Manhattan apartment and to my home in Konäs,” he said. “I would like it very much, Francesca, if you would move in with me.”
She couldn’t find words for a moment. “Are you—really? You want to live together?”
“I know it’s only been two months,” Viggo said. “And we can certainly keep your apartment, if that would make you feel more comfortable. I own both of my homes outright, so I would be more than happy to pay the rent on this place, or to split the cost with you, if that’s what you’d prefer.”
All Francesca could think of was that beautiful house in Konäs. She had put it out of her mind when they had left the last time, not daring to hope that she would ever see it again.
“Say yes, Francesca,” Camilla urged. “I bet Viggo’s place has an elevator. A prince would never live in an apartment without an elevator.”
Viggo burst out laughing. “She’s not wrong,” he said to Francesca. “My place does have an elevator.”
“Why is everyone so obsessed with elevators?” Francesca asked, smiling. “I’m not going to say yes to this just to get access to an elevator.”
“But you are saying yes?” Viggo prompted.
She smiled and held out her hand for the keys. “Yes.”
Instead of giving her the keys, he took her hand, pulled her to her feet, and kissed her.
Gio whooped.
Later, when the family had gone, they stood side by side at the sink. Francesca washed the dishes and passed them to Viggo, who dried them and placed them on the towel they had spread out on the counter.
“You know what else my apartment has?” he asked her.
“You’re going to say a dishwasher, aren’t you?”
He grinned. “Look how well you know me already. We’re going to do very well living together.”
“But aren’t you enjoying this? I mean, having a dishwasher will be nice too. But there’s something sort of charming about doing the dishes ourselves after a meal with the family.”
He laughed. “I cook and you clean,” he said. “Maybe that will be the way we divide up the chores.”
“What, you mean you don’t have a housekeeper?”
“I like my privacy. I’m sure you could have guessed that about me. Would you have wanted a housekeeper?”
“Not really,” Francesca said, a quick shake of her head. “I like my privacy too.”
She finished up with the last dish, handed it to him, and began to put away the dishes that had been laid out on the towel.
“I liked your family,” Viggo said.
“Did you?” Francesca asked. “I love them, of course, but they embarrass me sometimes.”
“I thought it was nice,” Viggo said. “The way they teased you. The way they knew the right things to say to make you blush. It showed that you had been in each other’s lives for a long time, and that you were close.” He began to help her put the dishes away. “My family wouldn’t have known how to do that. If you ever meet them, I’m sure they’ll be very formal and uptight. They won’t do anything to embarrass me. They’ll treat me as if I were a stranger.”
“Will I get to meet them?” Francesca asked.
“Would you like to?” he asked.
“It would be interesting,” she said. “I’d like to know more about you, if this relationship is going to last.”
He smiled. “It’s going to last. Don’t you think so?”
“I have a good feeling about it,” Francesca said, sliding into his arms, dropping the wooden spoon that she had been about to put away.
Then his hands were in her hair and his lips were on hers, and she was lost, as she so often was, in the taste and the smell and the feel of him. So overwhelmed was she that she hardly noticed the moment when he lifted her up, his mouth never leaving hers, and carried her toward the bedroom.
Epilogue
A Year Later
The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as Francesca and Viggo boarded his private plane, but Francesca didn’t feel tired at all. She was full of nervous energy, so much so that even after she took her seat, she couldn’t stop her leg from jittering up and down.
“Were you this nervous when you met my family?”
“Oh, much more so,” he said, smiling. “After all, if your family didn’t take to me, I might have lost you!”
“I’m in the same boat,” Francesca said. “If your family doesn’t like me, I don’t know what will happen.”
Viggo grasped her hand. “Nothing,” Viggo said. “There’s nothing they could say that would discourage me from