by Sami Lee
“Not just to see him. To get my clothes, like I said. He’s staying in the room, that’s all.”
Mitch’s eyes trailed over her barely covered state. “You’re going to meet him dressed like that?”
She sent her ripped dress a pointed glance. “I don’t have a lot of choice.”
His lips tilted sardonically. “You didn’t complain about that at the time.”
No, she sure hadn’t. “I guess there comes a point when a person has to face practical concerns.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Hayley huffed. “But the fact is, I’ve treated Ty badly this trip. I invited him here as my guest, and now on the day of the wedding, he’s probably wondering what he’s supposed to do.”
That muscle in Mitch’s jaw jumped as though it were going to break skin. His tone was lethal. “You’re not still thinking of taking him to Mack’s wedding.”
She hadn’t thought about it at all until this minute. She’d been too wrapped up in the whole Mitch-Ty thing, and then last night she’d practically dumped Ty on his ass in the middle of the pool and run off with Mitch, who had then completely dominated her time, in more ways than one. Everything had been so clear-cut then. She loved Mitch and wanted to be with him. The rest could work itself out later.
Now it all seemed so messed-up and confusing.
“I can’t tell him not to come,” Hayley explained, realizing the truth of it even as she spoke. “It wouldn't be fair. He’s traveled all this way and Mack’s already paid for the catering—”
“Catering? Are you out of your mind?” Mitch thundered, the sudden eruption making Hayley jump. “Who gives a fuck if there’s a leftover plate of chicken? You told me you were never going to see him again.”
Had she? In the pool last night Mitch had growled his demand: never again, and she’d agreed. But she’d assumed he meant she’d never have sex with Ty again, not that she would sever all contact. “I can’t just abandon him. He’s my friend.”
“Bullshit. You told me all you had in common was sex.”
“I know, but…” How to explain it? The sex had drawn them together and had motivated them to ensure they bumped into each other as regularly as possible. But somewhere along the way she’d gotten used to bouncing one-liners and ideas off Ty. She was supposed to give up all the other ways in which their relationship had grown because the sex was no longer on the table? Was it fair of Mitch to ask that?
Was it reasonable of her to expect him to tolerate her having any kind of relationship with Ty?
“If it means anything, I have no intention of having sex with Ty—”
“Good to know,” Mitch spat.
“—and you’re going to have to trust me on that,” Hayley continued. “Exactly how I trusted you last night, when I let you have the upper hand because I knew it would please you.”
“It pleased you too.”
“Yes, it did. But you can’t make all my decisions for me, Mitch. You can’t tell me who I can and can’t be friends with.”
“Damn it, I don’t like the man. It’s not you I don’t trust, it’s him.”
“That’s such a crap line. You think I can’t control myself, or that I still don’t know my own heart after everything I did with you last night, after all the things I said.”
Hayley’s face heated at the reminder of what she’d revealed. I love you. Three little words Mitch had chosen not to say in return. Oh, it shouldn’t matter to her. They were only words and it was early days. Mitch might still say them, and even if he didn’t, what did it matter if he made her feel like he had while they’d made love—like the most amazing, cherished, adored woman on the planet?
It shouldn’t matter, but it did.
Mitch’s expression softened. “Hayley, sweetheart, listen to me. I spent half the morning on the phone arranging—”
“I know you were on the phone, I heard you. You have to work, it’s what you do.” The statements burst from her lips, carrying a ring of accusation she couldn’t strip from them. “I’m just not sure if I’m strong enough to play second chair to it all the time. A relationship like that isn’t what I want.”
“Then what do you want? Something meaningless like you had with Ty? A man you fuck but don’t give yourself to? Someone to have sex with who doesn’t give a shit what you do the rest of the time?”
“I want something equal! I need to feel like I’m as vital to the man I’m with as anything else in his life. Let’s face it, Mitch.” She regarded him sadly, the tears welling in her eyes. “That’s not the case here.”
Mitch stepped back, regarding her with astonishment. “You don’t think I see you as an equal? You’re the most strong-willed, stubborn, determined woman I’ve ever met. If you think I consider you in any way inferior, you don’t know me at all.”
Hayley shook her head, unable to speak over the painful lump that clogged her throat. That wasn’t what she’d meant. He might take a high-handed approach in bed, but Mitch respected women. He’d always treated Hayley like a human being, not merely a girl he wanted to screw. In his business he promoted females as often as males. Merit was what counted at Wood and Markham, there was no boys’ club.
And she knew that just because Mitch had mastered her last night, he didn’t consider her his slave. The inequality in their relationship derived from its inherent emotions, not from any latent chauvinism on his part. It was simple: Hayley’s feelings were all-consuming, threatening to pull her under. Mitch’s allowed him the room to make phone calls and place conditions on who she could and couldn’t see.
If he loved her at all, it wasn’t nearly as much as she loved him.
“I can’t do this.” The words tumbled out of her on a sob. “I can’t love you and keep my sanity. It hurts too damn much.”
“Hayley, sweetheart.” His voice cracked and began to tremble. “I don’t know how to make you stay. Don’t you know the last thing I want is for you to be hurt?”
She swiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “I know. You’ve always done your best to protect me. Protect me now, please. Let me go.”
Without waiting for an answer, Hayley fumbled with the door handle. When at last her damp palms allowed her to grip and turn the knob, she yanked open the door and bolted into the hall.
Dumbstruck, Mitch watched Hayley vanish as though into thin air. He couldn’t work out how things had gone so wrong, so quickly. One minute he’d been happier than he’d ever been in his life. The next…
Mitch dropped onto the bed, devastated. He was devastated. Hayley had run out on him. She’d said something about wanting to see Ty Butler again and it had made Mitch see red—or green if he were honest with himself. He’d never been in a position where he had to war with an opponent for a woman’s affections. The fierce jealousy was a newfound experience and it was making him behave in ways he couldn’t seem to control.
She was right, in theory—he had no cause to dictate who she could and could not be friends with. Yet he couldn’t possibly cope with the idea of her remaining bosom buddies with Ty Butler. Resting his elbows on his knees, Mitch dropped his head into his hands. Think, Wood. Think.
All he could picture was Hayley’s tear-streaked face. All he could hear were her words. I can’t do this. It hurts too much.
How had he hurt her? By asking her to stay away from the man she’d been lovers with not twenty-four hours earlier? Was she saying if the situations were reversed, she wouldn’t have a problem with him going to see a former lover while half dressed? If that was true she mustn’t care about him at all. She mustn’t love him like she’d said she did.
Mitch’s chest shuddered as he tried to draw breath. She didn’t love him.
All he’d done this morning had been a waste. He and his PA had fought tooth and nail to clear his schedule for the rest of the week. Most of those people were going to be extremely unimpressed to find themselves dealing with someone other than Mitch, but he didn’
t give a rat’s ass. He’d woken this morning with only one intention—to somehow prove to Hayley Bryant how much she meant to him.
Time had been the answer. He knew Hayley was into all this living-in-the-moment business. Today he’d been planning to ask her to show him how to live like that. He was going to offer to be her student for the rest of the week, here on the island. He was going to learn to sail and scuba dive, all the things she’d accused him of not doing because of his work. And he’d wanted to do it all with Hayley by his side, day and night, to prove he had time for her. That he would make room for her in his life.
“Oh, Christ.” The words tore at his throat and Mitch realized how close he was to shedding tears. He loved her so much. She’d brought him to life three years ago when she’d walked into his office dressed in that horrible black suit, smiling from ear to ear. She’d done it again when she’d taken him to the beach yesterday morning, showing him all he’d been missing. He loved her, and even knowing that, she’d walked out on him.
Something about that last thought made him still.
What if she didn’t know how he felt?
He hadn’t said the words. He’d chosen to wait, to give Hayley a chance to confirm or retract what she’d said when she’d been caught up in the storm of her orgasm. But she had to know, surely. He’d confessed how long he’d ached for her. He hadn’t been able to control his desire for her—he’d been hard all damn night. And each time he’d reached across the bed, she’d been there. Willing, passionate, eager.
Loving.
She’d loved him to within an inch of his life. She’d even told him how she felt in explicit terms, while he’d kept his cards close to his chest. What had he been waiting for? An engraved invitation?
No, he’d been waiting for verification. Like Hayley’s love was a contract he needed notarized before he committed to going ahead with the deal.
Wood, you are one grade-A fucking moron.
Every instinct was screaming for him to run after Hayley and admit what an idiot he’d been. But her final words gave Mitch pause. Protect me now, please. Let me go. Was he supposed to ignore that plea? Or would she get even more riled that he hadn’t respected her wishes?
How could he have reached the age of thirty-bloody-four and still not know a damn thing about women?
Although he’d just scored extremely low on a relationship IQ test he hadn’t even been aware he was taking, he was still smart enough to know he was out of his depth. If he went ahead alone, chances were he’d stuff things up further. Picking up the hotel phone, he dialed a few numbers.
When his call was answered, he launched straight into it. “How did you get my sister to marry you?”
“Mitch?” Aidan asked. “Is this some last-minute attempt to voice an objection?”
“I have no objection. Anyone can see you’re good for McKenzie. I need to know how you made her see that.”
“I didn’t make her see anything. She saw for herself—eventually. It took a couple of decades.”
Mitch groaned. “I can’t wait that long. I’ve already wasted enough time.”
“Okay. Any chance you’ll tell me what this is about—or should I ask who it’s about?”
Mitch hesitated. He’d been so careful all these years never to let Mack know anything untoward had happened between him and Hayley. The way Aidan and Mack were sewn at the hip recently, telling Aidan the truth might be tantamount to revealing all to Mack as well. “I’d rather not say yet.”
There was a definite smirk in Aidan’s voice. “It’s Hayley, right?”
“How do you know that?”
“From Mack.”
“She knows?”
“She told me that Hayley’s had a huge crush on you since she was a teenager.”
Mitch closed his eyes, pain and regret moving through him. His voice croaked. “She has?”
Aidan chuckled knowingly. “Yeah. The sight of you punching on with her plus one at my buck’s night leads me to believe it’s become contagious.”
