Moonlight Mirage: Bandicoot Cove 2 (5 page)

She’d assuaged her longing for one man by using the body of another. What kind of person did that? The answer was simple—a desperate one. All Hayley had wanted was to forget about Mitch, to pretend every feeling she’d ever had for him hadn’t returned in a rush the second she’d laid eyes on him in Bar Evoke. She’d thought Ty could make that happen. Yet what little sleep she’d had last night had been plagued by dreams of Mitch.

Hayley slipped out of bed, unsurprised when Ty didn’t stir. He worked hard, played harder and dropped like the proverbial log when sleep called. Besides, there was no reason Ty’s slumber should be disturbed by guilt. She was the one who’d behaved dreadfully.

After taking a quick shower, Hayley dragged on the first sarong and tank top she found, and silently slipped away from the source of her guilt. The salt-scented air outside balmed her soul as she breathed it in. She strolled lazily through the grounds, letting the tranquility of her surroundings sooth some of her disquiet. Bilby Island was a beautiful place. Perhaps she ought to consider Kylie’s offer and take a job here, for a few months at least. Until she figured out what she really wanted to do.

Back when she’d worked at Mitch’s intern, she’d thought she’d had her future all mapped out. She’d thrived on the demands of corporate life, and she’d longed to make a name for herself, be a success. The transient life she’d lived over the past two years, a life devoid of possessions and schedules and goals, had shown her the only thing that truly mattered was the moment, the here and now. The future didn’t exist until it became the present, and the past couldn’t hurt you if you didn’t let it.

Were you true to that edict last night when you let the past consume you?

Hayley released a weighty sigh. Thinking back on all she’d said to Mitch as they’d danced, she was forced to face how bitter she’d sounded. And recalling how she’d drunk too much and made a spectacle out of her relationship with Ty purely for Mitch’s benefit made her face heat with shame. Perhaps Mitch had been right to reject her two years ago. Maybe she was simply too immature to handle a man like him.

As she turned onto the path that would take her down to the beach, a flash of movement to her left arrested her attention. Her steps faltered as, through the plate glass windows encasing the resort’s gymnasium, she saw a man running on a treadmill. Although those windows would provide a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean, the man’s head was bent, his gaze intent on the machine’s digital display.

From this distance she couldn’t have signed a sworn statement that it was him, but Hayley knew immediately the runner was Mitch. Who else would sprint on a treadmill indoors when one of the most gorgeous shorelines in the world lay only meters away? So maybe she was impetuous and emotional and a tad immature. Mitch Wood didn’t have it all together, either. He never had known how to let go, to forget his responsibilities and have fun. In his own self-contained, uber-successful way, Mitch was just as messed up as Hayley was.

“Oh, Mitch.” Hayley sighed as everything inside her turned soft. The eldest of six, Mitch had been assigned by birth order the role of leader, and with that came an awesome sense of responsibility. It was that sense of responsibility that had made him turn her away two years ago. She’d been young, an employee and a friend of his sister, to boot. She’d tried to seduce him, and he’d done the only thing he could live with—he’d tried to protect her by pushing her away. He’d done the right thing, what he saw as his duty. How could she hate him for that?

Knowing she had some reparations to make, Hayley headed toward the gym’s entrance.

The pain burned in Mitch’s calves, screaming at him to stop. As always, he ignored it. Eight hundred meters to go and he’d reach his goal of five kilometers. If he kept pace, he’d cover the distance in under twenty-four minutes, his best time yet.

Besides, running cleared his mind, helped him focus. And what he needed to focus on right now was Hayley and how to steal her away from that reprobate Ty Butler.

He
could
seduce her, of course. Mitch was confident he could entice Hayley into bed if he put in the required effort, even if she was still mad at him for not taking her up on that particular offer two years ago. After all, she wouldn’t still be angry if he meant nothing to her, would she?

