"We're going to dinner and a movie tonight," Hannah explained.

She was dating this Neanderthal? No, she couldn't be that desperate. "You two have a good time." He glanced at Hannah and jerked his head back toward his office. "Can I have two more minutes before you leave?"

"Sure."

After she preceded him into his office, he closed the door. "Please don't tell me you're interested in that loser."

"Why not? Hank's got a great sense of humor, and he's very sweet to me."

"He's built like a tree stump and probably has about as much class as one." The thought of the man putting his dishpan paws on Hannah made Jordan cringe. "Let me guess. You're going out for pizza before the movie?"

The blush in her cheeks said he was right. "I love pizza. Not everyone can look like God's gift to women or afford five-star restaurants."

"Hannah, he's not right for you. You can do better than a cafeteria worker with a high school education."

"You're a snob. Hank's going to culinary school at night."

"I'm not a snob. I just know how intelligent you are, and you have nothing in common with that guy. I know how much he makes, and believe me he can't afford to support a family. The man probably still lives with his mother."

"So what if he does?" She strolled over to the plants behind his desk and pinched a few dead leaves and flowers off them. "It's only because his mom has multiple sclerosis and she needs extra help." She spun around and pointed at him. "And you should talk. You're thirty-eight, and you still live with your grandfather. What's your excuse?"

"It's not the same thing. I can afford to buy my own home anytime I feel like it. Can he say the same?"

"Listen-" She tossed the dead foliage into his wastebasket. "It's clear you're suffering from a raging case of you don't want me, but no one else should have me, either, syndrome."

All right, so maybe he was. Just the thought of her kissing anyone else twisted his gut in a knot. "You know I want you. More than any woman I've ever known." He glanced down at her feet. "Damn it, just seeing your toes all day gets me hot. But you're just as well aware of why we can't get involved. I hate to see you settle for less than you deserve."

"I'm not the one reneging on our no-strings deal, Mr. Calder. You are by butting into my love life. So unless you're willing to change your position and have a real relationship with me, don't presume to tell me whom I should or shouldn't date. It's none of your damn business."

Except, fair or not, he wanted everything about her to be his business.

"Fine." He lifted his hands in surrender. "Just remember if you become a couple, you'll be known as Hank and Hannah-which is only slightly less corny than Jack and Jill."

"Thank you. I had a really great time tonight." Hannah turned and inserted the key into the lock on her apartment door.

Hank joined her on the wide cement step. "Me, too. In fact, I'd like to do it again next week."

Inasmuch as she'd had fun that night, she didn't want to give him the erroneous impression she was interested in getting serious with him. Jordan was right, she really didn't have all that much to talk about with Hank, and the fact she earned a lot more than he did seemed to bother him a lot. He'd become extremely defensive when Hannah tried to pick up the check for their ice cream sundaes after the movie.

"Things are really crazy at work right now with the pediatric conference coming up, and I've already got a couple of other dates planned next week. Maybe later in the month, you can ask me again."

"Sure. I understand." As he leaned in to kiss her, she turned her face slightly so his mouth brushed just the corner of hers.

"Thanks again." She slipped inside and heaved a deep sigh, noticing the phone's call light blinking on the end table.

There were no messages, so she checked the caller ID and counted fourteen calls from Jordan's number in the last ninety minutes. When the phone immediately rang and his number appeared on the display again, perverse satisfaction and hope rushed through her. Maybe the CD was actually working.

As soon as she picked up the receiver, he snapped, "Where have you been? It's after midnight."

"We went out for coffee after the movie and talked for a while." She winced, recalling how superficial Hank's conversation had been. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah....ummm-what'd you do with the clinical trial results for the Ardegent cream?"

She stifled a chuckle over his bogus excuse for calling. "I put the file in your briefcase just like you asked me to."

"Oh, right. Here it is. I don't know how I missed it."

"So if that file was important enough to call fourteen times, why didn't you just dial my cell phone? Or you could have left a message for me to call you back."

"How'd you kno-"

"Caller ID, Jordan. As I'm sure you know, seeing as you called here only three minutes ago, I just walked in the door."

"Oh. Uhh...." The line fell silent while he obviously tried to dream up a plausible explanation for fourteen calls.

"You were checking up on me."

"Did you have fun tonight?" he asked, ignoring her accusation.

"I had a wonderful time."

Of course, having pizza for the first time in six months and seeing a blockbuster hit had more to do with her enjoyment than the less-than-scintillating company.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd really like to go to bed."

"Is Stallone-er-Stanzione still there?"

She opened her mouth to blast Jordan for insinuating she'd be willing to jump into the sack with a guy so easily, then snapped it shut. Let him wonder. Her outrage would only put the big oaf's mind to rest.

"Whether he's still here or not is none of your business." Hannah hung up the phone, and twenty seconds later, it rang again. She snatched up the receiver and drew an unsteady breath before launching into him. "Jordan, just because we slept together doesn't give you license-"

"So there is something going on between you two." Her mother laughed in her ear.

"Candace. H-How are you?"

"Fabulous. My agent just negotiated a small part for me in Ron Howard's next film."

"Congratulations. I suppose that's why you stood me up on Monday night."

"Actually it is," Candace admitted. "I had to fly to LA at the last minute."

"And you couldn't call?" Hannah asked pacing the length of the living room.

"It slipped my mind. I hope you'll forgive me."

"I'll think about it," she muttered in a begrudging tone.

"Also, I just got an invitation to a pre-production party from Ron, and when I was checking my calendar, I realized I'd forgotten your birthday, too. I'm so sorry."

