Once Upon a Kiss

by Nora Roberts

  “I thought you’d be glad to hear it. You look disappointed.”

  Michael shook his head. “I’m conflicted. Until the business I have under way is finalized, my pockets are pretty much to let.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Vacant,” he said. “Empty of money.”

  “Then why on earth did you persuade Miss Culpepper to sell you her land?”

  Michael came around the desk. “You’re under a misapprehension. The transaction went against all my better instincts. It was she who persuaded me to buy it.”

  Kate felt lighter than air. She’d misjudged the situation entirely. Misjudged him. “Then why did you agree?”

  “Out of friendship. Loyalty. Duty. All the things that have gone so out of style these days.”

  “They never go out of style.” Kate crossed the rug to his side. “If you feel it’s a mistake, then, I won’t hold you to it. Your call, Michael. Either way.”

  He stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. “To hell with Frogsmere and King’s Meadow. We’ve got other business at hand.”

  His kiss sizzled right down to her toes. “God, I’ve missed you.”

  She laughed against his mouth. “It’s only been two hours since we quarreled.”

  “Far too long,” he said, and kissed her again. “Do you believe in fate, Katherine, my love? Because I knew the first time I saw you that you were destined to be mine. Just as I was meant to be yours.”

  “I think I’ve always been yours,” she said. “Because I’m most alive when I’m with you.”

  Her arms were around his neck, her fingers tangled in his hair as she pulled his face down to hers. His mouth was hot, his body hard beneath his clothes. She felt her own melting against him, melding into the heat of his passion.

  Her fingers worked open the buttons of his shirt, her mouth pressed against his bare flesh, and his embrace tightened so she could hardly breathe. He sensed it immediately, murmuring apologies against her throat as he loosed his hold, intoxicating her with his touch.

  The world tilted from vertical to horizontal. She could feel the brush of the Oriental carpet against her bare back and realized her tank top was at her waist. Then his hands and mouth were on her breasts, and she was arching up to meet him, willing and eager for more. She felt the buttons pop on her shorts as he tugged them loose, heard the soft rustle of his own clothes as he stripped them off.

  He started with kisses on her eyelids and worked his way down. By the time his mouth skimmed over her midriff she was on fire with need. Burning, burning with delicious sensations, and wanting more. Much more.

  She caught his face between her hands and lifted it. “Make love to me, Michael,” she said fiercely. “Take me now!”

  He answered with a hard, hot kiss on her mouth as he stretched his long frame beside her. There was such power in his restraint that the air hummed with it. He teased her into higher arousal. His fingers moved down, explored, retreated. Her body shuddered with pleasure. He touched her again, once, and the world splintered into wild, dark colors that she’d never seen before.

  “Now,” she demanded.

  “Now,” he said, and settled his weight over her. She felt him slip inside her, thrust deep in the perfect moment. Fire danced through their veins, and roared through their bodies. They were locked together, fused by the glory of their passion.

  “I love you, Kate,” he said after, when they lay heart to heart.

  “Don’t,” she said. “Don’t promise anything now. It’s too soon.”

  “You don’t seem to understand,” he said, looking down into her eyes. “What’s between us isn’t infatuation. It isn’t lust. This is forever.”

  14

  THE MOON WOVE strands of silver through the trees, and long shadows stretched away from Frogsmere to the dark woods beyond. Kate sat on a garden seat sipping a glass of Riesling, listening to the soft ruffling of the wind and the chirping of the frogs.

  After Michael drove her back to Frogsmere, they’d made love again. Then they’d devoured Mrs. Bean’s home cooking, finished a bottle of wine, and made love again. “Will you stay the night?” she’d asked as they lay entwined.

  “I have to leave in a few minutes,” he told her, his voice heavy with regret. “I’ll be back before midnight, if you’ll let me in.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  But here it was, almost one in the morning, and there’d been no sign of him. Doubt crept in like little shadows. She didn’t know him well enough to begin a relationship. She’d rushed in too fast and gone too far.

