Chapter 17
Mariyah
F rom the outside, Candy’s studio looked like any other building in an isolated industrial estate.
On the inside, though, it was eccentric, very white, and screamed Candy’s name. White walls with mirrors, white-tiled flooring, framed sketches dotted around, and famous outfits in glass cabinets—it was the whole crazy, fashion designer hub package, but oddly still very sleek.
Pierre arrived five minutes after we all got there, and then Candy separated the men and women into two rooms so we could try our outfits on.
The room us women were set up in with one of his assistants, Kyle, was decorated white like the rest of the studio expect for the three black velvet sofas, the black glass coffee table before them, and the matching velvet curtains of the two semi-circle changing spaces angled slightly towards each other. There was a sewing machine in the corner on the same side as the sofas too.
Before Candy left to go help the men, he showed off the five separate railings on wheels with two or three dresses on them for each of us. He suggested which dress Katiya try on first and then left us in Kyle’s trusted hands. Less than a minute after, a brown-haired woman entered, introducing herself as Uma, who assisted Kyle and Gigi while she dressed.
Queen Leila’s chosen dress fitted her perfectly, and the dowager queen’s dress only needed the two pleats taken out from the back. Katiya had in fact chosen the first ivory dress she’d tried on, but it was only loosely stitched, so she spent the most time on the pedestal while Kyle and Uma pinned and played with the fitting.
Queen Leila, Gigi, and I were sitting on a sofa each as they worked on the hem of Katiya’s dress when Esmeralda came out from behind one of the velvet changing room curtains.
“What do you think?” she asked, blushing coyly while running a hand down the fitted bodice of a deep blood-red dress. It had a pleated boat-shaped neckline that sat just above the round globes of her breasts with matching off-the-shoulder sleeves encircling her upper arms, and the bowed knot on her left thigh opened underneath into a slit.
“Oh,” Katiya cooed, pressing one palm to her chest while trying to keep still as Uma worked.
Queen Leila gasped in delight, Gigi let out a low, appreciative whistle, and I grinned in awe. “You look fucking stunning, Ez,” I said, then realised I swore in front of royalty. “Oh—sorry.”
Shehryar’s mum, the queen, and Esmeralda laughed, but Gigi declared, “Say it again with confidence, young lady.”
I couldn’t help a chuckle. “You look fucking stunning, Esmeralda Ayla Jahandar.”
Gigi nodded in approval and laughter scattered around again.
Kyle made his way over to Esmeralda, grinning. “How does it feel, Your Highness?”
“Like it was made for me,” she replied breathlessly. “It fits perfectly.”
“Well, Candy did make it for you,” Kyle said proudly. Walking to her back, he fiddled with the sleeves. “It was intended to be your birthday present, but he changed his mind. Amongst designing your wedding dress, he’s already started working on three other dresses and two secret projects for Your Highness, so he now has plenty of options for a gift.”
Her lips parted in surprise, but delight warmed her cheeks.
“What are these secret projects?” I asked.
Kyle smirked. “You didn’t hear this from me, okay?” Everyone except Gigi and Uma nodded eagerly. “Honeymoon lingerie.”
I cackled as Esmeralda’s face turned tomato red. Queen Leila and Katiya chuckled, neither being coy but both seemingly trying to be dignified about it for Esmeralda’s sake.
Gigi, on the other hand…damn, the woman had no filter. “If she finds the time to put on lingerie, then Kai would be doing something wrong,” she said.
Uma nearly fell backwards from her crouched position by Katiya’s feet, Esmeralda looked like she wanted the floor to swallow her up, and my stomach hurt, I was laughing so hard.
“Gigi,” Queen Leila said in a laughing scold. “That, I think, is something for the two of them to decide.” Her cheeks pinkened, but she lifted her pointed chin. “And lingerie can make things…exciting.”
“Especially if they’re crotchless,” Katiya sneakily added.
I barely caught a split-second glimpse of Esmeralda’s hanging mouth as tears of hysterical laughter blurred my vision. “Mama Katiya,” she said with a splutter.
Katiya smirked unashamedly. “What, my dear? Am I wrong?”
“Whatever you wear,” Gigi declared firmly, “condoms are not allowed, Esmeralda, is that clear?”
“Gigi!” Queen Leila and Katiya exclaimed at the same time. I wheezed through a silent, open-mouthed laugh.
“Mariyah,” Esmeralda said loudly and desperately. “Try on your dress now. Please .”
It took me a second to stand up, and I swayed like I was high towards Kyle.
