by Sami Lee
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.
“I don’t think you have any intention of giving in to how you feel.” Sadness and frustration mingled inside her. “All you want to do is control me.”
“Because I want to be the only man you fuck, you think I’m controlling?”
Hayley pushed against Mitch’s chest, trying not to be enticed once more by how corded with muscle it was. Oh, damn, but she’d never forgotten the thrill of touching his body. If anything, he had gotten firmer in the time she’d been away. His skin wasn’t tanned but glowed a natural pale golden in the morning light. He looked like an ancient god towering above her, powerful and magical and…
“Damn it, Hayley.” The hand at her breast flexed, his thumb flicking over the taut crest. He lowered his head once more and kissed her neck, causing a ripple of longing to move through her. “I want you. Can’t you admit you want me too?”
The problem wasn’t that she wanted him. Hayley’s issue was with how badly her body seemed to need his. With the slightest of touches, he’d set her skin alight, as though there were secret cravings inside her that only he could bring to the surface. No other man had ever made her feel so shaky and desperate from a mere kiss. No other man had made her feel like her heart was in serious jeopardy because he placed his lips to the flesh that it beat against.
What she felt ran deeper than simple sexual desire—it always had. Something about the hints of kindness beneath Mitch’s stern exterior had made her want to offer not just her body, but everything else she had in her as well. Yet what evidence did she have that Mitch felt anything for her beyond base lust? He hadn’t said he loved her or needed her—and a man like Mitch probably never would. He’d never give himself away like that, yet Hayley knew if she gave in to her feelings for Mitch she’d be lost. She’d always be the one who loved more, the one who clung, while he
kept himself aloof.
She couldn’t bear the thought of being that pathetic. Like one of those women he dated who’d hung around the outskirts of his life, waiting, hoping to be noticed. “Mitch, stop.”
Hayley struggled out of his hold and this time he released her with a curse. The tension of unfulfilled sexual longing came off him in waves, crashing into those radiating from her own body and charging the air between them with latent hostility. He turned and stared out at the ocean, his elbows on his knees and his hands shoved in his hair.
Hayley’s instinct was to apologize but she quelled it. She had every right to say no to sex—and that’s where they’d been headed. Glancing along the beach, she saw that it was deserted save for the two of them, but it could easily have been different. “Someone had to stop us.”
“Funny, I don’t really see why at this point.”
Pushing aside all the other, more difficult to explain reasons why she’d decided she couldn’t give in to her passions, Hayley drawled, “A lack of privacy, for a start.”
Mitch sent her a sharp glance, the blue of his eyes piercing. “So outdoor sex is beneath you all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I heard you, Hayley.” At his softly uttered words, a prickle chased itself all over her skin. “Lucky me with the room beside your palm tree of choice.”
Oh, dear God. The prickle intensified. It felt like a heat rash had spread all over her face. “You mean, last night when Ty and I…” Her tequila-soaked memories were a little hazy, but they returned with vivid clarity at the realization that Mitch had borne witness to her antics. Mortification made her voice harsh. “You listened?”
“Believe me, I didn’t want to. You weren’t exactly being discreet.”
The underlying tone of accusation made Hayley see red. “At least I wasn’t acting like a voyeur!”
“But you like being watched, don’t you?” His eyes coolly assessed her face. “At least by Butler and his surfer buddy.”
Oh, could her humiliation get any worse? Mitch had heard Ty talking about her letting his friend Pete watch them together. Did he disapprove? Or was last night’s impromptu show his motivation for being with her this morning? Mitch had never given in to his carnal urges where she was concerned before, but now after overhearing her with Ty last night she was suddenly irresistible?
Did he only want her now because he thought she was…kinky?
The idea stung her pride and her heart. Conditions again. I’ll sleep with you if…when Hayley would have taken Mitch any way she could have gotten him, under any circumstances. “Yeah, that’s right.” She rose to her feet, her voice caustic. “I like performing for an audience. I wish I’d known you were there last night, it would have added a real edge to things for me.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“How would you know?”
Mitch stood as well. “Because you’re still blushing.”
Hayley raised a brow. “I’m turned on. Can’t you tell the difference?”
“Either works for me.” He gave her the hint of a smile she used to watch for, the one that made her heart melt like ice cream in the hot sun. It had the same effect on her now. The weakness in her knees almost made them buckle as Mitch reached to tenderly trace the line of her jaw with his fingers. “Anything you do has always worked for me.”
Sweet words that Hayley didn’t dare trust. “You can’t come back into my life after two years of no contact and expect to pick up where you left off.”
“As I recall, you were the one who severed all communication with me. I never wanted that.”
The glimpse of hurt in his eyes almost unraveled Hayley. She backed away, evading his touch before she threw herself at him and started blubbering. “It doesn’t matter anymore who did what to whom. The point is, I’ve moved on.”
“With Ty.”
“Why do you sound so doubtful?”
“Because he’s not for you.”
Hayley spluttered in disbelief. “If you think you have the right—”
“Your body and how it responds to me gives me the right,” he interjected. “Of course I’ll question why you’re screwing him and not me.”