  She brushed the doubts away as if they were gnats. No. This was real. And right. He was right. This was their destiny. Fate had taken a hand in their meeting in the first place. “And Agatha Culpepper,” she said aloud.

  Something plopped softly on the stone bench beside her. She turned and saw a little frog looking up at her with round, imploring eyes. Before she could react, he leapt into her lap. She set her glass down, then picked him up and put him down in the grass. He—or his identical twin, she thought—was back a moment later.

  “Persistent, aren’t you?”

  “Kizzmee. Kizzmee.”

  She held him in her cupped hands. “Are you one of the frogs I have to kiss before I find my prince? Because you’re too late. I’ve found him.”

  “Kizzmee. Kizzmee!”

  “All right.” And she did.

  It was just like before, in the kitchen. The air sparkled and fizzled into a bright white mist. There was an odd sound, like a lightbulb popping—and a man in a green tunic and tights went sliding off her lap, pulling Kate down into the grass with him.

  “What the hell…”

  He rolled to his knees as she thrashed around in the grass. As she struggled to rise, he caught her hand in his.

  “Lovely Lady, Thy kiss has released me from the spell of enchantment that kept me from my true form and bound me in the guise of a lowly frog. In return, I pledge my heart and sword to thy most gracious service. How may I serve thee?”

  “By letting go of me! Who the hell are you? How did you get here?”

  “I am a noble prince, and now thy sworn champion. By thy chaste and merciful kiss, released me from the spell of enchantment laid upon me. The spell that kept me from my true form and bound me in the guise of a lowly frog. Name any task, whether it be to slay a fiendish monster or lead thy gallant knights in battle, and I shall accomplish it in thy name. I pledge my heart and sword to thy sweet service.”

  “First, stop repeating yourself. Second, let go of my hand.”

  Kate pressed her fingers to her face and closed her eyes. It was the wine. It had to be the wine. But when she opened her eyes again he was still there.

  She reached out and pinched him. He was solid as a brick.

  “Ow!” He did an undignified little dance. “That was a lousy thing to do.”

  Kate stared. “‘Lousy’? What kind of language is that for a prince? What happened to your ‘thys’ and ‘thous’ and ‘wherefores’?”

  He looked sulky. “I’ve been watching the telly down at the pub. There isn’t much else to do when you’re a frog. Except in the mating season, but I’ve been a frog since the bloody solstice, and haven’t met any others inclined to it. Not that I was inclined,” he added hurriedly.

  She was having difficulty taking it all in. Yes, he was dressed like Robin Hood—except for the ermine cape and the crown on his dark head—and he felt real enough. He even cast a shadow in the bright moonlight. That didn’t mean he was real. It meant that although she rarely drank more than one glass of wine, tonight she’d had four and she was having hallucinations.

  “I know what you are,” she said. “You’re a pink elephant.”

  “Am not!”

  “Yes you are.”

  “Nyah-nyah!” the prince said, sticking out his tongue.

  “Have you been watching cartoons?”

  “How did you know?”

  “You looked just like Bug
s Bunny for a minute there.” Kate squinted. “I can still see the ghost outline of big furry ears hovering near your head. And you shouldn’t make faces like that. Not very princely, you know.”

  He looked dejected. “It’s the shape-shifting spell. The one that made me into a frog. I’m out of practice.” He brightened suddenly. “Don’t worry, though. I learn quickly. I should have it well under control in another CROAK-CROAK—damn. Another—ritchie-ritchie—sorry. Another day or two.”

  “I’m going back inside,” Kate announced. “You do whatever it is that princes who were frogs do. Good night.”

  But when she got to the door of the drawing room, he was right there beside her. “You can’t come in,” she told him.

  “But it’s going to rain!” And the wind rose up on the heels of his words, spiraling through the treetops. A few drops splattered on her arm.

  “Did you do that?” Kate’s eyes widened.

  She watched him wrestle with his conscience. “No.”

  “Good. I wouldn’t want to be turned into a frog myself.”

