Chapter 33
Shehryar
T he rest of the day passed by with a lot of “ Hmm,” “ What,” “Apologies, could you repeat that please” on my part while I did my tasks in preparation for Mum and Prince Arsh’s wedding the next evening.
No one commented on it, but I noticed the funny looks they all gave me. I wasn’t usually so spaced out and unfocused, and it was bloody damn irritating that I couldn’t stop my eyes or mind from wandering for more than five seconds at a time.
Eventually, the small public room had been stacked with chairs and boxes of decorations to put up the next morning, a projector and screen had been found, the cake was nearly complete, and Fay’s painting of Mum and Prince Arsh only had a few more finishing touches to be added to it.
By mid-afternoon, I was no less lost in a circle of thoughts revolving around Mariyah and our conversation, but she was no longer in my periphery. The women left the palace to head to a spa, and King Rami had arranged for a meet-and-greet with his younger brother’s favourite football team, so the three princes, the soon-to-be groom, and the king and I headed over to their home stadium.
Dinner was also eaten separately—the ladies stayed out while we returned to the palace. But eventually, after Pierre and Nur joined us, news that they’d returned came through as text messages to the men affiliated with them. That, and Prince Arsh’s friend, two cousins, and Prince Kai’s friends—Trevor, Zain, and Alisha—showed up to join the split celebrations.
Seven of us were gathered around a varnished circular table playing Hold ’em poker, while the others munched on snacks, sitting on the sofas, or played billiards when someone tapped my shoulder.
My attention snapped to my right, where the nineteen-year-old Prince Adam was sitting. He gave me an awkward, pursed lip smile. “It’s your turn.”
Fuck .
I straightened in my velvet-cushioned chair and looked around the table. Prince Kai sat next to me, followed by Trevor, and King Rami. Opposite me, acting as the dealer was Pierre. On the other half of the table sat Prince Arsh, one of his friends, and Prince Adam.
All eight pairs of eyes were on me, plus a few others dotted around the billiards table and sofas, with varying degrees of amusement or concern.
“Sorry, I—” I cleared my throat and turned to Adam. “What did you bet?”
“Uncle Hover raised to one thousand five hundred, and I called.”
I glanced from the older man to the four cards lying face up in the middle then down to my own hand. At best, I had a pair, but I wasn’t in the mood to play my chances to the end.
“I fold,” I said, sliding my cards away from me.
“Again?” Pierre asked.
“Hmm.” I picked up my drink and gulped the fizzy liquid down.
As I set the glass on the table, I caught Prince Arsh’s searching stare. “Are you okay, Shehryar?” he asked.
“He’s been distracted all day,” Prince Fay said as Zain lined up his cue stick.
“He’s thinking about a girl,” Pierre added in a teasing, childish voice, the click of the cue hitting the ball sounding in the background.
“Is the lady who’s consuming your thoughts called Mariyah?” Prince Arsh questioned.
I gritted my teeth as a telling warmth wafted through my cheeks.
“It’s nothing,” I said, scanning the mixture of curious and amused expressions.
“That’s a lie,” Pierre coughed under his breath. I scowled in warning across to him, but his ruby-red eyes danced evermore. “What? She talks to me.”
Jealousy reared its ugly head and bared its venom-filled fangs. All I could imagine was lunging across the table at Pierre, grabbing him by the jumper, and spitting, “Don’t fucking go near her. ” Though that would achieve nothing other than make me look like a controlling red flag over a woman who hadn’t said a word to me since we’d argued.
At least Pierre wasn’t as bad as Candy.
As if I’d summoned the prideful arsehole from my thoughts, four phones pinged and vibrated at the same time. Prince Kai, Trevor, Pierre, and Zain all picked up or dug pockets for their phones.
“Candy’s arrived,” Trevor announced, placing his phone back on the table.
“That took him a while,” Zain said. “What was he doing?”
“He said he was going to pick up the dresses and suits from his studio so he could bring them with him tonight when I spoke to him earlier,” Prince Kai answered.
Another round of pings and vibrations echoed around the table.
“Oh,” Pierre said, a mischievous grin growing on his face. “He’s going to the ladies first.” He looked right at me. “Says it’s for the dresses, but we all know who he really wants to see.”
Mariyah was what he didn’t say. But everyone knew. I knew.
Silence fell around the room as the weight of every stare landed on me.
If Pierre incited a viper, then the thought of Candy flirting with Mariyah morphed me into a raging, spitting, red-eyed ogre ready to go on a rampage. I was entirely sure they could see the rattling chains in my eyes as it roared and shook and fought to unleash itself within me. But instead of concern, a range of grins slowly spread across the men’s faces.
“Do you see that, Kai?” Prince Fay said, pointing at me with a smirk. “That’s how you look when another man breathes around Esmeralda.”
Prince Kai’s brows knitted in disagreement as he looked from his younger brother to me, but there was a pinkish tinge to his golden skin. “I do not,” he grumbled, tugging at his left earlobe.
