The Wild Heir(89)

“Look. I was married to my wife for a very long time. Over those years I learned a lot about being in a marriage. I learned how…easy it is to fake love. I also learned how easy it is to spot the real thing, or at least the lack of it. For heaven’s sake, Magnus, you’re marrying this woman and you love her. Go and tell her.”

“How do you know I haven’t?”

“Because she thinks whatever you’re putting out there, you’re faking it. I’m telling you, I know. Don’t let her become a fool.”

Hold on. Does this mean that there was a lack of love between him and his ex-wife, the do-gooder Queen that captured the hearts of the nation, of the world?

But of course, I don’t ask him about that. This isn’t about him. This is about me. And I’m afraid he has a point.

I get to my feet. “Well, then I’m sorry to love you and leave you, Aksel. But I think I have something to tell my future wife.”

I leave the room and head up the many stairs to our floor, get lost a few times, and then finally find our bedroom.

I open the door to a darkened room and use the flashlight on my phone to shine the way forward.

Ella is lying on the bed, still in her dress from earlier.

Crying.

I hear her sobs before I even see her.

“Ella,” I whisper, coming right over to her. My heart is in my throat, slowly melting. I’ve never seen her cry before, and the sound of it is already doing a number on me.

I put the phone down on the bedside table and flick on the light. She’s face down on top of the covers, her own phone beside her.

“Ella, I am so, so sorry about earlier,” I tell her, hand on her shoulder, wishing I could make it stop. “I hate arguing with you.”

She just sniffles and sobs and buries her face deeper into her pillow.

“Baby, please,” I tell her, running my palm over her arm. “I’m here. Talk to me.”

Silence. Then more sniffling.

I take in a deep breath, trying to feel emboldened by Aksel’s words. Doesn’t stop me from feeling nervous as hell though.

What if she doesn’t feel the same way?

I have no choice but to ignore it.

No choice but to solider on.

It’s that moment before I make the jump.

“Ella, I’m sorry about what happened. About what I said. It was the truth, but I could have handled it better. The real truth is, I needed a moment to think about it. I’d just never thought I’d meet someone like you, someone I wanted to be with, someone who wanted to be with me. Forever. But that’s you. I know that’s not what we were expecting from this when it first started, but that’s the truth of the matter now. If you want babies, Ella, I will give you babies, and I will do it gladly because I want that life with you. I want any life with you.”

The sniffling stops. She’s listening, breathing hard.

I reach over and gently smooth her hair against her head. “Sometimes I might seem brash or confused about things but it’s never to do with how I feel about you. That’s the one true thing that hasn’t faltered. Things are tough, and they’ll get tougher and our relationship and our marriage was never meant to be conventional and neither is the way I feel. Least not to me. Because I never imagined in a million years that someone could see me the way that you see me and make me feel that I’m worth something. And I hope, beyond all hopes, that I do the same for you.”

Slowly she lifts up her head and rolls over to the side, blinking up at me with tears swimming in her eyes.

“You mean that?” she whispers.

I can’t help the lovesick puppy smile that I know is spreading across my face. “I mean it. I mean it with every beat of my Viking heart.”

“A savage heart,” she whispers. “A warrior heart.”

“A heart that’s all yours. Ella, I fucking love you.”

I thought my words would hit her slowly, but instead they drop on her like a bomb.

She bursts into the saddest, most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen, the kind of smile that leaves a mark on your heart. “I love you too.”

But those words take a moment to sink in.

She loves me.

I never really imagined anyone loving me, but it here it is.

The woman that I’ve fallen for, stupidly in love with, loves me back.

Loves my heart.

She’s seen the real me and all my dark and devious places and she loves me.

I swallow, my throat feeling thick with emotion. “You don’t have to say that because I did.”

“I didn’t,” she says softly. “I love you.” She pauses. “Do you really think I would say that to make you feel better?”

I smile. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t.” I sigh, feeling both elated and still terrible over our fight earlier, for making her cry. “I just want to apologize again, I know we like to fight sometimes, but I could tell that one cut deep.”

She nods, holding onto my hand. “I know. And I overreacted. I want kids, I know I do. I was just so damn afraid that maybe you wouldn’t. It reminded me of things that I don’t want to be reminded of. Of how we started. And I know I need to stop thinking about that because it’s not about how we start, it’s about how we end. It’s about everything in the middle.”

“I hate to be the one to make you cry.”