They ate in silence, watching as the last red glow died out.
From where they sat, with the cabin lights off, stars began to appear. “It’s beautiful out here.” The princess set her plate to the side and stood, leaning against the rail, bracing her forearms against it.
“It is.” Ryker joined her. Close, but not touching and wishing he’d stayed a little farther away, but not knowing how to move now that he’d staked a spot.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “Do you have views like this where you’re from?”
“We’re much farther north, so we have nearly perpetual night in the winter and perpetual day in the summer, so right now, there’s not much of a night sky at all. But the views in the winter can be breathtaking.”
“It’s the same in my country. I don’t particularly care for the never-ending nights, but when the Aurora Borealis are out and you can see a whole galaxy worth of stars... It’s indescribable.”
Ryker looked at the top of her head where it rested against his shoulder and resisted the urge to kiss the top of it.
He could only come up with one word for how it felt standing here with her.
Indescribable.
* * *
What had possessedher to rest her head against Ryker’s shoulder? Amalia didn’t know, but she did know that she didn’t want to move.
He’d almost kissed her when they were dancing.
She’d wanted him to. Would have kissed him back.
Keeping the near-miss kiss at the forefront of her mind kept the looming confrontation with Yvette further from her thoughts.
She didn’t know how long they stood there, looking up at the stars as they continued to emerge.
When Ryker’s phone buzzed, he moved just enough to pull it out of his pocket. “The resort staff will be by soon to pick up the dinner dishes and drop off dessert.”
“What’s for dessert?” She loved a good dessert.
“They didn’t say.”
In a couple of minutes, lights from a cart could be seen approaching on the path. As though they’d agreed, Amalia and Ryker stepped back from the railing and gathered the dishes and leftovers so they’d be easy for the staff to gather.
Once they’d traded the dirty dishes for dessert, a slight chill had started to settle in the air.
“Do you mind if we go back inside?” She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her upper arms with her hands.
“Of course not.” Ryker held the door for her as she walked through carrying the trays with dessert.
It struck her as odd that one felt cold while the other felt quite warm, but not too hot for her to carry.
“Where do you want to eat?” Ryker flipped the light on as he closed the door behind him.
For the thousandth time since they left the ferry, Amalia wondered how she could feel so safe alone with a man she barely knew.
She tilted her head toward the small table where they were supposed to eat dinner. “Why don’t we pull that over here. The chairs aren’t that comfortable, but we can sit on the end of the bed and use it.”
Ryker quickly moved the candles and other items to the seats of the chairs and pushed the table to the end of the bed. “How’s that?”
“Perfect.” She set the two trays on the table and lifted the domes, gasping as the dessert came into view. “Oh my!Mi-cuits au chocolat!” The warm tray had two smaller plates and a larger plate with six servings of the chocolate cake filled with gooey liquid chocolate. The cold tray held bowls of vanilla gelato.
“The last time I had this was in the States,” Ryker told her, toeing his shoes off before sitting on the end of the bed. “They called it molten-lava cake there.”
“Sounds about right.” Amalia hesitated then put the domes back in place. “I’d like to change into something more comfortable. Do you mind?” After a couple of awkward conversations the first times they mentioned getting comfortable, they’d agreed to just take the phrase at face value.