"No, you're not. Nor did you forget my birthday or our dinner plans, so you can cut the repentant-mother act."

"Why would you say something so nasty?"

"Because it's true. Admit it. My birth changed your entire life. It's not a date you're likely to forget. You waited until now to call so you could rub salt in the wound and remind me of how low a priority I am to you."

Candace gasped. "What's gotten into you lately?"

"Nothing. I simply refuse to let you hurt me anymore. I love you, and I want to spend time with you," she quoted Jordan's words, "but I don't need to see you to be happy. I'm tired of the games."

"What games?"

"The ones we both play. I've been in counseling, and my therapist pointed out that we don't have a normal mother-daughter relationship. As she says, we're more like sisters, complete with sibling rivalry."

"Of course we are." Candace huffed. "Your grandparents saw to that."

"Well, it's been suggested, if I'd quit waiting for you to love me, my pain would end."

"I do love you, Hannah."

"Do you? Then why do you act as if you hate me? You have it all, Mother-beauty, fame, wealth-and yet you persist in trying to hurt me."

The line was silent for several awkward seconds before Candace whispered, "I don't hate you, Hannah. I love you in my own sick way. Although, I suppose I do resent you."

"Why? It's not as if you've ever had me hanging around, ruining your life or anything. Gram and Gramps took care of me the enti-"

"You don't understand. They were different with you. You weren't raised by the same two people I was. When I was a child, my parents were so wrapped up in each other I was always in the way. I just wanted my father to love me, too. And then you came along, and he doted on you and called me a tramp and a whore."

"I know Gramps disapproved of you, but you really disappointed him."

"Not before he let me down first. Maybe if he'd ever paid any attention to me, I wouldn't have had to seduce my drama teacher in order to feel wanted."

Hannah's mouth dropped open. She'd always assumed her mother had slept with some classmate who'd refused to accept responsibility for Hannah's conception. "Your teacher?"

"Yes. He was fresh out of college-a total hunk with light brown wavy hair."

Which explained her unruly, dishwater mop.

"Your grandparents and I never told you about your dad because we didn't want you to know they'd pressed charges against him for statutory rape."

"He went to prison?"

"And had his career destroyed. I've always felt like your father got a raw deal, being labeled a sex-offender. He was only twenty-three, and I pretty much threw myself at him."

"So you told Gramps you seduced the poor guy, and then you were surprised by your father's attitude?"

"I was fifteen and emotionally troubled, Hannah. Like half the other girls my age, I wore too much makeup and rock-star outfits, trying to convince the world I was older than I was. Your grandfather treated me like I was a slut, and then you came along and were the perfect little princess I'd never been."

Guilt squeezed Hannah's chest at the memory of being cuddled in her grandpa's lap while he read the Sunday comics to her. Her mother's resentment was also probably why Candace had never shared any of her financial success with Hannah or her grandparents. "I'm sorry. But none of that was my fault."

"No, it wasn't. But that didn't make it hurt any less. When you were three months old, I left to escape my parents' condemnation. And every time I came home to visit, you just got cuter and more perfect in their eyes."

"And posing for those skin magazines made it better?"

"Hey, if I had to wear the name, I figured I might as well play the game."

Hannah grabbed the back of the sofa to steady herself. She'd taken the exact same attitude when Jordan had disapproved of her dress at the charity dance. Maybe she was more like her mother than she wanted to admit.

She swallowed hard. "And Gramps and Gram raised me to be just as disapproving. That's why you flaunt yourself with men in front of me, isn't it? To punish me, too?"

"Maybe. You're the one seeing a therapist. You tell me. You may not believe it, but I've only slept with three guys in my life-your father and two other men I loved."

Apparently, Diana had been right. Hannah had misjudged her mother. "If that's true, then why do you put on that femme fatale act all the time?"

"That's the role the world expects me to play. It doesn't matter what strangers think. I know the truth." Candace's voice cracked as if she might be crying. "People who are close to me know I'm a good person."

"Listen." Hannah's throat tightened. "I'm sorry for tarring you with the same brush as Gram and Gramps. I'd love to be close to you. We could start over."

"Do you really think we can?" Candace sniffled.

"We can try. I don't need a mother anymore. Why don't we try being friends instead?"

Candace was silent for several seconds. "I'd like that a lot."

"Me, too," Hannah agreed, blinking back the tears that welled in her eyes.

"So, as my friend, tell me about Jordan. It's obvious from the way you answered the phone you're having problems with him."

For the next half hour, Hannah filled Candace in on the transformation her hypnosis had wrought in her and her relationship with her boss. "It's been six weeks, and I've changed more than I ever believed I could."

So much, she wondered if she might have swung too far in the other direction and started turning into her mother.

"How was he in bed? Is he as good a lover as he looks like he'd be?"

"Do you really think I'd tell my mother something like that?"

"Maybe not. But you'd tell your sister or a friend, wouldn't you?"

True. "He was incredible. I never dreamed sex could be that good. Except now I don't know where I stand. Jordan insists he can't get involved with me. But I know he's dying to."

"I don't doubt it. I always knew you'd be irresistible to men if you ever quit wearing those frumpy outfits and lost a few pounds. That's probably another reason why I've felt so threatened by you."

"That's silly. You're one of the most beautiful women in-"

"Hey," Candace said laughing. "Take it from someone who knows, being a sex-goddess isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've never attracted the highest caliber of men. At least nobody interested in settling down with a family."

Hannah had already discovered that drawback. "Jordan is as anti-marriage as men come, which is why I had that stupid CD made."