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philosophy. Within the year he had used the incredible rationales available in twentieth-century
    philosophy to justify sleeping with one of his beautiful, brilliant students.“
    „Alina…“
    She lifted a hand to ward him off. „Let me finish. I want you to understand completely. In the painful months
    everyone goes through after a divorce, I stumbled across the story of Battista. I knew what was waiting for me when I
    reentered the social world Everyone knows what the world of the desperate, swinging singles is like. I wanted no part
    of it, but I also knew myself well enough to realize I’m basically a sociable creature. Battista, I saw almost at once, had
    solved the problem. She had the world coming to her.“
    A slow smile lit Jared’s green eyes. „So instead of joining the wild singles’ scene, you decided to take a leaf out of
    Battista’s book, is mat it? You made the world over in your private Renaissance image.“
    „It wasn’t hard, but there is a key,“ she informed him coolly, turning back into the kitchen and depositing the
    glasses on the counter.
    „The key is to convince yourself and therefore everyone else around you that you really don’t want to remarry.“
    Alina swiveled around on her heel, bracing herself against the white-tiled counter as she faced him, smiling. „It’s a
    matter of basic male psychology. Men feel ‘safe’ around a woman who isn’t threatening them with marriage or too
    many demands. In a perverse way they start falling all over themselves to have the butterfly that no one can catch.“
    Jared lounged in the doorway, watching her as if she were, indeed, a colorful butterfly he wanted in his net He said
    nothing.
    „It started out as a kind of game,“ Alina admitted, thinking back to the traumatic first year after her divorce. „I told
    myself I would simply follow Battista’s rules for handling men. She really took very few as lovers, you know. Battista
    wasn’t a prostitute. She was the quintessential tease, Jared. She gave a man everything but herself. The vast majority
    enjoyed her charming company, her intellect, her good food, and the brilliant, colorful guests she invited to her parties.
    But that was all they got“
    She paused tauntingly to see if he wanted to argue the point When he still remained silently propped in her
    doorway, Alina shrugged lightly and continued.
    „As I said, it started out as a game. A way to build a social life without recourse to the singles’ bar. I had been a
    faculty wife long enough to know just what appeals to the intellectual type. I used what I had learned, what Battista
    had taught me, and I set out to be the perfect incarnation of the kind of lady who could dominate a Renaissance court
    It was a challenge,“ she added with a curving twist of her mouth. „And I intended to do it only until the right man came
    along. After all, underneath the veneer, I was still Alina Corey who knew she wouldn’t be happy unless she
    remarried.“
    „When,“ he asked interestedly, „did you discover you were no longer that Alina Corey? That Battista had, indeed,
    become a part of you?“
    She laughed. „Full marks for your perception,“ she applauded. „About a year ago, I think. It’s difficult to pinpoint
    the time. It was an evolutionary process. I didn’t just wake up one morning and realize mat I no longer had any interest
    in marriage, that my life was too full, too exciting, too interesting as it was. I think I first acknowledged it to myself after
    I turned down an offer of marriage from a man who was an ideal candidate for Mr. Plight I declined his offer without
    even pausing to think, and later I realized the old Alina Corey would have jumped at the chance. He was perfect A
    successful writer with an interest in history. Good-looking, charming, intelligent, and affectionate.“
    „And you turned him down without a qualm.“
    „I’m afraid so,“ she murmured. „He asked me one evening shortly after I had