Page 208 of Tall, Royal Hater
“Esme—” But she had already cut the call on me, and I knew if I rang back she wasn’t going to answer.
My mind was still whirling from the baffling discoveries of the last ten minutes as I slumped my hand in my lap. I didn’t feel betrayed by my best friend, if anything, it was irritating that she’d known what she was doing, and undoubtedly funny too. Still, I wanted to chase her around with an axe while laughing maniacally just to drive the warning home that meddling wasnotokay.
“I’m gonna kill her,” I said to Shehryar.
His grin spread wide as he wrapped one arm around me and tugged me back against his chest. “I can’t allow you to do that, little menace.”
“How long have you known?”
“I found out the night of the wedding when Mum and Prince Arsh let it slip, and I felt exactly as you do now. She escaped me then too.”
“You should’ve told me, and we could’ve cornered her together,” I rumbled, cuddling into his chest.
He squeezed me tighter and rested his cheek against my hairline. “I’m kind of glad she did it if I’m being honest. For five years, we were both too stubborn and angry to do it ourselves. She gave us the push we needed to face the truth, and you did the rest by continuously making me jealous.”
I scoffed and tilted my head against his shoulder to smile sarcastically at him. “I was just having fun, Sheri. Not my fault you were obsessed with me.”
“It is when I warned you multiple times,” he said, twin flames of arrogance dancing in his pale irises.
“Warned me?” I shrugged. “Nah, I just heard encouragement the whole time.”
He grated out a chuckle and shook his head. “You’re a menace,” he growled.
“And you’re a dickhead,” I said and tipped my smirking mouth higher to kiss him.
There was a moment of silence after where his eyes took on that intense, tender glow that made my pulse stammer and skin turn hot and blotchy.
“I like you a lot, Mariyah,” he whispered.
My heart summersaulted into the butterflies in my belly, setting them off again. “I like you a lot too, Shehryar,” I whispered back and kissed him again.
He smiled against my lips. “May I take you out on our first date tonight?”
Bloody Neves, I couldn’t tame my smile, nor my giddiness, and it was so weird in a“what the fuck is happening to me”way. But I loved the feeling anyway.
“Depends, Sheri. What did you have in mind?”
He intertwined his fingers through mine on his lap. “How about we head to River Lincon, you can have pancakes, and I can kiss you the way I should have the first time around?”
Surprised by his suggestion, it took me a second to react. “Okay,” I said, aiming for careless but my grin said, “fuck careless bitch.”
His cheeks warmed with colour. “Okay,” he echoed.
I had no idea what came over me. Actually, I did.
Seeing Shehryar fucking Timur blush was the cutest bloody thing ever that I actually jumped him. Not to punch him or slam-dunk on his dick.
I just pounced. And he caught me in his arms, laughing.
Epilogue
Mariyah
Three months later
Iunderstood fully now why Esmeralda rang me up crying about not being able to see Kai during the months they spent apart.
I meant I had sympathised with her frustration of being in a long-distance relationship then, but now I had firsthand experience of how shit it really was.
