Page 51 of Whisper Of Attraction (Whisper Lake 3)

CHAPTER 14

“Thanks for the dance?” Brynn repeated Axel’s parting comment after he walked her to the door and then left.

He left.

After the dancing, the almost kissing, the “accidental” arm brushes on the walk home (okay, those were mostly her). But still, after all of that…he left.

She stared down at the keys in her hand that had been shaking when she’d unlocked her door and walked in, thinking he’d follow right behind her. Thinking tonight was going to be the night that she’d be able to think back on as she toasted her friends to “good sex.” Thinking that her self-imposed celibacy was finally going to come to an end (pun intended).

But that’s what she got for thinking. Because instead of any of that happening, he’d thanked her for the dance and walked around the side of the house to the garage. She’d stood in her doorway in stunned disbelief and listened as his feet climbed the old wooden steps leading to his apartment before she’d shut her door.

She was in shock.

She’d spent the walk home trying to remember if she’d shaved her legs this morning and whether or not her bra and underwear matched. She’d been absolutely certain that her five-year dry spell was about to be broken and that certainty equally terrified and excited her.

But it turned out, it wasn’t so certain.

It seemed that at every turn she was judging the situation with Axel all wrong. Each time she thought things were headed in a certain direction with him, he’d make a sharp U-turn and take her completely by surprise. From the first night they’d met until tonight, that man didn’t do anything that she expected. And it was making her begin to wonder if it was her, if she’d been out of the game so long that she was really that bad at picking up on vibes—or was it that he was sending mixed signals.

Tonight did not bode well for her decision to start dating again. Maybe the saying was true that if you don’t use it you lose it. She’d been so concentrated on her education, career, and most importantly being the best mom to Ryder that she may have sacrificed her mojo.

That depressing thought hovered over her like a dark cloud as she made her way down the hall toward her bedroom. She untied her shirt and slid the material off of her shoulders. Her heart was still beating a mile a minute as adrenaline raced through her.

“I guess ‘do you want to go home’ doesn’t mean what it used to,” she mumbled to herself as her hand searched the wall for the light switch.

When she found it and flipped it on she heard Lucy let out a frustrated sigh. Her pug was clearly upset that her darkened slumber had been interrupted.

“Sorry, your highness,” she said sarcastically. “But believe me, things could’ve been much worse for you tonight. You could’ve ended up sleeping on the couch.”

Her princess pug responded with an even louder sigh than the first before nuzzling her head into the pillows.

“I still can’t believe he left.” Brynn heard herself continuing. “I really thought he was going to come in.”

Lucy opened one eye and glared at Brynn, begging her to stop talking.

“I’m not crazy,” she insisted, immediately recognizing the irony of explaining this to a dog. “We almost kissed.” She flopped on the edge of the bed and unbuckled her shoes and slipped them off. “I might’ve been out of the game for a while, but I know what almost kissing is.”

Brynn stood and sucked in her stomach as she unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied out of them, tossing them in the hamper as she continued to rant about her night.

“We were dancing, under the stars.” Brynn opened her top drawer and grabbed a pair of cutoff sweats and a comfy T-shirt. “He asked me to dance. I didn’t ask him.”

Her mind continued to play the night over and over again as she went to the bathroom and washed off her makeup. When she finished and sank into bed, she grabbed her Kindle and pulled up Wait for Me by Samantha Chase. It was her go-to reread when she was agitated, and this was DEFCON 1 agitation.

As she read about Emma and Lucas, she tried to lose herself in the story, but her mind kept replaying the dance in her head.

She sat up with pillows propped behind her, then she lay down and turned on her side. Then sat up again with less pillows. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get comfortable. She would get under the blankets only to push them off seconds later. She adjusted her pillows a half-dozen times, and even thought about getting a glass of wine but realized that probably wasn’t the best idea since she’d had three drinks at the bar.

Finally, she gave up the illusion of reading, curled up beside Lucy, and scratched her behind the ears. Lucy nuzzled her soft head into Brynn’s palm. As she stared at her adorable dog she tried to reconcile the fact that she was in bed with her instead of Axel. Snuggling with her pug was not what she’d thought she’d be doing in bed when she and Axel left Lanterns.

Her mind was like a broken record that kept skipping back to the same song over and over.

“Our mouths were less than an inch apart.” Brynn told an uninterested Lucy. “We were lip to lip. When he asked if I wanted to go home, his bottom lip brushed against mine. That’s a kiss!”

On cue, Lucy lifted her head and licked Brynn across the face. Lucy didn’t do very many things on command. Basically, only two things: sit and kiss.

About five years ago, right after she and Ryder adopted her, Lucy was asked to participate in the Valentine’s Day Festival. Whisper Lake was known for its over-the-top festivals. And one of the staples of the festival was having a kissing booth that was “manned” by a dog. Being the pup in the booth was an honor. When Lucy was chosen as that year’s special pup, Brynn had worked with her for weeks to get her to kiss on command.

Brynn wished Axel kissed on command.

---