“Yes, you do,” nearly everyone in the room said.
His embarrassed frown deepened as his friends and brothers chuckled. But then King Rami cleared his throat, and all the attention returned to me.
“Well,” the king said, brows lifted in question. “What are you waiting for then? Unless, of course, you’re happy to let Candy steal her from right under your nose.”
“Because he will,” Trevor added. “Without remorse. And he’ll rub it in your face too.”
Fuck no.
Mariyah was a menace who drove me mad, but no fucking way was Candy stealing her from me.
Wow…stealing her from me?
A week ago—shit, even four days ago, keeping seas and oceans between us would’ve been far more preferable than keeping her close. But things had…changed. I was pretty sure I still wanted to strangle her most of the time. But I wanted to be the only one allowed to strangle her.
I grabbed the back of my chair and scooted away from the table. “Excuse me.”
Someone cheered and someone else clapped, but I was on a one-way route to the door.
“Don’t be too possessive,” Pierre called out. “It’s about balance. Make sure she knows she has a choice, but be firm when you tell her you’re sticking around.” I opened the door as he kept yelling instructions from the table. “And if it comes down to it, grovel on your knees! Women love a man on his knees.”
“You read way too much romance,” Trevor said.
“Yeah, I buddy-read them with your sister. We’re currently reading—”
I closed the door on the rest of their conversation, took one step, and stuttered to a stop.
Fucking Neves, I didn’t know where the women even were.
I debated what to do for a dozen or so seconds, then whipped my mobile out and dialled Esmeralda’s number. If she didn’t answer, I’d head back into the room and—
“Hello,” she yelled down the phone, music and cheering blasting out behind her.
The attack of noise on my eardrum had me wincing and pulling the phone away. Fuck, had they left the palace? Were they at a club? No, but Candy was with them, so—
“Where are you?” I said, rubbing at the frown line between my brows that was becoming a permanent fixture on my face.
Esmeralda whooped loudly, laughed, then belatedly said, “What?”
I gritted my teeth. “Can you tell me where in the palace are you?”
“Go Mar—oh, sorry, Sher, I can’t really hear you—shake that gorgeous ass! Shake it on his lap!”
I froze. Who…Mariyah was shaking her arse on who ? What he ? Was it Candy? Fuck!
Growling aloud, I started charging down the corridor. The sexual music they were blasting out was loud enough that if I passed the correct corridor, I’d hear it.
“What did you say?” she said again, clearly not paying any real attention to me.
Breathe, breathe, just breathe.
“I said, where are you ?”
“Oh. The TV room. Wh—”
I cut the call without giving my reasoning and darted through the corridors to the TV room like I’d lived in Chaukham Palace all my life. One minute later, I was standing in front of the closed door, muffled music emanating from inside, my chest rising and falling with the heavy, slow beat.
I went straight for the door handle and cursed under my breath when I realised they’d locked the door. Raising my fist, I pounded on the wood in a quick, furious succession.
Within seconds, the door opened, and Esmeralda poked her face through the small gap. Over her head, I saw the lights in the room were low, a seductively slow song was playing through the cheers and hoots of the women inside, and a pink balloon with the outline of an aubergine printed on it floated through the air behind her.
What on fucking Neves — is going on in there?
“Sher!” She grinned, skin flushed and coated in a sheen of sweat. “What are you doing here?”
Rubbing my teeth together, I edged closer. “I need to see Mariyah.”
“Well.” She dragged out the word and chuckled like she was high, eyes wide and dancing. “She’s a little busy right now.”
“Busy doing what?” I bit out and placed my hand on the door. “Where’s Candy?”
She narrowed her eyes at my arm. “Drop the hand, Shehryar, and step back. Now.”
Every fibre of my being wanted to do the exact opposite, but I rolled my clenched jaw and obeyed.
Esmeralda straightened a second later, and keeping her body in the way, opened the door further.
I. Saw. Green.
Literally and metaphorically.
Candy was sitting on a chair in a circle of Queen Leila, my mum, Gigi, Alisha, the second sous chef, Lola, Nur’s wife, who I’d only met once before, and two other ladies I couldn’t quite see properly.
Sitting on Candy was Mariyah. Wearing a skimpy green dress with a frayed hem that barely covered her arse and made her look like the fairy of sex who’d left her wings at home.
Her back was to his chest. Her thighs straddling his. His shirt buttons undone. His hand on her belly and decolletage. Her back arched. She was grinning with her head on his shoulder while he whispered in her ear, but they took instructions from Gigi, and he pushed her upper body forward. Mariyah folded over, clinging on to his knees, and shook her arse…
In his fucking lap.
The women cheered excitedly, but my jealousy roared ten times louder, shaking me to the bone.
I stepped forward. And Esmeralda shut the door behind her.
“Esmeralda,” I growled, well aware that I was threatening the crown princess who employed me but unable to bring myself to care. Right then, she was nothing more than a little sister blocking my path.
