“Perfect,” he said. “Let me know if you get dizzy.”

She was already dizzy, but as his mouth latched onto her clit and his strong hands dug into her ass to pull her to his face, she could only focus on the pleasure between her trembling thighs.

The rapid flicks of his tongue against her clit made her come far too quickly, and she was actually pouting when he slid her ass down his belly so she could right herself again.

“You’re so good at that,” she said. “I scarcely have time to figure out where your tongue is before I’m coming.”

“I’ve had lots of practice.”

But not on Sara, because Dawn remembered Kellen saying that Sara hadn’t enjoyed oral. Dawn began questioning the girl’s sanity.

“On who?” she asked, wishing she could suck the words back in as soon as they erupted from her mouth. She honestly didn’t want to know how many women he’d draped upside down over his body so he could be comfortable while he licked them to orgasm.

“Women I tied up with Owen, mostly. We haven’t done it for months though.”

“Why not?” Oh, shut up, Dawn. Just shut up. Thinking about Kellen tying women and putting his mouth on them made her stomach ache when she had no business feeling jealous of women he’d been with before her.

“Owen gave me a thoughtful Christmas present. Perhaps a bit too thoughtful. It reminded me of Sara. Made me question what I was doing. So I stopped doing it.”

“What did he give you?”

“A leather wrist cuff.”

She touched the leather band around his right wrist.

“Not this one,” he said, capturing her hand and circling it with a loose fist to hold it against the worn leather. “I’ve had this one since I started playing guitar. Sort of a good luck charm. Owen gave me a cuff for my other wrist. I was down on the beach trying to get rid of it when the storm hit.”

“Trying to get rid of it?”

“Yeah, I said goodbye to Sara and tossed the cuff into the ocean. It washed back to me in a matter of minutes. Destiny at play again. I don’t think she was ready for me to let her go yet. And then I heard your song and… I’m not sure what possessed me to come to your door. It was as if I couldn’t stay away.”

“Oh, that was definitely destiny,” she said with a smile. Maybe it was wrong of her to progress her own agenda by using his beliefs to draw him in. Or maybe it had been destiny that had landed him on her doorstep. She didn’t have all the answers. Sometimes she wondered if she had any.

“I’m sure it was,” he said. “I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do now. Being with you feels right, unless I think of Sara. And then it feels so very wrong.”

Dawn shifted so she could face him. She straddled his thighs again and took his face in both hands. She could just see the sparkle of his dark eyes in the candlelight. “Then don’t think of her,” she said. “Think of me.”

She kissed him deeply, pulling away when his hands tightened on her hips and his kiss turned desperate.

She yanked her mouth away. “Who’s kissing you, Kellen?”

“You.”

“Say my name.”

“Dawn. Dawn’s kissing me.”

She lowered her head and kissed his neck, nibbling and sucking on the corded muscles of his throat. He moaned.

“Who’s making you moan, Kellen?” she whispered in his ear.

“Dawn,” he said breathlessly. “Dawn is also making my spine tingle and my belly quiver.”

“Is Dawn making your dick hard?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” She kissed his chest and stroked his skin with both palms. She loved the excited hitch in his breathing as much as she loved the texture of his skin against her hands. “Who’s touching you, Kellen?”

“Dawn.”

She slid onto the floor between his thighs and felt around in the dark until she had his thick shaft captured between her hands. “Who’s giving you head?”

“What?”

She directed his c**k into her mouth and rubbed his rim with her lips stretched tight over her teeth.

“Dawn,” he gasped.

She sucked as she began to bob her head, taking him deeper with each dip. She loved the way he was chanting her name under his breath. Unexpectedly, his fists clenched in her hair and stopped her motions. He fell free of her mouth, and she looked up at him in question, cursing the darkness because she couldn’t see his face at all. Had she done something wrong?

“Where’s your bedroom?” he asked.

“U-u-upstairs.”

He helped her to her feet.

“Why did you stop me?” she asked. Was her inexperience showing again? He’d seemed to be enjoying it, but maybe she’d been reading him wrong.

“I was almost to the point of no return.”

“That’s what I was going for,” she said.

“But I want this one to last. Did you change your mind about wanting me in your bed?”

“Are you staying the night?” Dawn asked. She would love to wake up beside Kellen and watch him sleep. She wanted to see his bronze skin bathed in morning sunlight. Not that he didn’t look spectacular by candlelight, but he’d been drowning in darkness far too long and it was time for light to illuminate him once more.

“That depends,” he said, stroking her bare arms with feather-light touches.

“On what?”

“If I’m capable of moving when I’m finished making love to you.”

Heat flooded her body. She’d never had a man make her feel so desirable.

“And considering all the things I want to do to you and with you,” he said, his face mostly concealed by shadows as he leaned closer, “I don’t think I’ll be able to leave afterwards unless you call in a stretcher.”

He took her hand and led her to the piano to collect the other condom she retrieved from her purse and handed her the last burning candle. Using the limited light to find her way, Dawn shuffled to the staircase that led to her bedroom. Kellen climbed the stairs behind her. Occasionally his fingers would brush her back, her shoulder, or her bu**ocks. She knew his eyes were on her so as much as she wanted to race up the stairs and leap into bed, she took her time, luring him to follow her, increasing her anticipation and hopefully his. At the top of the steps, she turned the corner and walked along the railing that was no longer decorated with a whimsical garland of seashells dangling from blue and tan rope.