Page 31 of Tall, Royal Hater
Without a word, I turned away to find another spot to retake my video.
“Could you make it any more obvious that you’re avoiding me?”
I stopped. Blinked. And clenched my phone in my hand.
Anger rose up my middle and between my ribs with the speed and agility of a parkour athlete.
I couldn’t bring myself to walk away without reacting to him, even though for the sake of keeping civility, I probably should have. After what had happened in the morning, no fucking way. Walking away meant letting him assume he’d gotten to me, and my pride wouldn’t allow that.
Slipping my phone into my pocket, I stepped back around. The dickhead was facing me, hands pushed into his jeans pockets and coat dangling from his left arm, stretching his bull-sized shoulders.
He was looking at the decorative ornaments sitting inside the display cabinet, but I cocked my head anyway. “Could you make it any more obvious that you’re desperate for my attention?”
He grunted and pinned me down with his penetrating gaze. I hated how it felt like he could see all my thoughts and emotions scrolling like an LED sign across my eyes, but I refused to hide away.
“How did you manage to assume that?”
“Probably the same way you managed to assume I was avoiding you.”
“It’s not an assumption. Youareavoiding me. Enough that Prince Kai noticed and asked me about it. And if he noticed, then Esmeralda must have too.”
“Okay. And?” I shrugged a shoulder. “She hasn’t said anything, so it doesn’t matter.”
Mocking amusement danced in his eyes as his lips twitched in one corner, the movement almost disguised by his trimmed facial hair. A speeding train of realisation slammed into me.
Fuck.I unintentionally admitted I’d been avoiding him.
A surge of embarrassed heat zipped through the frustrated current sizzling my face. I straightened my spine as he edged half a step closer. “We agreed to be civil,” he said.
“I didn’t agree to anything,” I retorted through clenched teeth. “And considering you keep changing your mind every five seconds, you don’t get to turn around and point a finger at me for staying away.” I leaned back, staring right up at him. “And it was working perfectly fine until you decided to come over here, begging for my attention.” I grinned. “So, piss the fuck off, Sheri.”
A dark shadow cast over his eyes and his jaw shifted tightly. “You didn’t learn your lesson, did you?”
“What lesson?” I questioned, mock cluelessly. “Oh, you mean threatening me?” I scrunched my nose. “Nah, that didn’t work. Went through one ear and out the other. Maybe try harder next time. You clearly didn’t squeeze my face hard enough.”
I was goading him on purpose despite the reminder in my head of what he’d done warning me not to. But the thrill hammering through my heart with every twitch of his mouth and cloud that formed over his irises encouraged me to keep going.
I wasn’t sure if he stepped closer or just seemed to grow in size, but my breath stuttered in response as a hot poker jabbed through my stomach. Crackles of heat echoed up and down my body, but against my skin, I could feel his body heat prickling me. Plus, his scent…it was nothing special, but it was warm and clean and citrusy and—
“Thank you for letting me know,” he said quietly, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Next time I need to remind you to behave, I’ll make sure to squeeze hard enough.” My stomach lurched again as he shifted even closer. “And it will probably be soon with the way you’re acting.”
There he went with that word again.
Behave.
Said in a deep, unyielding tone that I’d never heard him use before, but it sunk slow and viscous like tar through my core and down my inner thighs. I tried to scrub the feeling off, but it only seemed to smudge further with every desperate swipe.
I hated it. I wanted to snap and snarl and growl at him, but it did the thing it had done before when I’d been pinned against the car. It held me down in submission despite the thrashing roar inside.
After several hard breaths, I finally found my voice. “You don’t get to tell me how to behave, Shehryar,” I hissed, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. “And try something like that again, and—”
“And what, Mariyah?” he taunted, eyes aflame as he leaned in until our noses nearly touched. “What could you possibly do that you didn’t manage to do the first time?”
My scalp burned, radiating out uncontainable rage, and what didn’t make it out of my head vibrated down to the marrow of my bones. I needed so badly to slam my fist in his smug face. I rolled my right hand into a ball, ready to do it, but a voice of reason sliced through the urge.
Actually, it was Esmeralda.My sensible voice.
“What’s going on here? I hope you’re not arguing.”
