Think "Toni Braxton," and a couple of things inevitably come to mind - saucy hits like "You're Making Me High" (about satisfying her desire for a man) and her unforgettable 2001 Grammy night dress, little more than a strategically placed long, white scarf.

She laughs with a tinge of embarrassment when these are now mentioned, however. It's not that the daughter of a Maryland preacher doesn't want to keep pushing the sexual envelope and flaunting her God-given assets.

It's just, well, she has other considerations now. In the time since her last album - 2000's The Heat - she's gotten married, had a son and now is pregnant again with another boy.

"Songs like 'You're Making Me High,' I would have to explain that to my boys when they get older," the Severn native says by phone from her home in Los Angeles. "It changes when you're a mother. Their friends' parents will hear it, and their friends will say, 'Your mom writes these really provocative lyrics!'"

Which is not to say the sexy Braxton millions of fans have adored since her 1993 debut has disappeared. Rest assured, the 34-year-old diva still coos racy lyrics (like "I've got lingerie and toys and things to set the mood tonight").

Since she was discovered pumping gas at an Annapolis station and burst onto the music scene with such hits as "Breathe Again," Braxton has played the vixen card to the cheers of fans male and female. Men want to date her, and women want to be her. They love her for anthems with attitude like "He Wasn't Man Enough" and for having the chutzpah to wear next-to-nothing at awards shows and on magazine covers and still look glamorous doing it.

She's sold 6 million singles and more than 12 million of her three popular albums and a Christmas CD, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But in the two years since she released an album, a whole new generation of sirens from Ashanti to Christina Aguilera has dominated the music industry.

Two weeks ago, Braxton stepped back onto the playing field with her album More Than a Woman. Working with some of hip-hop's hottest producers - Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and the ubiquitous Neptunes - Braxton crafted an album that features few of her signature big ballads and, instead, is heavy on edgy R&B.; "Me and My Boyfriend" samples Tupac Shakur, the first single "Hit the Freeway" features the rapper Loon and "Lies, Lies, Lies" (which her producer husband, Keri Lewis, worked with her on) has touches of the rock music Braxton, a Led Zeppelin fan, loves.

"Music's like fashion," she says. "You always have to reinvent yourself. It's still the same old me. I'm just trying to spice it up a little."

And it's a new flavor that has gotten positive responses so far. Shani Saxon, Vibe magazine's music editor, says Braxton's album is a strong statement at a crucial time.

"She's older, she's married and is about to be the mother of two," Saxon says. "Any time an artist starts to make this transition, they find themselves having to reintroduce themselves to a younger audience. ... The great thing about Toni is that she always has her core fan base. The question is how well her new album will stand up to the younger crop of artists who are coming up."

Saxon says because Braxton is a wife and mother and still seen as beautiful and kittenish, women may hold her up as an even bigger role model than before.

"She knows that, more and more, sex sells," says Saxon, whose December magazine features a three-months-pregnant Braxton looking vampy and baring her midriff. "For better or for worse, it's less and less about the music and more about the image. As someone whose strong point is her vocals, it's almost unfair that she has to place so much attention on her physical appearance. But she is realistic about the marketplace and what's expected."

Part of this awareness stems from Braxton's negative past experiences. Even though her first two albums - 1993's Toni Braxton and 1996's Secrets - sold well, in 1998, she filed for bankruptcy and sued her record company, LaFace Records, in a contentious contract feud. They eventually settled for an undisclosed amount.

Recently, Braxton received another reminder of how callous the music industry can be. When she first discovered she was pregnant this summer, rumors abounded that executives at Arista were less than pleased because they worried it would interfere with album sales.

"My feelings were so hurt," she says. "I just wanted to cry. That was the first time in my life I felt even a teeny bit bad about being pregnant, and pregnancy is so beautiful, and I'm so fortunate. ... "I thought, 'Can I do this anymore? This is supposed to be fun.' I always told myself that, the second it's not fun, I can't do it. And that was the first time in my whole career that I felt that way.

"Then I called the record company head and thank God, he was like, 'My mom was a working mom. I will not have anything like that going on in my company,'" she adds. "He took care of me, which made me feel better."

Braxton says she's kept herself grounded and happy by focusing on what's important to her - family. After marrying Lewis, whom she met when his R&B; group Mint Condition toured with her, she gave birth to son Denim Cole and now is due to give birth early next year. She says she's worked hard at remaining the temptress both at home as well as in public.

"It's important that I'm sexy for myself and my husband," she says. "And it can be hard. The house sometimes looks like the Rugrats - there are toys everywhere, and you're chasing after the baby, and you're pregnant again. There are moments when I just don't feel sexy and you have to work harder to keep it sexy.

"Like, when you were single and you dated, in between dates, you may not shave your legs," she adds, chuckling. "You're like, 'I'm not shaving my legs until Thursday because I'm not seeing him until Friday.' But when you're married, you've gotta shave more often so you don't look like a gorilla."

Even though Braxton grew up in Maryland, she says she hasn't been back for a while. Her father lives in Baltimore, and she has two siblings who live in the city's suburbs, but she splits her time between homes in Los Angeles and Atlanta, where she moved from Severn.

"I call myself a crabby peach because I was born in Maryland, but Atlanta is where I lived as an adult," she says.

She doesn't know when she'll next be back to this area. In about six months, she heads to New York to prep for a role in Aida on Broadway. When she's not working or mothering, she spends time on personal projects like writing children's books, which her husband is pushing her to publish. And she's determined not to be too worried about where her music career takes her.

"I'm just gonna keep it going," she says. "Fifty years from now, maybe I'll be in Vegas or performing somewhere, just singing, doing my own thing, doing what I love."