Moonlight Mirage: Bandicoot Cove 2 (6 page)

The tilt of her head indicated he ought to be looking at the ocean. Dragging his gaze away from Hayley’s impish green eyes, Mitch stared out to sea. He looked for something on the horizon that might be interesting enough to warrant this little trek through the rainforest—a ship, a pod of leaping dolphins—but he saw nothing but an endless expanse of water and a pinkish-grey dome of cloudless sky. “I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“This isn’t a test. You’re not looking for anything, but you’re supposed to see it.”

O-kay.
“If this isn’t a test, why are you staring at me as though I’m missing something obvious?”

“Because you are. It’s all around you, Mitch.”

Reminded of the words to an old song, Mitch quipped. “Are you going to tell me it’s love that’s all around?”

Her eyes remained steady on his and for once in his life Mitch was the first to tear his gaze away. He shouldn’t have mentioned the L-word even in jest, not around Hayley. “Hayley, I don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

“I can see I’ll have to take a more hands-on approach.” Her steps so leisurely they made his erratic heartbeat halt altogether, Hayley moved to stand behind him. Rising on tiptoes, she placed her hands over his face. “Close your eyes.”

“I think I’ll need them open if I’m to see anything.” The droll retort came out raspy as the heat of Hayley’s body infused his back. Mitch swallowed. Dry. His throat may as well be chock full of sand.

“Just be quiet and do what I say.”

“That’s usually my line.”

The little gasp of breath and the fact her voice was now as husky as his were the only clues Mitch had that his comment had impacted her. “I bet it is. But for now, let me be in charge.”

The “for now” conjured all sorts of intriguing possibilities that did nothing to alleviate Mitch’s so-aroused-it-was-painful situation. “All right, instruct away.”

“First of all, listen. What can you hear?”

My heart pounding 120 bpm because you’re close.
Mitch refrained from verbalizing the truth, trying to push aside the distraction of Hayley’s nearness to concentrate on the sounds in the environment. “I hear the ocean.”

“Doing what?”

“Being wet.”

“Mitch.”

He pushed out a sigh at her warning tone, uncomfortably aware that he was being bossed around by a woman of five-foot-four who probably weighed one hundred and eighteen pounds soaking wet. “I hear water coming into shore, tumbling onto the sand.”

“That’s great.” Mitch was inordinately pleased by the praise. Damn, he had it bad. “Now, tell me what you smell.”

“Your perfume. Vanilla and some kind of spice, cinnamon maybe. It’s the same one you’ve always worn, the one that used to make me forget what I was saying the second you walked into the room, even if I was on the phone to Japan.”

Hayley drew in a shaky breath. The inhalation caused her chest to inflate, thrusting her soft breasts against the muscles of Mitch’s back. Encouraged by her reaction, Mitch continued. “You smell so good, Hayley. Sweet and sexy and familiar. It makes me think of…”

Home.

The word came to him unbidden, shocking him. It was utterly illogical. Neither his family home nor his penthouse apartment on the Gold Coast had ever smelled like the intoxicating mix of scents that Hayley gave off like irresistible pheromones.

“What?” Hayley rasped when he trailed off. “What does it make you think of?”

Unsettled by the first answer that had popped into his head, Mitch provided the second. “Making love. The heady scent of silk sheets after a bout of hot, satisfying sex.”

That little indrawn breath again. This time when Hayley’s breasts brushed his back he felt the sharp imprint of her hardened nipples. Mitch’s dick responded in kind, growing as rigid as a lead pipe in his running shorts. He turned his head, trying to find Hayley’s lips with his own, needing to. Lord, he hadn’t tasted her in two years. He had to know if she was as delicious as he remembered.

If he kissed her now he wouldn’t stop. Perhaps sensing that, Hayley cleared her throat and put an inch of distance between their bodies. “In the air. What can you smell in the air?”