He too was trying to tame his laughter, but it was far quieter and softer than mine. “This is the dress Candy believes will suit you best.” He held out the hanger with a blush pink dress on it—not my first choice of colour, but it was gorgeous. “If you need help with the back straps, I will assist.”
“Thanks.” Swiping the dampness from under my eye with one hand, I took the dress with the other.
I burst out laughing again halfway through stripping out of my jeans and jumper as I listened to the continued conversation on the other side of the closed curtain. The uncontrollable wheezing coming from me meant I needed Kyle’s help tying the straps at the back. But I had to admit, seeing myself in the mirror properly helped tame my amusement.
“I love Candy,” I declared as I threw the curtain aside and strutted out.
Gasps echoed around as Kyle stepped to the side out of my path.
“Whoa,” Esmeralda said, her mouth agape as she dragged her gaze slowly up my body.
Honestly, other than the faint leaf-pattern detail stitched from the low, slightly curved neckline to the dip of my waist, the dress was simple. But all the wow factor was in the way it melded to my body up until my knees before pooling like a waterfall at my feet. Plus, the zigzagging straps tied at the midpoint of my back where the fabric came up to was fucking sexy.
“You look beautiful, Mariyah,” Queen Leila said, beaming.
“Really, truly beautiful,” Katiya emphasised.
I returned their grins. “Thank you.”
Gigi smirked and crooked a thin white brow. “I can’t decide if Shehryar will or w on’t be pleased.”
My grin instantly collapsed. Why had Gigi mentioned him?
“A bit of both, I think,” Esmeralda said, matching Gigi’s smirk.
I looked around at all four women and the way they smiled at various levels of open and hidden mischief. “Okay, why the fuck are we suddenly talking about him?” I said.
“Are you not getting on with Sher?” Katiya asked.
Cussing out her son didn’t seem like it was going to earn me any brownie points with anyone in the room, so I opted for, “The wedding prep is going fine.”
Katiya’s brows lifted. “Oh, I wasn’t referring to the wedding preparation. I trust you’ll do no less than what Arsh and I asked for, but…” The gleam in her gaze was suspicious. “What about you and Sher? How are things between you two?”
I narrowed my eyes. “How are things in what sense?”
“She’s asking if you have bedded her son,” Gigi said.
It was Esmeralda’s turn to laugh and my turn to splutter in shock as my cheeks ignited. “What?”
Katiya cleared her throat, trying to hide a smile but failing to. “Well, I wasn’t quite asking that…”
“Pierre caught Mariyah and Sher in the corridor,” Esmeralda announced through her laughter.
“What?” Katiya said, her eyes wide either in alarm or delight.
“See. Beds are involved,” Gigi said.
An explosive burst of anger, embarrassment, and outrage finally returned my ability to speak. “There are no bloody beds involved!” I turned a glare on Esmeralda, who flashed me an unapologetic grin. “And we were just talking in the corridor, and it turned into an argument, but that was it.”
“You don’t look or sound so sure,” said Gigi.
Heat funnelled to my cheeks. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish as images of Shehryar crowding me in flicked through my head. “I am sure.”
I didn’t sound sure though. And going on the slow, catlike smiles Gigi, Queen Leila, Katiya, Esmeralda, and even Kyle gave me, they all heard the uncertainty.
A new wave of blood surfaced to my skin, and I gritted my teeth over it. “Look, I’m gonna be real here with everyone.” I set my gaze on Katiya. “Shehryar and I don’t really like each other. We barely get on. We’re only putting up with each other to plan the wedding. That’s it.”
Gigi pulled a questioning face. “None of us claimed you had to like him in order to bed him.”
“Oh my—” I threw my hands up and swung around, heading back to the changing room as Esmeralda doubled over in laughter. “I’m gonna change.”
As soon as I closed the curtain behind me, I pressed my hot forehead to the cold mirror and glared down at my socked feet.
The thing was, with the way the tension was escalating between Shehryar and me, I had this unnerving feeling that it was going to lead to a bed by the end of the holiday.
The other problem was…I wasn’t sure I hated the idea of being under him as much as I wanted to.
And that was probably what made me want to rage more than anything else.
Shehryar
I hissed as the sharp tip of the needle pricked the inner side of my left arm and clenched my teeth.
Candy lifted his sapphire blue eyes up to meet mine. “Apologies,” he said. Not that the angle of his smirk looked remotely apologetic.
He looked like a smug fucking bastard, “ accidentally” pricking me with the needles that he pinned my suit with far more often than he’d pricked anyone else. In fact, he hadn’t pricked anyone else. Which meant he was doing it on purpose to me. The fact he was sticking pins into the sleeves, which were the only parts of the tailored blazer that didn’t need adjusting, was only more proof.
