One Night with Sole Regret 05 Tie Me Read Free Page B

beach towels.
    “Friend of mine.”
    “Is he a god too?”
    “A god?”
    “You’re Neptune, right?” she asked. “Lord of the sea who washed up on the beach during the storm? Do you perform miracles? Because I could use a couple of them tonight.”
    He laughed again and took a towel from her to dry his straight, black hair. It was a bit longer than shoulder length and dripping water down the hard contours of his chest and belly. Dawn dropped a second towel on the floor to collect his puddle and forced herself not to gawk at his body.
    “Sorry to disappoint you—I’m not a god. Just a man who sometimes loses his way.”
    “I’m trying to get you to reveal your name without asking directly,” she said to his thighs as she squatted to collect more water.
    “I seem to have misplaced my manners,” he said, drying his chest and arms. “I’m Kellen Jamison. And you are?”
    “Dawn O’Reilly.” She slowly rose to stand straight and found that even though at almost six feet she towered over many guys, Kellen still had a couple inches on her.
    “Your name sounds familiar.” Gnawing on his fingertip, he examined her face thoroughly.
    “I’m sure there are plenty of people who share my name.”
    His eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. “But not any other Grammy-winning composers. You wrote the music that won for best movie theme song last year. Am I right?”
    She flushed. He knew who she was? No one knew who she was. Well, a few people knew who she was, but composers didn’t have fans. Pop stars had fans.
    “It was actually the award for Best Instrumental Composition, but yeah, one of my works happens to accompany the rolling credits of a certain blockbuster movie. How do you know who I am?” Her suspicions were coming to a head again. Maybe he was one of those creepy stalkers who saw someone on TV and trailed them to the ends of the earth. Except no one knew she was here but her family, closest friends, and her agent. It wasn’t public knowledge that she’d rented this beach house for a couple of months, hoping to spark her creativity. After her Grammy, several producers had contacted her to write music for them and like the star-struck novice that she was, she’d accepted every job that had come her way. Big mistake. Huge! Apparently her creativity was completely quashed by any sort of pressure or expectation.
    “I saw you accept your award,” Kellen said. “I don’t remember your speech, but I remember your beautiful hair.”
    She touched a hand to her waist-length red curls. They were all sorts of frizzy due to the humidity in the air, but on Grammy night, the hairdresser had managed to make the loose curls smooth and elegant. “You saw me on TV?” She was pretty sure everyone in America had taken a bathroom break when she’d started thanking every person she’d ever met and even a few she hadn’t.
    He laughed. “I was in the audience.”
    She took a step backward. This was too freaky. “Are you stalking me?”
    He paused and draped the towel around his shoulders, dropping his arms to his sides in a non-threatening stance. “Am I frightening you again? Dawn, you really don’t have anything to worry about from me. I was there because my band was nominated for Best New Artist.”
    His band? Well, with all those tattoos and the leather cuff on his right wrist, he did look the part. “Did you win?”
    “Nope. Some rapper won—Jizzy Wizzy Def Jam Grill Face.” He made a fake gang sign and grinned wide to show off his grill—a set of straight, white teeth. “Or something like that.”
    She laughed, her defenses dropping again. “Wow, small world. What a bizarre coincidence to meet like this.”
    “I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said.
    His intensity caused her heart to falter and butterflies to flitter through her stomach. “What do you believe in, Kellen?”
    His dark brown gaze held hers for several poignant seconds. “Destiny.”
    The charge in the air between them had