"It is considered synonymous with kjæreste." Which meant dearest, but his brother used that endearment with Janne.
He'd felt strange using it with Blythe, especially when she refused to acknowledge they were anything more than friends who had sex.
"It is?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Oh."
"Is this important?" He was never going to understand this woman.
"No, not really." She sighed. "It doesn't have to be someone I know, does it? They could have broken in."
"Unlikely."
"Or posed as a maintenance person and gotten the building super to let them in." She sounded so hopeful.
He hated to dash those hopes. "We are looking into that angle, but again, it is unlikely."
Her eyes filmed over with moisture. "Someone I know?"
Tor let out a frustrated sound, hating to see the pain on his woman's face and pulled her close, wrapping both arms securely around her. "It does not have to be someone you are close to, just someone you have had to your apartment."
Someone who had access to her phone.
"Casual acquaintances don't visit me here. I don't have parties. I don't invite work colleagues around that are not also friends."
"You're a private person."
She shrugged. "I struggle letting people into my life."
"I know," he said with meaning. "You kept me in the friend zone even after we started having sex. And even then, you never once invited me to your home."
"I didn't want memories of you there."
"What? Why?"
"They would haunt me after we broke up."
He shook his head. "You never thought we had a future."
"I had my reasons."
"Which you will share with me when the time is right."
She didn't answer, but he hadn't expected agreement. And the lack did not worry him. Tor was a stubborn man and he was not giving up on this woman.
If the last year had taught him anything, it was that they were better together than apart.
"No one like that, are you sure?" he asked her, knowing it would be useless to pressure her to talk about their personal relationship if she wasn't ready.
His Blythe could be stubborn. The past year apart was proof enough of that.
She went silent for a moment, clearly trying to remember such an event. Then she frowned. "I had a small get together so we could get to know each other when we took on new crew in the transition to the streaming service."
It was possible one of those people worked on both her show and the new docuseries about modern royal families. He asked her for a list of the new crew and texted the names to his security people.
"Will they be able to figure out who the leak is?" she asked like she couldn't decide if she wanted the answer, or not.