Everyone else’s suits had fitted them perfectly, all five of the same blue for the groomsmen. Prince Arsh’s suit had literally been a table of cut out pieces of fabric before another one of Candy’s assistants, Fitz, came in, and they pieced it around the older prince’s build, sewing some parts with the machine in the corner. I was confident Candy had only picked an ill-fitted suit to prod at me.
I rolled my hands into tight fists as I stared him down. “Do that one more time. I dare you,” I growled low enough to be for his ears only.
His smirk tilted higher, and fucking Neves, I wanted to hit him so hard. It wouldn’t have taken much to knock him to his arrogant arse. And if his poking wasn’t deemed enough of a reason to let my anger get the better of me, then the repetitive reminder of the way he’d put his hand on Mariyah’s back and purred about dressing her up while following the women into their room was.
My only two reasons for not doing so were that he was helping with my mother’s wedding and that my frustration much preferred the idea of unleashing itself on Mariyah. To drag her to a dark corner to punish her. And fuck, because the coiling, demanding, aching sensation she ignited in me was getting out of control, and I didn’t like feeling so. I wanted that control back in my hands.
“How do you think the women’s fitting is going?” Prince Arsh asked, standing near the two changing cubicles, while the rest of the men were sitting on the three black sofas.
“Well, considering Kyle hasn’t run in here with tears in his eyes, I would assume well,” Candy replied.
“Tell us what our women are wearing,” King Rami said, resting both hands on the gentleman’s cane he used to support an old injury to his leg.
Candy chuckled and turned away, leaving me with my arm hanging in the air. “They’re wearing dresses that will bring you to your knees. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Pierre scoffed, his arms lazily slung over the back of the sofa he shared with Prince Kai. “Since when have you been so cryptic?”
Candy arched a careless brow. “Remind me why you’re here and not working again.”
Pierre narrowed his eyes as Prince Fay, the king, and Prince Arsh chuckled. “There’s this thing that normal people have called ‘ annual leave .’ Do you comprehend or do I need to find ‘ An Idiot’s Guide to Real Life’ for you?”
Growing restless and tired, I lowered my arm. But as if he sensed it, Candy rotated, grabbed my wrist, and dragged it back up straight.
“You must provide at least one detail of their dresses, Candy,” King Rami said, directing the conversation back to the original topic, while Fitz, the assistant, helped Prince Arsh out of the suit jacket and walked off with it towards the table next to the sewing machine.
Candy sighed overdramatically and left my arm hanging in the air again. Irritated, I lowered it immediately. “As you wish, Your Majesty,” he said, flicking me a quick glare before smiling at the king. “The queen’s dress will remind you of your first public appearance together after your wedding. And Gigi loves the glitz and glam, so that is what I gave her. As for the bride, that shall still remain a secret, but I will tell you that this is only a glimpse of what I have planned for your public wedding.”
He set his attention on Prince Kai. “Our Princess Esmeralda’s dress is one of many that I have designed solely for her. And dear prince—you will fall in love with her all over again.”
Then Candy turned around and pinned me with a smirk as he yanked my arm up again. I gritted my teeth. One flick . One fucking flick of my wrist was all it would take to clip him in the—
“As for Mariyah’s dress,” he said slowly, and I stilled. “It’s a personal favourite of mine.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that his statement was intended to push my buttons as if he thought I’d care if and how he dressed the menace up.
His assumption, though, wasn’t misplaced because I did care for whatever fucking reason. Oh, I cared a lot. Like green acid mixing in my blood and burning through my veins and arteries kind of cared.
Maybe it was because Candy and Mariyah were so similar in character, and it was driving me beyond mad. Or maybe because the little nagging feeling somewhere at the back of my rib cage was onto something every time it grew vicious upon seeing Mariyah get along with another man.
It wanted to lash out at King Kareem and Pierre. And now Candy was really fucking pissing it off.
“While we’re on the topic of Mariyah, by the way,” Pierre snuck in, setting a mischievous, lopsided grin on me. “Guess who I saw pinning her to the wall during the party yesterday?”
Shock solidified my muscles as I blinked at him. Did he just…
For a single breath, silence echoed off the walls, then six pairs of wide eyes landed on me.
A flush painted across my face as my shock turned into embarrassment and irritation.
Fuck, I was going to kill Pierre. And I was going to make it slow and painful.
