Chapter 14
Mariyah
K ai’s thirtieth birthday party was being held in the Grand Hall of the unapologetically gothic Westcombe Palace in Central Pavilion City.
The majority of us arrived from Chaukham Palace two hours before the guests to get ready there, while Katiya, Prince Arsh, and Shehryar arrived a half hour later after their trip out. A lot of the staff went even before that to prepare the hall and food, and they stuck around to join the celebration.
The other women—Queen Leila, Gigi, and Katiya—had left the large black and purple sitting room connected to a bedroom we’d been getting ready in, but Esmeralda and I were still adding last-minute touches for her grand entrance with the birthday boy.
“Okay,” I said, stretching the word as I tilted my head to the opposite side, checking the deep red I’d painted on my best friend’s lips looked even. “Press your lips together lightly. Now lick.” I squinted as she followed my instructions, then straightened my head. “You need gloss in the middle. You got any?”
“In the pink bag,” Esmeralda said, pointing to the black dressing table from where she was sitting at the edge of the four-poster bed.
I dug through and found the clear, stumpy tube. Just as I finished dabbing the wand against Esmeralda’s bottom lip, the sound of a door opening and closing came through the threshold of the bedroom. Footsteps tapped against the wooden floor.
“Ladies, are you ready?” Pierre said, his voice deep and cheerful.
“Where’s TRG?” I asked, screwing the tube shut.
“Mariyah,” Esmeralda whispered, mirth lacing her words. “You’re not supposed to call him that.”
“Who’s TRG?” Pierre shot back.
“I’m here,” Kai called.
“Why’d she call you TRG?” Pierre asked, the quiet question obviously directed to Kai.
I stepped back from Esmeralda, giving her space to stand up, as they came into the bedroom.
My timing was perfect, because as I turned to face the incoming men, I caught the exact moment Kai saw Esmeralda and came to an abrupt stop.
His ink-black eyes stilled. His chest lifted on an inhale but didn’t contract again. And his lips parted.
The man was in awe, completely gobsmacked, and it was brilliant. Hilarious. Like something out of a cheesy rom-com. He was a goner, and it couldn’t have been more obvious.
Rightfully so, though, because Esmeralda looked stunning.
She was wearing a floor-length velvet dress of a dark midnight-blue that almost looked black with a subtle semi-sweetheart neckline that showed off the curvature of her figure, chest, hips, and thighs, before it flowed to the floor. With the short fluttering sleeves, she wore black net gloves tied with bows at the top. They were so sensual and gorgeous like something out of a romantic period drama.
Plus, her makeup was perfect—subtle except for the dark red lipstick to match her red-bottom, black heels. Her blowout curls framed her pretty face, and she was wearing the gold necklace and earring set Kai had bought for her a few months back.
Pierre grinned from ear to ear as he settled a hand on the prince’s shoulder. “You good, pretty prince? Or you need a moment?” Kai frowned and pushed his hand off, but Pierre edged forward and gestured down with his gaze. “I mean…you’ve got a situation—up front.” Pierre winced.
Eyes going wide, Kai’s head flew down, but upon seeing that Pierre had lied, the prince’s face contorted into a viciously embarrassed scowl. “Pierre,” he growled, tugging at his left ear.
Pierre flinched away, cackling. “What? I didn’t actually think you’d look down.”
Esmeralda and I both hooted up at the ceiling before she finally took pity on her fiancé and swayed over to him. “Stop it, Pierre,” she said, pushing lightly at the man’s arm.
He lifted his hands in surrender, but his smile was completely unapologetic as he leaned into Esmeralda. “You do look gorgeous though, Princess. His reaction was completely valid.”
“Thank you.” She gleamed, easing into Kai’s arms with her hands against his chest as he wrapped them loosely around her. He was glaring over her head at Pierre. “You both look very handsome yourselves.” Esmeralda tipped her chin to grin up at Kai. “Especially you.”
To be fair, both men looked great in their three-piece suits.
Kai was in black with a silver tie and pale blue pocket cloth, the fabric of his suit doing wonders for his buff shoulders and biceps. While Pierre was in dark brown down to his shoes and tie with a white shirt that brought out the depth of his ruby-red eyes.
Kai blushed, a sheepish smile making his dimple twitch and deepen in his cheek. “Thank you,” he muttered quietly. “You look…” His eyes roamed down and up her top half. “…stunning.”
Pierre took that as his cue to give them some space and walked backwards towards me, but I unashamedly grinned at my best friend and her fiancé like a giddy fool.
“Hi,” Pierre whispered.
“Hi,” I whispered back.
He nodded to his left. “Should we give them some privacy?”
I grabbed my phone and clutch off the bed and followed Pierre out into the main room. Esmeralda and Kai seemed completely oblivious to our exit as they murmured happily to each other.
