Dark Attraction: The Corde Noire Series by Alexandrea Weis Read Free Book Online Page A

consented to being a submissive?”
    “A what?”
    “Do you know what a Dominant is?” he inquired in a husky, deep voice.
    Sam knew anyone not living under a rock was familiar with the term. And if that wasn’t enough, she had endured hours of Piper’s stories about her bondage-obsessed boyfriend and his Dominant lifestyle.
    “I know what it is, Doug.”
    He ran his hand over his five o’clock shadow. “Well, I’m a Dominant.”
    It took a little while for his revelation to sink in, but Sam wasn’t quite sure how to take it. “You? You’re into that?”
    “You say ‘into that’ like it’s a bad thing.”
    “Isn’t it? Dominants make women into sex slaves. Tie them up, spank them, make them do things that are ….” She let her voice fade away, wondering if it was a good idea to antagonize the guy.
    “Are what?” He squared his wide shoulders and folded his thick arms, intimidating her.
    “Are … I don’t know what to call it. ‘Against God’s plan,’ as my father would say.”
    His rigid posture relaxed. “Coming from a preacher’s daughter, I shouldn’t have expected anything else.”
    “I’m a minister’s daughter, and I’m not as uptight as my parents. My father may profess love and forgiveness, but none of those emotions are what drive people to shoot, torture, or murder each other. It seems to me that instead of hurting people, you would want to be better than the rest of the world.”
    His frigid eyes came together quizzically. “I’m not sure what you’ve read, or heard, but being a Dominant is about pleasure, not pain. It’s about what your father preaches, love and forgiveness, but it’s also about exploring that sense of love and forgiveness through sensuality. I’m sure your father never made that point in his Sunday morning sermons, did he?”      
    Sam thought of her father: his perfectly starched white shirts, affinity for crossword puzzles, and his late night appetite for bourbon. He said he drank to chase away his demons, but for Sam that was when his demons came out.
    “Sex to my father was the biggest sin. We grew up sheltered. It wasn’t until I went to college and had to take a sex education class that I got the big picture.”
    Doug’s thin lips lifted into a tepid smile. “I can see why you might consider what I do wrong.”
    Wrong? Did she see it that way? Why wasn’t she repulsed by his admission? She should have been running for her door, afraid to be alone in the same room with Doug. But she wasn’t. Something about what he’d said appealed to her.
    “What you do isn’t wrong, Doug. I spent enough time listening to my father preach about what was right to realize that his way wasn’t the right one, either. Nursing taught me to respect an individual’s choices. My job is to make sure those choices aren’t lethal.”
    He went to the other stool at the bar and had a seat. “What does your father think about your job?”
    A nervous stitch caught in her belly. “Wouldn’t know. I haven’t spoken to him in years.”
    “Years?” He appeared genuinely surprised. “Can I ask what happened?”
    She clasped her hands together and placed them on the bar, feeling that knot in her stomach tighten. “I tried to go to him with a problem once. Something distressing happened to me when I was in college. I wanted his advice on what to do. He called me a worthless daughter and never wanted to speak to me again. So, I moved out of my parents’ house and into the dorm. To finish my degree, I took out loans and borrowed money from my mother’s late sister, Aunt Gertie.”
    “Why did Aunt Gertie give you money and not your mother?”
    “Because Aunt Gertie hated my father and wasn’t afraid of him like my mother. Gertie was a devout Bohemian, who painted nudes of men half her age—and slept with them, too. She was the only member of my family I truly admired. She encouraged me to travel and find myself.”
    Doug took a moment to digest her statement.