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She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want to disturb him.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” Sarai said smoothly.
Sarai’s phone rang. She held up a finger and gave Jasmine an apologetic smile as she turned away and answered in a foreign language. Johan muttered something under his breath, and Mo shook his head.
This was absolute bullshit. She walked up to the guards who looked down their noses at her. When she pressed against them experimentally, they tensed.
“I don’t think you should be—” Mo began in an offended tone.
Still talking on the phone, Sarai hooked an arm through hers and led her away from the exit. She finished the call and smiled at her.
“So how far along are you on the fifth book? Everyone’s talking about it.”
She opened and then closed her mouth. She had never spoken to a reader face to face, and it was disconcerting on multiple levels. Her work was private and sacred to her. It was the one thing that was hers alone, yet this woman was talking about it so casually as if they were discussing the weather and not something that came from her soul. She didn’t know how to feel about this woman at all.
“I love your young adult fantasy novels as Minnie Hess too. Do you think you’ll complete that series as well?” Sarai asked.
“I… don’t know.”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done to give Roth those books and wait for him to figure it out for himself. Gah! I waited over six months. I never thought he’d read them and then he did, thank God.”
“Why did you do that?” she asked bluntly.
Sarai blinked. “They’re about him. He should know, right?”
“If I had wanted him to know, I would have told him myself.”
Sarai searched her eyes for a moment, and then hers widened. “You didn’t want him to know?”
“No!”
She covered her mouth with her hand. “But… hasn’t anyone else figured it out?”
“No!”
Sarai looked horrified, but that didn’t mollify her. She untangled her arm from his assistant and paced away.
“I thought… I thought the series was a love note to him,” Sarai said faintly. “I thought it was romantic.”
She whirled. “It wasn’t for him; it was for me. And how could it be for him when I divorced him?”
“But Roth’s character is still in the series, a supporting character. I thought…”
She wanted to throw something. “That’s just fiction!”
“But… but the books follow your life so closely. The fourth book ended with you and your father repairing your relationship after all these years…” Sarai pressed a hand against her chest as her eyes filled with tears. “I’m so sorry to hear he passed. That’s so tragic. You two have become so close, traveling and even living together. I can’t imagine how you must feel about losing him so suddenly.”
Jasmine stared at her. “Are you stalking me?”
Sarai gave her a guilty smile. “Is that bad?”
“Yes! What the hell?”
“I can’t help it. Romance is my guilty pleasure, and you wrote one of my favorites. I re-read your series at least once a month, and I see you post on social media every now and then. If I follow your personal life, it enhances the reading experience because I know where you’re getting your inspiration from.”
She had never been struck speechless until this moment. She was still trying to cope with the shock of meeting a super fan who knew her real identity and the details of her personal life when Roth walked into the room. He was dressed in a fancy overcoat with a high collar and a black scarf. He was back to looking like what he was, the big bad businessman with no heart. When he looked at her, she averted her gaze.
“We’re ready. Let’s go,” he said.