In the middle of the room, Pierre swung around and grinned at me. “We’re matching.”
Matching in colour, yes. Matching in style, no.
I was wearing a dark brown silk slip dress, simple in its style, but sexy nonetheless, with a subtle shimmer like it had been sprayed with a body mist. Where the fabric of the skirt met the fabric of the upper torso, there were two slim pleats down the front from my belly. It sucked the silk in to softly shape my waist before hugging my hips and arse and cascading down. And the slit on the left was my favourite part; reaching just above mid-thigh, it showed off my leg and matching brown court heels.
“Matching?” I crossed my arms, cocked my hip, and arched a brow. “No, you copied me.”
He swaggered towards me, the playful gleam in his eyes making my mouth twitch. “Don’t be like that, Mar. Just agree we look like a power couple right now.”
Grinning, I shook my head. “Only if you bring the couple, and I bring the power.”
“Done.” He leaned in with mischief wiggling over his brows. “The power is definitely in your hands tonight, Mariyah. You really don’t play easy when it comes to your plans.”
“My plans?” I echoed.
“What?” Pierre arched a smug brow. “This whole gorgeous, silk seductress look isn’t part of your revenge on Shehryar Timur?”
Heat swarmed my cheeks for fuck knew what reason, because I definitely had not dressed with Shehryar in mind. I had dressed for myself, to feel like a fucking queen.
I scowled as Pierre chuckled. “Please.” I rolled my eyes. “That idiot was the last thing I was thinking about while getting dressed.”
He tutted me and shook his head. “You can lie to yourself, Mariyah, but you can’t lie to me.”
I licked the back of my teeth in irritation—at myself more than Pierre because the heat in my cheeks wasn’t going away. “I didn’t dress for him, Pierre.”
“Okay, okay,” he said through a chuckle. “I take it back. But just in case you were planning to drive him mad today—” I narrowed my eyes, and he put one hand up. “Theoretically, just theoretically—you look bloody damn gorgeous, Mariyah, and it’s sure as fuck going to work.”
I told myself it was the way he said it as a smirk tugged at one corner of my mouth. “I know.”
He grinned. “Good.” Then he offered me his arm to take. “I think it’s time to get our lovestruck prince and princess to the party.”
The Grand Hall of Westcombe Palace was massive, the walls a dark purple with gold patterns, panelled with black wood on the bottom half, but it didn’t have a gloomy feel to it. All twenty iron chandeliers were lit in bright white, and the vases of greenery and silver decorations around the paintings and tables scattered around added a cheeriness to the room.
Music played from a live orchestra and singer, staff moved with trays of appetisers and drinks between the chattering crowd, and there were still some people coming in through the far end main doorway. I recognised more than a handful of celebrities talking to the royals of Touma, King Kareem, and a few other state royals too, as Pierre and I walked arm in arm between them all.
“Let’s see if we can find the others before Kai and Princess Esmeralda come down,” Pierre said.
“The others?” I questioned.
“Our friends. Kai’s and mine, I mean. And now Esmeralda’s too.”
I caught a man’s warm brown gaze on my right and arched a brow as his eyes dipped down. They lifted with the corner of his mouth in an appreciative smile. It wasn’t until that familiar look that I realised I was being eyed up by the leading male actor in the mafia movie Esmeralda and I loved and watched the week she spent with me in February. His smile widened when he realised I recognised him, but he carried on talking to the two older men in front of him.
“Oh shit,” I murmured, cheeks aflush in shock. I flipped my attention back to Pierre. “That’s Ryan Ronal across from me, isn’t it?”
“If you mean the one who just checked you out—yeah, that’s him,” Pierre said, his smile both baffled and impressed. Then he grunted. “Shehryar is actually going to lose it tonight.”
I ignored the menacingly joyful jump my heart took and rolled my eyes. “Forget him—tell me, can you introduce me to Ryan?”
Pierre chuckled. “I can’t, no. But I’m pretty sure Candy could. Though, saying that, Ryan is the kind of arrogant peacock Candy doesn’t like designing for, so maybe not. But let’s find him and you can ask.”
We’d only just got past the halfway point in the hall when the music died out and a static sound echoed from the discreet speakers attached to the edges of the ceiling at equal intervals.
A woman’s cheerful voice silenced the conversation in the hall. “May we have your attention, ladies, gentleman, and royalty. Please turn to the staircase to welcome our guest of honour, Crown Prince Kai, accompanied by our lovely Crown Princess Esmeralda Ayla Jahandar.”
Pierre and I turned to the staircase like everyone else. The doors opened slowly, and cheers ensued immediately as Esmeralda and Kai appeared at the top.
