Dawn wasn’t in any harm, but she’d managed to lie across the piano on one side, her arms still tied securely behind her. She was weeping silently, tears streaming down her face to pool on the shiny black surface beneath her. Deep red strands of curls spread out over her nude body and trailed out behind her, draping her piano.

“Are you in pain?” he asked. “Where does it hurt, Dawn?”

“My heart,” she sobbed.

Was she experiencing cardiac arrest? An extreme panic attack? He’d heard that sometimes a panic attack felt like a heart attack. Being the self-absorbed ass**le that he was, he’d forgotten that she’d been freaked-out about being tied unless he was close. He had to get her free as soon as possible. There wasn’t time for him to slowly untie each knot.

He grabbed a candle and hurried to the kitchen. He found a knife in a butcher block and returned to Dawn.

She gasped when she saw him standing over her with a huge knife. There he went scaring her again.

“I’m not going to stab you with it,” he said.

He sawed through each knot holding her arms together, starting at her wrists and working his way upward toward her shoulder blades. When the last knot came free, she surprised him by knocking the blade aside and wrapping both arms around his neck. Her muscles were trembling with fatigue, but she held on to him with surprising strength.

“I hate her,” she sobbed. “I hate her for taking so much of you. I hate her for meeting you first. I hate her f**king guts.”

“Easy,” he said, allowing himself to hold her gently. “I’m sorry I left you by yourself. You shouldn’t have been left unsupervised.” It was the first rule of bondage. “Something bad could have happened to you. I’m so glad you’re not hurt. I would have never forgiven myself.”

“But I do hurt, Kellen,” she said. “I hurt so bad… for you.”

He leaned back and brushed strands of hair from her tear-damp cheeks. He got lost in her very watery hazel eyes. “Is that why you’re crying? For me?”

She nodded. “I wish your heart was free, Kellen. I wish that for me, but I wish it for you even more.”

“I should have nev—”

She covered his lips with two fingertips. “Don’t say you regret it, Kellen. I couldn’t bare it. When you were inside me…” Several tears dripped down her smooth cheeks. “It was beautiful.”

He didn’t regret being inside her. He felt a crippling guilt, but strangely the guilt was worth the connection he couldn’t deny he’d felt. That moment of emotional bonding might not be worth it when Dawn was no longer pressed against his body, holding him close, staring up at him with something he feared was adoration, but in this moment, the guilt was minor in comparison to the joy he felt in just holding this woman.

“I won’t say it,” he whispered. “I won’t say it because it’s not true. Being inside you felt… right.”

She caught his face between her palms, her gaze trained on his mouth. “I’m going to kiss you now,” she said. “And don’t you dare think of her when I do it.”

“Dawn.” He meant to speak her name as a protest, but it was more of a plea.

“Shh. It’s just a kiss.”

Just a kiss.

Her lips brushed his gently, and she immediately shifted away to stare into his eyes again. He saw her concern for him and while it touched his heart, it wasn’t necessary.

“That wasn’t a kiss,” he said.

Her brows drew together. “It wasn’t?”

He claimed her mouth with his—seeking, rough, deep, passionate, oh so intimate kisses. When her lips parted and her timid tongue brushed his lip, he felt as if a dam burst inside him and a tidal wave he had no hope of fighting slammed him against Dawn’s glory, melding them into one. Once he started kissing her, he couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to stop. He never wanted to stop. Lust stirred in his groin, but for once it wasn’t accompanied by guilt, just need. He needed this, needed her—Dawn. He was certain he’d feel differently in the morning, but he didn’t care about the aftermath or the fallout. He only cared about the here and now. He didn’t want her tied to prevent her from touching him, from encouraging his lust, and fueling his desire. He wanted her completely free, so she could continue to help free his heart from the bonds of his past.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from her delightful mouth and stared down into her eyes. He tucked a finger under her chin and traced her full, lower lip with his thumb. “Would you be overly offended if I said I want to f**k you until dawn?”

She smiled, and he was glad to say goodbye to the emotional knot that had been squeezing his throat. He didn’t want his time with her spoiled with all the baggage that dragged him down. He wanted the same joy her music had given him to accompany their joining, and her looking at him as if he was a charity case wasn’t what he needed or wanted from her. He knew her light would chase away his darkness—maybe only for a single night, but he’d worry about that later.

“Offended?” she said. “I don’t think that’s the right word for what I’m feeling right now.”

“What are you feeling?” He palmed her breast, his fingertips tracing the rope that still crisscrossed her chest.

“Inspired,” she said.

His eyebrows shot up. “You want to write music? Now?”

She shook her head. “I’ll show how inspired I am by you, if you’ll let me.”

“Allow me to untie you and you can show me anything you like.”

Kellen unwound what was left of the ropes from Dawn’s shoulders. He took his time, not because he didn’t feel an urgency to possess her, but because he wanted this to last for as long as possible. As he removed the ropes, he massaged and kissed her pale skin, making sure each freckle was given proper attention.

Her fingertips clung to his shoulders as he slowly made his way down her chest. When his lips rubbed over her nipple, she sighed, and then she moaned when his tongue flicked out to trace the hardened bud. He suckled her, his hand gently kneading her soft flesh. It was as if her br**sts had been molded specifically to fill his palms.

“Kellen.”

He loosened more ropes and lavished her other breast with attention. Adoration.

Her hands began to explore his shoulders, roam his chest, thread through his hair. It felt so good to be touched. He fought the urge to hurry in untying her legs so she’d wrap them around him. Imagining her heels pressed into the backs of his thighs, her calves hugging his ass, had him fumbling with the ropes at her waist. He didn’t give her belly half the attention it deserved as he hurriedly untied the knots surrounding her belly button. He made his way lower, lower, until her pu**y was too close to resist. He devoured her, teasing her clit with rapid flicks of his tongue until she was moaning and dripping fluids. Damn, she tasted good as he dipped his tongue into her opening and swirled it around again and again to collect every drop of her arousal.