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glanced down at her plain flats. “Why should I torture them?”
    “Yeah,” Carly agreed, feeling foolish.
    “This isn’t really about earrings or heels, is it?”
    Carly hesitated. With the exception of her oldest brother, her entire family had warmed to her solemn, understated assistant. And since Sara had revealed that her parents were dead and she wished she had some relatives, Carly felt reluctant to say anything negative about her brothers.
    “I’m just rethinking my image,” she finally said.
    Sara nodded. “Have your brothers been making you crazy?”
    “No,” Carly said, then smiled ironically. “At least not lately. With Ethan, Nathan, and Brick on that camping trip, things have been pretty quiet. But there have been some comments different people have made that have bothered me.”
    “Like?”
    Her smile fell. “Like Carly’s always been so shy and reserved. Like you’re just not that kind of girl.” Her voice became more clipped. “Like everybody knows you’re as innocent as the day you were bom.”
    “Hmm,” Sara said.
    “Hmm what?”
    Sara smiled slowly. “Sounds like you’d like to be tarnished.”
    Carly thought about all the ways she could be tarnished. Most of those ways involved Russ Bradford. She sighed. “Yeah.”
    “Well, I’ve never set out to be tarnished. But if I wanted to ... be tarnished, I think I’d wear something from one of these catalogs.”
    To Carly’s surprise, sensible Sara pulled out a half-dozen mail-order catalogs with clothes that accented the physical attributes of a woman.
    Carly took them all home that night and called in an order before she lost her nerve.

    Russ drove to Carly’s apartment and prepared himself for another easygoing, nonthreatening date. He didn’t really want to go to the mayor’s dinner party. What he wanted was to get some burning questions answered. Like, what did Carly wear to bed and how long would it take to get it off her? What color were her nipples and what did they taste like? Would she sigh or gasp when he spread her thighs and moved between them?
    Russ groaned. His carefully planned strategy was starting to wear on his nerves, he thought darkly. It was pure hell keeping his hands off Carly every time he gave her that brotherly good-night peck at the door.
    Still he didn’t want to scare her off. He needed to lure her slowly, but so completely that she wouldn’t question it when he suggested they make love. That was the plan. Just the thought of having Carly in his arms and in his bed made his palms sweat.
    Russ knocked and waited patiently at her apartment door until she peeked out. She smiled a little uncertainly, but her eyes sparkled with excitement. He wondered at the curious combination of emotions until she opened the door the rest of the way.
    She wore the most unvirginal white dress he’d ever seen in his life. It fell off one tanned shoulder, then molded to her curves with breath-stealing clarity. It showed more leg than it concealed. By the time Russ snapped his jaw shut, more than his palms were sweating.
    “Hi,” Carly said.
    “Hi,” was all he could manage to answer. Then he shook his head. Now he understood why her brothers had been so protective. It was a wonder they hadn’t wrapped her in a robe and thrown a veil over her face.
    Carly carried the conversation during the brief trip to Mayor Goodman’s house. Russ was still trying to deal with the change in her. He was very careful not to touch her, because once he did, he knew he wouldn’t stop until she’d eased the ache in his loins. He pulled the car to a stop and took a fortifying breath before he got out and led Carly up the walkway.
    With a pained smile on her face, Janet Goodman answered the door of the two-story home. A chorus of howls started up as soon as they walked through the door.
    “The twins are teething, and my daughter went out on her first date,” Janet explained.
    “So you lost your baby-sitter,” Carly concluded.
    “I