She took me half way there, and then played innocent.
Is the context something like: she (the subject of 引きつける) is trying to lead him (僕) or secretly induce him to go somewhere, like the location of a surprise birthday party, but is pretending like she is not doing anything deceptive or out of the ordinary?
What is the connotation that おいて adds to this sentence?
@ericaw
The Japanese sentence is most likely to be interpreted as a sexual seduction. She seemed to send romantic signals to the speaker many times or allowed him to touch her body, but she eventually backed off.
You cannot interpret the sentence as a surprise party because いいところまで doesn’t make sense.
〜しておく have two means:
“To have something done” (i.e. completion of task)
“To leave it as it is” or “to keep/reserve it”.
ひきつけておいて、あとは… in the lesson sentence is interchangeable with ひきつけて、あとは… However, inserting おく gives the nuance of a dog begging for a treat but not being able to get it (i.e. he was left).