Moonlight Mirage: Bandicoot Cove 2 (11 page)

Hayley let out a long, slow breath, shedding every remaining resistance to Mitch’s domination. Accepting how utterly she did, and always had, belonged to him. “Whatever you want, Mitch. Use me however you please. I’m yours. I have been all along.”

The ruthless glint in his eyes disappeared to be replaced by a gentleness Hayley had rarely seen in him. “Oh, sweetheart,” he breathed, his voice choked. Then he pulled open the bedside drawer and plucked out a condom. With shaking fingers he ripped open the foil and rolled on the latex.

Relief washed through Hayley. At last she was going to have him inside her. She’d never felt such joy. “Thank you.”

Mitch shook his head, but didn’t say anything. Instead he climbed back onto the bed, his knees between her splayed legs. “I’m going to pleasure you now,” he announced. “Nothing but pleasure, my Hayley. Take it.”

He dipped his head and buried his tongue deep into her pussy. The convulsions began immediately, long rolling spasms that started in her core and spread outward like rays of heated bliss. Her head thrashed on the pillow as Mitch kept up the relentless pressure, circling her clit with his thumb while he lapped at her feminine center, devouring the moisture she offered.

Only when she lay boneless and quivering on the mattress, the aftereffects of her climax humming through her, did Mitch stop what he was doing. He turned his attention to the makeshift silk ties, hurriedly jerking the knots loose. It was a relief to feel the blood flowing freely through her stiff limbs again. Hayley moved her legs, sliding them around Mitch’s waist as he leaned above her to tug at the ties on her wrists. She lifted her head and kissed his chest, loving the way his muscles twitched against her lips.

When the last tie was gone, Mitch lowered his body to hers, his shaft pressing into her. Hayley arched, welcoming him. He thrust into her in a smooth plunge that made her cry out. Keenly appreciating the freedom to wrap her arms around him, Hayley held him tight to her body as he stroked within her, her nails digging into his back as his pace quickened, desperation and need imbuing each movement with a sense of urgency that thrilled. Soon enough her blood surged, signaling her ascent toward another orgasm.

As though sensing it, Mitch slowed his movements. Beneath her fingers, Hayley felt the tension in his shoulders and knew the effort it took him. She tilted her hips. “It’s your turn. Take your pleasure now.”

His lips twitched. With a tender hand, he pushed a few damp strands of hair back from her face. “Let’s both get what we need.”

He rotated his hips, making Hayley moan and close her eyes from the ecstasy of it. Of having Mitch inside her, making love to her. The slow glide of his body into hers, his chest brushing against hers with every skilled stroke, drew the sensations forth, until they caused her inner muscles to grip him in a rapid fluttering motion. “Yes… Oh, God. Mitch. I love you. I love you.”

Mitch swallowed her declaration when he covered her mouth with his. His tongue tangled with hers, thrusting into her mouth as his cock thrust into her pussy, over and over. His hips bumped hers as he began to pound into her, harder, faster, until he released himself, his climax meeting hers like one ocean wave crashing into another, tumbling together to become one.

Afterward Mitch held her close, the warmth of his body surrounding her as he kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks. His mouth brushed featherlight over hers, the touch so exquisitely gentle that Hayley’s heart gave way.

She’d told him she loved him, and although it had been a spontaneous admission, she’d meant it. It would have been impossible not to notice that Mitch didn’t reciprocate the sentiment in words, but she was reassured by the tenderness of his embrace and the slow, steady thud of his heart against her palm. The words didn’t matter as long as she had Mitch beside her.

At least that was what she told herself as she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Eight

A pleasant post-orgasmic exhaustion infused Mitch, yet sleep eluded him. Hayley lay curled against his chest, her peaceful breaths fanning across his skin In the moonlight that filtered through the patio doors, the curve of her shoulder appeared as smooth and unblemished as porcelain, her hair like spun gold. She was so precious, so desirable.

And she was his. For now, maybe for longer.

