“Why not?”
“I was distracted by the sex.”
“Ah. I was also distracted by that. But I received communication about your popularity early this morning.”
“And you didn’t share it with me?”
“I didn’t have a chance to. But now I am.”
“It isn’t only me that’s popular,” she said. “You are too. A king of the people. Unlike the evil dictator before you. And unlike…” She frowned. “Unlike your father.”
She turned the screen of her phone off, almost like she was trying to protect him.
“I know,” he said.
“What?”
“I already know that my father was not considered a man of the people. I told you that I spent seventeen years trying to figure out how to be the leader that this country needed. Part of that was finding out what had made it ripe for revolution in the first place.”
“You don’t have any memories of your father, only these…pieces written by other people?”
“I spent a fair amount of time talking to people who remembered him. He was seen as decadent. Out of touch.” He frowned. “It feels foolish to have to ask. To not know.”
“I should’ve asked about that before I went and threw a ball.”
“Nothing about your ball seemed decadent or out of touch. My father would never have welcomed the citizens of the country. At least, that is my understanding. He certainly never would’ve walked through the town square.”
“You’re trying to counteract his reputation.”
“Yes. I would be foolish not to.”
Yet again, she saw that inability for him to feel certainty. For him to feel like anything was fixed or secure.
Because in his experience, it wasn’t.
“You’re your own man,” she said. “All of these articles recognize it.”
She looked around the room, properly, for the first time since they had arrived. It was lovely. Filled with cultural charm. That modern, Scandinavian type of design, mixed with more ornate old-world art and wallpaper.
But she didn’t care about the surroundings. She only cared about him.
“I am whatever the people need me to be.”
“Is it so impossible for you to let yourself be human?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Let yourself be a man, Ragnar.”
“I have to be better than that. I’m a king.”
“Not in here. If I can give you one thing over the next two years, I want to give you that. With me, you don’t have to be a king. With me, you can simply be a man.”
Driven by the impulse that was making her heart beat faster, she reached around and unzipped the dress that she was wearing. Let it fall away from her body. Let it fall all the way tothe floor. “I don’t need you to be a symbol of anything. I only need you to be a man.”
Chapter Eleven
HIS EYES WENT DARK. And she could see that he wasn’t going to argue. Wasn’t going to resist.
