Page 59 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

He nodded. “No one knew details, but everyone around me knew something was wrong. Father, Mother, Fay, Gigi, and Uncle Arsh, even my friends, they all tried to talk to me and convince me to rethink my relationship with her. I could hear them, I knew they were right, but Meg had me pressed under her thumb so hard, I didn’t know how to get out. And instead of trying to end things with her, I proposed to her.”

“Why?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know. I suppose a part me was trying to prove her wrong for claiming I wasn’t serious about her. And the other part stupidly hoped she would change if things between us progressed.”

“She didn’t...” I whispered. A thick lump was blocking my throat.

“She didn’t,” he echoed and took a long pause. “Six months into our engagement, I caught her bullying Adam when I invited her over for dinner. He was fourteen.” Kai’s face screwed up in resentment. “I will never forget how scared he looked. But seeing her treat him the exact way she had been treating me, I realised that I couldn’t do it anymore. She was never going to change, and I couldn’t spend the rest of my life with someone who could hurt a child.

“I was so angry I nearly threw her out the palace. Father and Uncle stopped me, but the next day her father came to us, and we agreed on a settlement. The end of our engagement would be announced as a mutual decision, but Meg was to cut all ties with me immediately.

“It was a few days later that Adam told me she’d been horrible to him before too.” A dampness filled Kai’s eyes and what was left of my heart broke into a million sharp pieces. “I hated myself for letting him get hurt. I hated that I hadn’t stopped her. I had been so weak because of her—”

I all but threw myself at Kai, wrapping my arms around his neck and crushing him in a hug as a few tears slipped down my face. “It wasn’t your fault. It was never your fault,” I cried.

Everything hurt. Every corner of my body. In equal parts anger and pain. For everything Kai had been through. All the hurt and abuse he’d had to deal with. No wonder he reacted the way he had when he thought I’d hurt Adam in the library. It was all because of her.

How could she? How dare she. I wanted to scream at her and expose her to the world as a disgusting, narcissistic, abusive bitch for ever daring to make Kai feel so small.

My tears wouldn’t stop. They flowed harder and angrier with every passing second. Especially when I realised for nearly half the years I spent admiring Kai from afar, his smiles and laughter had been hiding so much pain. And then I was angry at myself for never noticing he was hurting.

With some adjustment, Kai pulled me onto his lap, so I was sitting sideways on his thighs. And like a clingy koala bear, I pressed closer as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Shh, don’t cry. Esmeralda, please. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for upsetting you,” he whispered, pressing a gloveless hand to the back of my hair.

“Why are you apologising?” I blubbered with an angry tug at his overalls. “And I’m angry. I’m angry for you. At her. What she did—it was never your fault, and I hate that she made you think that.”

“I know. I know that now, I do. So don’t cry for me, please.” He squeezed me gently and pressed a kiss to the side of head. “I don’t like seeing you in tears, Babble.” Kiss.

He landed several more kisses, soft and sweet, against my hair. Eventually my tears dried, and my breaths evened out, leaving only silence as he rubbed my back in long, languid caresses.

“How are you feeling?” he murmured into my hair.

Well, I practically bawled like a baby in front of the guy I liked, so…embarrassed.

Plus, my eyes felt heavy and tired, hopefully my mascara hadn’t run, but my face was definitely blotchy and red. Otherwise, I was pretty sure I had exhausted my emotional capacity for the moment, but I had to admit, I felt better. It had been so long since I’d let myself cry like that.

“I’m okay,” I mumbled, untangling myself from around him. “But I probably look awful.”

He cupped my jaw with a lop-sided curl on his mouth. “A little pink, but not awful. Never awful. You’re beautiful, Esmeralda.”

“A little pink” didn’t sound beautiful to me, but that wasn’t important.

“I hope you know that she never deserved you,” I said resolutely. “You were always too good for her, and she failed to treat you the way you deserved. You deserve everything, Kai. The entire universe. And I will do my utmost best to give it to you for as long as you’ll have me.”

His brows plunged into a frown. “For as long as I’ll have you? What does that mean?” His gloveless hand slipped up my back to cup my nape, firmly. Dare I say possessively. “I understand this thing between us is new, but I don’t like how you have so easily assumed that I will grow bored of you. Because I won’t. So don’t say something like that again.”

Woah…well…fuck. There went my heart all over again.

It filled so much that it exploded and merged with the molten rush of throbs between my legs, scorching me inside out.

How was this man so flipping hot? His touch. His voice. That look. His confident claim. Did he have any idea the kind of effect his words had on me? On the direction of my thoughts?

Hint: they involved a lot of moaning, screaming, thrusting and maybe some spanking, and a bed. In fact, there didn’t need to be a bed.

I gulped slowly, rubbing my thighs together. “That was very sexy. But also a little…assertive too.”

Something wary flickered through his eyes. “Would you rather I wasn’t? Assertive.”

---