“And incurable.” A crush. It was an apt description. Mitch’s chest felt like it was being slowly squeezed by a boa constrictor. “Aidan, I’m a good manager. Good enough to know when to seek advice from an expert. My sister is a real handful, sort of a dope about men.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You being the notable exception,” Mitch said. “Although, as you said, it did take her over twenty years to figure out she was supposed to be with you.”
“You’re right, she is kind of a dope.”
There was such affection in the other man’s voice that Mitch was reassured anew that his sister was pledging her life to the right man. “My point is, Mack can be a real hard case at times. Willful, single-minded, prone to temper tantrums. But somehow you got her. I need you to tell me how you did that.”
“I’d love to tell you there’s a surefire three-step program, but it doesn’t work like that. A lot of it’s luck.”
Mitch sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say something like that.”
“And I almost died in a fire, which made me acknowledge I couldn’t live without her anymore.”
“I’d rather bypass that part, if it’s all the same to you.”
Aidan chuckled. “Fair enough. Tell you what, come over to room twenty-two. The guys are all here. Maybe between all of us we can come up with a game plan.”
Knowing he needed all the help he could get, Mitch did exactly that.
Chapter Ten
Hayley took a seat in the row second from the back. The wedding was due to begin in a few minutes. She could see Mitch sitting in the front row of white chairs that had been arranged on the beach. Even that scant glimpse of him, the afternoon sun slanting across his blond head and his wide shoulders, made her heart go wild.
She clutched her purse tight, her knuckles whitening. Every instinct she possessed willed her to run to him, jump on his lap and promise to do anything he wanted, anything, as long as they could be together—including cut off all contact with Ty.
Not that it was necessary now. Ty had beaten her to the punch. He’d departed by seaplane early that morning, leaving behind nothing but a note scrawled on the hotel stationery.
We can’t hang out anymore, not if you want to do this thing with Wood for real. You deserve someone who can love you with all he’s got, and you know I was never that guy. Not your fault, babe. My failing.
Mitch is nuts about you so stop fooling around and do your best to make it work. Love doesn’t come along every day, Hales. Don’t let it go. T.
As though sensing the weight of her riveted gaze on his back, Mitch suddenly turned. While Hayley had donned sunglasses to hide her red-rimmed eyes, Mitch had not. The swelling around his left eye had begun to turn purple, and there was a nick on his chin as though he’d cut himself shaving. But it was the raw emotion on his face when he caught sight of her that made her breath catch. The same torment going on inside Hayley was reflected there. The last few hours apart had been as harrowing for him as they had been for her.
By the time she’d gotten back to her room that morning, Hayley had barely been able to control her sobs of anguish. Finding Ty’s note hadn’t helped, but his words had eventually penetrated her fevered thoughts. Stop fooling around. Hayley realized that was exactly what she had been doing. Ambling along with Ty in a relationship they both knew was heading nowhere, using it to test Mitch’s feelings, pretending she didn’t love Mitch with every fiber of her being because she was afraid he didn’t feel the same.
She’d been playing games with life, and with love. That wasn’t how a mature person behaved. If she was going to move forward with Mitch—and she had to find a way to do that or walk around with half her heart missing for the rest of her life—she had to behave like a woman, not like a silly girl who didn’t know who she was or what she wanted. Mitch was the kind of man who would respond well to specific requests, not emotional outbursts.
All Hayley had to do was negotiate for what
she wanted—to know how he really felt about her, to be a priority in his life—and be specific and unemotional about it.
Tell that to your racing heart and your sweaty palms.
After holding hers for long, poignant seconds, Mitch’s gaze flickered to the seat beside her. Hayley had taken an aisle chair next to a woman she’d been introduced to the other night as Aidan’s great aunt Alberta. When Mitch looked back at Hayley, she easily interpreted the question in his eyes.
She shook her head to indicate that Ty wasn’t with her.
The relief on his face was obvious. Remorse jabbed Hayley in the chest. What a stupid argument she’d started. If the situations had been reversed that morning, she would have been outraged if Mitch had blithely suggested popping off to visit an ex-lover, no matter what his reasoning. Afraid of the depth of her feelings, Hayley had grasped any excuse to escape and had ended up hurting Mitch, as well as herself.
Hayley’s determination to be unemotional started to crumble bit by bit as someone began playing I’m Yours on an acoustic guitar. Everyone turned to look as Mack’s bridesmaids, Kylie, Bianca and Sienna, all strolled down the aisle together, each wearing a simple bottle-green shift dress. Behind them walked Mack, radiating happiness as she approached her soon-to-be husband.
Aidan and Mack’s love for each other was so real. What she felt for Mitch was real, and she’d treated it with the utmost disrespect the last few days. Hayley pressed a hand to her chest as though that could soothe the ache. What if he didn’t forgive her?
Be specific, be clear. Be less emotional, Hayley, not more.
“Today we have gathered in this place of natural beauty to be joyful, in celebration of the relationship of McKenzie and Aidan,” the celebrant began. “By their commitment to marry each other, they are saying yes to love, yes to a future, yes to…”