Please let it be for longer.

Mitch was thinking along the lines of a lifetime, but what if Hayley wasn’t there yet? She’d cried out that she loved him a short time ago. The memory caused Mitch’s heart to inflate despite all his efforts to contain it. She’d screamed it in the throes of an intense orgasm. How much stock could he put in it? After all, they’d only just seen each other again after a two-year separation, during which she’d been involved with Ty Butler. How could she be certain of her feelings for Mitch? What if she was confused?

What if she changed her mind and went back to Ty?

The very notion made Mitch ill. The thought of losing her now was too horrific to contemplate. Mitch was forced to face the truth: he was in love with Hayley Bryant. Whether Hayley’s emotions were genuine or not, Mitch’s were. It was one thing he didn’t have to think through or analyze to the nth degree. He’d been head over heels for the woman in his arms since her first day on the job at the offices of Wood and Markham, and he’d been tying himself in knots trying to ignore those emotions every day since.

“Mitch?”

Hayley’s sleepy murmur broke into Mitch’s thoughts. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Hmm, I was.” She snuggled closer to him so her breasts meshed nicely to his chest. She placed a light kiss to his pulse point that made his blood leap against her lips. “What were you lying awake thinking about?”

“You,” he said.

She let out an indelicate snort. “Yeah, right.”

Mitch rolled his eyes. At last he had the correct romantic answer for one of those thorny questions women tended to ask, and Hayley didn’t believe him. “It’s true. Do you remember what you wore the first day you came to work for me?”

“Something sedate and professional looking, I imagine,” she sighed. “I wanted to make a good impression.”

“It was a black suit, totally shapeless. You had your hair pulled back in this severe bun. You looked like a girl playing dress-up in her mother’s Sunday church clothes.”

Hayley shoved at his chest peevishly. “Thanks very much.”

“Then after a few weeks, you started arriving in these different outfits, all range of colors,” Mitch went on, recalling that time with a mix of fondness and an acute ache reminiscent of the sexual frustration he’d suffered at the time. He’d responded to her when she’d worn the ugly black suit on day one. When the real Hayley started to emerge, he’d barely been able to keep his physical reactions in check. “Light blue, pink, red. You smiled more and wore unusual shoes—high, high heels on these tiny feet. You left your hair out. It was like watching a flower bloom right before my eyes.” Mitch brushed his lips over her temple, and she trembled against him. “I was enthralled by you.”

She drew back and met his gaze. “Really?”

“Yes, really. Every day I saw you and couldn’t touch you was a torment. But when you weren’t there it was worse. I was grouchy and impossible to work with because I hadn’t gotten my Hayley fix.”

Hayley propped her head on one hand and studied his face. “Sometimes I thought I saw you watching me. I felt your gaze, like the electricity in the air. But by the time I turned around you were always wrapped up in something, totally oblivious to me.”

Mitch’s lips quirked. The very notion was preposterous. “I was never oblivious to you.”

She traced the line of his jaw with her fingers. “I wondered so many times if I was imagining our attraction, even though every instinct I had told me you wanted me. You’re so good at hiding how you feel.”

“I think I’m losing the ability to do that,” Mitch admitted. “Ever since I saw you again I’ve been acting like a lunatic.”

Her touch trailed over his cheekbone, up to the tender swelling around his left eye. Mitch stifled a wince as she stroked the spot where a bruise would surely form come morning. “Did you really get into a fistfight with Ty?”

Mitch grunted unhappily. “He deserved it.”

“You
started
it?”

By way of an answer, Mitch shrugged. He was at a loss to explain why he’d hauled Butler out of his chair and walloped him, at least not in a manner that wouldn’t make him sound like a crazed, possessive jerk.

Hayley frowned. “Why?”

Mitch couldn’t believe she didn’t know. To hell with trying to appear sane. He’d left his good sense behind hours ago. “Because he had you,” he said, “and I couldn’t stand it.”

