Page 109 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“No.” She shook her head quickly, but her smile grew wider, bigger, toothier. “No, I…”

A breathy giggle rose from her mouth before she quickly captured it in the palm of her hand, but it was too late. I heard it. I saw the unashamed delight dance in her eyes, and it poisoned my blood with another hot emotion other than irritation and possessiveness.

I quickly found myself feeling more inclined to put her over my knees and bruise her arse before taking her arse, rather than wanting to throw around accusations I knew had no deeper meaning. There was nothing between her and Pierre.

But I was still fucking annoyed about the rose, and my little brat thought it was funny.

Fine. She’d get exactly what she deserved then.

Stretching my shoulders wide, I took a prowling stride towards her. Her bottom lip trembled apart from the upper one on a breathless little rise of her chest.

“You accepted a rose from someone else before me for our first Festival of Life together.” I moved another pace forward.

“No, I,” she breathed out. Excitement coloured her cheeks. “It’s yellow—the powder on the rose is yellow. Yellow means friendship. It’s not—”

“That’s not the point. You took it.” I took a bigger stride, threatening to close her in against a tree.

She took the bait. She stumbled back a step, offering herself up to me, playing this game with me. “Kai, wait, I…” I edged forward. She flew back. “Kai.” I moved; she moved, her hands lifting to keep me back while her dilated eyes called at me to come closer. “Kai.” Forward. Back. “Kai…” Every gasping stutter of my name from her soft lips as we danced around each other only made me feel evermore unhinged.

“If you didn’t take it,” I rasped, my voice so thick with primal lust that I almost didn’t recognise it, “why are you moving away from me, Babble?”

“Because,” she spluttered, edging around the bags of colour. “Because you’re chasing me.”

The poisoned blood in my veins flooded my head and sunk straight to my dick, polluting the sensible voice that told me to remember we were outside, surrounded by people, three of which were royal photographers. There was nothing sensible about what that voice was telling me to do to Esmeralda.

I wanted her to run. I wanted to chase her. To capture her. To fuck her so hard she couldn’t stand straight for the rest of the day without feeling me deep inside her.

“I haven’t started chasing you yet,” I said before I could stop myself. “But I will.”

Her breath audibly hitched, and my skin burned all over. It was then I noticed the red sitting in the corner of my vision and remembered the forgotten sacks of powder beside us. One glance at them and urgent need rocked right through me.

I want to streak her body with colour in the shape of my hands as I fuck her.

To paint her for everyone to see she’s mine.

Without a second thought, I shoved my right hand into the powder and lifted a fistful of red out. The dusting sprinkled from my skin to the white of my jumper, tainting the pure colour.

“Kai,” she whispered, her bright stare darting frantically between my fist and face.

“If I catch you,” I growled, “I am marking you. Inside and out. And when I’m done, I won’t need to give you a rose for the world to see that you. Are mine.”

“Kai…”

“Run, Babble.”

Chapter Thirty-One

ESMERALDA

“Run, Babble.”

My body lurched to life, not with a jolt of my heart, but with the liquid throb between my thighs. I stumbled around as my brain seemingly forgot how my muscles were supposed to work, every motor neuron receiving nothing but messages of malfunctioning chaos.

I ran the opposite way to where all the noises were emanating from. Away from the centre of the gardens as roses were probably being exchanged and colours thrown around. I was running from the safety of civilisation into the dangerous wild. But fuck, I didn’t want safe. I wanted the wild promise of ravaging and marking in Kai’s piercing stare when he caught me.

“You’re making this too easy,” Kai rasped behind me, and I gasped. It sounded like he was whispering right in my ear, his lips teasing my skin to gooseflesh.

With just the right amount of panic firing through my excitement, I pushed my feet harder, sending petals scattering off the forgotten rose in my hand over the pathway. But the movement of my legs was restricted by the white silk skirt tangled around my calves. Not that that was the reason Kai’s footsteps remained close and threatening behind me.

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