Free The Forbidden Prince by Alison Roberts

drama of one of the waterfalls they passed was enough to make them pause and sit beneath one of the massive old trees for a few minutes.
    So much pleasure...and it was definitely doubled by having Rafe’s company. More than doubled...
    Mika could have simply sat here and soaked it in but she needed more than photographs to record the journey. She pulled her notebook from the pack Rafe had been carrying for her.
    â€˜What are you writing?’
    â€˜I’m adding to the research I did online. Putting the things I notice in as well. Like how gorgeous that carpet of flowers was under the trees. I won’t have room to include every photo I take.’
    â€˜Include in what?’
    â€˜My article.’
    â€˜You’re a writer ? You never told me that.’
    â€˜That’s because I’m not. Yet...’ That very uncharacteristic shyness resurfaced. Mika didn’t tell people her dreams. Was that because she didn’t have anyone in her life that she wanted to share them with?
    â€˜I want to be a travel writer,’ she said quietly. ‘I’d like to earn my living by doing things like this all the time, instead of working in cafés.’
    Rafe looked impressed. But then he frowned. ‘You want to spend your whole life travelling? Never settling down anywhere?’
    â€˜Oh, I’ll settle somewhere. I just don’t know where yet. I know it will be near the sea because of my dolphin blood.’ Mika smiled, hoping to make light of revealing something so personal. ‘And I think it will be somewhere warm, because that way you can spend more time in the sea, but there’s a lot of places in the world that fill those requirements—especially round here.’ She closed her notebook and slipped it back into the pack. ‘I’m killing two birds with one stone, here. When I find the place I want to be for ever, I think I’ll know who I really am.’
    * * *
    Did everyone wonder who they really were at some point in their lives, or was this another extraordinary bond that Raoul had just found with Mika?
    He wanted to tell her everything at that point. Who he was and why he was here. He could share his problems and maybe they would be halved.
    Except they wouldn’t be, would they? Okay, he could imagine that Mika would understand the need to reveal the strongest, most basic, layers of his personality so that he would know he had a foundation that would serve him well for the rest of his life—because wasn’t she doing pretty much the same thing? She was searching for a layer he didn’t need but one that was even more fundamental—a place where she felt she belonged.
    But, if he did tell her the truth, she would realise he didn’t belong here, in her world, like this. She might feel that the dream she had shared with him was insignificant in comparison to his future and she might show her prickles again—the way she had, inexplicably, in suggesting that she could go to the paper museum by herself.
    And, if the prickles came out, the pleasure of this day would be dimmed and it was too good to spoil. The serenity of the dappled light in this forest had the echoes of a long and proud history in the ruins of the ancient mills but the bubbling river was timeless. A link to the future and a reminder that nothing stayed the same. Life moved on and changed...
    He could accept that with a new sense of peacefulness in this moment and it felt really good.
    Being with Mika felt really good, too. Maybe it wasn’t just their surroundings that made him feel so much closer to embracing his future. There was strength to be found simply in her company and in the way she faced life and made the most of every moment.
    The sensation of feeling so close to another person’s soul—as if his own could reach out and take the hand of hers—was a new thing for Raoul. As if he needed to see if it was real, he turned his head, to find Mika looking