Page 122 of Tall, Royal Hater
Something sharp and bitter sparked in Shehryar’s eyes as his jaw tightened. “Yes.”
“You’re the son of a freaking billionaire?” I confirmed, then straightened as the words sunk in. “What the fuck? You’re the son of an actual fucking multibillionaire!”
A dark shadow cast over his face. “How many times are you going to repeat that?”
I came off the pillow, gaping at him. “What do you mean? That’s fucking insane. Do you even know how much a billion is?”
“Yes—”
“It’s a thousand million. A freaking thousand. You could spend a million a year until you died and still leave the next nine generations of your family enough money to never have to work.” I widened my eyes and used my hands to emphasise my point. “And your dad has more than fifty of those.”
Shehryar’s eyes flashed again as his shoulders spread wide. “Is that all you care about? Money?”
“No. But your dad has a big fucking amount that’s kind of hard to ignore.”
“The same fuckingdadwho abandoned me and my mother when I was four years old and allowed everyone in his family to humiliate the both of us.” Hatred laced his growled words.
I angled my chin and raised my brows. “Did you hear me say he was a good person? No. Exactly. I just said he was bloody rich. That’s it.” I put up an index finger. “Plus, I doubt that’s what he told you happened between him and your mum when you saw him today.”
His hard stare narrowed. “Do you think I’m lying about what happened?”
“No. But do you really think you remembereverything,let alone remember it accurately? Were you there during every conversation your parents had? Do you know what happenedwhile you weren’t there?” I shook my head. “You were just a kid, Shehryar.”
“And what about what happened after? The things he said to me when I was older?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I don’t know about that, so I can’t say. But I still doubt that was the full story of what happened. If it was, you wouldn’t have gone to meet him today, would’ve you?”
For a long moment, Shehryar scowled irately. The muscles down my neck tightened, preparing me to defend against a verbal attack. “What?” I said, my tone sharp and shielded. “You’re the one who brought it up, so it’s not my problem if you don’t like what I’m saying.”
Another tense, angry few seconds passed before he released my fingers. He extracted himself from between my legs and climbed off the bed with the bottle of lotion in his hand. After returning it to the bathroom, Shehryar shoved his legs into his trousers, picked up the rest of his clothes and shoes from around the velvet chaise, then left my room. Nothing said, no glance backward.
I sat, legs strewn in the way he’d left them, blinking at my closed door.
What the fuck?
“Now who’s the fucking coward?” I muttered, lips curled in annoyance. “Idiot.”
Grumbling to myself, I rolled and arched and huffed until I’d tucked my legs under the warmth of the silk duvet. As I patted it down, the scent of clean, floral sheets filled my lungs, and a jab of something akin to guilt poked through my sternum.
I growled aloud and sank back against the pillow like a moody teenager, glaring at the empty space he had been in moments ago.
I hadn’t said anything wrong. I had no reason to feel guilty. But…it wasn’t guilt exactly.
Confusion and curiosity were thrown in there somewhere too.
Why had he brought up his dad? To me of all people.
We weren’t—we weren’t like that. We didn’t talk about personal things.We didn’t talk at all. We argued and insulted each other. That was it. That was all it had ever been.
Before last night, at least.
Had this been his attempt at an olive branch or the same as waving a white flag? Because it had been a stupid place to start considering what had been said and done between us. And why?
Or had he genuinely wanted someone to talk to about his day? But why me?
That question—why me—was what was causing the puzzled, intrigued, guilty prickling in my chest. And I didn’t like it. It was making my fingers twitch restlessly and my head spin around Shehryar.
The click of the door cut through my focus before it flew open. I flinched and my lips parted.
