Page 212 of Tall, Royal Hater
P.S. This isn’t your only gift. There’s more to come.
My heart pumped out wave after wave of warm, gooey fuzz all through my body as I lowered the note and stared at my phone. Swallowing around the thickness in my throat, I picked it back up.
“I hate you,” I muttered, my lips bunching in a pouty smile.
He chuckled happily, but as his laughter settled, he whispered, “Happy birthday, Mariyah.”
I couldn’t fight my grin any longer. “Thank you. But if youeverignore me like that again—”
“Never. I promise.”
“Good.”
“Good.” His voice dipped to a raspy note. “I miss you so much.”
An ache gripped my chest. “I miss you too,” I said and dragged my teeth across the curve of my bottom lip. “Any break in your schedule?”
I was expecting a frustrated “no,” so when he said, “Possibly,” my pulse bucked in hope.
“But I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, so I won’t confirm a date yet,” he added.
But I’d take that. I’d take that over no possibility at all.
Shehryar
Three days later
I lied to Mariyah during our phone call on the morning of her birthday.
I’d already booked my ticket to Raven for that coming Friday weeks ago.
I also did something I told her I wouldn’t do again.
I broke into her apartment.
Well, technically, it wasn’t breaking-and-entering when I’d collected the spare key from their family home with the help of her older sister, Lily, on my drive from the airport.
From their house, I drove in the hire car straight to Mariyah’s apartment and let myself in, knowing she was still at work and wouldn’t be back for another hour or so. That gave me more than enough time to unpack a few things and prepare dinner with the groceries I’d bought.
By the time I heard a key being slotted into the front door, I’d put soap in the bathtub ready to fill, finished the prep for dinner, lit up some candles, filling the living area with the sweet scent of spearmint, and the roses I’d given her for her birthday took up centre piece on the square dining table.
The sound of her arrival sent my heart erupting into a hard rhythm, ready to bound out of my chest upon the first glimpse of her. I straightened from where I was leaning back against the L-shaped kitchen countertop, blindly placing my mug of coffee down.
Excitement, relief, and adoration made my skin hum with a warm current, and I couldn’t stop myself from edging a few steps towards the door.
Everything seemed to happen so slowly and yet way to fast too as the door creaked open.
There was a short wall that separated the kitchen from the entranceway so I couldn’t see her, but I heard the rustle of her movements go completely still once she must have seen thecurtains closed, lights on, and the five little silver candles dotted around.
“What the…” she muttered before the door clicked shut.
A rush of steps brought her into sight, and my pulse fired from a gun into the sunset.
Mariyah’s eyes flared as they settled on me, and her pink, glossy lips parted.
My mouth slowly spread into a wide grin as I took her in from the tiny droplets of rain clinging to her lightly frizzed bangs to the open front of her long spring coat, showing the curve of her stomach wrapped in a fitted black fabric, all the way up to her stunning ocean-blue eyes.
She was so fucking beautiful.And mine.
