Page 156 of Tall, Royal Hater
It was clear from the way they stared at each other that Candy and Shehryar were never going to get along, but their silence was at least some sort of agreement not to kill each other.
After a moment longer, Shehryar uncoiled his arm from me and bent down to Tara’s height. “Is it okay if I take Mariyah to dance with me, Princess Tara?”
She twisted at the waist, smiling shyly. “Okay. But only for…three minutes.”
He nodded gently. “Okay, only for three minutes. I’ll bring her straight back to you after.”
Wow…
I saw it. Right then. Right there.
The whole men with kids thing. It was like an epiphany in my lady parts.
One that gaveDaddya whole new meaning and shone a new, sexy light on Shehryar.
Too busy trying to convince my ovaries not to explode, I went pliant as he took my hand and pulled me through the crowd away from them. He set one hand low on the small of my back and clasped my palm in the other. For several quiet moments, we swayed to the slower beat of the music.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I asked casually.
The pads of his fingers pressed into my back, causing me to straighten. “One day, seeing you with Candy is going to give me an aneurism.”
I let my mouth tip high as I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be a jealous beast, Sheri,” I teased. “And anyway, before you came raging in, I’d already told him to remove his hand.”
He tugged his bottom lip between his teeth slowly before his mouth pulled up high in one corner, and it was the fucking stupidly sexiest thing I’d ever seen him do.
“I used to hate that name,” he said, amusement lacing his low voice.
“What? Sheri?” He nodded. “But you don’t anymore?” I scrunched my lips. “Well, that’s annoying. I only call you Sheri because I thought it irritated you.”
He spun us around, swapping our positions, and tsked through his teeth. “All this effort just to irritate me.” He smirked, sparking the grated, addictive feeling in me only he could awaken. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were obsessed with me.”
I scoffed, but the twisted tingling was sinking lower through my belly. “Obsessed? Me? Well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, then I don’t know what is.”
He didn’t deny it. Instead, a slow grin blossomed across his face that did something bouncy and warm to my chest. I fought it so damn hard, but my mouth had a mind of its own. There was no stopping it from matching his big smile.
“You did amazing today,” he whispered, so deep, so gently.
My heart collapsed against my rib cage, its knees giving out. All the blood that wheezed out surfaced to my skin, but I licked across the front of my teeth, trying to tame my happiness. “You did pretty good yourself, Sheri.”
“I didn’t expect you to cry though.”
A hit of embarrassment had me averting my eyes to the bracelet around my wrist. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. I’m not usually a crier.”
His face softened as he dipped his head. “Why did you cry?”
My instinct to hide from any sort of vulnerability in front of him was still there, but it was encouraged to sit down by his patient openness as he watched me ridiculously closely. “I’ve grown close to everyone, especially your mum and Prince Arsh, and seeing them so happy together was kind of…beautiful.” I nodded my head to the side. “Plus, Esmeralda’s sobbing set me off.”
In his silence, my feet stopped, and my breath stuttered.
He was looking at me likethatagain. With stars in his eyes and an endless glow of heavy, aching, warm emotion that set off fireworks and sparklers in my belly.
“Stop looking at me like that,” I said breathlessly.
“Like what?” His voice was so low and thick and raspy.
What the fuck? Why is he talking like that?
My heart ran a mile a second, and it wouldn’t slow down. “Like an idiot.”
