Page 7 of Tall, Royal Hater
But just as quickly as Shehryar caught my gaze, he looked back to Esmeralda as if he hadn’t noticed me at all. I wished it hadn’t, but it grated. It made me want to spit fire at him. I’d never give him the satisfaction of knowing he irritated me though.
“Thank you, Sher. And don’t worry, we’ll go down to the kitchen if we want anything else,” Esmeralda assured him with a smile. “You can go rest now.”
His whole body softened as he returned her smile, and it changed his appearance. He stopped looking like a grizzly bear with snake-like eyes glaring down at a fairy who hardly came up to the middle of his chest. He looked more like a teddy bear with squishy edges.
“I’ll be in my room, but I’m the press of a button away if you need me. Just send a call to my beeper.”
“We’ll be fine.”
Resting a hand on the back of Esmeralda’s head, he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her hair. “Good night.”
“Night, Sher.”
Shehryar stepped back from Esmeralda and rotated. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it to be in my direction, but I had to admit, I enjoyed it. The tightness on his mouth spoke volumes for his discomfort as he forced himself to offer me a polite nod. It was more like a quarter of a nod; he barely even moved his head.
A bigger person would have quietly accepted the gesture and let him go.
It was a good thing that person wasn’t me.My middle names werestubbornandpetty. And after pissing me off so much with his presence, it was only fair that he paid for it.
I widened my eyes mock innocently. “Sorry, what was that,Sheri?”
His jaw tightened, and that little twitch of irritation sparked satisfaction through me. But it was gone from his face too quickly, replaced by a mask of indifference.
“Goodnight,” he said, his deep voice rolling off his tongue like he was bored.
I flashed him a big grin. “It will be now.”
Without burdening me with another second of his attention, he moved to the door with a steady swagger. I waited until I heard it close softly behind me before I looked to Esmeralda.
She gave me an unimpressed sigh and shook her head. “Really, Mariyah?”
“What? I didn’t understand what he was trying to say.”
Picking up one of the tiered stands, she brought it over and placed it beside the suitcases. “Please be nice.” She plopped down on her cushion. “I don’t want you guys to fight while we’re in Touma.”
“Well, we’re not in Touma yet, so…” I leaned over to grab a brownie, but she slapped the back of my hand. I jerked it back to my chest. “Ow!”
“Mariyah, I’m serious.” She gave me stern mum eyes that she’d somehow managed to perfect without even being one yet.
“Okay, fucking Neves, fine. I’ll try not to.”
But the effort of my trying would remain in the one to five percent range.
Chapter 2
Mariyah
The next morning, despite the complaints of my jet-lagged body, I made my way to the palace gym with some directions from the kitchen staff I met when I went to fill my bottle. I honestly wasn’t exactly sure how I’d managed to convince myself to get out of the blissful silk sheets on my bed, but I’d done it.
The door to the gym was just like any other carved white door in the palace, but when I twisted the handle, I was quickly met with the familiar clank of weight plates hitting reinforced flooring.
Despite Esmeralda having told me all the palace staff had access to the gym too, it was empty except for two sweaty men working out on slightly raised flooring with a deadlift bar and plates in front of them.
One was my oh-so-sexy future husband (if I had my way).
The other was the leader of the D.O.N.—Dickhead Organisation of Neves.
My heart rate spiked for the former. For the latter, a growling heat twisted in my belly.
