Page 3 of Tall, Royal Hater
I couldn’t speak. I could hardly breathe. My heart had disappeared from its space. I would’ve had to hand out “Missing” flyers if it hadn’t suddenly slammed back in, the impact blasting a wave of blood to my face. Gone was the frantic urge to crush something in my hands. It was replaced by ahypersensitive buzz all over my skin as the heat from the pads of his fingers fired sparks through my pulse.
I’d never stood so close to Shehryar before that the sheer breadth and height of him made me feel…small—my three-inch heels put me at six-foot, so that was saying something. Nor had the gentle warmth of his breath ever tickled my lips either, tempting my chin to tilt higher expectantly. Sitting my mouth right under his.
The slight roll in his jaw halted as he swallowed. His short, thick lashes dipped.
My heart tripped over itself as it screamed excitedly. It was certain the bruising weight of his gaze on my parted lips could only mean one thing, and my head spun from the giddying disbelief.
I had craved him for the last two and a half months. His attention. His desire. His lips on mine.
I wanted it so badly the words were on the tip of my tongue.
Kiss me.
But just as I filled my lungs on a moment of reckless bravery, Shehryar tore away.
The abruptness messed with my balance, and I teetered on my heels. He all but threw my hand back at me, and my palm reflexively opened, the wooden fork clattering to the paved path.
I blinked rapidly, trying to ground my mind as the adrenaline had me shaking even more than the cold weather.
What just happened?
Shehryar scrubbed the same hand that had been around my wrist over his mouth, taking a moment to wipe away his scowling expression. His shuffled step back from me dampened my emotions.
“We should go back,” he croaked without looking at me. “It’s been half an hour.”
Wrong. It hadn’t been half an hour yet. But I wasn’t an idiot; I knew when someone was trying to avoid spending time with me with an obvious excuse.
In any other circumstance, I wouldn’t have degraded myself and bothered arguing. I wouldn’t have cared. But there was no denying the heated moment that had occurred between us.
It meant something.It was hope.And I couldn’t just let it go if pursuing it meant a chance with Shehryar.
He turned to walk back the way we had come, and my hand jerked out before my mind had caught up with my heart’s decision. He hadn’t been expecting it, because I tugged, and he staggered towards me. Not as close as before, but still close enough for my body to start tingling again.
“We still have five more minutes, Sher.” I sounded breathier than I wanted to, but I didn’t care.
Something made his brows sink slowly before he sighed and turned his face away. The caution that resonated through my weightless body dragged me back down to the ground.
“It’s never going to happen, Mariyah.”
Clawed fingers of dread and denial wrapped around my middle. “What?”
He set his hard, unmoving stare on me. “This. Whatever you’ve been hoping for from me.”
I almost flinched as the fingers locked inside me, squeezing a rush of embarrassed heat to my face.
He…he knew?
“I know you have a crush on me,” he said as if I’d spoken my thoughts aloud. “But it isn’t going to come to anything. Ever.”
The hand holding on to my sternum twisted and ripped open my pride. And a damaged pride coupled with embarrassment was a recipe for the type of defensive anger I could never quite control.
Yanking my palm back from his forearm, I fortified my shoulders and plastered a careless expression on my face. It was a little harder to force a scoff past my clenched jaw, but I did it. “You’re full of shit if you think I have a crush onyou, Shehryar.” I cocked my chin and gave him a disbelieving smirk. “But let’s just say that was true, what makes you so sure I couldn’t win you over?”
It was a stupid question. I never should have asked. But in order to do some damage control I needed to know.
“I don’t like you, Mariyah,” he said with a harsh bite to his voice. “You’re immature and lack any sense of responsibility. I only tolerate you because you’re Princess Esmeralda’s friend.” He leaned into me, his pale eyes piercing my soul. “And dolling up and throwing yourself at me isn’t going to change that. If anything, it just proves my point.”
The hand was so far gone inside me by the time he was finished that I couldn’t find any part of it to grasp onto and pull it out. Even if I had found it, my fingers were shaking too much with hurt and bruised emotions to have had any real strength to grip it. So, I reacted as I felt.
