Dark Attraction: The Corde Noire Series by Alexandrea Weis Page A

Then she imagined telling him about her ability and watching him run away. He would be repelled by what she could do; anyone would be. Even her father had feared her.
    Don’t tell him. Just sleep with him and move on.
    Perhaps that insidious voice in her head had a point. For the first time, she wanted to have sex with a man who could help her to forget about her past … and her gift. Sam knew it would never last, but at least she could enjoy something resembling a normal life, before the ghosts ruined everything … yet again.
    *     *     *
    Sam returned home that night and all that greeted her was Doug’s closed door. Outside her apartment, she listened for sounds of movement from inside his place, but there was nothing. Giving up, she went to bed and hoped to encounter him the next day.
    Beneath her sheets, she plotted out scenarios with the attractive man. Things she would say or do to spark his interests. Piper had said be seductive, enticing, but Brenda had encouraged her to be bubbly.
    “Men adore bubbly,” she had professed with a giggle.
    Tossing and turning with thoughts of Doug, blended with the advice from Brenda and Piper, sleep eluded her. Throwing the sheets aside, she sighed. Getting a man sure wasn’t this hard in the movies.
    Standing from her bed, she heard the tapping again in the wall. After learning the history of the building from Brenda, she wasn’t surprised by the tapping. Sam just wondered why it had never died away.
    In the living room, she heard the strange noise start up again. Tonight, it didn’t sound like it was in the wall, but above in the ceiling. The unusual tapping always traveled, but Sam had just figured that was what ghosts did … moved around.
    She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water when she felt a chill brush past her. Halting by the breakfast bar, she waited to see if someone was trying to reach out to her. Seconds ticked by, but she heard no words in her head.
    Odd, they usually spoke to her at some point, but this spirit never did. There was only the tapping and that sense of a woman. Then it was gone.
    It must have been after three when Sam finally dozed off. She had been fast asleep, dreaming of Brenda and Piper in a wrestling match, when something startled her awake.
    Checking her phone, she was surprised to find it was almost five. The sun had not yet risen, and darkness still shrouded her bedroom. Climbing out of bed, she was about to go to the bathroom when she saw it.
    A faint white light was hovering in the corner of her bedroom. She could not make out any form, but she felt it was a woman. She was sure of it.
    Julie, my name is Julie, drifted through her thoughts .
    “Julie, let me help you,” Sam whispered to the light.
    I’m trapped.
    Moving closer, the sounds from Doug’s apartment came through the wall. The light disappeared, and Sam cursed. She stood in the spot where the light had been and tried to read the energy there, but it was gone. Leaning against the wall, she heard Doug on the other side.
    He was moving about, his weight making the old floorboards moan. Was he just getting in? She questioned if he had been out late for work … or with a woman.
    Music was playing in the background. It was the soulful voice of a woman belting out her sad words of love. He would sing along here and there, his deep voice traveling to the pit of her gut and creating the most pleasant sensations. Was it possible for a man to seduce a woman with just his voice?
    Sitting on the floor with her head against the wall, Sam thought about what it would mean to belong to a man like Doug.
    What about the sex? Are you going to become that kind of woman?
    She flinched at the sound of the voice in her head. It was her father’s voice. Richard Woods had been a harsh man, incapable of offering words of comfort, at least to his daughters. It had turned her sister into a beauty queen, so obsessed with perfection, she had resorted to bulimia to maintain her slim