“Is that so, Shehryar?” Prince Arsh asked with a playful gleam in his hazel eyes.
“No,” I growled through my teeth, glaring at Pierre. “That isn’t what happened.”
“Oh, yes, sorry,” Pierre said sarcastically and lifted both hands to make quotation marks with his fingers. “They were just ‘ talking,’ apparently. Though it looked more like they were about to kiss if you ask me.”
I ground my teeth together harder as Prince Fay threw his head back and laughed. Prince Kai was eyeing me curiously like he knew something the others didn’t. And King Rami and Prince Adam wore identical grinning expressions, the only difference being the colour of their eyes. Candy was the only one whose lips curled up in disgust, and damn if I didn’t find it the slightest bit satisfying.
“Do you like Mariyah?” Prince Arsh asked, his gaze amused but somehow cryptic too.
“No,” I bit out instantly. “It’s not like that between us.”
“Then what is it like between you two?”
The pressure of his question had me fumbling over frustrated words. “It’s not—we don’t…” I paused for a long second. “We’re dealing with each other for the sake of planning the wedding.”
“According to Mariyah, they hate each other’s guts,” Pierre clarified, but the mirth in his ruby-red eyes made it very clear what he thought of that.
“Ah,” King Rami said with a low regal chuckle. “I see now.”
He adjusted his grip on the lion’s head of his cane as he leaned forward on the sofa. “Hate can be a funny emotion that your mind will use as a defence mechanism in certain situations. Sometimes when you find yourself so drawn to someone for reasons you cannot explain, your mind will trick you into believing you hate the person to rationalise the feeling. It doesn’t actually mean you hate them, just that you hate the way they make you feel so intensely and so out of your comfort zone.”
Prince Arsh nodded to his older brother. “He’s speaking from experience.”
“I am.” The king smiled widely underneath his salt-and-pepper beard, and a reminiscent glaze coasted over his hazel eyes. “Leila and I hated each other while we studied together in university.”
“Wait, what?” Prince Fay said, lurching upright. “You and Mother hated each other? Since when? Why has no one ever mentioned this before?”
Prince Arsh chuckled but followed Fitz’s instructions as the short man returned with the semi-stitched blazer. The king’s three children, Candy, and Pierre looked at the older man for answers.
“Leila was confident and intelligent, though kept to herself,” the king explained, “and I suppose I was intrigued by her. But that intrigue presented itself in the form of irritation.” The king shrugged impishly. “So, I irritated her back, and teased her, and got on her nerves in order to sate my irritation, but it never worked. We ended up butting heads a lot until our third year when I saw another man try to win her over. I realised soon after that my irritation might’ve been misplaced.”
“That’s when he came to me with the confused ‘ I think I’m in love with her’ monologue,” Prince Arsh inserted.
The two brothers chuckled. “It was, and I told her too,” King Rami said. “She obviously didn’t believe me. So, I started courting her. I did better. I tried to prove myself to her, and I showed her how I really felt. Of course, her little trust in me meant half of what I did led to a huge number of arguments, but eventually, I got through to her. And now we’ve been married for thirty-two years.”
“Wow,” Prince Fay murmured.
“Someone needs to turn your story into a romance book,” Pierre said. “I’d read it.”
King Rami chuckled, and Candy raised a brow. “You still read romance books?”
Pierre reeled back like he was offended. “Of course I do. Why would I stop reading them?”
Candy rolled his eyes. “Xiomara threw you down a rabbit hole with those books she gave you.”
I didn’t know who Xiomara was, but when no one else asked, it was obvious they all knew her. It wasn’t until I looked up from the pedestal under my shoes that I realised the room was quiet because all seven men were looking at me expectantly again. Even Fitz remained still until he caught my gaze and quickly busied himself with Prince Arsh’s suit.
I bristled defensively. “What?”
“So?” Prince Fay urged.
“So, what?”
“Might you relate to Rami and Leila’s story with Mariyah?” Prince Arsh said.
“No,” I said, narrowing my eyes in bemusement. I forced my expression to relax as I shook my head. “No. It’s not the same with me and Mariyah.”
It wasn’t the same. It wasn’t.
I could admit that our hatred for each other might have been hiding arousal and desire behind curtains that were now being torn down.
But love? No fucking way.
She drove me mad. She was a menace. A bloody invasive pest taking over my being.
It didn’t matter that once upon a time…
That was five years ago, and in all the time since, she’d been nothing but a thorn in my backside I couldn’t wait to pull out and get rid of.
Feelings though? No… no .
It couldn’t be like that then. And it wouldn’t be like that now.