Page 31 of The Heart of the King

He pointed over his shoulder. “There’s already a fire going in my room. Would it be all right if we gathered in there?”

Her hesitation was so brief, Jazz didn’t think he’d notice, but she agreed.

His rooms were different than hers, larger, and more easily separated into two rooms. She wondered if that had something to do with his rooms being in the corner of the building, so windows covered two walls where hers only had windows on one side. Her sitting room would be windowless if it was separate.

The opening between the rooms was more like eight or ten feet across rather than the whole width of the room like hers, and she imagined the drawn back curtains would actually cover the opening if he chose to release them.

“If you don’t like the furniture in your room, it can be changed. I told them comfortable would be our first request, more so than furniture with some sort of historical significance.” He picked up a remote from a side table and clicked a button.

A piece of framed art over the fireplace swung slowly upward revealing a large television behind it.

Jazz blinked. Not what she expected, but there wouldn’t be a bad seat in the room.

“I was thinking one of those cheesy HEA TV movies? Dinner will be brought up in about half an hour. I ordered something light, but if you want more than that, we can let the kitchen know.”

“That sounds perfect.” She settled into a cozy-looking chair with a matching ottoman and pulled a blanket up over her. “It’s been a long day. I just want to sit and kind of zone out. Not think too much.”

“Then an HEA TV movie is perfect, right?”

She gave him a small smile. “I think so. I’m sure it’s not your first choice.”

David shrugged. “I don’t watch many movies. I don’t particularly have a preference.”

“I can’t imagine this is it, but thank you.”

“There’s one on tonight with a guy from Serenity Landing as the star. Isn’t that close to your home?”

She perked up slightly. “It’s Christopher’s Christmas movie? I wanted to see it. I’ve known him most of my life. Not well. He knew my older brother and brothers-in-law better.”

He took a pillow and bunched it under his head as he stretched out on the couch. “Perfect.”

Jazz couldn’t see what he did on his phone, but the lights dimmed and the movie started without David going through the motions of finding the right app and then choosing the movie. Either he could do all of that on his phone or he already had it set up.

She let herself be swept away into the world of perfect Christmas snow and lipstick that never smeared and a big city heroine who wore stilettos with her jeans even in the small town.

Because few small-town girls would do the same.

At least none of the ones she knew.

For a moment, the scene switched to a mother with four children running around in the park as the hero and heroine walked along a path in the distance. “That’s Christopher’s wife and four kids,” she told David. “The twins are four now, I think. I’m not sure about the older two. They have tiny parts like this in a lot of his movies now.”

“That’s really cool.”

She let her head fall to the side. “I would like to visit home to talk to my parents in person.”

“I’m sure a trip can be arranged soon.” He smiled at her. “Merry Christmas, Jasmine. I hope this is the first of many.”

Jazz snuggled into her chair and found herself hoping the same.

Staringat the paperwork in front of him, David couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Where did you get this?” he asked Randall as the security officer sat in the seat across the desk from David.

“All internet traffic is monitored. Sometimes things come to the attention of the tech people because of certain key words. Sometimes it’s random searches. This came up in a routine search of palace web traffic. Once we realized what had been done, we confirmed it elsewhere.” Randall handed over another piece of paper. “Return information.”

“She didn’t talk to anyone first?” Staring at the piece of paper the numbers started to swim together, but he needed to know everything.

“Not that I’m aware of, sir.” Randall sat back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “Neither is Daniel.”

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