A Nordic King(102)

Then he slowly, very slowly, drops to one knee.

Oh.

My.

God.

More audible gasping.

The press starts clamoring around the ropes and podium, trying to get a better view.

Of us.

Of Aksel, proposing to me.

Bloody hell, I know he mentioned it the other night, but I thought those were just fighting words.

Oh god, and I was the idiot who told him I wouldn’t have married him!

Shit. Shit. And he’s doing this now, not knowing what I’ll say?

I try to swallow, I want to cut him off and tell him YES, but I don’t want to interrupt him. I can’t get enough of his words and I think the public needs to hear them too. They need to know how he’s moving on.

“Aurora, we built our own world, you and I,” he says, gazing up at me with his haunting blue eyes. “A world where we helped each other, a world where we realized how damn good this life can be. The potential for mercy and grace, the potential to be reborn with love at your side. You, you, make me a better person. You healed the wounds. And I couldn’t have done any of it without you. I couldn’t have grown without you. I couldn’t be this king without you. Which makes me realize that I can’t continue being this king if I don’t have a queen.”

He reaches into his suit jacket pocket and pulls out a gleaming ring.

I’m stunned.

Stunned.

It’s beautiful, he’s beautiful, oh my god, this is happening.

“All I want on this earth is for you to share my life and my children and my throne,” he says, voice shaking now, hands trembling. He’s not so steady now. “All I want is for you to be my queen. And, I think you’d be really, really wonderful at it. Aurora, will you be my equal, my queen? Will you marry me?”

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Now there’s no more secrets.

Now there’s no more past to hold us down.

Now we’re both free.

Every doubt and fear I had has been erased by going straight through the fire.

And at the other end, I choose him.

Forever.

“Yes,” I cry out. “Ja! Ja!”

He grins at me, beautiful, perfect Aksel, and a tear slips from his eye.

He puts the ring on my finger where it sparkles and glows.

Then he gets up and pulls me close, kissing me in front of the cameras even though we’re both back into that world built for two.

This man is my king.

And, reader, I will marry him.





Chapter 24





Aksel





“With a snarf snarf here and a snarf snarf there, here a snarf, there a snarf, everywhere a snarf snarf!”

Normally that variation of “Old MacDonald” burrows into my brain like an earworm, but today it sounds like pure heaven to my ears.

Well, almost. I swear Clara’s singing has gotten even worse. It’s too bad you can’t auto-tune your own children.

“I’m surprised this isn’t bugging you,” Aurora comments, watching as Clara and Freja chase Snarf Snarf around the living room, singing at the top of their lungs. The pig has one of the few tennis balls he hasn’t actually eaten in his mouth in a game of fetch that escalated into a game of keep-away.

Normally the pig isn’t allowed in this room, which I consider one of my last true domains, but because we’re all celebrating the engagement, and I’m feeling on top of the world, I’m allowing it.

For now.

As if on cue, Snarf Snarf barrels into the side of an end table, knocking over a vase. We all watch in slow motion as the vase rolls off and tumbles onto the rug below.

Everyone gasps.

It doesn’t break.

“Okay,” I say under my breath, about to get up from the couch. “That’s enough.”

“Aksel,” Aurora says to me, putting her arm across my chest to hold me back. “Let the girls have their fun.”

I narrow my eyes at her playfully. “Are you on Team Aksel or Team Snarf Snarf?”

“Team Snarf Snarf, obviously.”

“Team Snarf Snarf!” the girls yell in unison, running past us after the pig.

“Okay, here we are,” Stella says, coming into the room holding a tray with four glasses and a bottle of Dom on it. “Time for a toast. Maja, get in here!” she yells as she puts the tray down on the coffee table.

It’s only been a few hours since I proposed to Aurora, and we’ve escaped from the media circus that’s still outside the palace, to relative peace and quiet inside. Or, it would be, if not for that damned swine.

Stella was set to leave back to England yesterday right after we got back but since I knew what I was planning to do—proposing to Aurora in front of my nation—I asked her to hang around. I know she wants to get back home to Anya, but the fact is, I don’t have any other family but her and Maja, and I wanted everyone close to me to be here.

“You could have Karla do that,” I point out as Stella tries to undo the cork.

“I’m fine,” she says, wrestling with the bottle. “Believe me, after a week in your shoes and acting as Regent, I’d like to go back to the simple life.”

The champagne cork goes pop, making everyone jump, and the cork goes flying across the room, almost smacking Maja in the head as she enters. She manages to duck in the nick of time. Our aunt is awfully spry.