Page 118 of Tall, Royal Hater
I needed her to light a match under my skin and fill my veins with fire the way only she could.
Mariyah
I eyed Shehryar’s quiet aura carefully.
Something was clearly off about him.
One, he looked like he’d just come back, but he was inmyroom instead of his own.
And two, not completely unlike the look he’d worn this morning, the sharp alertness constantly behind his pale-green irises was lacking. Except rather than a distant look of concentration, he wore a blurred look of dissociation, and that made me wary.
Because the last time he’d worn a similar look, he’d verbally hurt me, and I’d attacked him with a pen. The fact that I knew this time the look had to do with whatever happened between him and his dad was making me ten times more aware of his every move.
But I was also ridiculously aware that he’d found his way into my personal space by choiceagain. And I still wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with the weird, bouncy, tingling, irritating sensation tickling my bones that realisation made me feel, nor this behaviour of his.
“Why are you here, Shehryar?” I said again more sternly, hitching my shoulders, readying myself to roundhouse kick the life out of him if he attacked me first.
He tracked his eyes across my face as if the answer was written on my skin. “If I’m by myself right now, I’ll break something I can’t afford to replace.”
My brows and hands dropped as my defences heightened. “So you came here to lash out at me again instead? Because I swear Shehr—”
“No.” He took slow, swaggering steps towards me, and the way he watched me began to feel unsettling. It was more intense than usual, and not the angry kind. It was something…different that I couldn’t decipher, but it was heavy and yet somehow searching too. It sped up the pace of my heart.
He stopped right in front of me, and I had to tilt my head to meet his stare, even though a confused, wound-up part of me wanted to poke his eyes out for looking at me that way. “But if I throw any punches, I can rest assured you’ll throw them back just as hard.”
He was damn right about that, but I wasn’t sure I liked what he said. I wasn’t exactly offended either. “I’m not your punching bag, Shehryar.”
“I know, menace.” I pulled a face at the name he kept calling me, but he was already turning away. “I’m going to use your shower.”
“What? Why?” I charged around him, blocking his path. “No.” And pointed to the door. “Go deal with whatever shit this is in your own room.”
His eyes hardened. “I don’t have shit to deal with.”
“Yes, you do. Look at the way you’re acting.”
An irritated smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he crowded closer. “How am I acting? Like I fucked you sore, and now I plan to do it again? Because that’s the only way I’m acting.”
Heat licked right across my pussy, making it clench up and give a hard, wanting throb.
Fuck, there was no denying I wanted the sex. But I wanted to punch him in the face too.
“Move. Now. This is the last time I’m asking nicely.”
“Asking nicely?” I echoed incredulously. “Is the niceness in the fucking room with us?”
I was about to make a show of looking around us when he took a step back, bent at the waist, and wrapped his arms around my thighs.
I squealed as my world tipped, and I was suddenly staring at the blood-red carpet and Shehryar’s fat arse. I gasped and gripped onto his jumper for support as he jostled me, his shoulder digging into my belly. Then he turned towards the bed, and I finally snapped out of my surprise.
Fury intertwined with embarrassment fired through my body, going straight to my head, and I kicked and slapped at his back. “Shehryar Timur! Put me the fuck down. Now.”
Who the fuck knew how his irritatingly skilful hands did it, but as he dropped me, he dragged my T-shirt up off my arms and head, and I collapsed onto the bed, naked but for a tiny black thong.
“Shehryar,” I shrieked. Humiliation and anger pinched at my cheeks like a cooing aunt who I hadn’t seen in several years.
Hovering above me, he flashed me a cruel, wolfish grin. “So, you do wear thongs…”
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” I hissed, pushing myself upright to scoot back.
