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tenants. She couldn't blurt out the retail sales of some of the stores had slipped along with the beleaguered economy.
    Although she wasn't to blame for the revenue loss, her job prospects were weakened by any decrease in mall sales. As far as her superiors were concerned, her position could be axed at any time. The shopping center’s age, lack of exposure, and archaic management practices only made her situation worse. Harry ran interference when he could but, the bottom line was, she needed to pull retail sales out of the slump or kiss her promotional future good-bye. At this point, with her father's next surgery already scheduled, the thought of failure made her stomach ache.
    "The meeting you missed was important," Dan observed.
    "Simply getting six directors from all over the country in one conference room at the same time is a challenge." Her lips curved, although she never felt less like smiling. "Harry expected it to tip the scales in my favor."
    "I do understand your position." It sounded like he was picking his way through a mine field. "It doesn't change the fact you took a bad knock to your head today."
    Sweet mercy, the man was persistent. "Why do you care so much what happens to me?"
    An intense, unreadable emotion flickered in his eyes. "Maybe I don't like to see my friends hurting."
    Her heart melted. If this were the kind of concern he showed a friend, what would he do for a lover? Would he cajole and entice her into resting or throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to the nearest bed? She could think of half a dozen worse things than being personally tucked in by Dan McDonald.
    Don't go there, Tess.
    "I'm a big girl, Dan. I know how to take care of myself." Her newly revived hormones were giving her fits though!
    "Fine. Go back to your office." He shook his head. "I want you to do something for me first."
    His acceptance threw her off guard. Then she realized he was simply changing tactics. Her lips curved up in admiration. "I'm laying odds you were a formidable force in the boardroom. Maybe I’d better escape now while I can."
    He grinned, reached into his pocket. "You can spare two minutes to humor me."
    She bit her lip when he tugged her hand close and pressed something into her palm. Her fingers curled automatically, his warmth seeping under her skin, alternately exciting and soothing.
    "Now, close your eyes and count to ten."
    Tess mentally tallied the stacks of work waiting for her in her office.
    "Okay, look down," Dan instructed. "What do you see?"
    "A card?"
    Scooping up the plastic square, he waggled it in front of her face as though he were a world-renown magician about to reveal all his wondrous secrets. "Ah! This is no ordinary card. See the words at the top?"
    "Yes."
    "What do they say?"
    "The Stress Factor."
    "See the chart?" He waited for her nod. "Each color means something. Blue, for calm. Green, for normal. Red is tense. Black is marked STRESS.
    "When you held the card, it registered your stress level. What's the color in the box?" He dropped the card, face up, in her hand.
    She sat rigidly in her chair, staring down at it like it was a snake coiled to strike. "It's black."
    "What does that tell you?"
    Throwing the card on the table between them, she wiped her damp palm on her skirt. "It doesn't mean anything! It's like a mood ring of the 70s. It's all very colorful, but not too scientific or accurate. If you're saying I'm a strung out woman on her way to the padded room on the say-so of a little piece of plastic, I'll deny it every step of the way."
    "Okay, say it is all hokum. Let me show you something." Dan picked up the card, pressed his thumb to the appropriate square, and locked his gaze on hers.
    From the first bold contact, she was lost. His cool, sea green eyes looked calm, placid, and she felt as if she'd stepped, chin-deep, into a pool of overheated water with a powerful current rushing below the surface. It dragged her in one direction, then another, then another, until