Page 11 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Oh. Fuck.

I had the wrong room. I had the flipping wrong room! And worse. It was Kai’s room.

I jolted away from the door. “I—I am so sorry,” I said, wishing the floor would swallow me whole or that I would just drop dead. “I thought this was my room, so I…”

His frown barely let up as he shifted on his feet. “Your room is down the next corridor on the right.”

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. I messed up, I messed up, I messed up.

I sidestepped out from between him and the door, fumbling with my hands. “Of course.” I took another step back. “Thank you, and I apologise. Good night.” Grimacing and cursing at myself, I quickly spun away and began striding back down the corridor.

You stupid, stupid, stupid—

“Why are you awake?”

I didn’t want to, but my feet immediately stopped, and as much as I wanted to hide forever in embarrassment, I had no choice but to turn and face him. I couldn’t exactly make a run for it either—I would have to face that humiliation for the rest of my life if I did.

He was still eyeing me through his glasses with caution, a deep crevice between his brows.

“I, uh…I couldn’t sleep,” I said automatically and smiled and shrugged. “You know…new place, new bed. So, I thought I’d tire myself out with a quick walk. I just…ended up getting a bit lost on my way back.”

Some stupid part of me hoped he’d smile it off, but what I got was just more silent glares from the man who wore Prince Kai’s skin. If anything, his frown intensified with a fraction of a shift of his right brow, and I felt myself shrinking into my hoodie.

“Good night,” I said again, and quickly spun away without daring to look back.

What on Neves just happened? What did I just do? Who the fuck was that glaring man?

Because that sure as fuck wasn’t Orange.

And he sure as fuck didn’t like catching me mistakenly trying to enter his room.

Great. Perfect. What a brilliant start to Operation befriend him and bed him.

Chapter Five

ESMERALDA

“How was your night, my dear?” Mama Katiya asked as she drew the curtains back from the balcony doors that morning—the human hours of the morning.

I rubbed a hand over my nest of hair as I glanced from her to my personal stylist, Rose, picking out my outfit through the open door of the walk-in wardrobe.

Shehryar would be here within the hour, and then the trio I never travelled without would be complete. But instead of getting up, I threw myself backwards into the sea of pillows with a groan.

“Oh, are you okay, Princess?” Mama Katiya said.

Okay? After that disastrous encounter? Fuck no. I was definitely not okay.

I was forever going to remember the painting hanging in the corridor of my bedroom wasn’t of a forest, but of a meadow of flowers. Though, I wished I could have forgotten what happened after.

But as the day passed on, and I ended up close or next to Kai multiple times through the first public conference of the Peace Celebrations, it became increasingly obvious that the world just wasn’t going to let me do so.

Honestly, I couldn’t tell what bothered me more. That he hardly interacted with me the whole time, or that his demeanour was exactly that of Orange’s despite the way he’d frowned at me last night.

They could have been two different people—charming twin and...grumpy twin.

I was almost convinced I’d dreamt up the frowny Kai of the night, which I knew I hadn’t, but I couldn’t comprehend how they blended together into one person.

By the end of the conference, I realised it didn’t really matter, because I was never going to get anywhere with him when he thought I was a creep who tried to steal into random men’s rooms in the middle of the night.

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