Page 104 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Maybe it was because the white of Pierre’s hoodie, jeans, and trainers made the ruby red of his eyes appear even more starry than usual, but I wanted to lean over and poke his eyes out for daring to look at her. And why did he have to smile at her like that?

“You weren’t kidding about the whole jealousy thing.”

My attention shifted left to Zain, the tallest of us five, rubbing a bronzed hand over his dark beard. Sunlight glimmered off the silver wedding band on his finger. He eyed me with a curiously entertained spark in his brown eyes, sending a wave blood to the surface of my face.

A dad of two little children, Zain was the newest addition to our group, becoming our friend in university, but he was the one who could read me best. I supposed it was because we were both the eldest children of our families, him as the future CEO of his family’s international hotel group.

Pierre laughed. “I told you, and you guys didn’t believe me.” He wiggled his brows. “The beast turned into a prince, but our prince turned into a jealous beast.”

I glared at him, tugging at my burning ear.

On the other side of Pierre, Trevor chuckled and shook his head. His teasing, lazy grin left me unable to meet his chocolate brown eyes as a thousand hot pinpricks crept over my face. “My, how the mighty have fallen.”

Of a mixed heritage, Trevor was what Candy called a lady-killer. Tall and well-built, he kept his brown hair perfectly coiled atop his head. But Trevor shied away from too much attention, preferring to work alone behind a computer on the billion-Sterling online gaming platform he’d created while we had still been in university.

“Are you going to introduce us or just glare at us?” Candy said, ending the two seconds of quiet.

Someone remind me why I thought I wanted Esmeralda to meet them.

I dropped my scowl from Candy’s sea-blue gaze to Esmeralda tucked against me. Her smile was the only reason the notch between my brows eased and I found myself gesturing to my friends.

“Esmeralda, this is Zain Sultan.” Zain bowed his head and smiled softly.

“You already know me, Princess,” Pierre said as my hand drifted past him to Trevor.

“That I do,” Esmeralda said with a laugh.

“Trevor Kingston,” I gritted out, trying not to glare at Pierre as Trevor repeated Zain’s bow and offered a slight wave of his hand. “And this is—”

“Lord Candy Hamilton, the fashion designer,” Esmeralda finished, an excited pitch to her tone.

“Oh,” Candy piped and flashed her the grin that had wrecked more hearts than Pierre’s ruby red eyes and Trevor’s killer looks combined. “So you’ve heard of me, Your Highness?”

“I have,” Esmeralda replied, and the sight of a blush on her cheeks turned the irritated hissing in my chest to a full-on territorial growl. Damn Candy and his stupid fucking smile. “You’re one of my favourite designers. I own several pieces from your summer dress collections of the past few years.”

Candy preened under the praise and smoothly flourished over into a bow. Taking Esmeralda’s hand in his, he brought it to his lips and pressed a long-second kiss to her knuckles.

“That is high praise I shall never forget, Your Highness,” he said while rising. He leaned into her. “I’d love to send you the entire collection for next summer. I’m sure our dear prince would absolutely love seeing you dressed in my label all the time.” He winked at me.

Dammit. I was used to Pierre driving me up the wall all the time, but I had forgotten Candy was ten times worse when he wanted to be. Which was more often than not.

If the three-piece white suit and bowtie he was wearing weren’t proof of how eccentric Candy was, then I didn’t know what was. Blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a bloated ego to go with them. Candy Hamilton was Prince Charming’s rebellious twin brother. But saying that, as his friends we had seen that his arrogance was more of a bitter façade to spite his parents than it was the complete truth.

That didn’t mean his bold behaviour and selfish attitude weren’t irritating a lot of the time.

“I agree,” Esmeralda replied while I ground my teeth to a pulp. “I’m sure he would enjoy watching your dresses fall to his bedroom floor every night.”

I blinked, completely stunned by the casual way she dropped the suggestive little bomb of sass. She looked Candy head-on with a big, mock innocent smile, and the corners of my mouth twitched.

“Damn.” Trevor chuckled.

“Told you,” Pierre said proudly.

“So you did,” Candy muttered, narrowing his gaze at Esmeralda. “Good answer, Your Highness. But I’m just getting started.”

My smile fell. “Getting started on what?”

Candy waved me off. “Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head over, dear prince.”

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