Page 173 of Tall, Royal Hater
Fuck, had she left already? But her flight was at eleven-thirty. Why would she have gone so soon?
Maybe someone had just taken her suitcases down to the entrance hall…but where was she?
Quickly abandoning her room, I charged through the corridor towards the stairs. I whipped my phone out and dialled her number. It rang once, twice, three times, and—
“The person you are calling is currently unavailable—”
I swore under my breath. She fucking rejected my call. Or her phone was off. Knowing her, it was likely the former. I dialled her again.
“Pick up, Mariyah,” I grumbled under my breath, rushing down a flight of stairs.
But again, after a few rings, it went to her answer machine.
“Fuck,” I bit out. I clutched my phone tightly and charged through corridors on the first floor towards the central staircase.
But around the corner, I staggered to a halt when I spotted Esmeralda and Prince Kai walking towards me. The prince was wearing a thick parka coat, while Esmeralda had her jacket draped over her arm.
She stilled upon seeing me, regaining her steps only a moment later. But I didn’t like the dark look cast over her greyish-brown eyes and the firm set of her jaw. Prince Kai didn’t look so comfortable either. He kept directing quick, worried glances at his fiancée.
I bowed my head as they stopped in front of me. The prince acknowledged it with a wincing nod, but Esmeralda glared at me steadfast. “Are you going somewhere or coming back?” I asked.
“Coming back,” she replied.
She went somewhere without my knowing?
I frowned and shifted on my feet. “Princess Esmeralda, I can’t do my job if you leave without telling me or—”
“You don’t have to worry about my whereabouts anymore,” she cut through, angling her chin higher. “As of this morning, you have been dismissed as my head of security and private secretary. Yunis has since taken over both roles, and he was with us, as was Rocco, when we left.”
I blinked. And blinked. Her words not registering. My ears ringing. Until the multiple waves of noise merged into one and my heart dropped to my stomach.
She—she’s firing me?Anger flung it back up.What the fuck?
Esmeralda took Kai’s hand and brushed past me. I swung around and grasped her elbow, stopping her. “You can’t fire me without telling me—”
“Excuse me?” The strength of her voice and rage in her eyes shut me up. Ripping her arm free, she faced me head on, and she might have been small, but she was the epitome of strength and power. “I am the Crown Princess of Jahandar, Shehryar Timur, lest you forget. You cannot tell me what I can and cannot do. If I have dismissed you, it is done. And nothing you can say will change my mind.”
She meant it. She was really firing me.
I pressed my lips together and swallowed down the dryness in my throat. “Why?”
“Why do you think?” she snapped, cracks appearing in her wrath. “I warned you not to make me choose between you two. But you did. So I have.”
Ah.Esmeralda knew what had happened.
I shook my head, the movement small. “It’s not…I know I made a mistake last night—”
“A mistake isn’t grouping her with someone who insulted you, Shehryar. You hurt her. Again.”
A sharp ache slashed through my chest, and I scrubbed a hand over my face and hair. “I know. I know. I shouldn’t have said it. I don’t have an excuse other than I lost my head. The situation was so—I didn’t expect for everyone I cared about to be attacked, and I didn’t—she wasn’t defending him, but that’s what it felt like in the moment, and I didn’t stop to think about what I was saying.”
I eased closer to Esmeralda, dipping my head to look her right in the eyes with pleading desperation. “But I care about her, Esmeralda. I like her. A lot. More than I’ve ever really allowed myself to acknowledge, but I do. And I know I ruined things before they even really started, but I’ll do everything to apologise and make it right with her. Just—just tell me where she is,please.”
Mariyah was going to hate me, she was going to shut me down and out, but I’d beg, borrow, and steal to earn her forgiveness. My little menace wasn’t going to get rid of me that easily. I’d fucked up but I’d fix it. I’d make it up to her in every way. I’d show her that I was in this—usfor the long run.
Because it wasn’t love yet, but fuck, it wasn’t far off.For me, at least.
She’d been under my skin for years now, always had me watching her, wanting her from afar.
