Page 102 of Tall, Royal Hater
I pursed my lips to the side, unable to help wondering what these other women had been like as a green feeling licked across my chest. Were they small and petite? Tall and lithe? Was he rough with them too? Not that I cared, of course. I didn’t. I was just…curious.
“You’re making that face again.”
I blinked and found Shehryar staring at me with curious amusement. Mentally shaking off the stupid direction of my thoughts, I ignored what he said and pulled my foot from his hands. A frown fell upon his brows, but I was already lifting my other leg out of the water.
Soapy bubbles slid off my skin as I wiggled my toes in front of his chin. “Do this one too.”
His eyes narrowed, questioning my impudent demand. I quirked a brow in return. The corners of his mouth spread in an irritated smile, but he clasped my foot in his hands and drew it down into the water. My pride did a smug, empowering dance in victory, in very close proximity to my heart.
“You didn’t answer your own question,” he eventually said, drawing firm lines up my foreleg.
My dancing pride stopped and bristled defensively. “Despite what you think of me, no.”
Shehryar’s fingers stopped around my ankle as confusion fell over his face. “What do you mean ‘despite what I think of you’?”
“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes. “Stop acting like you don’t think I’m loose when you’ve accused me of throwing myself at men multiple times.”
“I don’t think you’re loose, Mariyah. And I haven’t accused you of throwing yourself at—”
“Yes, you have. You told me to throw myself at Pierre literally the other day. And you said I had no morals for flirting with Kareem.”
His jaw worked for a second. “I wasn’t implying you were loose either time.” His fingers resumed kneading into my foot. “I didn’t say youhadthrown yourself at Pierre, I told you to do it because it irritated me how you two got on, and I was angry already, so I lashed out. But I tried to apologise for that, and you didn’t let me.” I rolled my eyes, but he squeezed my foot,drawing my attention back. “And King Kareem…I shouldn’t have said that, and I’m sorry, but I didn’t mean it in the way you assumed. I wasn’t calling you immoral for flirting. You weren’t fazed by his standing or that he was Esmeralda’s brother, and it irritated me that that was what made it easy for him to like you—”
I scoffed and sat a little straighter. “So, basically, what I’m getting from this is that I was right when I said you don’t like it when people like me. Correct?”
His hands stilled again as his scowl hardened. “You’re a menace to me, Mariyah. When people can’t see that and think you’re this sweet, flirtatious, fun woman, yes, it does irritate me.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he continued. “Can you honestly say that it doesn’t irritate you when people like me?”
I snapped my mouth shut and sneered.For fuck’s sake…
“Exactly.”
Annoyed, I wriggled my foot out of his grasp. “Yeah, well maybe next time, when you’re irritated that someone likes me, try not to make it sound like you think I fuck them all just because I joke around or harmlessly flirt.” I sank back against the tub, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Really?” He leaned forward, narrowing his sarcastic gaze. “Well, why did you lie about going to King Kareem’s bedroom?” Heat smacked me in the face—I’d forgotten about that, but apparently he hadn’t. “And why is it that every time you notice me looking, you lean in closer to Pierre? And the whole act with Candy yesterday?”
“It’s not the same thing,” I bit out. I couldn’t deny it; that would make me look like a fool.
“No, it’s not. It’s worse.” Some sticky, dark heat filled his irises as his tone lowered. “You weren’t trying to irritate me with the fact that they liked you. You were flaunting them in front of me to make me jealous.”
I jerked forward, my skin burning red. “No, I wasn’t. Because I had no idea that your hatred led to some warped fucking claim on me.”
“It’s not a…claim,” he gritted out, though his voice did an odd waver. “But you don’t think that every time you mouthed off, I didn’t want to bend you over and rearrange your fucking insides?”
“No, I didn’t,” I said, trying to ignore the excited flutter my sex gave, and slumped back in annoyance.
We glared at each other in the fuming, huffing silence.
Shehryar let out a long, heavy exhale and dipped his hands back into the water. “Give me your foot.”
“No,” I grumbled, cringing inside at the way I sounded like a petulant child.
He found it under the water anyway, and despite being tempted to, I didn’t pull away and let him continue massaging it. After a while, I let out a sigh too and loosened up. Though I couldn’t help but cling on to something he’d said. It felt like crucial information, and my curiosity got the better of me.
“Since when have you wanted to rearrange my insides?”
His jaw muscles rippled under his trimmed beard. “I don’t know,” he said gruffly.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what he meant. But nothing about him gave away if he genuinely didn’t know, or if he’d only said it because he didn’t want to tell me.
