Page 28 of Tall, Royal Hater
Stupid girl. She genuinely thought she could remain stubborn with me once I’d snapped.
I probably threw more than her weight around in the gym on a five-days-a-week basis during my warm-ups and cool-downs, so it only took one tight hand around her upper arm to drag her out of the car. She tried to resist, but she came stumbling out anyway, almost colliding into my chest.
“What the fu—”
I pushed the door shut behind her. It didn’t rattle the car, but it was loud enough to drown out her frustrated words.
Then I was on her.
Splaying the hand holding the keys flat against her stomach between her open jacket, I shoved her back against the car. She gasped, but my other hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her.
Her bag slipped off her shoulder, and her head knocked back under the weight of my palm. I didn’t care. I stepped closer. Pressed down with both hands heavier, squeezing her cheeks,keeping her pinned at my mercy. I wasn’t trying to hurt her, but scare some sense into her? Fuck yes. Someone had to.
Even with the added two inches from the block heels of her boots, her being curved back against the car still put my face above hers. Staring into her wide eyes, a hot, thick tingling sensation spread right above my groin, but I ignored it and focused on the stampede in my veins.
Within a split second, Mariyah’s brows drew together, and her stare flashed with outrage. One hand shot with the speed of a viper between us, clawing at my wrist by her chin. She couldn’t move me. And fuck, it felt good to finally hold her down and overpower her after five years of dealing with her obnoxious shit. I realised then I should’ve done it long ago.
I leaned down closer. “I’m going to explain to you what is going to happen,” I said with deceptive calmness, “and then you’re going to do exactly as I tell you to. Is that clear?” Her muffled voice rose behind my hand, but I shut her up with a quick, hard jostle. “Is that clear?”
I gave her a second to decide whether she wanted to argue again or not. Her eyes screamed curse after curse at me, but she kept quiet and still. I made her wait another few beats.
I spoke my next words slowly, making sure the threat dripped off thickly into her head. “I’m going to let go, and you’re going to get into the front passenger seat, quickly and calmly, without making a sound or drawing attention to us. In fact, I don’t want to hear a single fucking peep out of you until we arrive at the gallery, or so help me, Mariyah.I will wring your bloody neck.”
“Fucking try,” she hissed against my palm, shoving against me. Her words were so muffled I almost didn’t make them out. But it was Mariyah and me. It was so easy to guess what she was saying after grasping onto a single syllable.
Wildfires burst across my skin, flashing red in my head, and drawing a pool of molten liquid down my torso. But before Icould react to the feeling, a bucket of ice-cold reality splashed over me.
“Is everything okay over there?” Esmeralda’s voice rang through the garage. “Shehryar?”
It took a second to force a neutral expression onto my face, but I eased my hand off Mariyah’s stomach and poked my head around the side of the car. Prince Kai had edged forward out of his parking spot, and Esmeralda was frowning out of her rolled-down window.
“We’re fine.” I swallowed the rawness from my voice. “Mariyah’s coat got stuck in the door.”
Esmeralda’s eyes narrowed. “Mariyah?”
I leaned back out of sight and quietly growled, “You’re the one who said Esmeralda was already stressed because of us, so don’t fucking make it worse.” I lifted my hand off her mouth.
Mariyah jerked her head and hand away, throwing the framing locks of hair against her temples across her eyes. Red imprints of my fingers were painted over the region of her lips and cheeks. It wasn’t a dishevelled sight I’d thought I’d ever see in real life, but I didn’t dare look at it more than once.
She parted her lips, and I pressed my hand into her belly, warning her not to say the wrong thing. “It’s fine, Ez,” she finally said, a slight croak in her voice. “I’ve almost got it unstuck, so you can head out first. We’ll be out in a second too.”
“Okay,” Esmeralda said with a reluctant sigh. “Be out quickly.”
“Sure,” Mariyah said.
At the same time as I said, “We will.”
The barely audible sound of Prince Kai’s car driving out filled the few glaring breaths of silence Mariyah and I shared before she shoved my hand on her belly away.
“Get your fucking hands off me,” she rumbled through her teeth, her chest heaving and face red.
She tried to move out from between me and the vehicle towards the front passenger seat door, but I blocked her path with my arm. “I’m not done talking.”
“Move.”
There was something so satisfying about her ire. That I’d pissed her off enough that she wanted to get away from me but couldn’t because I wouldn’t let her, which was making her even angrier. She was usually so confident and sassy, but in such moments, she completely lost her composure, exposing a vulnerable, humiliated side of herself that made me want to poke at her and force her to peel apart even more, just for the satisfaction of seeing her crumble.
It sounded cruel, but I just wanted to dig into her the way she dug into me.
