Page 154 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Talking about what?” I questioned.
“You and Mariyah,” Mum answered. “She said you two only needed a push to see that you were perfect for each other. And now we know that it worked.”
A faint blush crept across my cheeks before my mother’s words washed over me. I reeled my head back and frowned. “Wait, what? What worked?” Prince Arsh threw his head back and laughed, while Mother gave me a toothy grin. “Mum. What did Esmeralda do?”
“Well, technically,” the older prince started, “she didn’tdoanything. But…”
Mum met her husband’s mischievous look and continued. “She may have asked us to put you in rooms next to each other.”
Prince Arsh nodded. “And suggested you plan our wedding together.”
“Oh.” Mother pursed her lips sheepishly. “She may have also encouraged Mariyah to dance on Candy’s lap too, which I heard you saw.”
Wow…wow. So this whole time…
Oh, I wasn’t pissed that she’d been right, but I was pissed that Esmeralda had played us like fools.
I made quick work of scanning the hall and found her by Gary, pointing to his laptop screen, likely suggesting some songs to play. I angled back to Mother and Prince Arsh and bowed my head. “Please excuse me, while I go have a word with the meddlesome princess.”
Prince Arsh hooted again, but Mum called out, “Do not yell at her, Sher.”
When Esmeralda saw me coming at her, she beamed and waved. I arched a brow, and her smile turned into a caught red-handed little ‘o.’
She sunk back into herself sheepishly. “Hi…”
“Hello,” I said, my tone flat and deep. One she knew meant she was in trouble. “Is there something you need to tell me, Princess?”
She darted a glance at Gary. “No…”
I angled my head. “But I just heard that you’ve been scheming behind my back.”
Realisation lit up her eyes. She pursed her lips together, trying not to smile, but it burst out, bright and audacious, anyway. “What?” she said in a high-pitched, dragged-out way. “Me? Scheming? Whatever do you mean? I wouldneverdo such a thing.”
Gary grunted in amusement, and Esmeralda took that as her escape. “What was that, Gary? You heard Kai calling me? Let me go find him then.”
“Princess—”
But she’d already hitched her dress and was making her escape. “You may thank me later!” With a safe distance between us, she stopped and angled back. “Oh, and Shehryar. Please grab Mariyah and come dance properly for once. I promise it’ll be far better than sticking to the wall and watching her dance with Candy the rest of the night.”
She nodded her chin in the direction of our table and sauntered off, leaving me to glance the same way. A stampede of green jealousy and dark storm clouds rampaged across my rib cage as I caught Candy, with his hair tousled and top shirt buttons open, dragging Mariyah by the hand towards the dance floor. She rolled her eyes at something he said, but grinned andshook her head. She was no longer wearing her heels, and she swayed tiredly on her bare feet.
My left eye twitched and teeth scraped together as I watched.
I numbly heard Gary clear his throat. “You want me to look after that while you—” he started.
I placed the gift bag down before him, shucked my blazer, and carefully picked my way through the dancing crowd to them.
He doesn’t fucking learn, does he?
But Mariyah…you fucking menace. Just you wait.
It was the dress. It was knowing she was wearing Candy’s fucking dress that was clouding my vision with flashes of black and green and red.
With the low, curved neckline and silky, pale pink fabric that seemed like it had been painted on her shapely figure, he’d made her look like trouble epitomised. The seductive, yet elegant kind that caused a man to lose his mind after one interaction. And the back…
I wanted to lay her down on her stomach and spend hours pressing kisses to the sweet arch of her spine in exchange for all the tears she shed during the ceremony, before I untied the zigzagging straps and slid the dress off her. But every touch after would be poisoned by the reminder of it being designed by Candy, piloting my actions in a far rougher and greedier direction.
Like fucking her throat and ruining the silk with her spit and my cum before I ripped it apart and fucked her tight little arse, reminding her she was mine.
