Page 56 of Tall, Royal Hater
He swaggered towards me, the playful gleam in his eyes making my mouth twitch. “Don’t be like that, Mar. Just agree we look like a power couple right now.”
Grinning, I shook my head. “Only if you bring the couple, and I bring the power.”
“Done.” He leaned in with mischief wiggling over his brows. “The power isdefinitelyin your hands tonight, Mariyah. You really don’t play easy when it comes to your plans.”
“My plans?” I echoed.
“What?” Pierre arched a smug brow. “This whole gorgeous, silk seductress look isn’t part of your revenge on Shehryar Timur?”
Heat swarmed my cheeks for fuck knew what reason, because I definitely hadnotdressed with Shehryar in mind. I had dressed for myself, to feel like a fucking queen.
I scowled as Pierre chuckled. “Please.” I rolled my eyes. “That idiot was the last thing I was thinking about while getting dressed.”
He tutted me and shook his head. “You can lie to yourself, Mariyah, but you can’t lie to me.”
I licked the back of my teeth in irritation—at myself more than Pierre because the heat in my cheeks wasn’t going away. “I didn’t dress for him, Pierre.”
“Okay, okay,” he said through a chuckle. “I take it back.Butjust in case youwereplanning to drive him mad today—” I narrowed my eyes, and he put one hand up. “Theoretically, just theoretically—you look bloody damn gorgeous, Mariyah, and it’s sure as fuck going to work.”
I told myself it was the way he said it as a smirk tugged at one corner of my mouth. “I know.”
He grinned. “Good.” Then he offered me his arm to take. “I think it’s time to get our lovestruck prince and princess to the party.”
The Grand Hall of Westcombe Palace was massive, the walls a dark purple with gold patterns, panelled with black wood on the bottom half, but it didn’t have a gloomy feel to it. All twenty iron chandeliers were lit in bright white, and the vases of greenery and silver decorations around the paintings and tables scattered around added a cheeriness to the room.
Music played from a live orchestra and singer, staff moved with trays of appetisers and drinks between the chattering crowd, and there were still some people coming in through the far end main doorway. I recognised more than a handful of celebrities talking to the royals of Touma, King Kareem, and a few other state royals too, as Pierre and I walked arm in arm between them all.
“Let’s see if we can find the others before Kai and Princess Esmeralda come down,” Pierre said.
“The others?” I questioned.
“Our friends. Kai’s and mine, I mean. And now Esmeralda’s too.”
I caught a man’s warm brown gaze on my right and arched a brow as his eyes dipped down. They lifted with the corner of his mouth in an appreciative smile. It wasn’t until that familiar look that I realised I was being eyed up by the leading male actor in the mafia movie Esmeralda and I loved and watched the week she spent with me in February. His smile widened when herealised I recognised him, but he carried on talking to the two older men in front of him.
“Oh shit,” I murmured, cheeks aflush in shock. I flipped my attention back to Pierre. “That’s Ryan Ronal across from me, isn’t it?”
“If you mean the one who just checked you out—yeah, that’s him,” Pierre said, his smile both baffled and impressed. Then he grunted. “Shehryar is actually going to lose it tonight.”
I ignored the menacingly joyful jump my heart took and rolled my eyes. “Forget him—tell me, can you introduce me to Ryan?”
Pierre chuckled. “I can’t, no. But I’m pretty sure Candy could. Though, saying that, Ryan is the kind of arrogant peacock Candy doesn’t like designing for, so maybe not. But let’s find him and you can ask.”
We’d only just got past the halfway point in the hall when the music died out and a static sound echoed from the discreet speakers attached to the edges of the ceiling at equal intervals.
A woman’s cheerful voice silenced the conversation in the hall. “May we have your attention, ladies, gentleman, and royalty. Please turn to the staircase to welcome our guest of honour, Crown Prince Kai, accompanied by our lovely Crown Princess Esmeralda Ayla Jahandar.”
Pierre and I turned to the staircase like everyone else. The doors opened slowly, and cheers ensued immediately as Esmeralda and Kai appeared at the top.
I cupped my mouth and whooped with Pierre, watching them walk down. When they got to the bottom, Kai moved down the last step first, keeping hold of Esmeralda’s hand as he guided her down. She enclosed her fingers around his elbow again, the music came back on, and they were engulfed by the people around them. Slowly, the rest of the crowd of at least three hundred people started levitating towards them, wanting to greet them and wish Kai a happy birthday.
“Come on, I can see them,” Pierre said, facing the opposite way to me.
I tucked my hand around his arm, and we headed towards a group of four men and one woman I didn’t recognise, along with the second prince, Fay, and a man I knew as the famous designer, Lord Candy Hamilton. They were among the few groups who weren’t moving down the hall.
“There he is,” the cute guy with coiled cropped hair said as we got closer, nodding towards us.
The group turned and smiles spread across their faces.
