Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,54

that thought. When had she started imagining any kisses at all in her future? That meant a partner. And partner meant relationship. Which was absolutely not on her radar. Still, ten days ago she never would have imagined appreciating the way someone’s body fitted perfectly against hers as they lay in the sand. Or that she’d draw such joy from curling up against a hard-as-steel chest and listening to the vibrations as he talked endlessly against her hair. His deep voice was as silken as his body, whispering her name close to her ear.

Honor...

‘Honor?’

She jerked up straighter in her seat and realised she’d been staring off into the moonlight. Again. A flush stole up her throat. ‘Sorry—what?’

‘I asked if you’d had any luck.’ Rob emerged from the trees out onto her beach.

She swung her gaze back to the nest markers. Nothing had changed. As if she would have noticed if it had! ‘Uh...no. Nothing yet.’

Her body reacted instantly to his presence, to the smell of him in the still night as he stepped closer to her. He was clothed for a change, a moss-green sweatshirt stained with engine oil and clearly rummaged from on board The Player, but that didn’t stop her from visualising him how she knew him best. Low slung board shorts and the skin God gave him.

She shook her head to clear the tantalising image away. This was just getting ridiculous! Irritation at herself spilled over. ‘I told you not to come. What do you want?’ It was rhetorical. She didn’t expect an answer so it was no surprise when he didn’t give her one. Except that then he did.

‘I want you to look at me.’ She swivelled her head around to face him. ‘No, not just at me. At me.’ His fingers made a V and pointed directly at his eyes.

Honor took a breath as he stepped closer. Even in the dim light, the blue of his gaze was molten. For a second, her body flared in primal response and then she realised that his intensity was not sexual. Her guard shot up immediately.

He squatted in front of her, keeping his stare locked on hers. She battled to hold it but couldn’t. Her lashes dropped away from the intense heat.

‘Why is that so hard, Honor? You have no problem having my tongue down your throat but you won’t look me in the eye.’

‘Rob...’ She fought the frostiness she could feel rising in herself. He didn’t deserve that. She knew that much, at least. She forced her face back to his. Her stomach tightened at the uncertainty she saw in his eyes, right at the back. She knew she’d put it there.

‘I’ve spent the afternoon wondering why you’re avoiding talking to me,’ he said. ‘I can’t figure how you can be so...connected...when we’re together in the tent and then so disconnected the rest of the time.’

‘We talk.’ She knew he wouldn’t let her get away with that.

‘Not about anything of consequence. The weather, how our supplies are going. Not about your family or your dreams or what we’re going to do when the supply boat comes.’

Not that. Honor was nowhere near ready to think about what that meant. Or her dreams—he figured way too highly in them lately. She took the lesser of three evils. ‘What do you want to know about my family? Or what’s left of it.’

He dropped his eyes, frustration chasing over his face. She looked away, knowing that was a cheap shot.

‘Want to tell me about what happened with your mum?’

Heat stole up her throat. ‘Nope.’

‘Then how about what you imagined you’d be doing when you grew up back when you were a kid.’

Her pulse started throbbing. Her lips wouldn’t move. He’d engineered this entire conversation to get under her skin. Desperation made her rash. And obvious. She leaned her torso forward and pressed her lips to his ear. Hot. Breathing words into it just the way he liked. About as diverting as a battleship sliding up onto the reef behind them.

God, she hoped so.

‘Not this, that’s for sure,’ she whispered, offhand. ‘Nine-year-old me would have gagged at the boy germs.’

Rob sighed and leaned into her lips. But then he reached up and framed her jaw as he pulled his face away from her touch. His eyes bled agony. ‘Something, Honor. You have to give me something.’ His nostrils flared. ‘Please.’

Alarm bells clanged deep in her mind, but her heart responded to the raw pain in his plea. There were some things she