Page 25 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Esmeralda awkwardly held her palm flat, the juice from the ice-lolly glistening on her skin. Without a thought to it, I ripped off a tissue from the kitchen roll sitting at one end of the island.

But instead of giving it to her to wipe her hand like I bloody should have, I wrapped my fingers loosely around her wrist and held her palm up so I could clean the sticky liquid.

She stilled. It was obvious, but I didn’t feel it instantly. I was too busy glaring at the task at hand—no pun intended. All until I lifted my lashes and found her eyes, huge and round and completely unmoving, her cheeks even more pink than before. I didn’t need my glasses to see the shock in those captivating kaleidoscope irises of hers.

It was my turn to freeze.

Shit. What the fuck was I doing?

I was wiping a grown woman’s hand for her like she was a child. And one I hardly actually knew too. At least not enough to do something so…so…intimate.

My ex-fiancée would have hated something like this. She had always said my attempts to care for her or help her were overbearing and annoying. That I was being condescending.

My therapist had told me otherwise. It had taken some time to believe her, but that didn’t mean I was dumb enough to think what I was doing to Esmeralda was okay. It was bloody weird.

I tore my hands back, almost knocking myself in the chest. “Sorry,” I muttered, struggling to meet her gaze. “You didn’t need me to do that.”

It might have just been my ears, but she seemed to let out a shuddering breath as she cupped her hand in the other. I braced myself, waiting for the onslaught of her disgust to hit me.

“No, no, it’s okay,” she said quietly. I blinked—wait, what? She smiled a little shy curl. “Don’t apologise. I didn’t mind.” Her shoulders lifted. “I mean, we’re friends, right? So it’s fine.”

“We’re friends?” I blurted out on a croak.

Her face fell. “Oh…I thought...” She shifted uncomfortably. “We’re not?”

Shit. That wasn’t what I meant.

“No,” I said a little more aggressively than I needed to. Esmeralda flinched and her face turned paler. Fuck, I made it worse. “No, I meant yes. Yes, we are friends…we’re friends.”

Esmeralda’s mouth cautiously tipped, but it wasn’t exactly a smile. “You don’t sound sure.”

I moved my weight from foot to foot, rubbing at my ear. “No, I’m sure. I am.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

She cocked her chin, eyeing me with a glimmer of amusement. “Can you shake on it?”

My brows bunched together, but I stuck my hand out. After a second, Esmeralda’s smile stretched, and she fit her palm against mine. She had a surprisingly firm grasp.

“Friends,” she said.

I was way too aware of how soft her hand felt against mine. “Friends.”

Our hands stayed intertwined between us before our fingers slowly slipped apart. My skin prickled as I dropped my hand to my side. I could still feel the cold imprint of her slim fingers.

“I’m—” My voice sounded ridiculously gruff, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “I’m going to get something to eat. Would you like anything?”

“No, thank you. I’ve already had what I wanted.”

Before I moved away, my gaze fell to the lolly stick still in her hand. Resisting the urge to simply pluck it from her, I pointed at it. “I can bin that for you. If you would like me to.”

“Thank you.”

I pinched the stick from her using the tissue, binning it on my way to the larder room at the back. Returning with three tangerines and two protein bars, I sat on the stool next to where she sat on the counter, making sure I didn’t bump her leg this time.

It was too late to move without seeming rude by the time I realised her lap was right in my eyeline. And when she crossed her bare thighs over… It was completely out of my control that my gaze was drawn to the movement.

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