The Outlaw Prince's Captive - Holly Rayner Page 0,30

with herself. This was exactly the sort of thing she had intended to avoid. She couldn’t allow herself to be caught off guard by his good looks and charm.

“Are you Italian?” he asked. “The name sounds Italian.”

“My family is Italian,” Francesca said. There could be no harm in telling him this, and perhaps it would loosen him up, make him feel safe to discuss the nuances of his own life. “My grandparents emigrated from Italy when they were young.”

“But you’ve never lived there yourself,” he surmised.

“No,” she said. “I grew up in the United States. This is the first time I’ve ever even been out of the country.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t show you a better time,” Viggo mused. “I’m sure you didn’t plan on being housebound like this when you learned you were coming to Konäs.”

“I didn’t,” Francesca said. “But it’s not as though I came here for a vacation. I’m not here to have a good time.”

“That’s really a shame,” Viggo said. “Konäs is a wonderful country. Tourism is not a primary industry for us, of course, but I’ve often felt as though it should be, particularly during the warmer months. We have all the charm of small towns in Sweden, but with none of the big cities or crowds. And if you ask me, our landscapes are the most beautiful to be found in the world.”

“But you chose to leave,” Francesca said. “You’ve been living in New York for years.”

“I went to New York to manage my business,” Viggo said.

“You could have managed your business from here,” Francesca said. “I’m sure you weren’t actually going into the Friska stores every day to deal with customers.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Viggo agreed. “But I like being able to visit them whenever I want to. I like being able to see my hard work in action. Our local Friska has been unchanged for years. The New York stores were new and exciting. They were where all the change and development was happening, and I couldn’t allow myself to miss out on that.”

“Even though it meant saying goodbye to Konäs?” Francesca asked.

“New York is special in its own way,” Viggo said. “Konäs is a beautiful country, one I believe everyone should see, and it will always be close to my heart. But in New York, I believe I have found my true home.”

“It must have been very hard for you to leave it behind, then,” Francesca said. “To come back here, knowing that you wouldn’t ever be able to return.”

He was quiet for a moment. “It was hard,” he said. “Harder than you can imagine.”

“But you say that you’re innocent,” she pressed. “If you are, and if you really love New York so much, why wouldn’t you stay and fight the charges?”

He frowned. “We agreed that we wouldn’t talk about this.”

“I’m just trying to get to know you better,” she said, trying to make her voice sound innocent. “It’s small talk, like you said. I can relate, you know. I live in New York too. I love it as much as you do, I’m sure. If I thought I would have to leave, if I thought I could never come back, I would be heartbroken. I would do anything to stay.”

He got to his feet and went to stoke the fire, keeping his back to her.

He was avoiding answering the question, she realized. And that meant that she had hit upon something.

Without meaning to, he had given her information. The fact that he was so reluctant to talk about New York and his reasons for leaving meant that there was more to his departure than she had guessed. There was something more to discover here, something more for her to know.

She filed that away in the back of her mind. She would continue her investigations on that point at another time. Right now, his guard was up, and she knew it would be best to back off.

“What about your family?” she asked, deliberately turning the conversation to something he would likely find safer.

“What about my family?” he asked, returning to his seat.

“Are you close to them?”

He shrugged, gazing into the flames. “Not especially. We’re not estranged or anything, but we don’t have as much in common as I’d like. My parents and my older brother…they’ve all ruled Konäs, and that’s a great responsibility, of course. But because it’s one I’ve never had to bear, they see me as…different. Impulsive. Childish, almost.”

“Even though you’ve been so successful in business?” Francesca asked.

He smiled. “Not everyone