Tamping down the impatient surge of his body that screamed at him to end this game in favor of more pleasurable pursuits, Mitch concentrated on the aromas surrounding him. This was important to Hayley. He’d make every effort to do as she asked, if for no better reason than to please her. “Salt,” he said at length. “And some kind of flower, something light and tropical.”

“Frangipani.” Hayley’s voice was a soft murmur close to his ear. “Hibiscus and gardenia.”

“It’s nice.” He wasn’t only talking about the local plant life. Having Hayley this close—her chest pressed to his back and her arms twined around him—was nice. Better than nice and worse than torture. Heaven and hell rolled into one.

“Now, tell me what you feel.”

“Jesus, don’t you know?”

“You should be relaxed.”

“Relaxed is the last word I’d used to describe how I’m feeling right now.” It was certainly the last word he’d use to describe his penis, which was trying to poke a gigantic hole in his running shorts.

“Please, Mitch,” Hayley insisted. “For me.”

If she didn’t already know her power over him, Mitch’s acquiescence would surely give him away. He’d do anything for Hayley. He’d always known it and had been afraid of it, afraid most of all of Hayley finding out how easily she could drive him to his knees. But he didn’t have it in him to deny her request, not when it was so poignantly uttered. “Okay. I’m relaxing.”

“Deep breaths. In… Out. In… Out.”

Mitch did as she asked, matching the drawn-out pace of her voice. The slow breathing caused his chest to expand to its fullest, bringing her body and his closer with each exhalation. She’d either forgotten to maintain the distance between them or had decided not to bother. Her breasts stroked across his back, a delicious friction that made him hotter than he’d ever been. Instead of fighting it or trying to push toward the most satisfying solution to his physical response, Mitch let it steal through him. The intense desire, the bone-melting lust. His blood pumped slow and hot, his cock throbbed with each beat of his pulse. But he did nothing but listen to Hayley and feel every exhilarating, terrifying ounce of it.

“Are you calm?”

In a strange way, he was. Even with the force of his sexual needs coursing through him, the sense of urgency had faded to the background. Not fighting the inevitable was freeing. He wanted Hayley more than he’d ever wanted another woman, and admitting the truth of it was more calming than he ever would have expected. “Yes.”

“Are you here, in this moment with me?”

His answer was the absolute truth. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

At last, Hayley took her hands away from his face. “Open your eyes.”

The brightness caused Mitch to flinch as he raised his eyelids. The muted colors of predawn had disappeared. What replaced them were brilliant rays of light in every conceivable hue from bright fuchsia to flaming orange to deepest magenta.

Mitch regularly rose at dawn. He’d seen sunrises before. But this explosion of color was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Was it because of the location or the woman standing beside him?

Or was it simply that he had never really looked before?

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Mitch stared at the view before him, not turning his head to look at Hayley. He was afraid to. If the sky took his breath completely away, he was pretty sure his lungs would collapse if he saw Hayley bathed in all that glorious light. Unable to speak, he merely nodded.

“This is what I wanted you to see,” she said. “The start of a brand-new day when everything is untouched until this amazing kaleidoscope of color washes over it, like painting on a blank canvas. When you truly experience the sunrise, you have to believe anything is possible.”

Was she right? Could anything happen? Could Hayley forgive him for being a blind asshole, for not knowing what he was rejecting when he pushed her away? Could a woman like Hayley Bryant ever really want a boring, stuffed-shirt workaholic like Mitch Wood?

“Mitch?”

Mitch took a deep breath, filling his lungs in case it was the last time he’d be able to do it for a while, and turned to look at her. His chest seized, his heart stopped. The slightest of breezes lifted the curled strands of her hair, causing them to float around her face. The golden tresses were shot through with intense orange, making it look like a halo had formed around her. But she was more beautiful than any angel heaven could produce. She was a woman, and she was real, and she stood right before him with the look of wonder and awe on her face reflecting everything that was going on inside him.