“I’m screwing Ty because I enjoy it,” Hayley fired back. She was furious enough to taunt him a little more. “You heard the evidence of that yourself last night.”
“Do you love him?”
On the tip of her tongue the retort rested. Do you love me? Afraid what his answer might be, Hayley bit down on the words. “I’m perfectly happy with mine and Ty’s relationship.”
Mitch regarded her shrewdly. “That’s not an answer.”
“Ty gives me what I want. He satisfies me, and for now that’s all I need.”
“So public sex and a touch of exhibitionism is all you’re looking for?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
His slow smile spread wider over his face, full of wicked knowledge. “I don’t think so—not for you.”
Hayley’s voice came out breathy, causing her rejoinder to lose the stridency she’d intended. “Shows how much you know.”
Mitch bent down to whisper in her ear. “You liked it before when I made you beg.”
Slick heat spilled between her thighs at the husked words. Her breasts tingled with the remembered sensation of having Mitch’s mouth working over them, driving her to the brink of crazy. She had begged him, and she’d enjoyed the fact he could reduce her to that.
What did that say about her hard-won sense of independence?
Her protest was barely audible. “No. I didn’t.”
Mitch’s tongue lightly traced the shell of her ear, making Hayley quiver. “If I thought that was true, I’d back off right now. If I thought for a second you and loverboy were made for each other, I’d leave you alone.”
“Are you sure about that?” Hayley challenged. “Or does this sudden determination to ravish me have more to do with the fact you have competition?”
Mitch let out a derisive laugh and pulled back to stare into her face, the arrogance in his expression extreme. “For all the reasons I’ve just laid out, I’m not threatened by Ty Butler. In fact, if exhibitionism excites you so much, I’d even let him watch us.”
The shock of what he said moved through Hayley like a category seven hurricane. From the look on Mitch’s face, Hayley would hazard to guess that he’d surprised himself just as much. Yet beyond the astonishment lay something else, a feeling so sinfully delicious that it made her blood turn thick and lava-hot. Pictures of Mitch and Ty turned in her mind—erotic images where one man morphed into the other and vice-versa.
The night that Hayley had let Ty’s friend watch them have sex was one of the hottest experiences she’d ever had. Her mind’s eye replaced Pete with Mitch. She couldn’t fathom how intense it would have been if Mitch were the man watching them, his need for her palpable. He’d overheard her with Ty last night but hadn’t done anything to stop them. It must have nearly killed him to stand on the sidelines like that. If he actually watched, would he be able to hold back, or would he stalk over to them and yank her off Ty? Push her down on the ground and take her as his?
Hayley was so aroused by her thoughts she knew her face must have turned cherry red. She saw Mitch looking down at her, hesitant for the first time since before he’d kissed her. “Hayley, no.”
“You’re always saying no to me. Did you ever notice that? Like you get to decide what I should and shouldn’t want.”
“I won’t share you.”
“I want you, Mitch, but you don’t own me. If I’d like to share myself, it’s my decision. The only question is, will you do it?”
“What are you saying?” His demand was terse. “That the only way you’ll be with me is if I let Ty see everything I’m doing to you?”
“No.” Hayley’s heart raced as she realized what she was about to say. Even an ounce of caution would have stopped the words before they erupted from her mouth, but the
re seemed to be none within her. It obviously couldn’t survive amongst the seething lust and wild sense of feminine power that curled inside her. The idea of having both Mitch and Ty at her disposal… She shuddered with pure carnal desire.
Her words would either force some action out of Mitch or push him away forever. Hayley knew it but made her demand anyway. She had to know once and for all how far Mitch was willing to go to get her.
“What I’m saying is that I want you to watch Ty do all sorts of naughty things to me.” Mitch’s eyes turned downright glacial, and a surge of panic formed a lump in her throat. Hayley swallowed over it and pushed on. “If you do that, I’ll be all yours afterward—any way you want me.”
What Mitch needed most of all was to get stinking drunk.
“Another, please,” he said to the bartender as he slammed his empty scotch glass on the counter. “And keep ’em coming.”
“Hey, you might want to pace yourself,” Aidan’s best friend, Luke Beasley, said as he took a seat on the barstool beside Mitch. “You’ll be too plastered to appreciate the fine entertainment that I’ve gone to great trouble and expense to line up.”
“I’ll live.” At the moment, watching some stripper slide up and down a shiny pole at his soon-to-be-brother-in-law’s buck’s party was the last thing occupying Mitch’s mind. All he could think about was his confrontation with Hayley that morning, the same thing that had plagued his thoughts all day.
As promised, his sister had returned his phone, and his voicemail was clogged with messages. Mitch had listened to a few but had tossed the phone aside when he realized minor work issues couldn’t take his mind from its preoccupation with one petite blonde who’d shown him the sunrise and then asked him to give her something in return that he couldn’t possibly provide.
“A man with too much on his mind to enjoy the visual delights of one very talented pole dancer. Now that is tragic.”