A Nordic King(57)

I can tell she’s confused by this all, but honestly, so am I.

“Where to, sir?” Johan asks.

“I don’t know. Just drive somewhere. Outside of the city.”

Johan nods, frowning at me in the rearview mirror. “Should I get a guard for you?”

I shake my head. “We won’t go where there’s people. Just drive.”

I sit back in my seat and I don’t let out a sigh of relief until we’re pulling out of the palace.

Meanwhile, Aurora is staring at me, worried. “What just happened?”

“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “Don’t ask any more questions.”

“So you’re being mysterious and rude,” she says dryly. “Classic Aksel.”

I glance at her. She’s staring out the window watching the snow-covered streets pass us by. It’s the day after New Year’s Day and everyone is back at work. The streets are busy. There should be something comforting about that but all it does is add to my stress, knowing that all these people look to me as their king. No one should look to me for anything.

And yet, that’s what I want, what I need, from her.

To look to me for everything.

Johan’s seen my moods before, when I’ve had enough and I snap, so it’s not surprising that he ends up taking us to Marielyst, a wide expanse of beach an hour and a half south of the city.

“Are we here?” Aurora yawns. “Wherever we are?”

She was asleep for most of the drive, and I didn’t dare wake her. At one point her head fell onto my shoulder and I was able to breathe in deep, the sweet smell of her shampoo.

“I hope this is okay,” Johan says as he twists around in his seat to look at us. “This is Marielyst. It’s a beach. Very popular in the summer. Deserted now.”

“Probably because it’s minus a million degrees and snowing,” Aurora says, peering out the window at the light flakes that are falling from a grey sky. She looks at me. “I’m not one to ask questions.” I cock my brow at that. “But why are we here?”

“Come on, I’ll show you,” I tell her.

I get out of the car and take her hand, helping her out beside me. There’s a chilled breeze but it’s not as cold as I thought it would be. Maybe just below zero. More than that, it’s fresh. It’s freeing.

I want to keep holding her hand but she lets go to start slipping her gloves back on. So instead I just nod past the empty parking lot and toward the sea. “It’s just over there.”

The beach is white and beautiful in its cold desolation. In the summer it would be, as Aurora sometimes says, choc a bloc, but now it’s empty. It’s just us and the dark grey waves that pound the shore. Snow covers the beach in places, blending in with the white sand while tufts of grass stick out from the dunes. Above us, seagulls wheel and dive in the falling flakes.

“It’s cold,” she says, rubbing her arms.

“Do you want my coat?” I ask her, ready to take mine off.

Her brows go to the heavens. “No. Keep it.”

“Don’t like gentlemen, do you?”

“Phhffft. I don’t like it when a bloody king catches hypothermia on account of me having Australian blood. Everything is cold.” Her expression turns sheepish. “Besides, you nearly caught hypothermia once because of me. I think that’s enough.” She clears her throat and kicks a patch of snow at her boot. “So, why are we here?”

I shrug and stick my hands in my coat pockets, rocking back on my heels. “Because in the winter, I can just come here with my thoughts, my grievances, and deal with it in private. You’re right about that palace. Even when you’re alone, it’s like you’re not alone.” I close my eyes and take in a deep breath through my nose, the smell of salt and the sea and the snow like a tonic. “Here, my head can clear. I feel free.”

I open my eyes and stare at her. She’s looking off into the distance at the faint shape of land beyond the sea. “What’s that?”

“Germany,” I tell her and then point to our far left. “And on a clear day you can see Sweden in that direction.” I lick my lips, tasting salt. “You were asleep in the car for almost the whole drive.”

She smiles shyly. “Sorry.” She gestures quickly to me. “I woke up and my head was on your shoulder. I hope I didn’t drool.”

I smile. “I didn’t mind.”

“Did I drool?” Now she looks mildly horrified.

I laugh. “No. But I didn’t mind your head on my shoulder.”

Our eyes lock and that tension and heat I’m always trying to ignore crackles between us.

She’s going to ruin me, I’m sure.

For once I might not mind.

“Anyway,” I say quickly, “it did make me realize that you haven’t had any time off since you’ve started work here. Not even for Christmas.”

She shrugs, raising her hands. “Where would I go? I have no family.”

“You could go anywhere. Somewhere warm and sunny. I don’t mind paying for it.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Never.”

“Yeah right. I’ll come back and I’ll have no job.”

“You’ve been working hard, Aurora. You need this break. I think it would be good for you.”