But as much as Mitch wanted Hayley sexually, bedding her wasn’t going to be enough. Hayley had always been more to him than a potential sex partner.

Reaching down to the electronic panel, Mitch upped the speed by another half a kilometer per hour, successfully distracting himself from that thought. The second he did it, a voice came out of the dim light at the edges of the gym.

“Slow down before you hurt yourself.”

Startled, Mitch stumbled a little. The fumble screwed up his rhythm, making it impossible to maintain the pace he’d set. He felt his body careening off the back of the treadmill, but could do nothing to prevent it. His attempts to stop himself from falling face-first into the machine annihilated his balance. Toppling backwards, Mitch landed on the floor on his rear.

“Mitch!” Hayley rushed forward and fell to her knees by his side, a concerned expression on her face. “Are you okay?”

“Not really.” Winded, Mitch croaked the reply. “Did you have to sneak up on me?”

“I didn’t sneak. I was watching.” Mitch cocked a brow as he looked at her, and a little color stole into her cheeks. “Not like
that
. I was worried about you.”

Mitch’s momentary pleasure at the thought that she might have been ogling him vanished. “I’m only thirty-four. I wasn’t going to have a heart attack.”

“I know how old you are, a whole
ten years
older than I am.”

Mitch scowled when he saw her lips twitch. Was she making fun of their age difference? It was one of the reasons he’d used to point out why a relationship between them wouldn’t work, but at the time she’d dismissed it as unimportant. Had she changed her mind? Did she think him a pathetic, old, pompous wind—

“Anyway, I wasn’t worried about your physical health. Anyone can see you’re in great shape.”

The way her gaze flickered over him stilled Mitch’s litany of concerns. Hayley didn’t look at him like she thought he was too old for her. She looked at him like she was thinking of eating him for breakfast. Mitch’s blood, already heated from the strenuous exercise, caught fire, pulsing through his veins like a river of lava.

Energy crackled in the air between them as Mitch afforded Hayley’s body the same attention she’d given his. Their positions, her kneeling on the floor beside his seated form, brought her chest to his eye level. Mitch stifled a groan as he realized there was nothing between her white tank top and her skin. No lacey outline, no cotton cups—no
bra
. His gaze snagged on the twin circles of dark pink flesh clearly visible through the top. As he watched, they puckered, their tips extending toward him as though begging to be touched.

Abruptly, Hayley stood, breaking the erotic spell that had wound around him. “What are you doing in here, Mitch?”

“Running?” Mitch tried not to sound irritable as he stated the obvious, but the strain of his cock chafing against his jocks made it nearly impossible.

“Inside. On a treadmill.”

Rising to his feet and trying to subtly adjust his shorts to conceal his erection, Mitch drawled, “That’s how I usually do it.”

“Sure, when you’re in the city. But did you notice the long stretch of sand right outside this window?”

“Oh, yeah. They call it a beach, right?”

Having moved several paces away, Hayley at last turned back to face him. She matched his sarcasm with some of her own. “Did you consider jogging on it? Or wait, let’s go for broke. Would you consider taking a leisurely stroll on the shoreline?”

“Hayley, you know strolling’s not my style.”

Her smile was tinged with sadness. “I know.”

Mitch, you idiot.
Had she been asking him to go for a walk with her? And had he really responded with mild loathing like some creep with an 85 IQ?
Hey, babe, I’d rather act like a complete asshole than go for a walk with you.
Shit! Here was his opportunity to spend some time alone with her and he’d blown it. “Hayley, I—”

“What’s the hurry?” She cut him off before he could say anything. “You’re already a success. You have money, a great company, respect from your peers. What are you working so hard for?”

“Hard work is how I got all those things you say I have.” He was getting kind of sick of having to defend his working habits to all and sundry. “If you think I can rest on my laurels and keep everything I’ve strived for, you’re being naive. Success means having to work harder than you ever have before.”

She gave him that sad smile again, the one that made him feel he was missing some vital point. “If that’s your definition of success, I don’t know how you’ll ever be happy.”

