Page 146 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Please.” She rolled her eyes, but a faint pink washed across her cheeks. “I have too much self-respect to do that.”
“We’ll see about that.” I captured her mouth again, silencing whatever snarky comment of disagreement that had been about to come out.
Halfway through kissing her, I remembered something I was still pissed about.
“Oh,” I breathed against her swollen lips, then pulled back just enough to look her right in the eyes so she could see the possessive fury tumbling through mine. “If youeverdance on Candy’s lap again, you’re going to be in so much fucking trouble, Mariyah. Is that clear?”
Realisation sparked over her dazed expression before triumphant amusement lifted her brows and lips. “You saw that?” She cocked her chin. “Not my fault he’s got theperfectlap to dance on.”
Something clicked into place inside me.
Not jealousy—that threw a raging fit through my blood. But understanding.
Understanding that this was what it was going to be like between us. Mariyah pushing my buttons, me losing my head. Me riling her, and her getting all snarky on me. All for the enjoyment of tugging and grappling and bantering together.Only together.
But it would be during dates, late-night phone calls, and weekends spent with each other. It would be while we learnt what we were together and what we could be when we stopped arguing…scrap that. The arguing was unlikely to stop, but there would be no purposely hurting each other anymore.
Hurting for pleasure and punishment though? An entirely different story.
“Perfect lap?” I echoed with a growl, lowering one hand from her cheek. “Really?”
I lifted it over her backside and—slap.
Mariyah gritted out a choked sound as my palm connected with her leggings-clad arse.
“Now, remind me again who had the perfect lap.”
Chapter 35
Mariyah
Everything,every-fucking-thing, had been finalised to working, scheduled perfection yesterday. I’d made sure of it all myself, triple-checking everything.
Yet somehow, the very next day, less than two hours before the ceremony was to begin, everything was falling apart and goingkaput.
“What do you mean?” I questioned, staring wide-eyed at Prince Adam.
“Uh…” The boy’s gaze sheepishly darted past me, then he winced. “The projector isn’t connecting to the laptop.” Myshoulders sank. “Kai’s gone to get his own laptop, and we’ll try on that, but…”
“Fucking—but it was working perfectly fine yesterday,” I rumbled and charged past him with the skirt of my dress scrunched in one fist. I heard Adam’s footsteps follow behind.
The wedding ceremony was being held in the smallest of four public rooms in Chaukham Palace, though it wasn’t exactly what I’d call small.
It was a spacious ballroom with a gorgeous waxed dark wooden floor, an intricately painted ceiling, four big gold chandeliers, and the same red-and-gold patterned walls that matched the basement. Six big windows lined the left wall with dark gold velvet curtains tucked around them. Large, old paintings of animals, people, and landscapes between ornaments decorated the other two walls. On the far wall, an arched decorative nook was cut and shaped out from the wall, giving the vibe of a flower bud on the verge of opening with two chainmail armours sitting on either side.
The head of the wedding was set up before the arch with a small table draped in an ivory cloth and decorated with a flamboyant display of red and white flowers and the small lanterns Esmeralda and I had found at Falasteen Market the other day. A metre before the table, ceramic vases full of red and white flowers sat atop two ivory columns that weighed fucking ten tonnes. A rose-red carpet was rolled out to the arched entrance, where two more columns and flower vases sat. I owed half the guys from all the security teams my life for their help with moving them.
Seventy chairs were in rows of seven on each side of the carpet, and everyone who wasn’t getting ready or cooking in the kitchen was whizzing around and between them, helping with last-minute decorations and tidying and whatnot. The bride andgroom were with Queen Leila, Gigi, and King Rami, respectively, while Candy and his assistants helped get them ready.
The projector was set up by the chairs and angled towards the front so that Katiya’s parents, still in Jahandar, and my parents too could watch the wedding, and so Katiya could see them too. But if it didn’t work, then a daughter would go without having her parents present at her wedding, official or not, which was fucking unacceptable.
I jabbed the “Find Source”button on the mini projector angled towards the rolled-out screen. Impatiently tapping my slipper on the floor, I watched the little square icon flash in and out slowly while the projector tried to find the laptop connected to it. But after a dozen or so seconds, it flashed the words “Source not found” in place of the icon.
“No, no, no,” I grumbled and picked up the laptop. “Don’t fucking do this to me, please.” I yanked out the HDMI cable, blew on it like I was casting a spell, and then shoved it back into the slot.
“Kai’s laptop normally works with this projector, so don’t worry,” Adam offered.
I smiled, but it felt more like a grimace. “I hope so. But then I’m gonna have to sort the Room app on there too.”
