Page 32 of Tall, Royal Hater
There was one thing I’d excelled at for as long as I could remember. Revenge. Pranks. Getting my own back. In every form it came in. I had always been able to scheme on the spot in seconds.
As soon as the lightbulb went off in my head, I twirled around and stepped to the dickhead’s side, clasping his bicep in both hands. It was impossible not to notice how thick, strong, and hot his arm was under his thin jumper as I dug my painted nails into him as hard as I could. I wanted it to hurt, but then he flexed, and it felt like I was trying to claw into a fucking boulder.
“No, we’re not arguing,” I chirped, gleaming so hard my cheeks hurt. “Right, Sheri?” I leaned into him, my camera knocking between us. To my satisfaction, he stiffened, his eyes dark with warning. I didn’t wait for his agreement and looked back to Esmeralda. “We were bonding, actually.”
“Bonding over what?” she asked cautiously.
“Sheri was telling me about the time he went on a school trip to a museum and saw an artifact—what was it again?” I pinched my brows, pretending to think. “Oh, yeah!” I snapped my fingers. “It was a ceramic elephant phallus from one-thousand-something AR, right?” Kai choked on a cough into his fist, but I confidently lifted my gaze to Shehryar’s blazing expression. “Sheri was so in awe with the design that he burst into tears.” I patted the dickhead in the middle of his chest twice as if I were soothing him. “It was an emotional experience for him as a fifteen-year-old pubescent boy.”
In the silence that followed, Kai didn’t know where to look as he tugged at his left ear, his dimple playing hide-and-seek on his cheek, and Esmeralda fought so hard not to smile too but failed miserably. I didn’t have to look at Shehryar to feel the anger radiating off him in crashing waves.
“Mariyah,” Esmeralda said, her tone attempting to warn me that my made-up story wasn’t cool, but mirth bubbled through her voice.
“What?” I shrugged innocently. “That’s what he told me. It’s sad, isn’t it? Maybe he’ll have a better story to tell me in the next room.”
I moved a single step before a heavy weight fell across my shoulders. I gasped as I was dragged back and slammed into Shehryar. One arm trapped behind his back, my camera swinging from my wrist, the dickhead squeezed me so close my left breast was completely squashed flat against the side of his wide-arse rib cage—not that I had much boob in the first place.
He smiled, full and bright, but his stare down at me was menacing. I glared, trying to use my free hand to push against his torso. With no give.
I was trapped against him, too close. Like mouths inches apart, gazes zoomed in; I could feel his heat mapping my body, my jaw almost against his shoulder. I was irritatingly disturbed knowing I fit under his arm despite the added height from my boots. That kind of uncomfortable, rage-inducing close.
“What about the story you told me?” Shehryar asked lightly. “We should tell them that one too.”
I bristled.Oh no, he fucking—“I didn’t tell you a—”
His hand clamped painfully on my shoulder. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Mariyah. Everyone wets themselves at least once in their lives.” I blushed, and he nodded his head to the side thoughtfully. “Usually when they’re children, but I suppose, for you, seventeen was still a child.”
I curled my nails, fisting the fabric of his collared jumper, and dug them into his skin underneath. “Sheri—”
But he was focused on Kai and Esmeralda as he spoke. “It was at her friend’s party. She was so nervous, because some boy, Mark, was there too.”Wait. How the fuck does he know about Mark?“She ended up drinking so much apple juice that when she was partnered with him for a game, she got so excited that she…couldn’t control her bladder.” His eyes glinted smugly despite the fury shooting from behind. “She let it out all over his feet.”
Like a bitch.
He didn’t say it. But his smirking expression silently spoke it, and it filled me from top to bottom with black smoking ire. If I’d found a way to unhinge my jaw, a ball of fire would have flooded out from my throat and singed the skin from his face.
“Things didn’t work out with him,” he added calmly, as if he couldn’t feel my fingers trying to rip a hole in his chest. “But hewas wrong to judge you for an accident. You know that, don’t you, Mariyah?”
I gritted my teeth to speak, but Esmeralda’s chuckling voice stopped me. “Okay, that’s enough. Whatever you were talking about before, and as funny as those stories were, let’s stop before you take it too far and rip each other’s heads off.”
Too late for that.I was ready to chew his ears off. One by one. Followed by his eyeballs.
“Of course, Princess,” the dickhead said calmly. “Would you like to go to the next room?”
Maybe it was the added frustration of still being plastered to his side against my will and unable to move away, but my brain was frantically thrashing in search for a retaliatory attack after the blow his story had landed.
It found one. Childish though it was, for my own sanity and satisfaction, it was perfect, and with our ideal positions, it was the easiest to enact. Shehryar was a fool for grabbing me and holding me against him as if I wouldn’t use it to my advantage. Ihadto teach him never to do it again.
In hindsight, I should’ve thought about what I was actually doing, knowing Shehryar always hit back in a similar way. But I was running on too much angry adrenaline to care in that moment.
I straightened my arm trapped behind his back, stretching it down. The coat hanging over his arm veiled some of what I was doing, not that I cared if anyone saw. And if Shehryar clocked my next move when my camera knocked against the back of his left thigh, he was too late to react.
Without any hesitation, I pressed my fingers to his arse cheek and pinched.
As painfully hard as the firm, round muscle would let me.
He jerked upright, the movement visible.
I tore my hand back, pursing my lips to stop a delighted snicker from escaping.Success!I blinked innocently at Esmeralda and Kai as they caught his jolt.