I cupped my mouth and whooped with Pierre, watching them walk down. When they got to the bottom, Kai moved down the last step first, keeping hold of Esmeralda’s hand as he guided her down. She enclosed her fingers around his elbow again, the music came back on, and they were engulfed by the people around them. Slowly, the rest of the crowd of at least three hundred people started levitating towards them, wanting to greet them and wish Kai a happy birthday.
“Come on, I can see them,” Pierre said, facing the opposite way to me.
I tucked my hand around his arm, and we headed towards a group of four men and one woman I didn’t recognise, along with the second prince, Fay, and a man I knew as the famous designer, Lord Candy Hamilton. They were among the few groups who weren’t moving down the hall.
“There he is,” the cute guy with coiled cropped hair said as we got closer, nodding towards us.
The group turned and smiles spread across their faces.
“Look who finally showed up,” the sole woman said as I let Pierre slip away.
“Not my fault I was escorting a lady,” Pierre said, giving an across-the-shoulder squeeze to the beautiful brown-haired woman. “You look gorgeous, Lish.”
“Thanks Pierre,” she replied, grinning at him as he moved clockwise to the brown-skinned man standing beside her—he was almost as big and as tall as Shehryar. He patted Pierre heavily on the back during their man-hug.
“Who’s the lady?” the famous designer said, his blue eyes sparkling brightly.
Lord Candy Hamilton was the “ Prince Charming meets aristocratic bad boy” of the fashion world, who made clothes mainly for women, but tailored suits for men too. But for all men and women, no matter their shape or size, and I absolutely loved him for it. He looked handsome in pictures, but in real life, the old money and blue blood was really showing in his tall, straight posture, strong nose, and thick, slightly arched brows. With blond hair, pale skin, and dark blue eyes, the dark purple suit he was wearing shouldn’t have worked, but it fit Candy’s confident image perfectly.
“Wanna introduce yourself, or want me to do it?” Pierre said, pulling away from shoulder-bumping the mixed-heritage man.
“I got this,” I said and smiled at the semi-circle of people. “I’m Mariyah Levine, Esmeralda’s best friend.”
Candy’s brows lifted like he hadn’t expected my accent. “You’re from Raven?”
“Yeah. We went to university together.”
“Well, any friend of Esmeralda’s is automatically a friend of ours, so it’s lovely to meet you, Mariyah,” the woman said, now tucked against the tall man. She pressed a hand to her chest. “I’m Alisha Sultan, and this is my husband, Zain Sultan.”
The surname rang a bell, but I couldn’t place it as I smiled at them. “It’s lovely to meet you too.”
They were a gorgeous couple. Alisha had a similar big-boobed build to Esmeralda but was closer to my height and softer around the belly. With a light golden skin tone, dark brown hair, and similar coloured eyes, she was beautiful. And her husband was just as handsome with his bronzed skin, dark beard, and relaxed demeanour. It looked like it took a lot to piss him off.
“I’m Trevor Kingston,” the mixed-heritage man said next with a light smile. From close up, he was more than cute, he was hot, but in a pretty way, with light brown eyes that outshone the stars and a playfulness behind his quiet, almost lazy confidence. He was surprisingly well-built too.
Next to him, Lord Candy tipped himself in a slight bow and took my hand in his. “Lord Candy Hamilton at your service.” He pressed a kiss to my knuckles.
“I know,” I said, the words coming out amused.
“All the beautiful ones do,” he purred then straightened.
“Relax, Candy,” Pierre said. “She wants you to introduce her to Ryan Ronal.”
Candy groaned and rolled his eyes. “I rescind what I said. You have awful taste, Mariyah.” He shook his head, disappointed. “And here I was about to tell you that I’d love nothing more than to dress you in my clothes.”
I arched a brow. “You don’t approve of Ryan?”
“All I’ll ever approve of is my assistant refusing his agent’s request to design his clothes.”
“What did I say?” Pierre said, angling to me.
“Okay, fine.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll stay away from him.”
The last man in the group introduced himself as Fay’s friend, but the two of them left quickly after to find Adam. Apparently, the youngest Touman prince had brought his girlfriend along, and Gigi was on a mission to interrogate them both, so Fay was going to try to keep her away.
“You didn’t bring the kids?” Pierre asked, changing the topic of conversation.
“No. They’re with my parents for the evening,” Alisha said. “But they made Uncle Kai a birthday card, and we have strict instructions to tell him it was from them.” She glanced at me. “We have two—Tara and Max—and they both adore Kai and Esmeralda.”
Zain grunted. “Obsessed is the word I’d use.”
“That’s so cute,” I cooed.
“They were so upset when we told them they couldn’t come, but the card helped placate them,” she added.
“Well,” I said, realising the opening she’d given me. “I guess it’s only right that I extend the invitation to them too, so they don’t feel left out.”
