‘No. That’s for my degree. I learned swearing on my own time.’
He had to bite back a smile. Beneath the layers of royal etiquette she was funny.
‘Okay, Princess, let’s get you home.’
He pulled her against his side, but she twisted gracefully in his arms so that they were chest to chest. She craned her neck to look up at him.
‘So small,’ she whispered.
‘I amnotsmall,’ he replied.
‘No... But I am,’ she said, shaking her head.
His lips curved and her gaze flickered between his mouth and his eyes, her own wide and full of glitter.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘You smiled.’
‘I didn’t,’ he said, scowling.
‘You did. I saw it. You can smile, Kjell,’ she accused him, as if it was something he kept from the world.
The memory was a punch to the gut, more powerful for its sweetness. A possessiveness he’d never known before had filled him that day, one that had carried through until the very end. But even then it had just been an illusion. The Princess and the commoner? No. She could never have been truly his. He’d only borrowed her for a short time. And it had cost him greatly.
He had shamed himself and his parents by having a relationship with Freya, by lying to her and failing utterly in his duty. He’d accepted exile as his punishment, accepted that he deserved it. But that didn’t mean it hadn’t cost him, hadn’t hurt him when he looked at his mother’s teary eyes and met his father’s distant gaze when he met them on the few hours each year he’d return to check in with Command. Didn’t mean that he hadn’t struggled to find his place in a different world.
The door to the cabin opened, the noise wrenching him back to the present, and he turned to find her face frozen in a look of surprise. Rosebud lips that had been ready to continue their shouting match dropped into the perfect ‘O’ as she took in the cabin that he’d poured years and savings into making perfect.
He’d just about calmed his breathing when he caught sight of her underwear in her loosened grip. Molten lava poured through his veins in a thick, slow crawl, lulling him into complete arousal that demanded appeasement. She’d been the only woman to ever have that effect on him. And he’d never tried to replicate it with another.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she exclaimed, utterly unaware of the precarious position she was in. He tracked her progression through the cabin, jaw clenched and muscles tense. He wouldn’t last an hour with her if he didn’t get himself under control.Now.
Focusing his mind on the alterations he’d made to the cabin that had been in his father’s family for generations, the mental exercise calmed him. Bare feet padded up to the window that wrapped around the entire length of the broad single-storey cabin. The feat of engineering had cost him four whole years’ pay, but it was worth every single cent. As evidenced by the hypnotising effect it had on Freya. Unable to resist, he went to stand beside her, trying to see the panoramic view as she did for the first time.
‘You did all this?’ she asked, her hand reaching up to touch the triple-glazed reinforced glass created specifically to withstand the drastically cold temperatures that hit this central part of Sweden for nearly six months of the year, whilst simultaneously adjusting to the intense heat of the summer months.
He nodded. He felt her eyes on him but he locked his gaze on the most breathtaking view he’d ever seen. And he’d travelled the world. Even between the swirls of snow, the expanse of the view was startling. The large lake beyond was a smooth disc of grey ice, framed either side by the close press of trees that wrapped around to the front of the cabin, giving a sense of privacy, exclusivity, reinforced by the knowledge that no one else resided within twenty kilometres of these two cabins. The spindly evergreens blanketed by thick fingers of snow looked mystical and faintly threatening—black twisting into white, throwing off grey and disappearing into haunting shadows.
But to be protected by the glass and witness the ferocity of the wind hurling huge banks of flakes back and forth across the landscape, the sheer movement of it, while standing in what felt like the eye of that raging storm...that was the real pleasure, the real awe.
She turned to him, a smile on her lips and a spark in her eyes as if she’d forgotten herself for a moment, and that was when he saw her. The girl he’d once known. And thenhenearly forgot. All the reasons why he couldn’t just sweep her up in his arms to soothe the need that was choking in its intensity. Her title, his lie and the gulf between them that would never be breached. He’d nearly forgotten. But not quite.
As if reading those thoughts in his eyes, she turned away to take in the rest of the living area. In the corner, flames flickered in the wood burner warming the space easily. A large caramel leather sofa ran the length of the wall, covered in different types of fur throws, ones that his grandfather and great-grandfather had made themselves from the animals that had died naturally on the property. The Bergqvists had strong views towards living with and within their habitat. No animal was killed needlessly and no resource was used mindlessly or completely. Every change Kjell had made to the cabin had the highest environmental certifications and the latest technological advances. The cabin was as ecologically sustainable as humanly possible.
It was more than a cabin, though. It was his sanctuary. But as Freya crossed the threshold to his bedroom it felt like a cage. Having her here, invading his space, it made him feel too much. Mentally he paced the room, feeling trapped by her presence. He had come here to face what had happened on secondment four months ago. Not the woman who had exiled him eight years ago.
Freya stared at one of the biggest beds she’d ever seen. It was less a bed and more a raised floor area. Low to the ground, the mattress took up two-thirds of the room. There were no side tables or lamps, but as the room had the same window as the living area she presumed that the natural light would be sufficient. She was drawn once again to the view that made the cabin feel part of the landscape in a fundamental way. It was simply incredible, and somehow so Kjell. As if it perfectly captured the duality of the man—raw wildness and controlled restraint.
She looked back at the bed and suddenly realised what had brought her to the room. Frowning, she peered through the door to where Kjell was moving about the kitchen. A kitchen that was on the other side of the cabin. A cabin with no second floor.
‘Kjell?’ She saw his shoulders tense. She ground her teeth together, realisation making her heart thud. ‘Where’s the other bedroom?’
He turned, glared at her over his shoulder and, having clearly decided that she could answer her own question, he went back to whatever he was doing on the stove.
Oh, no. No, no, no, no.
She ran to the table where she’d seen her sat phone and jabbed at the keypad with shaking fingers.Answer...please answer, she prayed. Maybe Henna, her lady-in-waiting, could do something to get her out of here.