Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,65

homeland. And that every century she would lure a fisherman or a sailor—’ or a shipwreck hunter ‘—to the island to make her own, and he’d be powerless to refuse. Even if it meant his death.’

Honor’s mind immediately went to the German soldier buried at Bosun’s Grave one hundred years before. The spirit was just about due another.

‘The Cocos people sense your loss, Honor. They think you are penunggu incarnate. The only woman the spirit has ever tolerated on her island.’

‘And I lured you like some kind of siren?’

‘Didn’t you?’

‘You hit the reef because you were perving, Rob.’

He shrugged and smiled and Honor desperately wanted to kiss the corner of that smile. ‘I was powerless not to. You drew me.’

She stared at him. ‘You came back to the island to tell me I’m a spirit guardian?’

‘I came to bring you away from the island. Irit told me that the penunggu had been patient but she would never tolerate you having sent away her chosen man, and that she would punish you by bringing a storm or tidal surge to the island.’

The wind whipped up around them briefly to punctuate Rob’s words. Honor’s skin prickled. The whole thing would have been a whole lot more ridiculous if she hadn’t spent four years feeling like the island’s guardian. ‘You believed her?’

‘She was one of the elder Malay; she told a convincing yarn. And I guess I didn’t need that much of a shove.’ His face grew serious. ‘Why were you leaving? Isn’t it early?’

She shrugged. ‘The weather is turning...’ They both laughed, uncomfortable and tight. Honor took a deep breath. ‘And because I couldn’t stay. It’s lost its...’ She swallowed hard. ‘It’s not the same. I won’t be going back.’

God, even now her first instinct was to protect herself.

But, true to his nature, Rob didn’t shy away from the difficult stuff. ‘What changed?’

You left.

Nate and Justin left.

‘I did. I changed.’

His chest rose and fell a little more roughly. ‘Enough to go out on a boat with me.’

‘Apparently.’

‘You’re amazing.’

The sincerity and warmth in his voice triggered an instinctive flinch, but she swallowed it back and smiled. ‘I’m faking it.’

Rob laughed and the past month—all its angst and loneliness and introspection—simply ceased to be. It was as if no time had passed. The blue of his eyes settled to a darker shade. ‘Never fake it, Honor. It’s one of the things I valued most about our time—that we could just be open and honest with each other.’

A surge of heat raced up her throat.

‘For the most part.’ His smile faltered. ‘It’s why I came back. I have a few things I needed to say.’

Nausea swept through her. The old familiar friend. ‘You had to half kidnap me to say them?’ Being flippant helped.

‘I wanted to be sure you couldn’t run off into the trees.’ He released her and turned away towards the cabin. ‘But first...I have an ulterior motive. Something I’d like you to trust me on.’

Honor’s heart leapt into her throat as he re-emerged from below, carrying a large wreath garlanded with tropical flowers.

‘I brought this, for you. Because...’ He looked nervous. More than she’d ever seen him look. Tears immediately threatened. She couldn’t trust herself to speak past the choke. ‘I didn’t know you were leaving for good,’ he said, ‘but, now that you are, I thought you might like to mark today with something special. In lieu. Because you never got to go to their funeral.’

‘Oh.’

He peered at her face where she’d dropped it to stare at the deck. ‘Is that a good “oh” or a bad “oh”?’

She moved swiftly to him and wrapped her arms around his middle. He raised the wreath out of the way as she hugged him. ‘It’s a good ‘oh’. Thank you.’ Her voice was thick with emotion.

‘I figure that they will always be an important part of your life and an important part of you. And maybe you’d never been able to do this alone.’

‘I really wanted this.’ She couldn’t, in all her years, have imagined this, but now that she saw it she knew it was exactly the right thing.

She was about to bury her lost boys.

He lowered his arms and handed Honor the wreath. She took it in shaky fingers. Together, they moved to the back of The Player and paused. She didn’t know what to do any more than Rob seemed to.

She turned back to the ocean and said the only prayer she knew under her breath, and then held a silent