  “I don’t really know any spells,” he told her. “We leave them to the women and the wizards. The primary function of princes,” he explained, “is rescuing fair maidens. That and dragon slaying.”

  “That seems very hard on dragons. I’m rather partial to them myself.”

  She felt sorry for him, standing there in his silks and jewels without a friend in the world.

  “All right. You can come inside.” At least she would find out some of the answers to her growing list of questions.

  They went in through the side door to the kitchen, and his face lit up when he smelled the aroma coming from the oven.

  “Is that…is that steak-and-kidney pie?” He was practically drooling.

  “Yes, and you can have it all if you’re hungry. Sit down and I’ll fix you a plate.”

  She took out a crockery dish and silverware, then slipped on mitts and pulled the pie from the oven. Rich gravy bubbled up through the flaky crust. He sighed with anticipation as she fixed a portion for him and served it.

  “Do you want any steak sauce with it?”

  “No, thank you. But if you have a few flies…?”

  “What a shame,” she said wryly. “I used the last of them up at lunch.”

  The prince tucked into his dinner, and Kate sat down on the chair opposite him. It was going to be a long night.

  15

  “NOT FAR NOW,” the prince told Kate. “The entrance is at the end of the hill.”

  He led her through the dark thicket toward the mound that stretched across the far end of the meadow. Kate looked up at it. “That’s nothing but a midden heap, filled with trash.”

  “That’s what the Guardian wants them to believe. He’s quite clever, throwing old plumbing and broken crockery at the end where he let them dig their trench.”

  Kate stopped in her tracks. “Wait a minute. The Guardian—do you mean Sir Michael Bellamy?”

  “Yes. He’s the Guardian. Miss Culpepper appointed him to the position when she passed our secret to him, and he swore an oath to protect all the People Under the Hill.”

  “So that’s why she wanted him to buy up the acreage!”

  Kate realized why the story she’d found had never been finished. Agatha Culpepper didn’t want to give out any hints of the hidden world at Frogsmere—but she left that fragment for me to read, so I would understand.

  She stumbled over a tree root and barked her shin. “How can you see where we’re going?”

  “I’m a nocturnal amphibian in this world,” he told her. “Would you like to hear me sing?”

  “No! Not now.” In fact, she was having serious doubts of continuing. “Are you sure it’s safe? I won’t be turned into a frog in some sort of reverse magic?”

  “Not unless you do something you shouldn’t,” he replied. “Ah, here we are.” He led her into a dark maw. The way was smooth underfoot and sloped gradually downward. Kate grew claustrophobic. “I can’t see!”

  “You will in a minute. We’re almost there. It’s so beautiful, Kate. You’ll love it so much you’ll never want to leave.”

  “You did.”

  The prince sighed. “My father is tired of being king. He says its my turn, and he wants me to marry one of the princesses. I don’t like any of them, except Sophie. She’s a great girl—can catch a fly on the wing.”

  “Er, is she a frog, too?”

  “Not usually. She knows a lot of magic, like my uncle Alfred, and can stay human-looking Above for hours and hours. Listen, that’s her!”

  Golunka! Golunka! Gol-gol-lunka!

  “Doesn’t she have a lovely voice? All the Golunkas do.”

  Kate felt as if she’d fallen into someone else’s dream. “Sophie Golunka? Pretty red-head with big green eyes?”

  “That’s her. She’s a peach.”

  “Are you going to marry her?”

  The prince led Kate beneath low-hanging stalactites. “I don’t want to marry anyone yet. But if I do, Sophie…yes, I think she’d be the one. She’s jolly good fun.”

  It was so black Kate couldn’t see anything but the insides of her eyeballs. “How far is this place? It seems like we’re going on forever.”

  “Oh, we could if you wanted to. It stretches all the way around the globe.”

  Kate shivered. “I want to go back.”

  “Don’t shout. My head is ringing,” he snapped. “I took quite a tumble when you dumped me out the window. There’s a huge knot on my head.”

  “Please,” she begged. “Take me back.”

