Page 128 of Tall, Royal Hater
All eyes turned on me and my discomfort doubled. For some reason, the weight of Shehryar’s piercing gaze felt the heaviest.
I forced a smile onto my face and shook my head. “Nothing.”
“Mariyah.”
“Really, Ez, it’s fine. Just my dad.”
Her frown immediately melted in understanding. “Is it about…”
Swallowing, I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You haven’t told them yet?”
“I will when I get back.” But I didn’t sound so sure, so I widened my smile and loudened my voice. “By the way, are we just gonna sit in silence the whole time? Can we turn on the radio or play some music? Ez, you connected to the Bluetooth?”
Thankfully, Esmeralda got the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it and picked up her phone from her lap. “I am actually.” She wiggled her brows. “Shall we play some throwbacks?”
“Yes!”
“Okay, let me see…”
As Esmeralda swiped through her music app, looking for the right song to start with, I became increasingly aware of the man trying to peer at me from under a microscope across the seat. I avoided looking for as long as I could, but a chipped pride meant I didn’t last long.
Except my dignity was told to sit down when I saw that there was no judgement or pity in Shehryar’s pale-green stare. He was trying to pick me apart. That much was obvious with the way his eyes slowly roamed my face, but I couldn’t tell what was actually motivating his search.
So, I looked away and refused to look back. And when Esmeralda played the first song, we both squealed and started singing along. To our shock and excitement, even Kai joined in quietly.
Shehryar didn’t, like a boring dickhead. But every so often I felt his searching gaze return to me.
Though what he wanted to know, he wasn’t going to find out.
Chapter 31
Mariyah
Falasteen Market was massive and like everything else I’d seen in Touma, bloody stunning.
I understood why Kai had said we would need a separate day to look around and why my dad had been adamant that it was a place we had to visit.
Set in a massive plaza between cobbled backstreets and classy boutique shops on all sides, the open-air market had eight endless rows of stalls with everything anyone could ever possibly want, from food to shoes to classy knickknacks and collectable vinyl records. Between the stalls hung small bulbed fairy lightsand stood streetlamps, and there were several benches and seating areas dotted around.
I imagined in the evening when the lights were on, it had a magical feel to the square, but with the bright blue sky and sun shining above, the colours of each stall were gorgeously intense. Thankfully, it wasn’t super busy, but there were several families and groups who seemed like tourists.
The four of us with all the security detail started off shopping together, but somewhere down the line, Esmeralda dragged Kai off in a different direction, and we parted ways.
Shehryar ensured all the security followed them, except one man from Esmeralda’s team, Yunis, under her instructions, stubbornly remained around him. He complained about it, disagreeing that he needed protection. But Yunis and I agreed that whether he liked it or not, he needed someone keeping an extra eye on him now that he was technically in the public eye.
I left them to bicker, smirking at the fact Shehryar had met his match with Yunis. But two sets of footsteps kept up with my pace as I headed to a stall of cute book vases to buy my sister something.
Expecting Shehryar to head in his own direction, I frowned when I found him walking next to me. “Why are you following me? Go your own way.”
He stared down his nose, and in his black-on-black jumper, jeans, and jacket combo, he looked even more severe than usual. “If I head my own way, there will be no security guard with you.”
“Uh, I think you’re forgetting that I’m just a normal person. I don’t need security.”
“You’ve been pictured with Princess Esmeralda and Prince Kai several times now,” he said, reverting to his professional, bossy tone. “You’re not just a normal person anymore.”
I wanted to argue, but he inconveniently had a point. “Fine,” I grumbled. “But don’t get in my way.”
