Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,33

over his bare foot the next, then deftly leaping over another group. He danced his way to the far side of the dune where six baby turtles had paused just inside the tree line. He picked up the leader and turned it around, towards the ocean. It hit the sand running. The others wheeled around and followed, finally shooting into the water and disappearing under its dark surface.

Rob loped towards her up the beach that was now empty except for the snacking frigatebirds. He was moonlit, puffing slightly, had a crooked grin on his handsome face and his eyes locked hard onto hers.

Her heart swelled and she adored him in that moment for flouting the golden rule so spectacularly. For the first time in a very long time she didn’t think, she just acted. She launched out of her folding chair and crashed into him, sliding her arms around his neck in a fierce hug. He caught her with warm, surprised hands.

‘Thank you,’ she breathed in his ear.

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her easily off the sand. Her legs scrabbled like a hatchling.

‘Grateful?’ He swung her side to side and she tightened her hold to hang on. She hadn’t done this since she was a child, but the way her body pressed hard against his, she felt anything but childlike.

‘Yes!’

‘How grateful?’ He leaned back and looked down at her seriously.

She frowned, confused. ‘What?’

‘One kiss,’ he said simply. Intensely.

All her delight with him evaporated. ‘Did you plan this, Dalton?’

He rolled his eyes but didn’t let go. ‘Yes, Honor. I came here earlier and whispered through the sand to the turtles in their eggs. We planned this whole thing. You got us.’

‘So you’re just an opportunist, then?’

‘You bet. One kiss—that’s my price.’

‘For what?’

‘For saving six hatchlings and possibly the entire species.’ He was joking, but she had just thrown herself into his arms in gratitude. It made it hard to pretend now that she didn’t value what he’d done.

‘You don’t want to kiss me.’ Honor knew the impact her scars had on people. She wasn’t hung-up about it but she was also a realist.

‘Correction—I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you.’ Sincerity was live in his eyes but still she doubted. Maybe a kiss wasn’t such a big deal where he came from—just a bit of fun? He couldn’t know that she’d only been kissed by two men in her whole life—her first kiss when she was fourteen and then her husband. Rob would make three.

If she was entertaining the suggestion.

She swallowed. Her heart thumped an SOS in her chest but her body wasn’t listening. How good would it be to give in to her yearning, to taste him just for a moment? She imagined how his lips would feel against hers but, more than anything, she wanted to nibble her way along that spectacular jaw line. She could almost reach it from here...

In her dreams. This was just a bit of fun for Rob, gentle flirting. He was probably bored. And the best way to handle a flirt? Call them on it.

‘Fine—one kiss.’

His pupils flared and he bent his head towards her.

‘One small kiss.’

‘One small kiss—’ he nodded ‘—for each turtle?’

A crazy part of her was enjoying the verbal foreplay. He was waking nerve endings she hadn’t used in a long, long time. ‘Turtles hatched or turtles saved?’

He smiled, caught out. ‘Okay, saved.’

Six small kisses. Just kisses. Every part of her wanted to say yes and that alone rang alarm bells. He was perfection in deck shoes, funny and gentle, and all of this probably meant nothing to him. Just a bit of casual sport. It was what he did, after all.

He played.

‘Deal.’

If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. ‘Where would you like the first one?’

A wild streak she’d virtually forgotten she had surged forward. She stood straighter and looked at him fearlessly. ‘Cheek.’

He smiled, leaned in excruciatingly slowly and brushed gentle lips across one flushed cheek. They were cool and soft against her flaming skin. He smelled of sea-salt and moonlight. She could survive this...

‘Next?’

‘Other cheek. That’s two.’

‘Thank you, I can count.’ He leaned to her other side and moved his mouth slightly against her other cheek. Lingering. The scent of warm man eddied around her. It was like a natural stimulant.

‘Three and four?’

Honor took a deep breath. Only two chaste kisses and her heart was ready to beat right out of its cavity. She closed her eyes and every other