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“So what is it tonight?”
    â€œYou’re not making this easy for me.”
    â€œAnd you’re not making it easy for me either.”
    She refused to let his persistence wear her down. “Daniel, you’re a good man. And I’m not—” she groped for the proper words “—I’m not good for good men. I ruin them.”
    He gave a burst of laughter. “You’re nuts,” he said. “You’re sexy as hell. But you’re nuts. You couldn’t ruin a peapod.”
    She sucked in a harsh breath. “How about a senator?”
    His laughter faltered. “What?”
    She shook her head. There were some things she simply couldn’t discuss, even for the sake of Daniel Pendleton. “I don’t want to go into it, so just trust me. Two men, two good men, lost everything because of their relationships with me. I don’t want the same thing to happen to you.”
    Daniel scratched his head. “Now, let me get this straight. You think you’re responsible for the downfall of these two men.” He waved his hand. “That it’s somehow related to you.”
    â€œDefinitely,” Sara said in a solemn voice.
    â€œAnd,” he continued, “you think that if you get involved with me, you’ll ruin my life.”
    Sara nodded.
    He rolled his eyes and tugged his tie loose. “I gotta tell you, Sara. That’s the biggest bunch of bull I’ve heard in my life. And with Troy as my brother, I’ve heard a hell of a lot.”
    Sara stiffened. “I’m sorry if you don’t believe it, but it’s true.” She turned and headed for the kitchen.
    Daniel followed after her. “You really expect me to believe that you lure good men down the road to perdition? How did you do it, Sara? Did you put a magic potion in their hot chocolate? Did you sprinkle fairy dust on them when they slept? How did you do it?”
    She gritted her teeth together, took the milk from the refrigerator and poured it into a pan. “It’s a little more basic than that.”
    Completely baffled, he shook his head. “Then it must be one of the top three ways to a man’s heart—money, food or—”
    Sara whipped around, her eyes shooting off enough sparks to set the kitchen on fire. “Sex.”
    Daniel fell silent. He cleared his throat, never easing his gaze from hers. “You want to explain that?”
    Sara sent up a silent prayer for deliverance from men with violet eyes, broad shoulders and too many questions. “I thought it was self-explanatory.” The milk began to simmer, and she turned away to reach for the cocoa.
    In an instant he was behind her, staying her arm and turning off the burner. “The chocolate can wait. You can’t just say something like that and go on like you’re discussing the weather.”
    Oh, Lord, he was going to make her say it. He was the kind of man to expect complete honesty, and something about him made her want to deliver what he expected. Maybe if she tried to explain it, she told herself, he would understand and stop this insanity.
    Where were the words? Sighing, Sara stared at the clock on the stove. The second hand made jerky little movements that seemed to echo the beat of her heart. “They said I was good at it. The first man who—” she swallowed “—who taught me said I seemed to have a natural propensity for it. He told me,” she continued with irony, “that I had a talent for making a man hot. Back then I was so stupid, I thought he was paying me a compliment.” She took a deep breath. “My husband concurred.”
    She felt a ripping sensation inside her. Exposing herself this way left her raw and vulnerable. Covering it as best as she could with a tight smile, she turned. “So here I am with my little bag of feminine tricks and talent.” It would have been more accurate to say that here she was with all her