Because her words jangled a nerve somewhere inside him, Mitch responded with an aggression that was as natural as the growl of a lion defending itself from threat. He strode forward, closing the distance Hayley had put between them. He stood close enough that he towered over her, knowing the pose would make her aware of her smaller stature and weaker physicality. Staring down into her face, Mitch let the desire, the naked lust, shine from his eyes. “I know something that would make me happy—that would make us both bloody ecstatic, in fact.”

Lifting a hand, he trailed it down the side of her face until his thumb found the plump outline of her lower lip. It trembled when he traced its shape, the only signal Hayley gave that his touch affected her. Her body remained rigid, her eyes steady as they watched him. Mitch thought about shifting his hand farther down to cup her breast, find out if those nipples of hers were still as hard as flint. Before he could act on the impulse, Hayley slipped away from him again. “That isn’t what I came in here for.”

Mitch gritted his teeth on the urge to curse. “Then why
did
you come in here?”

“To apologize—for last night.” His shock must have been written all over his face because she elaborated. “I had no right to go off at you like that about something that happened ages ago. You can’t help how you feel—or don’t feel—about me.”

She couldn’t possibly think he didn’t have feelings for her. Could she? “Hayley, the problems between us were never caused by a lack of sentiment.”

Her smile was knowing and heartrending all at once. “Oh, I know you lust after me a little, but I’m not so immature anymore as to assume that means we belong together. That’s why you refused to take up with me two years ago, because you figured I was bound to confuse good sex with true love. And maybe you were right. I don’t know that I could have conducted a purely sexual affair back then.”

Mitch’s throat felt constricted, like his heart had leapt to it and now sat there clogging his esophagus. He husked, “And now?”

She eyed him steadily, a wealth of feminine knowledge glittering in her eyes. The faint curve of her lips was mysterious, sensuous. Her silence was both an answer and the start of a whole array of additional questions. Mitch wanted to clarify that a “purely sexual affair” was all she had with Ty. Before he could ask, she took a deep breath and straightened. “Mitch, I’d like to show you something.”

“What is it?”

“You can’t ask questions, and you have to come with me now.”

Her demand unsettled Mitch. He was used to being in the driver’s seat in every exchange. Asking him to blindly follow someone else’s commands was tantamount to expecting him to jump off a tall cliff without any base-jumping equipment. When he opened his mouth to ask for more detail, the look Hayley sent him stifled the queries he wanted to utter. She didn’t think he could do it. She didn’t think he trusted her.

A strange sense of peace came over Mitch as he let go of the need to control the situation. He realized with some surprise that he did trust Hayley. Either that or he was willing to go anywhere with her, as long as he was by her side.

Both possibilities ought to have frightened the hell out of him. But he wasn’t scared as he nodded slowly. “Okay.”

As it turned out, Mitch was only too happy to oblige Hayley’s request. Walking behind her on the path that led through the resort’s lush green foliage enabled him to watch her unobserved. Her blonde curls fell in thick waves over her shoulders, all the way down to the small of her back. The tank top was short, exposing a strip of lightly tanned skin between its hem and the top of her sarong. As she walked, the jaunty swing of her hips mesmerized him—especially when the floral garment started to slip low on her hips. Above the fabric, Mitch saw a glimpse of dark ink, the tail end of a swirling shape that told him the tattoo she’d gotten was right there at the base of her spine, decorating the very tops of her butt cheeks.

Mitch could see the appeal of tattoos now. The mystery of Hayley’s—what it represented and how low it might go down—made his mouth dry out. By the time they cleared the resort grounds and their feet hit sand, he was in serious need of liquid refreshment.

“Can you see it?”

Mitch stared at the spot where her sarong had slipped another tantalizing inch, muttering, “Almost.”

At her silence, Mitch met her gaze. Hayley stared at him askance, one eyebrow lifting. “I was talking about what’s out there.”