She smiled. "If you'll quit looking at me maybe we can stop it. Look the other way and I'll try to stop thinking about you because you do something to me."
Kerran nodded. "That's it. Beat it! I'll put my mind on something else."
Visualizing a horse race in which he had his money on the bang-tail just ready to break the tape, he didn't feel the tug for several seconds. He struggled mightily but futilely to resist. He wound up in the kitchen where the girl was holding onto the electric range.
"You didn't play fair," he said accusingly. "Treacherous. Just like all your sex. You thought about me."
She lowered her eyes. "I—I just couldn't help it."
Kerran felt his chest expand involuntarily. "One of us is irresistible," he said. "It isn't you because I positively was not thinking about you. So it must be me." His chest expanded another inch. "I guess a girl who can't resist me would be true. And since we can't beat this force, the only solution is to get married."
She nodded. "That's the only solution. But maybe I don't want to solve the problem. You'll have to persuade me."
The voice from the television in the living room was barely audible in the kitchen: "The new force was originally developed for the purpose of drawing troops into a compact group so they could be atom-bombed. Professor Madigan refused to disclose its secret to be used for that purpose. She pointed out that it had a far more useful potential. A field of it, built into a woman's garments, enables her to attract at a distance the man of her choice. She can control this with a switch conveniently located in a pocket. Her own charms do the rest."
Kerran ignored the telecast. She was in his arms and he had his face half-buried in her silken hair. "I don't even know your name ..." he laughed embarrassedly.
Her voice was low and soft as she murmured, "Madigan—Joyce Madigan."