Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,49

no idea what she did to him? ‘Depends. Am I naked in a tent at the time?’

She glanced up and met his eyes and he watched the bravado slip sharply like a rock fall. She was so not up to this. This kind of game was what he’d expect from women in that other part of his world. Not Honor. But she barrelled onwards, as though her end game wasn’t perfectly obvious.

Honor leaned back and began unbuttoning her cotton shirt, her eyes locking on his. Her confidence was all an act, he knew, but the heated glow of her eyes... He could just imagine inspiring the real thing. He just needed one hour and a whole lot more willingness on her part.

‘And this?’ She pulled one side of the shirt off her shoulder.

He moved so swiftly she had no chance to prepare. His fingers closed around the fine fabric of her shirt and he held her briefly as her eyes flew wide. Then he gently pulled the shirt back up and smoothed it into place.

‘Don’t do this, Honor.’ It cheapens us both.

Her pulse beat so hard he could hear it in her voice. ‘Do what?’

‘You can’t prove the point you’re trying to make. I’ll never buy you as someone who doesn’t care. Because you do. I can feel it.’

‘Jumping to conclusions, aren’t you?’

‘Methinks she doth protest too much.’ If his father was dead he’d be spinning in his misogynistic grave. ‘You want me.’ He eased forward to rest his arms either side of her. It brought their bodies into intimate contact. ‘You care for me.’

Her whole body tightened between his arms. ‘It’s been less than a week, Rob.’

It hadn’t felt good to have Honor remind him about all the women he’d slept with, to highlight the absence of meaning in most of those encounters. Did she really feel the need to rub it in? It was unbearable, coming from her, from those lips.

‘A hundred and twenty hours. That’s like forty dates.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous...’

‘I just want you to be honest with yourself.’ He leaned into her subtly, increasing the contact, torturing his own screaming skin. She arched partly into him before stopping herself.

‘But you won’t accept me being honest with you.’

There was desperation in her voice but also a thin vein of sincerity. It made him pause. Was she serious? Could she really have felt nothing for him and yet responded like that? She was no ‘right now’ girl. The woman oozed ‘forever’. Then again, what in his dismal romantic history made him think he knew women at all? He narrowed his eyes, a sick feeling coming over him.

‘You felt nothing?’ He stared intently, conscious of how much hung on her answer.

‘I...’

‘“I felt nothing, Rob”. Say it and I’ll leave you alone for ever.’

A tear trembled on her lashes and he leaned in to kiss it gently off.

Her throat cracked. ‘You want more than I can give. Why can’t I just be attracted physically to you?’

‘Because that’s not enough.’

Say it, Honor!

His hands moved up to stroke her shoulders, her scars. She twisted under him in protest and desire shot like a bullet from his gut up into his chest. Dangerously close to his thumping heart.

Honor looked him in the eye. ‘I felt nothing, Rob.’

A shocking silence filled the tent and Honor struggled against the deception. An age ticked by before he spoke, his eyes dark and pained.

‘You’re a terrible liar.’

He fell forward and took her mouth hard with his. It wasn’t a question and it wasn’t politely cautious like his other kisses had been. It was harsh and insistent and angry. And embarrassingly welcome. As long as his tongue was tangling with hers, his hot hands branding her skin, she could pretend everything would be okay.

Even though, deep down, she knew it wouldn’t be.

His kiss became gentle and he steadied her back to a more upright position. His lips pulling away from hers left her as bereft as a woman waving a lover off to war. Something indefinable gave way inside her. She couldn’t lie to this man. The truth may well hurt one of them—both of them, ultimately—but lying wasn’t an option.

She sucked in two deep breaths to regulate her breathing. ‘It doesn’t change anything. I don’t want this.’

‘Your body does.’ He rested his hand over her left breast. ‘Your heart does.’

She shook her hair. ‘My mind doesn’t.’

‘Your mind is outnumbered.’

She shook her head. ‘It has casting vote. It has seniority.’

‘I can see that.’

‘This can’t happen again.’

‘Didn’t we just do