Read Moonlight Mirage: Bandicoot Cove 2 for Free Online Page B

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,