Page 66 of Tall, Royal Hater
Chapter 16
Mariyah
The perk of TRG being friends with a world-renowned fashion designer was that all our outfits for the wedding were pretty much sorted. In fact, Candy had suggested a “hasty fitting” at his studio—his posh words, not mine.
So, the next day, in the afternoon, once Esmeralda, Kai, Pierre, the dickhead, and I had come back from exploring Pavilion City, Adam from university, and the king and queen from a meeting, we all left the palace to head to his studio in the far east of the city. The only person who stayed behind was Kareem, havinginsisted he needed to prepare to leave for Jahandar the morning after.
We’d separated into different cars. King Rami, Queen Leila, and Gigi had their security teams driving them. Fay was driving Adam, Prince Arsh had taken Katiya and Shehryar, and I was third wheeling with Kai and Esmeralda at her insistence. Pierre, as a groomsman, was also coming, but he’d headed straight home after our outing and planned to meet us at Candy’s studio.
We couldn’t have been driving for more than ten minutes when Esmeralda scooted to face me from the front passenger’s seat. I looked up from messaging my parents on my phone to see her grinning creepily. One of Kai’s hands sat possessively on her bent knee as he drove.
“What?” I said, lowering my phone.
“So,” she said suggestively.
I looked left in confusion. Was I missing something? “So?” I echoed.
“You know…” She wiggled her brows.
My face fell. “Esmeralda…if I knew, would I bloody be asking?”
She rolled her eyes, and her grin turned to a scowl. “Actually, I should be annoyed because I’m your best friend, but I had to hear it from someone else, more than half a day after it happened.”
“Hear what?” I questioned in bafflement.
“You and Shehryar! Yesterday! At the party.”
My spine stiffened as the memory ofthatencounter painted my cheeks red.
Esmeralda grinned as she saw it, and I even caught a slight twitch of lips from Kai through the rearview mirror. “Pierre told us—well, me—what he saw when he went to find you yesterday,” she said.
I clenched my teeth.I’m gonna kill you, Pierre.
“There was nothing to tell, so I don’t know what he told you.” I dropped my gaze back to my phone.
“Mariyah!” Esmeralda reached out and swatted my knee. “He said you’d been about to kiss.”
My flush deepened to the point my skin felt like it was melting. “No, we fucking hadn’t been.”
But even I could hear how defensive I sounded, and it only made it seem like I was hiding the truth rather than speaking the truth. Technically, I was.
We might not have kissed, but if Pierre hadn’t intervened, Shehryar and I might have gonewaybeyondkissing.
I was grateful Pierre arrived when he had. So unbelievably grateful. At least, that’s what I was reciting to myself, and mostly, it was true. But there was this nagging feeling that wanted to know what would’ve happened if Pierre hadn’t come. If nobody had disturbed us.
It was confusing. I felt angry and frustrated—in more than one way—and I didn’t want to think about it, but I kept thinking about it. About him.
He was a dickhead. Everything he said had enraged me. But…
His purring voice. The heat of his body. The impressive width and muscle of him. His teasing. His dilated, desire-filled eyes. His erection.
He’d gotten hard for me. Again.
Why? He never had before. Not in the five years I’d spent pissing him off on purpose at every chance. So why now? What changed? Had he just been hiding his desire the whole time or was it new?
It was maddening that I couldn’t stop wondering about it. I hated it.
But it was enticing too, and I…
