She felt him move to stand just behind her. His palms slid over her rib cage and down her quivering belly toward her small scrap of lace modesty.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” he said. “It’s probably a good idea to leave them on. Your exposed pussy would be far too tempting to resist.”

He cupped her mound and gently squeezed. Her breath stalled as she involuntarily arched against his palm.

“I can feel your heat,” he whispered into her ear. “This doesn’t have to be a sexual experience, you know.”

With Kellen in charge, yes, it did.

“I can’t help it,” she said. “Just being in the same room as you turns me on. How do you expect me to react when you touch me in the dark?”

“Just as long as you realize I’m not going to make love to you. Not because I don’t want to or because you aren’t the most beautiful woman I’ve ever touched, but because I made a promise I’ll never break.”

Dawn scowled. That fucking dead girl again.

“If you want, I will make you come, though,” he whispered. “Give you more orgasms than you can stand.”

So maybe his inability to break a promise wasn’t really a burden after all.

“Do you want that, Dawn? Do you want to come?”

“Y-y-yes.”

His hand slipped into her panties. When his middle finger slipped over her fully engorged clit, her legs buckled. He drew her back against him until his hard cock was prodding her in the ass. She squirmed against him, wanting that big thick shaft buried deep inside her already.

He bit her ear and eased her around the piano until she faced the keyboard.

“Play my song while I make you come for the first time,” he demanded quietly.

As if she could argue with that request.

She fumbled with the keys and didn’t start at the beginning. She started with the second stanza. The one that rose and fell like the waves, like a lover possessing what was hot and achy and swollen and wet just for him.

Kellen stroked her clit with the cadence of the song, rocking slightly against her with each soft and sensual caress. He wasn’t rubbing her to get her off—he was increasing her need to a feverish level. When she reached the final crescendo, he sent her flying. Song forgotten, she clung to the keyboard and cried out with release as her pussy clenched hard on the emptiness between her legs.

Needing more, much more, Dawn bent forward so that the stiff cock that had been scarcely rubbing against her ass was lodged firmly in her cleft. The only thing separating his hard flesh from her slick heat was a pair of lace panties and a thin pair of boxer shorts.

He jerked his hand out of her panties and stepped back, sending the piano bench tumbling backward with a crash.

In the silence that followed, she was only aware of her ragged breathing and his. The intense pleasure began to recede as she slowly regained her bearings. Her release had been fantastic, but hardly satisfying. She wanted more of him. All of him. Inside her.

“I knew I should have bound you before I touched you,” he said. “Do you think I’m made of willpower? You can’t rub up against me like that and expect me to keep my promise to Sara.”

But she didn’t want him to keep his promise to Sara. Dawn wanted to fuck Kellen until she could no longer feel her legs. But he didn’t want her enough to give her what she craved. She should probably feel bad about pressuring him into doing something he wasn’t prepared to do, but she just felt bitter toward a woman who no longer existed except in Kellen’s heart.

“I got caught up in the moment,” she said, which wasn’t a lie. “I didn’t intend to rub up against you. It was involuntary.”

He was quiet for a long moment. She couldn’t imagine what he was thinking. Probably deciding if he should locate his clothes before he fled the house or brave the storm wearing only her boxers. She pushed away from the piano and turned to look at the space where he stood in the darkness.

He sighed. “You’re right. That was my fault.”

Kellen lifted a hand and cupped her jaw in one hand. He traced her lips with his thumb. She could smell her sex on him. Dear lord.

“I’ll make you come harder next time,” he said. “You weren’t quite finished when I pulled away.”

She hadn’t been? News to her. She was just relieved that he seemed to want to continue. Because she definitely wanted to continue, even if he wasn’t willing to give her the deep penetration she craved. Maybe with time and patience he’d be able to make love to her. She was sure he’d be worth the wait.

She turned her face to inhale their commingled scents. “When do you get to finish?”

“I’ll finish myself when I need to.”

She imagined him touching himself, wishing he’d allow her to touch him there.

“Can I watch at least?”

“In the dark?”

“You could light the candles again,” she said.

“I’ll light them after I finish tying you,” he said. “I’m going to want to see how beautiful you look.” His fingertips slid lightly from her jaw, down her throat, stopping just shy of her breast. “And when I come on your skin, I’ll want to see that too.”

And she definitely wanted to see that. The sooner the better.

She hopped up on the closed lid of the piano and planted her feet on the keyboard to give herself a boost backward. Even though she should have been expecting the discordant sound, she jumped at the loud pang of the keys.

She heard the rope scrape across the floor as he bent to retrieve it. The storm had finally abated, and the silence in the house was unsettling. Or maybe she was just more sensitive to sound than usual.

“I shouldn’t have snapped at you,” he said.

“You didn’t.”

“I can’t tell you how hard it was for me to step back instead of pulling your panties aside and burying myself deep inside you.”

She crossed her legs and wriggled her hips uncomfortably. What would he feel like inside her? Did he make love to a woman gently or fuck her unconscious? Sad that she might never find out. “Kellen, don’t say things like that unless you mean to back them up with action. You aren’t the only one fighting for control here.”

His hands slid up the outside of her thighs. “Open your legs.”

Her legs uncrossed and popped open as if they had minds of their own. He stepped forward to stand between her thighs. She knew he was close, though the only part of him touching her was his hands. He caressed her hips and then her back. When his chest brushed the hardened points of her nipples, she gasped.

He immediately retreated slightly, and she forced herself not to crush her breasts into his chest. His terms. This had to be on his terms. He’d better make it worth her while.

“Lie back,” he whispered close to her ear. “I want to get to know your body.”

She obeyed. The cool piano lid was hard against her back and buttocks, but that mild discomfort was soon forgotten.

Dawn sighed as his hands slid slowly over her skin, bumping over curves, valleys, crests and depressions. No one had ever paid so much attention to her form. She thought it might make her feel self-conscious to be so thoroughly inspected from head to toe, but his attention made her feel beautiful. Appreciated. Cherished.

"I thought I'd have to remind you to relax," Kellen said, his deep voice drawing a shudder of delight from her.

"Did you assume that I was always uptight?" she teased.

His hands slid up her calves and gently kneaded her muscles until they were like warm butter. Her thighs fell open in complete surrender. The only part of her that felt any tension was the emptiness between her thighs. Her pussy clenched against the building ache and even though he'd already warned her that this wouldn't proceed to him making love to her, she wanted it to.

Kellen massaged her ankles and the insteps of both feet. "You're not always uptight?"