Hiding the horses was more difficult than Kaylee could’ve imagined. There simply weren’t a lot of options along this trail. The face of the mountain was steep, and the vegetation was scarce. Eventually, they reached a flat enough surface that they decided it would have to do. Rafe led the horses over behind a copse of trees and tied them up, giving them a bit of fresh water they’d found in a stream from a small container he’d had on his saddle.
“They won’t like the grass here,” Rafe mumbled as he came back to where he’d left Kaylee standing a little ways off the road. “But it will have to do. It’s either that or go without.”
Kaylee’s stomach rumbled at the thought of going without. She imagined Rafe didn’t have much food left in his saddlebags, and she’d found nothing useful in hers. He was carrying the two blankets when he came back.
The sun had dropped below the horizon, but it wasn’t completely dark yet. Still, after a day of riding along the steep mountainside, worried about what she should or shouldn’t do, Kaylee was tired. Her back still ached a little from the night before, and this ground wasn’t going to be any more pleasant.
“We won’t be getting much sleep tonight,” Rafe said as he directed her to a smaller tree standing alone behind some tall bushes about twenty paces off the road. “Not only will we be fairly visible to anyone riding by, I believe it’s about to rain.”
“Rain?” Kaylee repeated, looking at the sky. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she hadn’t noticed any storm clouds before the sun went down.
“Yes. It’ll come from the other side of the mountain. Probably in an hour or so.”
Now, her eyes went to the mountainside around them. “Is there a cave or an overhang or something we can use to take shelter?”
“No,” he said, placing one blanket on the ground and sitting on it, the other one still in his hands. “This is all we’ve got, love.”
Love? What was that all about? Did he think he was being cute? Swearing under her breath, Kaylee marched over and joined him. “Nowhere?”
“Not within two hours’ ride of here,” he said.
She sat down with her back against the tree trunk but it was narrow, and with the two of them attempting to lean against it, not very comfortable. “How do you know?” she asked. “Have you spent a lot of time in these mountains?”
He didn’t answer right away, which she thought was odd. When Kaylee looked at his face, she saw that shadow she’d seen the other day when he’d been talking about secrets, and before that a few times when he’d mentioned her having more than heirlooms stolen, and some other time… though she couldn’t remember precisely what they’d been discussing then. She was about to tell him he didn’t have to answer the question when he said, “I have.”
“Oh. Well, then, I guess you’d know better than me.”
Rafe turned and looked at her, one eyebrow raised. Staring at the back of the man’s head all day, she’d nearly forgotten how alluring those eyes were. Even in the near darkness, they had a depth to them that seemed to suck her in. She found herself leaning toward him and had to purposely pull herself back. Rafe shook his head and looked away.
“What is it?” Kaylee asked. “What was that look for?”
“Nothing,” Rafe said. “Only, I am having trouble believing that you are going to let an argument go so easily.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. “I don’t argue when I know that I am wrong.”
He laughed. “You must never know that you’re wrong then.”
“I beg your pardon!” He scoffed again, and she narrowed her eyes. “That’s not true. I am willing to admit my mistakes. Do you not recall just a while ago when I realized that what we were doing was… foolhardy?” That term seemed like an understatement.
“While I will concede, Princess, that it was rather generous of you to admit that perhaps this most recent scheme of yours was not quite the most intelligent plan one could enact, the fact that it took you this long--and this many failed attempts--to realize that does not attest to your ability to see reason when you want something so desperately you’re unwilling to use common sense.”
Kaylee didn’t know what to say to that. The comment was harsh. But she supposed, if she was honest with herself, she deserved it. She had gone to an awful lot of trouble recently to inconvenience everyone in her life. Inconvenience and endanger.
Rafe must’ve realized that what he said wasn’t particularly flattering. “I apologize, Kaylee. I didn’t mean to be offensive. I’m a bit rattled, that’s all.”
“No, no, you’re right. I have been acting impulsively and putting everyone’s safety in jeopardy. Whatever happens to my cousins or my friend--or even to the pair of us--it’s all on my head now.”
