Page 73 of Tall, Royal Hater
“No,” I said and turned away, heading back towards Kai’s friends.
“Mar!” she called. I stuck my middle finger up in the air, and she laughed behind me.
I knew.I knew exactly where the dickhead was standing.
Close to the wall, by the staff door, on the side of where everyone was dancing.
I knew because I’d been doing everything to avoid him. Not just because of what Esmeralda and the other women had said in Kai’s car and Candy’s studio, but also because his gaze kept following me like a shadow. It was both infuriating and disconcerting, added a bothered undertone to how hot and sweaty I was feeling. I’d quickly grown fed up and challenged him in return with glares of my own.
He hadn’t stopped, though. So, I made a point of staying as far away from him as I could and stuck as close to Candy and Pierre as possible. I wasn’t entirely sure it was working though. His bloody stare kept growing heavier and unrelenting, which was irritating me all the more.
Candy winked at me when he saw me weaving back over to him. His blond, flowy hair was damp around his temples and nape, the top two buttons of his pale grey shirt were open, and he had long ago untucked it from his trousers and rolled up the sleeves.
“Where’s Pierre?” I said as I slipped my hand into his extended one.
“He went with Trevor to request more songs.”
I gasped as he spun me without warning. My back hit his chest, and his arm banded across my stomach where he still held my hand. Settling his other palm on my waist, he dropped his face to the side of mine. I angled back to give him a confused raise of my brow.
“He’s watching you,” he said so quietly the music almost carried his voice away.
I looked around, frowning. “Who—”
I fell right into his glowing stare the moment Candy whispered, “Shehryar.”
Just like that, all the air vanished from the huge room, and my lungs collapsed in on their emptiness. They refused to inflate, causing my ears to ring and my blood to pound hard through my chest.
I’d seen Shehryar livid before, but I’d never seen him look at me with such molten, ferocious depth in his penetrating irises that it felt like he was touching me with his stare. He stood tall and wide like he always did, his jumper gone and a loose T-shirt in its place, but he looked ten times bigger than usual. Somuch angrier. More commanding. More predatory. Meaner and vicious.
Dominating. Punishing.Sexy. So freaking annoyingly sexy.
The abrupt realisation of the direction of my thoughts sent me shoving myself around, giving Shehryar my back and facing Candy. But he was watching me closely too, his blue eyes searching my face and narrowing on something he’d seen.
“Do you like him?” Candy asked.
Anger burst through me. “No.”
“But he likes you.”
I’d been ready to fire off at another question, but when I clocked what he said, it threw me off. I fumbled over incoherent syllables for a second. “No—no, he doesn’t.”
Candy’s lips spread into a slow, irritated smirk. “It pisses me off to say it, but the both of you are bloody clueless.”
“Clueless about what?” I snapped, yanking my hand from his. “Why does everyone think they know better about me and him? We fucking hate each other, why is that so hard to understand?”
“Hate can be just as explosive as love.”
I shook my head, and while the movement was quick with frustration, it was small too, like I was denying the truth of his statement. “Fuck off, Candy.” I stepped past him, but he trapped me to him with an arm around my waist. “Candy—”
He pressed his other hand flat against the bare skin between my shoulder blades. “Apologies,” he whispered close to my ear. “You are right. I should take your word for it, especially considering I do not particularly like him anyway. But I value your friendship, Mariyah, so I will say this.”
He grazed his palm down to the middle of my back. “If that is how he looks at you while you’re in another man’s arms because he hates you, then I believe the people of Neves should start reevaluating their ideals of love and start searching for hate instead.”
A shiver rushed down my spine. I dared to look at him, but Candy wasn’t looking at me. He was staring straight ahead of us.Right at Shehryar.
I stilled. “You’re doing this on purpose…”
His mouth twitched. “Isn’t that why you wanted Pierre’s help? To mess with Shehryar? What does it matter if I help too?”