“No. You’re not going in there, Sher,” she said sternly. “She’s been in a rubbish mood all day today, and she’s finally having a bit of fun—”
“She’s grinding on another man,” I snapped. “On fucking Candy.”
The image was burned into my retinas, and I wanted to incinerate it.
Esmeralda crossed her arms and tipped her chin up in an almost mocking manner. “So?” She quirked a brow. “What claim do you have on her that she can’t enjoy Candy’s company?”
I opened my mouth…and nothing but a choked sound came out.
For fuck’s sake, I couldn’t. I didn’t have one, and Esmeralda bloody damn well knew that.
Gritting my teeth, I stepped back and turned away, and raked both my hands through my hair. I tugged at it in frustration, considering my options.
I couldn’t justify making a claim on Mariyah just yet, but—
I spun back to Esmeralda and shook my head. “I don’t have a claim on her.” My tone lowered with a very real threat. “But I’ll wring any man’s neck who assumes he does. Including Candy.”
Esmeralda leaned back on one bare foot and eyed me carefully. Honestly, she was small enough that all I had to do was pick her up under the arms and physically move her out of the way to get to Mariyah. But I knew she wouldn’t take kindly to being manhandled. As sweet and bubbly as she looked, Esmeralda would tear my ears off with her bare fingers before I could even open the door.
“If I let you in,” she finally said, “what are you going to say to her?” In my stiff silence, she raised her brows. “Do you have an answer for what she asked you this morning?”
My shoulders dropped as I sank back on my weight. “So you know?” I said, not surprised that she did but rather chagrined. Esmeralda wordlessly angled her chin higher. “How much do you know?”
“Enough to be disgusted and ashamed of what you said to her, Shehryar.” Guilt forced my gaze to the floor. “How could you? She liked you, and you turned around and insulted her. And for what? If you didn’t like her, if you weren’t interested, all you had to do was politely reject her and—”
“I was interested,” I snapped, speaking aloud what I never had.
Stunned silence followed, and I angled my gaze to the door as I scrubbed a hand over my face.
“I was interested,” I repeated softly. “But she was your only friend, and I…”
Esmeralda’s shoulder slipped lower in understanding. “You were an idiot for hurting her for my sake.”
Probably. But I’d been a lot of things five years ago.
I’d been out of the Army for barely a year and started my role as Esmeralda’s bodyguard and private secretary. We were in a new place, her relationship with King Kareem was awful, and I didn’t want to fuck it all up by sleeping with her one and new and only friend.
More than that, I hated how I was attracted to Mariyah.
At twenty-two, I had a lot of anger and hatred towards my father and the wealthy population of Neves in general. And Mariyah had been brought up in that very world.
Her family wasn’t super rich, but rich enough that there had been moments when her attitude or something she’d said or done had left an irritated taste in my mouth. Thinking back, they had only been minor things done by a young girl still growing up between all the affection and love she’d shown Esmeralda. But I’d used them to label her as a spoiled rich kid, and yet I still found her undeniably beautiful. I still caught my gaze lingering on her way too often, and that made me grow frustrated with myself as much as with her.
So, when the chance had arisen by the river to reject her once and for all, I’d taken it firmly by the hand, telling myself it was to guarantee she didn’t try to pursue me. But really, other than ensuring I didn’t ruin anything for Esmeralda, I was just taking my frustration out on her.
I’d been childish and beyond rude. I’d been an idiot. And in the process, I’d earned myself five years of every test to my self-control and sanity. Because what should have ended on that night instead started warfare between us. I’d held on to my anger, and she’d held on to hers. We threw insults and bickered, ignored and tested each other all in the name of hate. And for what?
For five years, I did my best to avoid her, but I’d never managed to avoid thinking about her. And one touch, one moment of jealousy was all it had taken to ignite the feelings I hid behind “ hate .”
Now that I’d tasted her passion, vulnerability, and integrity with the never-ending sass directed at me, I wasn’t sure I could go back to pretending I hated her. Not even for Esmeralda’s sake.
Esmeralda sighed heavily, her arms going slack by her sides. “Why didn’t you tell her that this morning?”
“Because…” I squeezed my nape, trying to ease the tension locking up my muscles. “I didn’t know how to explain it without sounding like the judgemental dickhead she already thinks I am.”
“Well, knowing Mariyah, she will likely still think you’re a judgemental dickhead.” She gave me an encouraging smile. “But she’ll appreciate your honesty.”
I edged forward. “So, can you—”
“No.” Esmeralda put her hand against my chest. “That doesn’t mean I’ll let you see her now. And she’s not in the mood to listen yet, so there would be no point anyway.”
“But Candy,” I growled, pushing forward.
She pushed back. “I’ll get him to leave. But you’re leaving too.”
I knew Esmeralda would get Candy to leave, but that assurance did nothing to dampen the urge to charge in like a bull when she opened the door to head back inside.
“And Shehryar,” she said over the music and commotion. “If you hurt her this time, I will not choose you over her. But I would rather you didn’t make me choose at all.”
And then she disappeared inside.