her former college roommate, was going with this.

'Come on,' Jamie said impatiently. 'Answer me.'

'Hmm,' Madison thought for a moment, realizing this was not a question Jamie was about to drop. 'Miami,' she said at last. 'Vacation with my father. I was sixteen, and the guy was a forty-five-year-old major playboy with all the toys. Penthouse, Porsche, porno videos.'

'Porno videos!' Jamie said, rolling her aquamarine eyes in exaggerated horror. 'Doesn't sound too sexy to me.'

'I can assure you it was,' Madison retorted crisply. 'He had this oversized water bed covered in rose petals. A pitcher of champagne with sliced peaches. Sexy European body oil. And' -- she paused for full effect -- 'an extraordinarily talented tongue!'

'Ah...the old talented-tongue trick,' Jamie retorted a touch bitterly. 'Gets 'em every time.'

Madison raised an eyebrow. 'What's with you today? Why all this sex talk? You're a married woman and -- if what I hear is true -- once you're married, sex is supposed to be nothing but a distant memory.'

'Very funny,' Jamie said glumly.

'I was joking,' Madison said, sensing trouble in the paradise that Jamie inhabited. It was a fact that everyone who knew Jamie and her Wall Street hotshot husband, Peter, considered them the golden couple. They seemed to have everything, and yet today Madison sensed a lurking storm. 'So, what's up?' she asked, leaning across the table. 'Tell me everything.'

'Well,' Jamie said, biting on her lower lip. 'Last night we were at a dinner party and the question arose.'

'What question?'

'The best-sex-you've-ever-had question,' Jamie said, toying with her salad. 'And here's the thing -- everyone was coming up with really good answers.'

'Yes?' Madison said curiously.

'Naturally, when it came to me, I carried on about it being the first time Peter and I made love. I told a cute little story about it, and everyone oohed and aahed. Then it was Peter's turn, and he suddenly went very quiet, muttered that he couldn't remember and abruptly changed the subject.'

'Maybe he was embarrassed.'

'Peter?' Jamie shook her head vigorously. 'Not him.'

'Had he been drinking?'

'Not at all.'

'Then...what?' Madison asked, perplexed.

par'I think he's having an affair,' Jamie blurted.

'Come on!' Madison exclaimed. 'You've only been married three years. Give the guy a chance to get bored.'

'Thanks a lot,' Jamie said huffily. 'What makes you think he'd ever get bored?'

True, Madison thought, how could any man be bored with a woman like Jamie by his side? She was perfect. Everyone knew that. Besides, in a proper world, no man would cheat on Jamie.

But the world wasn't proper, and most men were dogs, so maybe Jamie was right, maybe Peter was exercising his precious manhood in...