Page 14 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Sorry, Sher,” Esmeralda said with a grimace.
I rolled my eyes. “Go somewhere else if it bothers you that much.”
He didn’t look up, but his jaw tightened.One point to me.“We’re on a plane. There isn’t anywhere else for me to go.”
“You could jump out of the plane,” I snarked in a sickeningly sweet voice, and I was certain Esmeralda sighed in the background.
Shehryar finally looked up, his eyes piercing me with icicles, but I met the challenge with a tilt of my chin. “Ladies first.”
I grinned and gestured to the door next to him. “Then please, Sheri, by all means, step up first. Because the peanut-sized knob between your legs doesn’t count as a dick.”
“Oh—kay!” Esmeralda interrupted as a shadow cast over Shehryar’s expression, turning it thunderous. I nearly scoffed. The weak-egoed man was so pissed I’d called his dick small. But something about the way the ice melted from his gaze and was replaced by black flames lodged the scoff in my throat and kept it shoved down.
“That’s enough.Please,” Esmeralda said, and I lost the hitch in my shoulders as I glanced at my scowling best friend. “You’ve been ignoring each other since yesterday, and now suddenly you’re at each other’s throat? What is wrong with you two?” She turned her glare on Shehryar. “Did something happen that I’m not aware of? You two are never normally this bad.”
I caught Shehryar’s eyes for the quickest second, but he looked away immediately, and so did I. Neither of us answered Esmeralda, but that enough was an answer.
“Whatever it was,” she continued, “can you forget about it for the next twelve days, please? I want to spend time with Kai and have fun with all of us there. That isn’t going to happen if you two are ignoring each other or constantly bickering.”
Guilt picked at my ribs, but in Shehryar’s silence, I stubbornly stayed quiet too.
“Please. For me.”
Ah, fuck.Stupid Esmeralda and her sweet“don’t be mean to me”small ball of cuteness overload existence. She knew I was weak to her pleading, and if I was weak, Shehryar was a broken man with a backbone bent in the shape of her name.
“Okay, fine,” I grumbled, daring to lift my lashes towards her.
She gave me a small smile. “Thank you.” Then she looked at Shehryar. “Sher?”
He sighed. “Hmm. Yes, okay.” He levelled me with a glare as if it were my fault as he closed his laptop.
What the fuck?How was I to blame when he was being an even bigger dickhead than usual? Anger at his silent accusation lashed through me, but guilt stopped me from mouthing off as he picked his laptop up and made his way to the door on the left opposite us.
It wasn’t entirely guilt when he closed the door. It felt like he’d slammed it in my face, sparking something akin to frustration. Because how was it my fault that he couldn’t be nice to me? We would never have had a problem if he hadn’t decided I was only worth belittling and shaming.
Fuck him. Idiot. Dickhead. Ass.He wasn’t worth my time or energy. He proved that five years ago.
I gritted my teeth and swung my head away. Only to fall into the reproaching, almost amused trap set in Esmeralda’s eyes. A hot twinge attacked my face and neck.
“What?” I said, but I sounded way too defensive.
She sighed and shook her head. “Mariyah…”
“What? He started it.”
“Well then, you be the one to end it. Not forever, but just for these twelve days—”
“Ten days for me.”And thank Neves for that.
“That’s not the point, Mariyah, and you know it.” Esmeralda lifted her chin, and I stilled under the sternness of her expression. “Temporary or not, you need to work things out withShehryar.” I opened my mouth, but she put her hand up. “And don’t ‘tell him this too’me, because you know I plan on telling him the exact same thing.” Her eyes narrowed. “But I’m warning you first. If I have to spend more time telling you two off than having fun with Kai—I am going to kill you both.”
I shuddered as I sunk back into my seat. “Okay, there’s no need for threats.”
“Mariyah, please.”
“Okay. Okay. I promise. I will try to be civil with Shehryar.”
Esmeralda eyed me for a beat, then lifted her fist up. I gasped when her little finger flew up. She smirked. I glared. “Pinkie promise me,” she said.