“Oh, Mitch. Ty never really had me—we didn’t
have
each other.” She sighed, seeming to gather her thoughts. “It was like we made a tacit agreement from the very beginning that falling in love was not an option, for either of us. We had…”

When she trailed off, burying her face in the pillow as though embarrassed, Mitch finished for her, using the words he recalled her uttering earlier that morning. “A purely sexual affair?”

“Yes and no. We became friends, but sex was biggest thing we had in common.”

“Okay, I get it.” Mitch couldn’t keep the terse note from his voice. He flopped onto his back and stared up at the canopy draped above the bed. In the light it appeared as pale and fine as gossamer. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

Lightly, Hayley touched his shoulder. “Mitch, you can’t pretend I was a virgin before tonight.”

An image of her writhing in the resort pool in the arms of another man flashed in Mitch’s mind. “Believe me, the proof of that is indelibly burned on my brain.”

Clearly piqued, Hayley flopped down on her own pillow with a thud. “You think I’m overjoyed to know I’m not the only woman you’ve tied up and made beg for mercy? Did they all promise to do anything you wanted, Mitch? Do they always scream that they belong to you?”

He couldn’t say no, that he’d never made another woman plead for orgasm the way he had Hayley. What he could give her was another truth. “It never meant anything to me until you said it.”

When Hayley uttered those words, Mitch had been struck speechless by the maelstrom of emotions that clogged his throat. All he could do was satisfy the primitive drive to be with her, in her, a part of her.

And then she’d said she loved him and had knocked him for a loop all over again. Mitch still felt like he had a touch of concussion.
Please say it again
,
he silently urged her.
Say it again so I know it wasn’t some crazy fluke.

When at last Hayley spoke, what she said was almost as good as any love declaration she could have made. “I want to be yours, Mitch. Only yours.”

Mitch let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He closed his eyes in relief.
No more Ty Butler. No more sharing her with anyone.
Reaching for her hand where it lay on the mattress, he linked his fingers through hers and squeezed. He growled in satisfaction. “Good.”

“
Good?
That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“Fantastic,” Mitch elaborated. “Spectacular. About bloody time. How’s that?”

“You’re so annoying!” Hayley tried to extract her hand from his but Mitch wouldn’t let her go. She huffed in frustration. “I was going to apologize for behaving so badly the last couple of days, but now I don’t think I will.”

“Don’t. You’re not the only one who’s been acting out of character.” Rolling over, Mitch covered Hayley’s body with his, loving the way her smooth skin slid against his. “I’ve been completely unreasonable since the second I laid eyes on you again. You, sweetheart, screw up my mental faculties.”

Her smile appeared, and a wicked gleam came into her eyes. She mimicked his fierce tone of before. “Good.”

“I see. Revenge is your game, is it?”

She arched a brow. “I can play any game you want me to.”

Well, that certainly made Mitch’s erection swell to painful proportions. Still, he felt the need to warn her. “Are you sure you know what a statement like that means to a guy like me?”

“You mean a guy who likes to dominate in the bedroom? I think I know enough.”

“Hayley, I’m serious. I’d never want to scare you or make you uneasy.”

“You don’t scare me. In fact, I find you incredibly sexy when you’ve got your bossy pants on.”

“My
what
?”

Hayley giggled. “I said, you like to pull on a pair of bossy pants and walk around barking orders at people. And it’s always turned me on.”

Having already hardened merely from tussling in the sheets with her, Mitch’s dick expanded to its full, flagrant size. He was too aroused to think of a way to contest her description of his leadership skills, which seemed vaguely belittling.
Bossy pants, indeed.

After a while, Hayley noted, “You’re speechless.”

“I think I should make you pay for your cheek. I’m considering my options.”

Not appearing in the least cowed by the warning in his tone, Hayley ran her foot up and down his calf, tilting her hips so her moist folds caressed his rigid shaft. “Do tell. What are these options?”

“I could tie you up again.”

She made a pretense of yawning. “Been there, done that.”