Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,64

new ground rules. Moving at her own pace and controlling her environment as she built a new life.

But step onto The Player and she’d be putting her heart in the hands of a man she desperately wanted to believe in. A man who made her feel valued and appreciated and needed, but wild and free and...alive at the same time. A man who could love her. A man who she could love. A man who could destroy her with a word.

She looked back over her shoulder at the island where she’d been so safe.

And then she sat down on The Journeyman’s worn vinyl seat.

Rob’s face froze.

In a heartbeat she peeled off her reef-soles from her feet, threw a polite smile at Mark and leapt nimbly off the edge of his boat. Her feet landed on The Player’s gunnel and a moment later she steadied herself on the back of Rob’s driver’s seat. His face was unreadable but his back was ramrod straight as he slid the glasses back on, then expertly manoeuvred the boat away from The Journeyman, shoved the throttle forward and roared off, leaving a dramatic wake behind them.

It took ten minutes to get far enough away from the other boat to feel alone. Really alone.

Honor itched to touch him, just because she’d been doing it in her dreams for a month and here was a chance to actually do it for real. She stepped up behind him and put one hand on his shoulder. His back immediately tensed. She hesitated but laid her cheek against it anyway and closed her eyes, breathing deeply of his scent. It was that achingly familiar mix of salt and man.

‘Honor—’

‘I missed you.’ Three words, whispered straight from the heart. Words she didn’t think about or worry about or plan—she just pressed them directly into his sun-warmed T-shirt with her lips and hoped they’d soak straight into his consciousness.

He didn’t step away or complain but he didn’t quite fully relax either. He cranked The Player up to full speed and ploughed expertly through the rolling ocean swell. Honor kept her eyes firmly shut and she pressed harder into his back. She knew how far from land they must be getting but she told herself that Rob was with her. That she was safe.

And she believed it.

After an age, he throttled back, killed the engine and turned to her.

‘No anchor?’ she asked.

‘Sometimes it’s just nice to drift.’

Six weeks ago that phrase would have frozen her into a ball of terror. But he had a point. Way out here, there was nothing to hit, short of a whale. He moved towards her, then quietly pulled her into his arms. He didn’t kiss her or stroke her. Just held her.

Really, really tight, as if sensing the direction of her thoughts.

‘I thought you weren’t going to come for a moment there,’ his hard chest rumbled. He looked down at her carefully. ‘Why did you?’

Moment of truth. ‘Because you asked.’ She’d jump off this boat right now if he promised her it was safe. Trust worked like that.

His gaze was intense and deep. He ran a thumb over her lower lip and nodded but said nothing more.

‘Why did you come back to the island?’ she asked.

‘I couldn’t stay away. The weather was turning—’

‘You came because of the weather?’ Her scepticism had to be showing on her face.

He paused, then met her eyes. ‘No. I came because we have unfinished business. The weather was just a great way to convince myself.’ He stroked her hair back from her face and then put her away from him as though he’d suddenly remembered he had no right to touch her.

‘I was planning on shipping out the moment the repairs to The Player were complete. But, the night before, I went for a drink or two at the Cocos Hotel and met with the bar manager there. An older Malay woman called Irit. We got talking about Pulu Keeling and she told me it was the only one of the twenty-seven Cocos Islands she’d never set foot on. That no Malay women could go there because of the penunggu...’

‘The island’s spirit guardian. I know. That’s an old myth. She’s supposed to send terrible storms if a woman sets foot on her island.’

Rob nodded. ‘But then she told me the story of the penunggu and why she guarded the island so jealously. That she’d lost everything as a mortal and found solace with her own company on Pulu Keeling, far from her