Page 68 of Meet Me Under the Northern Lights

Chloe felt like she was hallucinating. Either that or she had somehow time-travelled and was reliving her first ever moments in Iceland. Here she was again, flat out on the snowy ground, outside the airport building and there was blond hair and a padded jacket…

‘I am sorry. I will just move my arm and I should be able to get up. One second.’

That voice. This couldn’t be happening. ‘Gunnar?’

Silence. Maybe she was imagining this whole scenario. Maybe she wasn’t even awake. She had been totally sleep-deprived waiting in London overnight for the next available flight here. But then:

‘Chloe?’

A few movements she felt beside her and then she saw him.

Gunnar. Leaning over her, his blond hair flopping in front of his face, those blue eyes gazing intensely.

So many thoughts and feelings started firing through her then, but the one that stepped to the front was, this is where I want to be. To love and be loved.

‘Are you hurt?’ he asked.

‘Not like you mean,’ she whispered.

‘Let me help you up. Take it slowly.’

He put an arm around her and gently eased her off the ground and to her feet, brushing the snow from her coat. Then he picked up her cabin case and righted it. When there was no immediate need to attend to anything else he stopped moving and just looked at her intently.

‘I hurt you, didn’t I?’ he replied.

‘No, Gunnar, you didn’t hurt me, you just confused me. But then, when I got to Kat’s and I talked and I thought and I drank way too much Baileys, I realised that I’d confused you too.’

‘Chloe,’ Gunnar said. ‘I want you to know that… the way I feel about you… there has been no one else… I have felt as strongly connected to in such a short space of time.’

‘And I feel exactly the same,’ Chloe said. ‘And those feelings are so intense they are scary as well as exciting.’

‘For me too,’ Gunnar agreed. ‘But, I realised, and Hildur and Magnús made me realise, I had made a mistake when you left. I was trying to give you space in your thoughts to make your difficult decisions with your work, but I should have let you do that knowing the honesty of my heart.’

‘And I should have made it clear that I wasn’t running away from you and Magnús and Hildur like Kirstin. Because I was always going to come back, Gunnar. For Magnús’s show and for you. For us.’

‘For us,’ Gunnar said, in equal parts soft and sexy.

‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘Because one thing you have helped to show me is how important it is to live and love all parts of my life equally. I’ve ignored my personal life for so long because I was too frightened to try again, scared that I couldn’t be enough for somebody how I am and?—’

‘ Krúttio mitt , you are everything and more to me. Just as you are. I want you to make your choice about the partnership knowing that whatever you decide, I would like to be right by your side as you step into a new future. I want to be… supporting you, dreaming with you, creating with you… together with you.’

Chloe’s heart swelled as he held her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes. She could see how emotional he was. She could feel how his words were moving him almost as much as they were moving her and she wanted to bottle that feeling, store it deep inside her and remember it always.

‘I don’t want to be together with you,’ she told him seriously.

She saw his expression dip, the concern flash in his eyes and then she spoke again.

‘I want to be together with you… and Magnús… and Hildur,’ she told him.

She relished the smile he gave then, but not for long, because then his mouth was on hers and he was delivering one of those beautiful, full, deep, kisses that made her heart thump and her toes curl.

And as he held her tight, hugging her close and then kissing her all over again, Chloe realised that Gunnar was the home she’d been waiting for.