Free Moonlight Mirage: Bandicoot Cove 2 by Sami Lee

that direction.
    He was only meters from the club’s entrance when he saw a couple emerge. The man was none other than Ty Butler. Behind him he dragged a protesting Hayley. Neither saw him as they headed in the opposite direction, toward the moonlit lagoon. On autopilot, Mitch followed the sound of splashing water until he saw them both standing in the shallows of the pool. Hayley’s dress hit her midthigh, and now the water lapped around the hem, the ripples phosphorescent where the shine cast by the moon clashed with that emanating from the underwater lighting.
    “I don’t know, Ty,” Hayley was saying. “I think we need to talk.”
    “Come on, don’t tell me watching that buff guy rip off his fireman’s uniform didn’t get you hot.” Ty reached down to clasp Hayley’s butt in his hands. He murmured something into her ear that Mitch couldn’t make out. Then he began inching her dress upward.
    “Ty…” The uncertainty in Hayley’s voice propelled Mitch forward. If Butler was going to push the issue…
    Mitch halted in midstride when Ty pulled Hayley’s shift dress up and over her shoulders. She wore a pair of brief blue panties that sat low on her hips and revealed the swirling design of her tattoo. In the moonlight, Mitch could see all of it—the intricately etched tropical flowers, their stems intertwining to form a frame for a word, a single word written in bold cursive.
    Freedom.
    Mitch was a heartbeat away from storming into the water and scooping Hayley into his arms, taking over the situation because he wanted things his way. But that one word and all its implications had him welded to the spot. Was that what Hayley wanted above all else—her freedom? If that was the case, dragging her off to his room to keep her captive until she admitted she had feelings for him was the last thing she’d accept.
    “You’re so perfect, Hales.”
    Ty’s soft praise echoed Mitch’s thoughts. Hayley Bryant was perfect, exactly as she was. Mitch didn’t want to change a thing about her, even if it meant accepting this…desire of hers. The one she’d expressed to him that very morning.
    I want you to watch Ty do all sorts of naughty things to me.
    Jesus. Could he do it? Would it be worth it if it meant he could have Hayley to himself after— any way he wanted , as she’d promised?
    Ty reached up and caressed Hayley’s pert breast. Mitch saw the way Hayley responded, her lithe body curving in the silver-blue light. Although he wished he was the one touching her, the sight of her near-naked body being stroked and caressed stirred Mitch’s carnal interest. He grew hard inside his cargos, his erection a thing that pulsed with a life of its own. He hated Butler, but the sight of him playing Hayley’s body like a fiddle turned Mitch on.
    He was officially messed up.
    Five, ten minutes tops , Mitch told himself. Do whatever it takes to get through it, and she’ll be yours. He could prove to her control wasn’t the most important thing in his life, that he didn’t want to manage her or make her fit any kind of mold.
    Mitch had to believe it would be worth it.
     
     
    Hayley didn’t want Ty.
    She ought to. He was doing everything the way he knew she liked, and she was in dire need of sexual release, that was for darn sure. The hard-bodied stripper dressed as a fireman who had burst into McKenzie’s hen’s night was enough to get any red-blooded girl going. After the day Hayley had spent—avoiding both Mitch and Ty while being unable to stop fantasizing about them both—she was practically aflame.
    But not for Ty.
    Despite having had him on her mind all day, in her imaginings, Mitch had always been there too. Watching. His gaze would burn upon her as Ty made love to her. Before Ty could finish, Mitch would always stop him. He’d drag Hayley away and take her fast and hard, claiming her as his right in front of Ty.
    It was what she wanted most, for Mitch to challenge Ty for her. Dallying with Ty was wrong on