Free The Forbidden Prince by Alison Roberts Page B

loved the way her face scrunched up to reveal the impression she’d been left with.
    â€˜I loved the oldness. And the accent. I even loved the bagpipes but I didn’t love the weather. It was too cold and the sea was so wild. I decided you’d have to be a bit mad to swim there so it wasn’t ever going to be my place.’
    â€˜Maybe you need people to make it feel right. When you find your special person, you’ll make a family and then the place will be yours. And theirs...for ever.’
    Mika shook her head and her voice was quiet. Cold, almost. ‘I’m never going to get married.’
    â€˜Why not?’ The thought of Mika growing old alone was shocking.
    But she simply shook her head again—a warning that the subject was off-limits. ‘It’s just not going to happen. I’ve learned that I’m better off on my own.’
    How had that lesson been learned? Raoul wondered, in the slightly awkward silence that followed. He wished he hadn’t said anything, now, because they’d lost that easy flow of conversation. Could he fix it?
    â€˜What about New Zealand?’ he asked. ‘Doesn’t that feel like your place?’
    â€˜I love New Zealand, don’t get me wrong, but...there’s something about the oldness of Europe that calls me.’ Mika seemed as relieved as he was to forget that forlorn blip in the conversation and start again. She grinned, as if embarrassed by being fanciful. ‘Maybe I lived here in a previous life.’
    Maybe she had. Maybe Raoul had, too, and that could explain why he felt like he’d known her for ever. Why they had this extraordinary connection.
    â€˜There’s still so much of the coastlines to explore, too. It’s exciting...’ Mika’s face lit up. ‘I want to go to the south of France. And Spain. And the Greek islands. And Sardinia and Corsica and...’ Her hands were tracing a map of the Mediterranean in the air.
    â€˜And...’ Raoul only just stopped himself adding Les Iles Dauphins to her list.
    Mika’s eyes widened as she waited for him to finish what he’d been about to say.
    â€˜And...you will,’ he managed. ‘You could be anything at all you really wanted to be, Mika, and...and you’re going to be the best travel writer. Your passion will make the pages glow and everyone who reads your articles will want to go to those places. To be where you’ve been.’
    He would want that.
    She was smiling at him. A soft smile that had nothing of the characteristic cheekiness he had come to expect. This was the smile of someone basking in unexpected encouragement. Of having their dreams become a little more real because someone else believed in them too.
    He would want more than to read her articles, Raoul realised. He would want to go to those places with Mika, not after her. And he could make it happen, so easily. He could choose almost any place in the world and the means of getting there would be sorted instantly. A helicopter, a luxury yacht, a private jet... There would be comfortable accommodation waiting at the other end, too, and Mika could have all the time she wanted to do the thing she loved doing, without the prospect of having to get back to a mundane job.
    But would she want that?
    And wouldn’t it change how she saw a new place? Earning a day off, as they’d had to, to make this trip possible, made it so much more valuable. Exploring somewhere by having to use public transport and eating at inexpensive restaurants made everything so different.
    Maybe Raoul wouldn’t want to go back to having the best of everything so easily available. If he had the choice, perhaps he would choose to go to those places with Mika in the same way they’d set off today. On foot, with no more than a bit of spare change to rely on.
    This longing for more days like today had nothing to do with the desire to touch Mika physically, although he could still