Page 137 of Tall, Royal Hater
Chapter 32
Shehryar
Iheld my breath as I clenched my arms and pulled my face over the pull-up bar one last time.
Twelve, I counted in my head and slowly lowered myself down, giving my burning arms and taut lats an extra push, before letting go of the bar entirely.
I landed on the balls on my feet, the twenty-five-kilo weight hanging between my legs from a chain and leather belt around my waist swaying against me.
Stepping back, I placed my hands on my hips, glaring at the floor, but…
On their own accord, my eyes moved up and across to where, facing the other away, Mariyah pushed her thighs apart against the cushioned pads of the abductor-adductor machine.
I ground my teeth as the previous night’s confusion and annoyance that had me tossing and turning for hours rose within me again.
Why are you acting like this? Why didn’t you stay last night?
Why did it suddenly feel like we were back to ignoring each other all over again?
I wanted to grab her and shake her and demand answers, but Prince Kai was running through a circuit of ab workouts with a dumbbell on a mat in front of the mirrored wall. While I liked the prince, it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have around him, knowing what Mariyah and I were like, and knowing that the details would likely find their way to Esmeralda before breakfast was served.
So, I gulped down some water and finished my last set of pull-ups before moving on.
Fifteen minutes later, Prince Kai was swimming laps of the pool on the other side of the glass doors, Mariyah was doing a series of cool-down stretches in front of the mirror, and I was jogging on an incline on a treadmill. Because of the slight noise from the machine, I didn’t hear her get up to leave until the wooden door to the exit clicked shut.
“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath, jabbing the “stop” button on the touchscreen monitor. I jumped off before the belt had fully stopped, grabbed my shaker bottle, and headed out the door after her.
My plan had been to speak to her before breakfast, after which last-minute wedding prep and an afternoon of separate pre-wedding get-togethers would drag us in opposite directions. But if she got to her room before I got to her, then that plan would become break-in number three.
“Mariyah,” I called when I caught up with her. She glanced across her shoulder but carried on up the basement stairs without a word. I glared after her and picked up pace. “Mariyah.”
“What?” she snapped, turning to me at the top of the first flight.
I took them up two at a time, huffing and scowling as I closed in on her on the landing. “Why are you running away?”
“For fuck’s sake, Shehryar, get over yourself.” She swiped her hand between us. “I don’t have time for this repetitive bullshit of yours.”
She tried to step past me, but I blocked her path. “No,” I growled. “We need to talk.”
Her eyes flashed bright, furious blue. “About what?”
“Last night,” I replied with just as much annoyance. “Why you left. Why you wouldn’t explain to me what was wrong. Why you’re acting weird right now.”
“You’re the one acting weird, Shehryar,” she said, squaring up to me. Poking a finger into my sternum, she lowered her voice to a firm whisper. “We fucked, okay. That was it. I don’t have to sleep in your room, I don’t owe you any explanations, and you don’t get to chase me down and corner me like there was anything more between us. So back the fuck off and leave me alone.”
I stood frozen for a few seconds, stunned rage melding in my veins.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. She was wrong.
Those words circled in my head as I closed my hands into fists.
She was wrong. We fucked, but it wasn’tjustfucking the way she made it out to be. Fine, it started off as hate-fuelled lust, but it wasn’t that anymore.
I didn’t hate her; I doubted I ever had. I had hated wanting her, but now I had no reason to hate that either. She was—I was—we were—
It wasn’t just fucking. I didn’t know what label to give it, but it wasn’tjustsomething. It was…
Baths together and late-night conversations and banter and possessiveness and…something.
