Page 8 of Tall, Royal Hater
Unfortunately,thatone was the one whose gaze I caught in the full mirror behind them. Piercing pale pools that swallowed my soul and left me feeling irritatingly hot and itchy.
The heavy clank of my best friend’s brother, King Kareem, dropping the bar and plates on the platform snapped Shehryar’s gaze away and wiped the buzz of awareness from my skin.
“One more,” Shehryar said to the king as I quietly pressed the door shut.
King Kareem huffed out a breath as he shook his head, but he remained bent over the bar with two big plates on each side, his hands wrapped around it. “Sher—”
“One more, Your Majesty.”
Kareem hissed out an irritated sound but dropped his lower back, braced his shoulders, and with a gritted sound, stood upright, pulling the bar with him.
“Hold it,” Shehryar quickly said, his hands on his hips as he eyed the other man’s form closely.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the strong, handsome king. Maybe the typical red-faced grunt in a desperate attempt to find the last ounce of strength before his grip gave up.
I definitely wasn’t prepared for him to throw his head back and growl up at the ceiling between clenched teeth. Like a full-on lion-tiger-bear growl that rumbled from deep within his throat.
Oh my…
My lips fell apart in shameless admiration. I knew I was blatantly staring, but I couldn’t stop myself from drinking up the gorgeous strain of his damp neck nor the way the corded muscles and veins all down his arms flexed so deliciously.
Bloody fucking Neves.Hewas so unbelievably hot.
I shifted on my feet, swallowing my drool, my gaze flicking away to process what I’d just witnessed.
But it got stuck. Or caught rather.
Shehryar was glaring at me through the mirror, his thick, arched brows bunched, and his eyes thin, flashing with a darkness that made my shoulders tighten.
I lifted my chin and scrunched one side of my face in reply.What, I silently spat.
His bottom jaw rolled slowly before he set his eyes back on the king, the inexplicable emotion fading away from his scowl. “And release,” he said, a rough lilt to his voice.
What the actual fuck?
King Kareem dropped the bar with a low groan, and the plates clanked loudly against the reinforced floor. He swayed back and settled his hands on his hips, panting heavily as he caught his breath. His eyes narrowed on Shehryar, but Shehryar glowered back without any fear of having his head chopped off for committing treason.If only that was still legal.
Neither man seemed to want to crumble first, and in their silence, it was impossible not to take note of the difference in their builds.
Shehryar might have been wearing a loose, oversized T-shirt and slim-fit shorts that cut off above his knees, but for some annoying reason, it didn’t make him look smaller. If anything, the hanging look of his clothes emphasised his two hundred and fifty pounds of muscles.Fucking gym freak.
But in no way was my growling husband-to-be lacking. Shehryar was the taller man, but not by a lot. King Kareem wasdefinitely hitting the six-foot-one mark. And I had to admit, in his pictures, he’d looked slimmer. But the bulking and weight training Esmeralda told me he’d been doing for the past nine months had clearly worked; he could definitely claim muscular build status.
Not in a body-builder way. Kareem was still very much on the leaner side of the scale, but his fitted, long-sleeved T-shirt showed off the defined curvature on his arms and shoulders and the taper in his waist. And damn, my man had an arse I could stare at for days.
I almost flinched when someone huffed, thinking I’d been caught perving on the King of Jahandar’s derriere, but I relaxed when I realised it was only him growing bored of Shehryar’s staring contest.
“I fucking hate you,” Kareem rasped with a touch of tired amusement.
Startled by the king’s vocabulary, which I could so get behind, a laugh burst from me, causing both men to glance my way. Shehryar with a scowl I didn’t bother paying attention to, and Kareem with a wide-eyed look that softened into a little man-smile as he shifted to face me.
“Mariyah. I apologise. I didn’t realise you had come in,” he said.
“I should probably be the one apologising, Your Majesty,” I replied with a grin. “I was the one gawking at you lifting weights, but I can’t lie—hearing you swear was totally epic.”
He scoffed a breathy sound, and a slight pink washed over his cheeks as his smile tilted higher.Fuck, he’s so cute!“I’m sure I insisted last night that you call me Kareem.”
Gosh, how any woman could withstand his gentlemanly voice and killer looks was beyond me.