Her brows rose. “Invitation?”
I grinned. “To a small wedding.”
All four pairs of eyes popped wide.
“Relax, relax. It’s not who you’re thinking,” Pierre said, chuckling. “But we’ll let our dear prince tell you himself what he went and did when he finally comes over.”
“Did Kai…” Trevor’s voice trailed off as his eyes moved between me and Pierre.
“Did he do it?” Alisha asked excitedly.
Pierre shook his head. “Idiot couldn’t even wait two full days.”
Alisha squealed, I laughed, and the men cursed and shook their heads in amused bafflement.
“Tell me he at least stuck to the plan,” Candy said.
“Yeah, he did.”
“Wait,” Alisha quickly said. “But who’s actually getting married?”
“Can you guys keep a secret?” I asked, grinning. They all answered with some sort of agreement, and I waved them in closer. “Prince Arsh and Katiya want to tie the knot privately, just with family and a few friends, and they gave me the privilege of planning the wedding. It’s on the evening of the twenty-sixth, next week, and if you’re available, I have been asked to ensure you’re all invited.” I waved my hand around. “Of course, Kai will send you official E-invites once I have them ready, but I wanted to let you know now.”
“That’s so sweet,” Alisha chimed, her expression soft and bright. “Zain and I should definitely be able to come, and the kids are going to be so excited.” She put her hand out as if she might have placed it on my arm if Pierre wasn’t between us. “And if you need any help, let me know. I work with Zain’s mum, who oversees big events in their hotels, so I have a few connections.”
Sultan Hotel Group. That’s where I knew the name from. Fucking Neves, Kai had some rich friends.
“Thank you, Alisha. The wedding’s only gonna be small, but I might be cheeky and ask for help with decorations. Can I take your number later, if you’re cool with that?”
“Let’s swap them now.” She put her hand out, and Zain dug through one of his inside blazer pockets and handed his wife a phone.
We swapped numbers and I told them about a few more bits I had planned before I remembered the most important thing.
“Oh, but,” I said, gesturing with my phone and clutch in my hands to the group, “I need you to pretend you don’t know anything about it if Shehryar brings it up.”
Candy pulled a face. “Shehryar? As in Shehryar Timur—Esmeralda’s bodyguard?”
My lips flattened. “Yes, that one, unfortunately.”
“You don’t like him?” Trevor asked with a lopsided smile.
“Quick answer is no. The long answer is that he’s supposed to be planning the ceremony with me, but he pissed me off, and I told him I wasn’t going to help again until he apologised properly. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to actually leave the planning to him and let him ruin his mother’s wedding.” I shrugged unapologetically. “It might sound petty, but he deserves to suffer for getting on my nerves when I was only trying to help.”
Zain and Trevor pulled faces that looked impressed, Alisha chuckled, and Candy grinned from ear to ear menacingly.
Pierre nudged my arm. “We’re a group who likes petty, Mar, so no one’s going to judge you here.”
“Especially when it involves Shehryar,” Candy added.
“That’s only you, Candy,” said Trevor.
I perked up. “You’re not a fan either?”
“Not at all.” Candy shook his head. “He thinks I’m pretentious and arrogant.”
“You are,” Trevor said with a scoff.
“That’s not the point,” Candy and I said at the same time.
We looked at each other and broke out into identical smirks.
“I like you,” I said.
“I like you too,” he replied, then offered me his arm. “Shall we go piss off Ryan Ronal and plan Shehryar’s demise?”
“Candy,” Zain grumbled in warning.
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” I said, slipping my hand around Candy’s arm.
“I get the feeling I’ve just been replaced,” I heard Pierre say quietly behind me as Candy and I walked away. I looked over my shoulder and threw him a wink.
We couldn’t have taken more than a dozen steps when I felt a prickle skate up the sides of my neck. Glancing to my left, my body pressed on the brakes so hard my heart rebounded off my rib cage, and I almost staggered to a stop. It was only Candy’s gentle pull that kept me walking.
Shehryar’s gaze jabbed into me from across the hall where he stood close to the wall.
They were hard to ignore anyway, but his all-black suit, coloured only with a red tie and pocket cloth, made his pale irises look even sharper and more commanding than usual. But he didn’t attempt to look away and pretend I hadn’t caught him staring.
In fact, his eyes narrowed as he lifted a glass flute to his lips, angrily stripping me down until a cool breeze rushed up the length of my legs and across my shoulders but left a warm flush in its wake.
Swallowing, I rolled my eyes and flicked my head away. Dickhead .
Yeah, I was going to keep planning the wedding in secret, but I was going to bring Shehryar Timur to his knees before I even considered forgiving him.
For what he said, for what he did after, for the aching buzz he’d left in my body, I’d make him pay.