Page 68 of The Royal in Room 3

“Of course I do, but something’s off. I can feel it.”

I left the ballroom and wandered down the quiet hall.

“Hey, Shannon,” I called to the young woman who cooked most of Halo’s meals. She took comfort in cooking, which turned out for the best for all the angels of Halo.

“Hi, Daddy Jude. What’s up?”

“Have you spotted Soren?”

“Yeah, he went to the chapel with Officer Vale.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

The “chapel,” which had been more like a large prayer chamber, was actually no longer used for that purpose and hadn’t been for a long time. It’d been repurposed as a library.

The doors were partly open, and voices filtered out, though they were too low for words to take shape. I slowed in the doorway.

“I’ll talk to him about it,” Soren said, his voice low.

“Good,” Aaron said. “You and Jude love each other. He’ll support you.”

Something tightened in my chest. At least I’d been right to trust that they weren’t off having a tryst at mine and Phoenix’s expense. But what did they have to talk about?

I pushed the door open. “Soren? Are you in here?”

They both turned, Soren looking startled. Aaron, as expected, appeared calm. He wouldn’t be the decent cop he was if he were easily surprised.

“What’s going on here?”

“We’re not fooling around behind your back,” Aaron said quickly, and Soren gasped.

“Is that what you think?” he asked.

“It didn’t cross my mind,” I said gently. “I trust you.”

“Good,” Aaron said. “I was just updating Soren about his case. We have the woman who stole from him in custody. Unfortunately, most of Soren’s things have already been sold off.”

“Ah, baby, I’m sorry.” I reached for Soren and gathered him in my arms. “I know how much having the things from your home country meant to you.”

He’d already lost so much.

“Can you find out where she sold the items?” I asked. “I’d love to trace the origins and buy them back for Soren.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Vale gave us a nod of finality. “For now, the recovered items will have to remain in evidence, but Soren can come down at any time to identify them. Take care.”

Vale walked out, closing the door behind him. Soren melted into me, his arms going around my waist.

“There’s a box with some very special items,” he whispered. “My mother’s photo and a photo of my brothers are in it. I hope she didn’t get rid of those. It’s the only thing I have of them.”

“I’m so sorry, little prince. I wish there were something I could do.”

Soren shook his head and smiled at me. “You’ve already done so much. And that you didn’t see us alone and immediately think we were sneaking around behind your back makes it a lot better. I’d have been devastated if you thought I would ever cheat on you.”

“Thanks for not breaking my trust in you. You deceiving me is the one thing that’ll be unforgivable for me, Soren.”

Soren swallowed, and his lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but he just smiled and nodded. I took his face in my hands and slanted my lips over his in a hard kiss. When I made to pull back, he slid his fingers in my hair and moaned into my mouth.

“Daddy, can I suck you off?”