"Sarah, this is Heidi." Even with Alex's introduction, Heidi continued to hover over him. "We used to live in the same building before I bought my house."

"Which you've never invited me to see." Heidi pouted prettily.

Alex cleared his throat and looked from Heidi to Sarah and back. "Sometime, Heidi, I promise."

"All right." Heidi sighed and squeezed his shoulder in a way that made Sarah grit her teeth. "But you promised. You heard him, didn't you, Sarah?"

"I certainly did." Even to herself, her voice sounded faint.

"See? Sarah's my witness," Heidi said. "Well, Lex, I've got to run. It was great seeing you again. Call me ... my number's the same!"

With a swirl of auburn hair, Heidi slipped off into the crowd. Sarah kept her eyes fixed on the tray she was unloading. She refused to look at Alex. She wasn't going to make a scene, though the other woman had obviously been flirting.

"This burger looks great!" Alex enthusiastically tore open the grease-stained paper. "Thanks, Sarah."

"No problem." She forced the lightness.

She nibbled her burger, though it sank like a stone into her stomach. Seeing Alex with the gorgeous Heidi hadn't done a lot for her appet.i.te. It was too bad, too, because the burger really did look great.

"I haven't seen Heidi since I moved into my house." He sounded too casual. He washed down a handful of fries with some of his soda.

"Hmm."

"I hardly even know her."

Now she met his gaze. "You don't have to apologize for talking to someone else, even if she could be a supermodel."

"Her? No way. She couldn't model with a paper bag on her head."

His exaggerated comment brought a small smile to her lips. "Alex, I'm not blind. She was gorgeous."

Alex shook his head and grimaced. "She's got a big b.u.t.t. Huge, in fact. And her left earlobe was bigger than the other one. Disgusting. I could hardly stand to look at her. She's a hag, a troll. She's a troglodyte, Sarah." He shuddered.

Sarah's smile turned to a laugh. "You have such a way with words."

"That's me." He had no pretense of modesty. "Mr. Eloquent."

"She called you Lex." The fact no longer bothered her.

Alex made a strangled noise in his throat. "Reason enough to despise her.

Sarah, she came over to me. I didn't ask her to sit down."

"It doesn't matter." It really didn't. "I don't own you, Alex. We've only been

seeing each other a short time. We haven't even agreed not to see other people."

"Do you want to see other people?"

Their food lay uneaten while Sarah thought about what to say. Her next words

could be a big deal. "No."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Me neither."

"Don't rush into this--"

He stopped her with a kiss. "I'm not rushing into anything. If something's

worth doing, it's worth doing right. And you, my lovely Ms. Lazin, are definitely worth doing."

A thrill shot through her at his innuendo. "You're bad, you know that?"

"But it's a good kind of bad." He winked.

They just sat there for a moment longer and stared at each other. The silly grin plastered on his face was a mirror of hers, Sarah was sure. Suddenly, the mall didn't seem crowded at all. Suddenly, the only person she could see was Alex.

Alex was glad they had finished. By the time they'd eaten lunch, found a present for Rivka, and started making their way out of the mall, the crowds

had grown even larger. Getting out at last was a relief, though being forced into such close proximity with Sarah had its advantages. For one thing, he'd been able to link his fingers with hers at the merest excuse.

"Thanks again for coming with me, Alex."

They'd finally managed to escape the hordes of shoppers. They had just broken out of the building and had paused on the sidewalk to breathe in air untainted by the sweat of bargain-hunters.

"My pleasure."

It had been, too. Though he hated shopping, especially in the frou-frou, delicate sorts of shops she'd dragged him into, being with Sarah made even porcelain clowns seem bearable. Not that she'd bought a porcelain clown, of course, and thank G.o.d. As much as he liked her, seeing her plunk down good money for such an atrocity might have dimmed his estimation of her.

She'd bought Rivka a delicate six-pointed star of stained gla.s.s. In vivid shades of purple, red, green, and blue, the star would look beautiful in the front gallery window surrounded by the hues of Rivka's paintings. It was a perfect choice, one that had made him think Rivka wasn't the only sister with artistic talent.

"Oh, no," Sarah protested when he voiced his thought aloud. "I don't have an artistic cell in my body. I'm the pragmatic Lazin daughter. It's like that old joke about sisters, you know? She's the pretty one, and I'm the smart one."

"Does that mean poor Rivka's ugly and stupid?" He liked to see her blush at his teasing.

She immediately caught his meaning, which pleased him inordinately. He'd never been with a woman who didn't need his jokes explained to her. She didn't protest, which pleased him even more. He reached out to brush a stray chocolate curl from her cheek. He'd tell a thousand jokes if it made Sarah smile. A light snow had begun to fall, the first of the season. It dusted the ground everywhere with white, like the sugar on a powdered doughnut. It made him feel like a kid. As they walked to where he'd parked his truck, he even managed to skid a little, sliding sideways through the slush like he was on a skateboard.

