‘Yeah, I got that back on the beach.’
‘In here,’ she insisted. ‘I’m not sleeping with you in here.’
‘Fine. Boat’s not locked.’
Silent seconds ticked by. ‘Rob. Get out.’ He didn’t answer but he couldn’t possibly have fallen back to sleep that fast. Even at four-thirty in the morning. ‘Rob?’
He groaned and rolled back over. ‘Climb in, Honor. Your virtue is assured and I’m whacked. I’ll sleep on top of the covers if it helps...’ He started to fling the sleeping bag back and she got a flash of long, muscular, naked thigh.
She tore her eyes away but dived at the sleeping bag to hold it in place. The last thing she needed was more mental pictures in her already crowded and confused mind. ‘No. You stay covered. I’ll go on top.’
A dirty grin spread across his gorgeous face.
‘Of the covers, you pervert.’ If he’d noticed how fast she capitulated he didn’t comment. But Honor didn’t miss it. She thinned her lips at her body’s own betrayal. ‘But you make one wrong move and you’re out on your overly-gymned butt.’
He rolled back over and snuggled down into the air mattress, mumbling, ‘Got it.’
Seconds later, he was asleep. His pulse beat slow and steady through the air mattress, reaching out to her. Lulling her. Seducing her without even trying.
Fantastic.
Honor yawned and crawled down on top of the mattress and the sleeping bag, making sure her body weight would hold the fabric discreetly in place. It wasn’t cool enough to need a covering and at least she had a bed to sleep in.
With any luck, when she woke up he’d be gone.
If she slept at all, which was feeling pretty unlikely given the solid mass of man just inches from her own body. But he radiated a thick, soothing heat and in no time his warmth swirled around and through her exhaustion and helped nudge her into a deep sleep.
Her last conscious thought in the early hours of the morning was to wonder how long it had been since she’d fallen asleep next to someone else.
* * *
Her first thought on waking was to wonder how long it had been since she’d slept so dreamlessly. But the happy glow of dreamlessness faded quickly and warning tingled in the very cells of her body. The weight of dread pressed down on her chest.
No, not dread. Rob! His arm draped casually over her and his face was too close on their shared pillow. She’d forsaken it in favour of distance when she’d fallen asleep, so she must have moved her head onto it whilst asleep. And, unconscious, Rob had been only too happy to share. His scent carried the slight muskiness of a man who needed a freshwater shower but, instead of being off-putting, it only served to make her muscles tighten. Pheromones. He was as hot as a furnace, even with her sleeping bag shrugged half off, and his skin scorched hers where it touched.
Her heart should have been pounding with mortification at finding herself so intimately snuggled. But curling into his side didn’t feel wrong. In fact, it felt strangely right to slip out from under his hold and let his arm carefully slide down to the place she’d vacated. As if they’d been doing it all their lives.
Not that there was necessarily a correlation between feeling right and being right. There couldn’t be.
As she crawled backwards out of the tent into daylight, her wristwatch told her she’d only had four hours’ sleep, but there was no way she was going back into—
‘G’morning.’
The sleepy voice reached her just as Rob’s hand locked carefully around hers. She was powerless to resist his muscled pull and she sank forward onto her knees as the tent flap dropped uselessly into place behind her. Even in the dim light, she could see that he was relaxed and sleepy.
For some reason, that made her more nervous.
‘What time is it?’ He made the question redundant by glancing at his own watch. His eyebrows rose and then moved closer in a frown. ‘I’ve been asleep for nearly twelve hours!’
‘Lucky you. I’ve only had four.’
Her voice was cautious, measured. It didn’t sound as breathless as she felt now that chest was displayed for all to see. Despite the dimness in the tent, her eyes remained acute when it came to his body.
‘It seems your island agrees with me.’ His surprise seemed genuine. He flopped back on the bed.
‘What are you doing?’
One eye opened. His hand stayed curled around hers. ‘Lying in. It’s