Page 91 of Royal Rising

“How do you know who Laura Ingalls is?” I demand.

“I have a sister, you know.”

“Yes, I know that.” There’s a long pause, and I know Kalle isn’t trying to fall asleep. I can hear his breathing and it’s not the sleepy kind.

“Mathias came in tonight,” I finally say.

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you trying to go to sleep?”

“Not now.” He shifts and I can tell he’s facing me. Waiting for me to continue.

“I guess Mathias knows about my father.” I huff a breath. Pride is an interesting thing. My entire life, I lived in a country with a king and a queen and their five beautiful children. Even though I became friends with those beautiful children, I always knew that their lives were different than mine.

I was there tohelp,and I was fine with that. It’s not that I thought the royal family was any better than mine, only that we existed in slightly different circles.

I was okay with that, until Mathias.

Mathias embarrassed me. He looked at my father working at the castle and me managing the bar, and he felt pity for me, like my life wasn’t worthwhile.

“What did he say?” Kalle’s voice is hard and just a little bit fierce. He would never embarrass me or take my family and use it against me.

“He wanted to rescue me from this life.” I try to sound like it doesn’t matter, only I can’t quite make it. “This awful, horrible life of working for a living. Of working for your family. He wanted to whisk me away to his castle and live happily ever after, being… I don’t know what he wanted me to be.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“Maybe he meant well—”

“Maybe, but I doubt it. The man needs to realize that if you need rescuing—and you don’t, because you have a great life and I’m the best boss ever—if you need to be rescued, you’re going to damn well do it yourself.”

“I guess.”

“I know. Did you tell him I’m the best boss ever?”

“You didn’t exactly make it into the conversation.”

“So you didn’t tell him I’m going to marry you?”

The silence is so complete that I think I might hear my own heartbeat. “I wasn’t aware we had decided that,” I say carefully.

“You might not have, but I have.”

“Kalle…”

“What’s thisKalle? You know that’s what I want.”

“Yes, but there’s a huge jump between what we are and what you want,” I point out.

“Yeah, and I’m not rushing into anything. I’m going to convince you because tonight just showed me that I don’t want a life without you in it. I definitely don’t want you to disappear into Mathias’s castle, which isn’t a castle by the way. It’s just a big house.”

“I don’t need a castle.”

“I know, and that’s why I want to give you one.”

I smile in the darkness. I can’t help it. What Kalle is suggesting makes no sense. It’s no more than a fairytale and I’ve long ago accepted that I’m the fairytale type.

But it sounds… right… when he says it here in the dark, wrapped in a blanket in a Kalle-scented room.

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