Free Dark Attraction: The Corde Noire Series by Alexandrea Weis

glowering at her; instead, she was greeted by a playful smirk. “What’s so funny?”
    He sat back on the sofa. “You’re a very uptight woman, Sam Woods.”
    She stood up. “If you had somebody asking you all of those personal questions, you’d be uptight, too.”
    “We’re not finished here.” His arms went around her and before she could stop him, he had her pinned to the sofa. “Time for another approach.” And then … he kissed her.
    The touch of his lips was so unexpected, Sam became completely incapacitated. She had been kissed before, but never like this. His lips were teasing her, urging her to give in to him. Sam wanted to cave, to surrender to Doug’s embrace, and for a moment she did. She kissed him back, opening her mouth, allowing him to delve deeper. As his arms tightened around her, the trickle of desire in her belly turned into a raging torrent. Then, her ever-present inner voice reawakened, reminding her this was not a good idea.
    But it was Doug who pulled away first. “So you can hand yourself over to passion.”
    She tried to wiggle out from under him. “You just surprised me.”
    He held her to him, not letting go. “Keep telling yourself that, Sam. I know better. I felt it in your kiss.”
    “Was kissing me part of the lesson?”
    He let her go. “Tomorrow night, we’ll try again.”
    She stood from the sofa. “Tomorrow night? You must be crazy.”
    He rose to his feet, his eyes once again hard and cruel. “If you’re going to trust me, there are some barriers that need to be torn down. The physical distance between us is one. Kissing you was a way to speed up the process.”
    “What are you going to do tomorrow night, rape me?”
    He straightened out his shirtsleeves. “I never take a woman who doesn’t want me.”
    “Well, I don’t want you.”
    “That’s not what your kiss told me.”
    Sam wanted to lash out, tell him to never come back, but secretly she wanted to kiss him again. It had been the best kiss of her life.
    Doug moved away, heading for her front door. “Expect me around seven.”
    “Don’t bother coming back,” she called across the room.
    His hand on her doorknob, Doug turned to her. “Tell me you don’t want more, and I will never see you again.”       
    Sam opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell, but the words got caught in her throat.
    “That’s what I thought.” He opened the door. “I’ll make sure to bring more wine tomorrow night.” He stepped into the hall and then glared at her. “Lock this behind me.”
    After he shut the door, Sam scurried across the room. When her lock clicked, she saw his shadow move away from beneath the door. Leaning against the wall, she slowly sank to the floor, utterly drained. This was not good. It was the beginning of something dangerous and stupid, and … she giggled. Sam couldn’t wait to do more.

 
    A few minutes after seven, Sam was pacing the floorboards of her living room. She had rushed home from work and quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a loose fitting T-shirt. In her bathroom, as she had been checking her reflection, she itched to put on makeup and then remembered Doug’s feelings on the subject. Best to face him with just mascara and a bit of gloss; understated and simple.
    All day at work, Sam had thought about Doug and that kiss. She had analyzed it, deconstructed it, and relived it, but she could never make sense of it. If his kiss was any indication of the lessons to come, Sam had no choice but to be his willing student.
    Walking from the bathroom, she was hit by a sudden chill.
    “Not now,” she muttered.
    Her senses reached into the cold and instantly picked up on the female presence. In the corner of her bedroom the white mist returned, rising up like a funnel, while a shape tried to form inside of it.
    She waved at the unfinished form. “Can’t we do this another time?” A knock at the front door made her jump. “Here I am talking to ghosts and jumping when a