"Snow." Sarah's face had lit up in wonder. "How pretty."

She tilted her head back to catch a flake on her tongue. At the sight of the small pink ribbon sticking out from between her perfect lips, the low flame of desire in his belly kindled into something stronger. Sarah was giggling, trying without success to catch some snow. In the harsh fluorescent light from the parking lot, her face was sculpted into lines and shadows broken by the curve of her mouth as she laughed. She was beautiful.

"Alex? My G.o.d, is that you?"

The feminine voice from behind them broke him from his silent admiration of Sarah's face. Her cheeks pinking, Sarah stopped trying to catch a flake. Alex turned.

"Susan." He wasn't at all thrilled.

Cloaked with the reek of cigarette smoke, Susan exclaimed loudly in her husky voice how glad she was to see him. It had been ages, just ages, hadn't it? Why hadn't he called?

"And who's this?" Susan turned her bright, ferrety gaze on Sarah and stuck out her hand. "I'm Susan Warner. A friend of Alex's."

"Sarah Lazin." To her credit, Sarah shook the other woman's hand with no apparent attempt to crush her fingers.

With the introductions over, Susan quite conspicuously looked Sarah over from head to toe. Then, obviously dismissing her as no threat, Susan turned her attention back to Alex. She forced a hug on him, one he did his best not to return.

"Remember the time we went on that ski trip? What a blast! Let's do it again this year, Alex! The ski club's having the same trip. Sarah, do you ski?"

Sarah looked like a rabbit flushed out in front of the lawnmower. "No, I don't."

"Too bad," Susan crooned, turning back to Alex. "Let me know, Alex, okay? You have the number."

Before he could stop her, she'd forced her lips against his cheek. Alex wasn't one to be rude, but he wanted to push the annoying woman away. Of all the times to run into her, just after meeting Heidi ... it was a nightmare.

Then, thankfully, she was gone. The stench of her cigarettes still lingered, though. He saw Sarah tactfully waving away the air in front of her nose, as if to disperse the foul odor.

"We belong to the same ski club," he began by way of explanation.

Sarah held up a hand to stop him. "Alex, it's okay. Really. You had a life before I came along. I understand that."

"I just don't want you to think I dated all those women." In fact, he'd dated both of them once or twice, which was one or two times too many in his opinion.

"All those women?" Sarah quirked her brow at him. She was giving him "the look." He was coming to realize it meant she wasn't up to taking any bull. "I only counted two."

"Two in the same day." He suspected that little fact hadn't slipped by her.

"You dated women, so what?" She shrugged, though the effort seemed forced. "I'd have been surprised if you hadn't."

"Because of the way I look." It angered him it had come back to that again. He finally unlocked the doors to the Tahoe using the remote entry. He doubted he'd have been able to find the keyhole with the way his fingers had become numb. His whole body, in fact, was becoming numb, a feeling he was not used to and definitely did not like.

Sarah gave a simple reply. "Yes. You can't run away from the fact that you're gorgeous, Alex. Not any more than I can pretend to be anything more than average. It's the way we're made."

"It's not!" he shouted, suddenly angrier than he'd ever been. "You're not average, Sarah! Not to me!"

Sarah, concern clear in her blue-ice eyes, reached out to cup his cheek. He leaned into her touch and covered her hand with his own. He kissed her fingers.

"You're beautiful to me. I've never felt so comfortable with anyone before. A thousand women could come on to me and I wouldn't even look at them twice. I love the way you look, the way you smell, the sound of your voice. I love everything about you."

His speech had left him breathless. Sarah looked stricken, not the way he wanted her to look at all. Alex kissed her, and she let him. At least she didn't pull away.

"Be careful what you say," she murmured against his chest.

He thought he heard the threat of tears in her voice, and the thought he might have made her cry stung him like a blow.

"Words can be powerful, Alex."

"I meant everything I said."

She took a deep, trembling breath and shivered. Tears glistened in her eyes. As he watched, one crystal droplet slid down her cheek. He wiped it away.

"Don't..." She paused as if to gather courage. "Don't say it if you're not sure."

He hadn't been sure when he'd blurted the words, but somehow, seeing her single tear had made him certain now.

"I'm sure. I love you, Sarah."

She let out a tiny cry, half laugh and half sob. "You hardly know me!"

"How well do you have to know someone who feels so much like part of

yourself?" His tone was quiet.

The snow fell faster and covered her hair with lacy flakes. She looked as though she wore a veil. A wedding veil.

"Those women--"

"Sharks." The word was blunt. "Sharks who feed on bachelors, Sarah. Any

eligible guy with a decent job is up for grabs to them, and they just circle and