Page 20 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“Kai.”

I blinked. “Sorry?”

He looked up. “Call me Kai. And you didn’t offend me.”

My stupid heart did an excited flutter in my chest like he’d just told me he loved me. “Then please call me Esmeralda.” He gave me a single, awkward nod.

I glanced to the stool next to me. “Do you want to sit down?”

He slowly came around with his mug in his hand and set it down on the counter. The kitchen seemed to shrink as he folded his big frame into the seat. I suddenly felt so small and surrounded by him. And so damn aware of his scent.

I’d noticed it before but not like this, not from this close, but he smelt…enchanting. Like a magical forest—woody, fresh, but kind of sweet too with a vanilla undertone. It was delicious.

As he tried to get comfortable, his right thigh ended up pressed against my leg. Hard, warm, and muscly. And gone way too quickly as he tore it away like my touch burned him. But I could still feel the tingling, heavy imprint he’d left on me.

“Sorry,” he muttered, tugging on his earlobe.

I swallowed and tried to disguise my fluster behind a smile. “It’s okay. You’re big, so you need more space to fit.”

Kai’s gaze snapped around and like a slap across the face, I clocked the not-so-innocent way my comment could be interpreted. Fuck...

“Tall—tall, is what I meant,” I quickly corrected, embarrassment exploding through my face. I picked up my mug and burned my tongue on a gulp of tea in an attempt to cover up the blunder. “So.” I cleared my scorched throat. “You have insomnia?”

“Hmm, I do,” he said, thankfully sounding unbothered by what I’d said seconds ago.

“Can I ask how long you’ve had it?”

“For as long as I can remember. Even as a child. Yourself?”

I shrugged softly, the sensitive topic dampening my excitement over talking to him. “For about eight years now. Since the late Queen—I mean our—my mother passed away.” I avoided Kai’s gaze, but I felt and heard him shift in his stool. “One night I could sleep, the next I couldn’t.” Trying to lighten the heavy mood, I smiled. “So, yeah. That’s it really.”

He was absolutely still for a breath, then, “So now you spend your nights sitting in the rain determined to get hypothermia?”

I blinked once. Twice.

He had just…he just cracked a joke. With the straightest face ever. Why was that so sexy?

I grinned, big, fat, and pouty. “No.” I scowled playfully; his eyes travelled my face. “I wasn’t trying to get hypothermia. It’s called rain therapy, to help you relax. Have you never heard of it?”

He grunted, his not-exactly-a-frown turning frownier. “There is nothing therapeutic about rain.”

“You don’t like rain?”

“No. I hate it.”

I gaped a little. “My, that’s extreme. What did rain ever do to you?”

His jaw locked and he glared at me without an answer.

I chuckled softly, teasingly. “Gosh, I didn’t know the future Crown Prince of Touma was such a grouch. What would your fans think?” Forget that I was one of them.

His frown melted away completely. “How…how do you know that?”

Unlike Jahandar’s hereditary line of succession where the eldest child was automatically heir, Touma’s wasn’t. The heir to the throne could be chosen from any of the monarchs’ children—on a few occasions, nieces and nephews too—and Kai’s parents had yet to officially pick.

“Adam told me in the library,” I said. “Although, honestly, it’s not hard to guess it would be you. Prince Fay is more interested in focusing on his career as an artist, and Adam said he wasn’t particularly interested in the crown, so that only leaves you.”

“You’re right.” He eased into his chair. “Although Adam shouldn’t have told you. It was supposed to be a secret until the end of the Peace Celebration.”

---