A loud sigh from the man next to her had Kaylee assuming she was about to be lectured again, but when the king spoke, his voice was softer than it had been in a while. “Don’t put all of it completely on your shoulders. The people who went along with you on these grand schemes are all consenting adults, are they not?”
Kaylee turned to look at him as a gust of wind let her know the storm was coming. A chill went down her spine. It was going to be another long night. “Yes, they are as old as I am or older, but I don’t feel that I can blame them. I can be quite persuasive when I want to be.”
“I’m sure that’s true.” He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. Kaylee wanted to do the same, to reach over and feel what it would be like to have the strands slipping through her fingers. She fisted her hands at her sides instead. “At any rate, it’s all said and done now. It’s time to take a different approach. We’ll go back to Norterly tomorrow and sort that out. I cannot ask the army to liberate your cousin. But I can ask them to send a courier to your father’s kingdom.”
“Thank you,” Kaylee said, resting her head back on the rough bark behind her as small sprinkles hit her face and began to wet her clothes. She pulled the blanket up over her shoulder, knowing if it rained hard enough, they’d both be soaked in a matter of minutes.
“It shouldn’t storm too long,” Rafe assured her. “It tends to be a short, violent blast of weather here in the mountains, and then it’s gone.”
“May I ask what you were doing here?” she said. “When you were up in these mountains?”
Rafe’s eyes lingered on hers for a long moment, that shadow she’d observed so many times back in place. Whatever it was, it was clear the secret he was holding onto was painful. “You don’t have to tell me. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry. I was just making conversation.” That wasn’t exactly true. She did want to know more about him. She wanted to find out why he was the way that he was--why wasn’t he in his kingdom, on his throne, instead of running around the woods with a band of strange men?
Rafe leaned his head back against the tree the best he could with the wind blowing the narrow trunk just as the rain began to fall. With his eyes held shut, he lifted an arm and wrapped it around Kaylee’s shoulders, pulling her close against him as he lifted the blanket up over her to protect her from the storm.
Whether it was the thunder and lightning booming behind her or the loneliness she was feeling inside of her heart, Kaylee could no longer fight the urge to lean on him, physically and emotionally. She wrapped her arm around his chest and buried her head in his shoulder, closing her eyes, praying it would all go away. Not just the storm, but the problems she had created for herself. She wished she could find a way to go back in time and change it all, but she couldn’t, so instead, for a few moments, she would hide here in the solace of the king’s embrace.
* * *
“Kaylee? Kaylee?”
The sound of her name and the gentle stroking of her cheek let her know that she’d fallen asleep. Everything came crashing back to her before she even opened her eyes. She was on the mountainside, in a thunderstorm, with a king, and she’d buried her head in his muscular chest to hide from the world.
She expected the sun to be up when she opened her eyes. Otherwise, why would Rafe be waking her? But when she lifted her lids, she saw that it was still dark outside. Only the stars shining above them and a moon hidden by distant rain clouds lit the side of the mountain, casting shadows from rocks, bushes, and boulders, illuminating some of the white flowers with an eerie glow.
Kaylee looked up into Rafe’s face, but she didn’t know what to say. Whether she should apologize for using him as a pillow or yell at him for waking her, she didn’t know. It was easier not to speak at all.
Then it occurred to her that he might be waking her because they were in danger. She looked around but didn’t see anyone. All she heard was the chirping of birds, the songs of the insects, and an occasional splash of water dripping off a plant as the rain itself had subsided. “What is it?” she asked.
“You were talking in your sleep,” he explained, his voice about as gentle as she’d ever heard it. “You were beginning to sound distressed. I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” she said, sitting fully upright and pressing her hands to her face for a moment. Try as she might, she couldn’t remember what she’d been dreaming about. “I’m fine.”
“Good,” he said, shifting his position. She imagined it must’ve been difficult for him to sit in the same spot for so long, especially with a strange woman curled up next to him. “No need to apologize, I just thought you would be better off waking and restarting, that’s all.”
“Have you slept at all?” she asked, turning back to look at him. His face was mostly cast in shadow from the tree branches above them, but she could see him well enough to know when he shook his head.
