Page 145 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Eh, excuse me?” She pulled back. “You were an equal participant in all of this.”
I curled one hand around her nape and dragged her back closer. “You always started it. Giving me sarcastic smiles and snarky comments or throwing insults. I had no choice but to defend myself.”
She gave me one of her signature sarcastic grins, which were rapidly growing on me. “Your presence irritated me, so I had to defend my sensibility against it.” She quirked a brow. “And what do you meanIalways started it? Every time there was another man around me, you were spitting fire.”
“That was equal parts jealousy and irritation at the fact Iwasjealous,” I admitted. “But you had a way of rubbing it in my face, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, because you acted all fucking smug like my relationships were a joke.”
I smirked. “The two guys you datedwerea fucking joke, and your dates weren’t any better.”
“And you were? Or are?”
“Aren’t I?”
“Hard to say when you’ve been a fucking ass for five years.”
“You were no less of an ass, little menace,” I growled. “You drove me fucking mad day and night. I spent half the time wanting to wring your neck, and the other half wishing I couldfuck the brattiness out of you.” I angled my mouth over hers. “You have no idea how often I had to recite all the reasons I couldn’t act on either feeling, only to then imagine our conversations after I’d fucked you sore.”
A slow, gorgeous grin blossomed on her lips, and I felt the strongest urge to trace it. “You imagined talking to me?” She shrugged. “I imagined all the ways I could kill you.”
I grunted out a laugh. “Bullshit, little menace. You thought about all the ways I could make you come while you fucked yourself with your fingers and toys.”
Her cheek heated under my palm. “You wish.”
“Oh, I know,” I purred and moulded my lips to hers.
Mariyah sighed as the weight of my kiss forced her head further back against my hand on her nape, but I stuck to a slow pace, tasting her mouth in deep, languid strokes and thorough tugs on her lips. She quite happily kept to my pace, but at some point, she teased my tongue into her own slow dance until I was panting and clutching on to her for more.
But when it started getting out of hand, we both pulled back as if coming to some silent agreement that the conversation wasn’t yet over. Though I didn’t plan for anything more than kissing tonight. Sex wasn’t all I wanted, and if we were turning a new leaf, I didn’t want it to start with sex either.
“So,” Mariyah breathed out, her eyes glazed, and cheeks flushed. “What now? Because let’s be real, Sheri; I don’t forgive and forget that easily.”
I smiled a lopsided curve, tracing my thumb across her swollen bottom lip. “You can say that again once I actually begin earning your forgiveness.”
Her eyes narrowed at the challenge in my voice. “And then? We act like the last five years didn’t happen? Because no thank you.”
“Never,” I said, tugging at a strand of her blonde hair and earning myself an open-mouthed glare. “I would rather we kept arguing every so often. I enjoy punishing you for it.”
She tried to tame the tilt of her lips as she angled her chin higher. “I also don’t do long-distance.”
There was that. We lived in different states, and I travelled a lot because of my work with Esmeralda, which we’d return to after leaving Touma. Mariyah and I weren’t close to being in a serious relationship where we could consider the idea of one of us moving. We were only just separating ourselves from our dislike. But I’d had a feeling she would bring it up, so I had prepared an answer.
“We can take things slow, but I’m not backing away just because there’s an ocean between us.” I gave her nape a possessive squeeze. “We’re dating now. Or we’re exclusive. Whatever you want to call it.”
She was smiling and glaring all at once. “Why do you have an answer for everything?”
“I had all day to think about it.” I smirked. “And I know you. I knew what you’d complain about.”
“Then you should’ve fixed your attitude too, because it’s shit.”
“Deal with it,” I said against her lips. “Because you’re not getting me any other way.” I kissed her.
I didn’t want her any other way either. I wanted the whole menacing, sassy Mariyah package.
She pulled back first, sucking in a heavy breath. “I have a condition.” She lifted her index finger between us. “No mentions of love for the first three months.”
I plastered on a wolfish grin. “Scared you’re going to fall in love with me too quickly?”
