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not gorgeous.”
    “Yes, you are.” His look was serious, with just a little heat. “And I’m not the only man who can recognize that. But I think I can see now why they aren’t always falling all over each other to get to you.”
    “And why’s that?” I tried to sound casual, but I didn’t feel that way. I really wanted to know what he would say.
    “You’re too self-contained.”
    “What does that even mean?” It wasn’t what I would have liked for him to say, and I was starting to get frustrated. I thought I’d come over here for sex. Not to have this strange, unnerving conversation.
    “With some women, you know immediately, you know immediately that they want you, they need you. You can sense that they’d cling to you. And then it’s easy. No risk in asking them out. No challenge in being with them. They make you feel strong, important.”
    “And I’m not one of those women?” I wasn’t sure I liked that idea. At all. I’d never tried to make a man feel less than strong.
    “No. You’re not. You feel…complete. Like you don’t really need someone to fill in gaps in your life.” He was almost smiling now, as if he liked what he saw when he looked at me. “It’s intimidating. A lot of guys wouldn’t go for you because it would feel too hard. It would take too much effort.”
    I frowned, feeling even more self-conscious than ever. “I don’t think I’m that hard to be around.”
    “That’s not what I mean. I just mean that, when a guy looks at you, he’s going to sense that being with you would change him. It would take everything he had.”
    “I’m not sure I buy that.”
    “You don’t have to believe me, but I guarantee it’s true. It’s not conscious—it’s instinctive. You’re complete—with or without him. To be with you, he’d have to summon up everything he had. Most guys are wimps, you know. They’re not going to want to do it.”
    I shook my head, strangely touched and strangely bothered at the same time. “You don’t seem to have had any trouble coming onto me.”
    His expression changed. “Yeah, but I’m not looking to be with you for real. I just want to rub up against you for a while.”
    “So now here comes the dirty talk, I guess.”
    He laughed, that low, sexy laugh that made me shiver. “You really don’t think you’re attractive?”
    “I don’t think I’m un attractive. But I’m nothing special.”
    “Nothing special? I don’t know how in the world you can think that.”
    He looked so astounded that I shifted slightly, crossing my arms over my middle. “Are you talking about my freckles again?”
    “The freckles make me crazy, but I’m talking about everything.” His eyes did a slow sweep of my face and body again. “You’re like this breathtaking paradox—sensual and…and transcendent at the same time. I mean, look at you.”
    He was looking at me, and I’d never in my life felt this way—like he could see through me, like his gaze might eat me alive, like I was naked, even in my clothes, but not ashamed.
    “Even just your hair,” he said, his voice growing thicker as his gaze grew hotter. He was sitting in a separate chair, but it felt like his look was touching me, caressing me. “It usually looks dark, but then the light will hit it unexpectedly, and it flames out in red. And your eyes are beautiful, but they’re more than that. It’s like they hold secrets. Treasures. Things that you’ll never say. And there’s this need to sink into them but also this fear that a guy could drown in them.”
    I was quickly growing hot, breathless, overwhelmed by the words, by his sensual voice, by what he meant. No one had ever spoken to me like this before, and it touched something inside me I didn’t even know existed. I sat perfectly still, shuddering inside, listening as he spoke.
    He leaned forward slightly, his eyes drifting lower than my face. “And that’s not even taking into account your body. Take off your sweater.”
    I did,