“I don’t sleep much anymore anyway,” he mumbled, looking away.
She had a feeling that, if she could see him clearly, she’d noticed that dark look passing over his eyes again. “May I ask why not? Or is that something else you don’t wish to talk about?” She wasn’t attempting to be rude, and she hoped her tone conveyed that. She was concerned as much as she was curious.
Rafe cleared his throat and said, “I have enough nightmares of my own to understand why someone having a bad dream may need to be woken up.”
Her heart went out to him. The melancholy tone of his voice told her that, whatever nightmares he was having, they were intense. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
He immediately shook his head no. “It isn’t worth burdening you with, Princess.”
“If it helps you, then it’s no burden. You’ve helped me immensely. The least I can do is listen to you.”
Again, he shook his head, dropping his shoulders and slumping down in a slouch that told her that whatever it was bothering him, it was a burden he carried on his shoulders.
The same boldness that had allowed her to bury her head in his chest during the rainstorm had her reaching over and gently running her hand along his cheek. Rafe turned his head to look at her, his eyebrows knitting together in an unspoken question.
Kaylee’s breath caught. He was so close to her now, she could feel each exhale on her cheek. He was moving slowly closer to her, and she seemed to be floating in his direction as well, her head lifting and tilting up as if carried by a gentle wind.
When Rafe’s lips first met hers, it was a feathery touch, one so light it would’ve been easy to believe she was still dreaming, and none of this was reality. But then, she found herself leaning into him, her lips parting, and the taste of him filled her mouth as his tongue slid across her bottom lip.
When they parted, it was just as dream-like, as if they’d floated away from one another on gossamer clouds. Kaylee couldn’t help but look at him, stunned. What had happened? More importantly, why had it happened?
“I’m sorry, Princess,” Rafe said, his tone as quiet and gentle as she’d ever heard him speak. “I should never have let that transpire.”
“No, it’s nothing to apologize for,” she said, feeling her cheeks turning red. She still had her hands on him, and though she felt compelled to pull them away, she wasn’t moving. “I am just as guilty as you are of… overstepping. If that’s what that was.” She had to look away from his face for a moment. “What… what was it, Rafe?”
He shook his head. “It was a man kissing a woman he’s been attracted to for days and fighting the urge to act on that attraction because it is a fool’s errand for me to even perceive of anything ever happening between us, and since I know that, it was even more of an idiotic act on my part.”
Kaylee stared at him as he turned his face away, slowly shaking his head. “Why is it inconceivable that you and I could ever be together? You’re a king, and I'm a princess. What’s more, my parents have always been very vocal about letting me choose to be with whomever I wish. What if I choose to be with you? Are there reasons I don’t know about that prevent you from choosing me?”
Slowly, Rafe’s head rocked back and forth.
An awful idea came to Kaylee’s mind and she felt her eye bulge. “Is there… a Queen of Norterly?”
Rafe turned and looked at her, one eyebrow arched. “Yes--two of them. My mother and my sister. That’s not the problem, Princess. I would never kiss a woman if I was already wed to another. Please give me a little more credit than that.”
“I beg your pardon,” Kaylee said, meaning it. “It’s only… sometimes, when marriages are arranged, it is common for men to take other women as their… concubines.”
Rafe snickered at her, catching her off guard. “I assure you, I do not want you as my concubine.”
The urge to slam her elbow into his ribs for laughing at her was overwhelming, but she kept herself still. “What is it, then?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Are we back to that, then? The mysterious king who runs around the woods, stealing from the rich and giving to those of lesser means, who hasn’t abdicated the throne but won’t claim it and can’t command his army for reasons unknown also can’t tell me why he can’t choose me? I’m not even saying that I would choose you, mind you, sir. I’m only suggesting that if we were to determine that we had strong feelings for one another, we should be capable of acting upon those feelings. We should be able to choose to be together. That’s all. If that’s not the case, can’t you at least tell me why not?”
Rafe stared at her silently for a long moment before he said, “Because… I’d likely get you killed.”