Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Science fiction; Sexual attraction -- Fiction; Short stories
He shook his head. "I'm plain as an old shoe. Everybody knows. But you!
One look at you and anybody'd know you've got this magnetism. That's
why I had to be so brutal. It was the only way I could resist and keep
my woman-hating integrity. I can feel your magnetism now. It's getting
stronger."
"And I feel yours. It's pulling me right into your arms."
"Stay back. I can't stand much more. I'm a confirmed misogynist, and if
you keep on I'll have to go against my principles, and that wouldn't be
honest."
"I can't help it," she murmured from two feet away. "I can't resist
you."
Kerran puzzled briefly. "Maybe that's it. I remember when I was
overseas. But no! All they wanted was chewing gum and cigarets. Still,
you never can tell. Maybe it came on me suddenly. Maybe looking at you
sort of triggered my magnetism."
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."
He stiffened suddenly. "You mean you're _Professor_ Madigan--"
She snuggled closer against him and somehow it didn't really seem to
matter now what her name was. "Let's say I _was_ Professor Madigan--a
woman's place is in the home, don't you agree?"
After a few emphatic kisses he did.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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