Page 146 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“I should have a gift to give you right now,” Kai said quietly, a frustrated line forming between his brows. “A birthday present that was from me, and not my family, and something more, something else, because you deserve all the gifts in the world, Esmeralda.” His hand skated up my back. “I wish I’d had more time. I should have made time, because now all I have—”

He abruptly cut himself off and clenched his jaw. “Never mind.”

“What?” I protested. “No. You can’t do that to me. You can’t tell me you have something for me and then say, ‘never mind’.”

“It isn’t anything close to a gift. It’s stupid really.”

“That doesn’t matter. Show me.”

After a moment of confliction, he reached into the left pocket of his black slacks and pulled out a crinkled, folded piece of paper. I took it from him and opened it up. I probably wouldn’t have realised what it was if I hadn’t spotted the name swirled across the top. Even then, it took me a moment to place it, but when I did, I felt a breathless giddiness whizz through me.

“Is this…the receipt from the ice-cream parlour we went to?”

His brows were pinched. “I told you it was stupid.”

Stupid? He didn’t understand the kind of romantic gesture he had just pulled?

“You kept it?” I croaked. He glanced away. “Why did you keep it?”

He tugged at his ear. “I don’t know. But I didn’t want to throw it away.” His black irises swallowed me up. “I had fun with you that day and I didn’t want to forget it. I wanted something to remember it by—”

Hand on his nape, I pushed up on my heels and crushed my lips against his, bruising his mouth with everything I felt for him rather than actually kissing him. But with a slight adjustment, our lips were moulding and moving in sync. Slow and sensual and passionate.

“Do you realise,” I said through a pant, “I’m going to frame this in my room back in Jahandar and stare at it for hours every night?”

“It isn’t much…”

“It’s everything, Kai. It’s romantic and sweet, and I love it. I love that you kept a memento from that day.” I lifted it up between us. “Where’s the other half?”

“I have it.”

A grin blossomed across my mouth. “I had no idea you were such a romantic, Mr Perfect Prince.”

“I still wish I had more to give you,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“In that case…” I snaked my arms around his neck. “I would like two jumpers and two t-shirts you have worn but haven’t washed yet, and two pairs of boxers that I can use as pyjamas.”

His lips crept up. “That’s nearly all my clothes, Babble.”

“Considering you have nearly all my underwear from this trip in your drawers, I would say my request is fair.”

His gaze grew hooded and hot. “I want something else too.”

“And what might that be?”

“Your white silk skirt.”

A stab of heat struck right down my middle. “The one stained with your handprints?” I asked, my eyes on his mouth. It was the only white skirt Rose had packed, but I wanted to hear it from him.

“Hmm, that one,” he rasped.

“Done.” He caught my lips, kissing me like he could have kissed me for ever.

“You know, we’ve never danced together before,” I said when the symphony of the orchestra changed again.

Kai considered it, then frowned. “That is my fault. I don’t dance very often.”

I nodded with mock earnest. “The fact that I was too nervous to be anywhere near you when it was time to dance had nothing to do with it, did it?”

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