  “I sorry,” he said, and his voice was edged with steel. “You can’t go back. You know our secret now. Only the Guardian can know about us and stay Above. You have to stay Below. You’ll be one of the People Under the Hill.”

  Kate struggled but he pulled her inexorably forward. She felt a draft and realized that they were inside an enormous space. She could feel it stretching out high, high overhead.

  Another four or five steps and they turned a corner. The prince fumbled with a key, and a door opened in the middle of the blackness. They came out in a moonlit garden.

  Kate gasped in awe. It was just like Miss Culpepper’s story. Trees of carved crystal reflected the light from the diamond stars studding the arching sapphire dome above. A giant pearl moon shone down on the castle in the center of the lake. A swan boat glided toward them and stopped.

  “Come,” the prince said and helped her inside it. “Swan boat. Take us to the island.”

  The boat glided away from shore. The prince made a sign and a silver cup appeared in his hand. “Magic is easy here,” he told her. “Even the men can do it.” He held out the cup to her. “Drink this. You must be very thirsty.”

  “Thanks, but I’ve had enough wine to last me the rest of the night.”

  And possibly my lifetime, Kate thought.

  The prince scowled but vanished the cup. As the swan boat brought them closer to the island, Kate laughed. “I used to wish for a fairy prince to carry me off to his kingdom. I never imagined this in my wildest dreams.”

  “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “I hear music.”

  “Yes. There is a ball tonight.”

  “Really? I’m glad I’ll get a chance to see it.”

  “Oh, there are balls every night.”

  “I imagine that gets boring after a while,” Kate said.

  “No. We love balls.”

  “What do you do in the daytime?”

  He frowned. “There is no day here. This is a midnight kingdom.”

  “It’s always night? Don’t you do anything else but go to balls?”

  The prince shrugged. “We used to have wars, but that got boring. Nobody ever lost. Every now and then some young prince steals a fair maiden away. Then we all ride over and get her back. But now that we have computers they spend most of their time writing E-mail, or downloading music, or playing games on the Internet.”

  Kate
’s brain was boggled. She felt as if she’d entered a madman’s dream. “Frogs with computers.”

  “We’re only frogs Above,” he said testily. “Here we’re all princes and princesses. It may not be what you’re used to, but you’ll enjoy being a princess once you get used to it.”

  “I don’t want to be a princess. I’m perfectly happy as a human being.”

  He folded his arms. “You could be a princess if you married me. My mother is human, you know, and she’s very happy here. And one day, if my parents choose to go Above to finish out their life span, I shall be king and you’ll be my queen.”

  “What about the Princess Sophie?”

  “Ah! Sophie,” the prince said, and fell silent.

  The swan boat docked at a silver pier. “I want to go back,” Kate said firmly.

  “You can’t. Once a human comes to the kingdom they can never return.”

  “People will notice I’m gone. They’ll come looking for me.”

  “When my mother came here, they all thought she ran off with a servant. A footman. Only Lady Agatha knew the truth, and she never told.”

  Kate was thinking fast. “Honoria Culpepper. She didn’t run off, she came here.”

  “Yes. She’s my mother. Queen Honoria.”

  “And you say that Agatha Culpepper visited her from time to time?”

  “It was by special arrangement. Lady Agatha was the Guardian.”

  “And Agatha returned home again, so what you told me isn’t true. You can’t keep me here. There is a way to go back.” Kate stood up. “Let’s get this over with.”

  The prince rose and stepped up to the pier, then leaned down to help Kate up. As he took her hand, she grasped his wrist with her other one and yanked hard. The surprise overbalanced him and sent the prince tumbling into the drink.

  “Swan boat,” Kate cried. “To the shore!”

  For a terrible minute she thought nothing was going to happen. Then the boat moved away from the pier, while the prince splashed and struggled.

  “Faster!” she cried. “Hurry!”

  The dainty boat sailed across the black lake in a wake that shone like diamonds. But when Kate looked back the prince was swimming like a dolphin and gaining on her with every second.