Read Online Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong by Nikki Logan - Free Book Online
Authors: Nikki Logan
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either no significant predators on this island or they were all nuts. Judging by the numbers, it had to be the first. Most perched on eggs, or supervised those perched on eggs. At least one pair of boobies would have no offspring to care for this night.
Honor paused a moment and then nodded, straightening with obvious stiffness.
Rob stepped past her and moved towards the still chick. He caught himself when he would have nudged it with his toe, conscious of Honor’s watery gaze. He squatted and lifted it gently from the sand. Dead and cool, it weighed nothing.
Her shoulders sagged when she saw it and he worried a moment about what to do with the little corpse. Then he tucked its body beneath a small scrappy dune plant, assuming it would feed the prolific crabs that swarmed all over the island. She didn’t protest.
Finally a right move from me.
He looked at Honor. The moonlight lit her perfectly and she looked wretched. This was not about a bird. He burned to ask but knew he had no right. He didn’t know what to say but was desperate to say something to alleviate her obvious misery.
‘It wasn’t alone, Honor.’
Her eyes spilled over and she sagged to the rich blanket of decomposing leaves and branches on the forest floor.
Crap!
No, this wasn’t about a dead bird but, whatever it was, she was about to relive it right here. Concern made him careless. He reached down and pulled her to her feet, into his arms, hoping to comfort her. Immediately, she fought him and he had to tighten his arms around her. Hours in the gym had given him much more than dozens of phone numbers and he held her easily despite her pathetic physical protest.
She cried into his shoulder for a heartbreaking minute, then, as soon as she quietened, he let her pull away. The bright moonlight did nothing to hide the embarrassment that flushed her already blotchy face. He wanted to make a light remark, to ease the discomfort they were both feeling, but he breathed in her distress and remembered how careful she hadbeen not to make light of his blood sensitivity. He owed her that much at least.
‘Ready to go now? ‘ There was nothing but gentleness in his words.
‘I have to monitor the turtle nests,’ she said, stepping away. ‘Camp’s back through there. Just follow the tree line to the right when you get through and it will take you back.’
‘Don’t you need anything? A torch? Supplies? How will I know you’re all right?’
Come back with me.
Rob cringed the moment the words left his mouth. Of course she would be all right. She was more a creature of nature than of man’s world. This island was her domain. He waited for the sarcastic lash to fall.
But her voice was soft. ‘We’re only a few minutes from camp. If I need anything I can come back.’ She stepped further into the trees, pointing towards camp so he could follow.
He turned and looked at the blanket of trees where she’d pointed and when he looked back at her she was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
R OB woke early the next morning from a heated, sleep-deprived dream in which a golden-haired mermaid nibbled her way up his legs, over his thigh and onto— ‘Son of a—!’
He flung himself upright from his loosely dug out groove in the beach sand to find a dozen small crabs with seashells for hats crawling across his body with nippers at the ready. They were the advance guard for a battalion of red hermit crabs that marched swiftly, diagonally down the shore like some kind of shared consciousness towards the dawn sea. And he was lying right in their path. He scrambled to his feet and they swarmed around him, uncaring and fixated on their watery goal.
Their intensity and determination made him laugh out loud as they spread over the shore like a blood tide and until the last, late marcher scurried desperately into the oceanand was gone. It was his second night spent on the beach and he was surprised at how natural it felt to wake there.
A man could get used to this.
Tired or not,
Honor paused a moment and then nodded, straightening with obvious stiffness.
Rob stepped past her and moved towards the still chick. He caught himself when he would have nudged it with his toe, conscious of Honor’s watery gaze. He squatted and lifted it gently from the sand. Dead and cool, it weighed nothing.
Her shoulders sagged when she saw it and he worried a moment about what to do with the little corpse. Then he tucked its body beneath a small scrappy dune plant, assuming it would feed the prolific crabs that swarmed all over the island. She didn’t protest.
Finally a right move from me.
He looked at Honor. The moonlight lit her perfectly and she looked wretched. This was not about a bird. He burned to ask but knew he had no right. He didn’t know what to say but was desperate to say something to alleviate her obvious misery.
‘It wasn’t alone, Honor.’
Her eyes spilled over and she sagged to the rich blanket of decomposing leaves and branches on the forest floor.
Crap!
No, this wasn’t about a dead bird but, whatever it was, she was about to relive it right here. Concern made him careless. He reached down and pulled her to her feet, into his arms, hoping to comfort her. Immediately, she fought him and he had to tighten his arms around her. Hours in the gym had given him much more than dozens of phone numbers and he held her easily despite her pathetic physical protest.
She cried into his shoulder for a heartbreaking minute, then, as soon as she quietened, he let her pull away. The bright moonlight did nothing to hide the embarrassment that flushed her already blotchy face. He wanted to make a light remark, to ease the discomfort they were both feeling, but he breathed in her distress and remembered how careful she hadbeen not to make light of his blood sensitivity. He owed her that much at least.
‘Ready to go now? ‘ There was nothing but gentleness in his words.
‘I have to monitor the turtle nests,’ she said, stepping away. ‘Camp’s back through there. Just follow the tree line to the right when you get through and it will take you back.’
‘Don’t you need anything? A torch? Supplies? How will I know you’re all right?’
Come back with me.
Rob cringed the moment the words left his mouth. Of course she would be all right. She was more a creature of nature than of man’s world. This island was her domain. He waited for the sarcastic lash to fall.
But her voice was soft. ‘We’re only a few minutes from camp. If I need anything I can come back.’ She stepped further into the trees, pointing towards camp so he could follow.
He turned and looked at the blanket of trees where she’d pointed and when he looked back at her she was gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
R OB woke early the next morning from a heated, sleep-deprived dream in which a golden-haired mermaid nibbled her way up his legs, over his thigh and onto— ‘Son of a—!’
He flung himself upright from his loosely dug out groove in the beach sand to find a dozen small crabs with seashells for hats crawling across his body with nippers at the ready. They were the advance guard for a battalion of red hermit crabs that marched swiftly, diagonally down the shore like some kind of shared consciousness towards the dawn sea. And he was lying right in their path. He scrambled to his feet and they swarmed around him, uncaring and fixated on their watery goal.
Their intensity and determination made him laugh out loud as they spread over the shore like a blood tide and until the last, late marcher scurried desperately into the oceanand was gone. It was his second night spent on the beach and he was surprised at how natural it felt to wake there.
A man could get used to this.
Tired or not,
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