Page 14 of Her Devoted HERO

Kenna was looking at her e-mail in-box like it was full of snakes. She’d told him not to respond. She’d meant it. Hadn’t she? Dammit, this panic attack was as bad as the first one she’d had. Shouldn’t she be past this?

“Suck it up, Wright, if you had really meant for him not to respond, you wouldn’t have sent him an e-mail, let alone two!”

She stomped to her kitchen and opened the top cabinet that housed the wine glasses.

“Dammit. Now he has me drinking alone again. Not a good sign.” She poured a glass of red wine. Well, at least it wasn’t tequila. The last time she drank tequila was four months ago when she had gotten a call from the sewer sucking slime ball with his latest excuse as to why he couldn’t pay child support. Like always, he was out of work, but she would bet any amount of money that he was supporting some stripper’s G-string. She hoped that was all, and that he hadn’t talked any woman into actually moving in with him because nobody deserved that type of attention.

Great, now she was thinking of Jaden, just the mindset she needed when getting ready to read another e-mail from the first man she’d found attractive since high school. Please say he hadn’t dared her again.

“Please, no more dares.”

Did she just whimper?

“Pull it together!” She slugged down a swallow of wine and choked.

This was not boding well. It was a sign. She should probably just delete the damn thing and not bother reading it.

Well, you can’t very well delete it while you’re standing in the kitchen, now can you? Get your ass back into the office.

She started to stomp into the other room, and then remembered that Austin was asleep upstairs. Normally being a mom was great, but when she felt like throwing a hissy fit, it really put a crimp in her style. She placed her glass on the desk, took a deep breath, and opened the e-mail.

Oh holy camoly, she was whimpering. She actually heard a whimper come out of her mouth. He said she suited him down to his bones. It made her want to melt.

With trembling fingers, she touched the rim of her wineglass and kept reading.

“His Grandmother?” she whispered. “His grandmother could write a letter of recommendation?”

She felt tears forming as she smiled. It was a lovely e-mail. It made her feel so warm inside.

He called you neurotic.

She sat up straighter and read that part of the e-mail again. Yep, he’d called her neurotic. But then she smiled. He said she was sexy.

She took another swallow of wine and found herself choking...again.

Fuck nugget!

“Dex, you’re a hard man to shake loose.”

But did she want to shake him loose? That was the question.

She sat down at the keyboard and started to type.

Dex,

I’m thinking that a letter of recommendation from your grandmother would be soooo slanted in your direction, so I’ll pass. But it’s good to know she’d write one for you.

Straight up, you’re scaring the snot out of me by saying we ‘fit.’ You don’t know me. Okay, the neurotic part is a gimme, but other than that, you don’t know me. Here’s a little info. My name is Kenna. I shouldn’t be telling you that, but you have a grandmother who loves you, so I think I should tell you my name.

When you said you wanted the correspondence to keep going and you’re interested in the long game, it soothed my soul and scared the crap out of me at the same time. Can we start as just friends, and see where things lead? I mean slow. I mean tortoise slow. I mean snail’s pace slow. Can you cope with that? Hell, what am I thinking? You probably can’t. Which is totally fine. I totally understand.

There is no need for you to respond.

- Kenna aka Poppy

She re-read what she’d typed and bit her nail.

God, she was talking out of both sides of her mouth. Did she want him to respond and go slow, or hope she didn’t hear from him again?