For a long time she held his gaze, saying nothing as the sky changed colors around them. Then her gaze lowered, trailing over his face until finally landing on his lips. It was all the invitation Mitch required. Without a word, he stepped toward her and brought his hands up to cup her face. Then he dipped his head.

He wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone to taste like the sunrise, but Hayley did. She was beautiful and golden, and she enveloped him in glorious warmth. He let their lips meld in their own way, not trying to drive the kiss, using no technique whatsoever. The kiss turned brighter and hotter and more vivid until Mitch felt infused with the heat and life that was Hayley.

Utterly lost, Mitch wasn’t even aware of taking her down to the sand. One minute he stood with his arms wrapped tight around her, the next they were horizontal. Writhing beneath him, Hayley drove her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. His fingers found their way beneath the hem of her top, trailing over the smooth flatness of her stomach. It wasn’t enough, so he shoved the garment upward, exposing Hayley’s breast to the gentle morning breeze. He cupped the soft mound and squeezed.

Into his mouth, Hayley gasped. Beneath him, her body arched, her back coming off the sand as she sought a more complete touch. Mitch granted her wish, using his thumb to graze her pebbled peak. It blossomed under his ministrations, growing ripe and plump and all too tempting. Breaking free of Hayley’s ravishing mouth, Mitch trailed his lips downward, over her collarbone and shoulder. He kissed around the puckered flesh, narrowly avoiding the sensitive point that silently begged for his attention.

Hayley’s grip on his head started to pinch as she tightened her hold. “Mitch, please.”

Lust surged through his veins. Goddamn, that was what he wanted to hear. Hayley desperate for his touch, begging him for it. “Ask again.”

“Oh, God. Just put me out of my misery.”

“
Ask
, damn it.”

She gasped at his rough delivery, but when Mitch stared into her eyes he saw no discomfort or revulsion. All he saw was molten heat. Watching him, Hayley very deliberately circled her lips with her tongue. Mitch almost burst the seams of his shorts. Then she rasped, “Please,” and all Mitch could hear was that throaty request and the roaring of his blood in his ears.

Not breaking eye contact, Mitch lowered his head and enclosed her nipple with his mouth, taking it in one long, slow suck. Crying out, Hayley curved her spine, thrusting her eager flesh deeper into him. Mitch rolled the distended peak against his tongue until Hayley said his name over and over again, punctuating it with breathy little pleas that drove him insane.

When he lifted his head, Hayley’s hoarse protest delighted him. Mitch gazed down at her and was awed by the sight she presented. Her golden hair was tousled, the strands splayed across the sand like sunrays. Her green eyes glittered as bright as gems as they stared back at him. Her magnificent breasts trembled with the force of her ragged breaths, and her skin was flushed pink with arousal.

She was exquisite. The very thought that another man had seen her like this sliced him open, ruining the perfect beauty of the moment. Unprepared for the pain of it, Mitch defended himself in the only way he knew how—attack, contain, control.

“How can you let
him
touch you when you respond this way to me?” he growled. “You’re mine, Hayley. Promise me he’ll never lay a hand on you again, and I’ll make you scream for me. Right here. Right now.”

Chapter Five

On a base, primitive level, what he demanded sounded so good. All Hayley had ever wanted was for Mitch to call her his, and here he was, moments away from giving her an orgasm that was bound to rock her world, promising to make her belong to him.

Two years ago she would have jumped for joy. But now she wasn’t so enamored of his methods. “Mitch, don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t try to manage me like one of your projects.”

“Is that what you think I’m doing?” He brought a hand back to her breast as though drawn there by a force he couldn’t master. “If you think I’m in charge of this, you’re wrong. This is just…us. It’s always been impossible to contain.”

That wasn’t true. It hadn’t been impossible for him—only her. Like now. She’d been ready to give him anything, do anything with him right here on the sand on a public beach. Yet Mitch had retained the presence of mind to set conditions before things went too far. He was dangling the carrot of his affections in front of her, expecting her to jump through his hoops to get it.