The Forbidden Prince Read Online Free PDF Page A

in her stomach. ‘What are you going to have to eat?’
    â€˜Do you like pizza?’
    â€˜Of course.’ Mika bit her lip. Did he really want to eat street food when there was so much more on offer? Or was he choosing the least expensive option because she had revealed too much when she’d said she’d waited a long time to get her flash camera? Had he guessed that she’d had to put so much effort into saving up for it? She could feel herself prickling defensively. She didn’t need looking after financially. She didn’t need looking after at all, in fact. Today had been an anomaly and it wasn’t going to happen again.
    â€˜It goes with beer,’ Rafe said smoothly. ‘And they’re usually so big I don’t think I could eat one on my own.’ He shrugged. ‘I just thought that maybe we could share. How about this one? It’s got wild mushrooms, asparagus, caramelised onion and scamorza . Do you know what scamorza is?’
    â€˜It’s a cheese. Similar to mozzarella.’
    â€˜Sounds delicious.’
    It did. And suddenly it was what Mika wanted to eat more than anything else on the menu. That the shared meal would be so affordable was merely a bonus.
    Were they being watched by the staff? That might explain why—despite other tables being occupied—Rafe only had to glance up to have the waiter coming to take their order. But Mika couldn’t help the feeling that this man was used to having control of his life. That he was one of that golden breed of people for whom things happened easily.
    He had a problem now, though, didn’t he?
    He’d lost everything, she reminded herself.
    And it was her fault.
    * * *
    Raoul could feel himself relaxing.
    There’d been a moment when he’d thought the game was up because the maître d’ had recognised him when he’d followed Mika into this small restaurant, but it seemed that it had simply been deference to his being Mika’s male companion—an outdated assumption that he was in charge?
    Whatever. It wasn’t lost on Raoul that being in Mika’s company, with people assuming they were a couple, was actually a layer of going incognito that he could never achieve on his own. Not that he would ever use someone like that, but it was an unexpected bonus. Like her company. Not only was she so easy to talk to, but every new snippet he was learning about her was adding to an impression that he was with a rather extraordinary person.
    He didn’t even have to say anything to communicate with her. Just a glance from those dark eyes, that seemed too big for the small face that framed them, had been enough to answer his concern that she might not want to sit beside a window that looked out over the kind of drop that had triggered her vertigo. The deliberate nudge of her foot had rewarded him with another glance and that one had cemented a bond. They were the only people in the world who knew about Mika’s unfortunate experience up on that mountain track and it was going to stay that way. As far as anyone else was concerned, the journey would be memorable for ever because of the extraordinary view or the accomplishment of a not inconsiderable physical challenge.
    How often did you find somebody that you could communicate with like that?
    He’d seen it—between people like his grandparents, for instance—but they’d been together for decades and adored each other.
    He and Mika were complete strangers.
    Although, that strangeness was wearing off with every passing minute as he got to know more about her.
    He’d glimpsed a dream by the way she handled that camera and a note in her voice when she’d told him that owning it had been a long time coming. Was she planning a new career as a photographer, perhaps? He already knew how determined she was by the way she’d handled her desperation at being in the clutches of vertigo, so he was quite confident that she