A Royal Christmas Cruise: Stonewall Investigations Miami Read online

  “Are you accusing me of something?” The stepfather—Henry was his name—took a step forward. I puffed my chest, ready to throw a fist if it came to it. Luna also tensed. I could tell she was getting ready to jump in, but was still listening intently. Her mom stood to the side, confused as all hell.

  “Why did you run from me at the sweater party? After I had seen the flash go off on your phone?”

  “I didn’t run anywhere.” Henry spoke with a heavy Spanish accent. “I needed to find the bathroom.”

  Shiro tilted his head back. He didn’t believe him, and neither did I. “You bolted, and you went away from the bathrooms. You were clearly trying to lose me in the crowds.”

  “So what? If I want a picture of the party, I can get one.”

  “Show me your phone.” Shiro held his hand out.

  “No.” He put his hands in the pocket of his cargo shorts, as if blocking us from reaching in.

  “Show us your phone and it’ll solve everything.”

  Luna shook her head. “This is a little crazy. I don’t think—”

  “Show them the phone, Henry.” It was Luna’s mom, Theresa. Her lips were held in a tight line, almost as narrow as the eyebrows she’d drawn on. “I’ve been seeing strange numbers on his phone.” She was speaking to us, Henry looking at her with a dumbfounded expression. “I’ve noticed him taking a lot of photos. More than usual. I didn’t think he was selling them, but… Show us the phone, Henry.”

  “¿En serio?” he asked her.

  “Very serious.”

  For a hair of a second, I thought he was going to run again. I half expected him to bolt, making Shiro and I run after him. He must have been hit with common sense at the last minute since he stayed put and pulled out his phone. With the way he was resisting, I knew we were about to find something. If it wasn’t a stash of photos he had taken of me, then it would probably be a stash of nudes he’d been collecting from a mistress. One or the other, Henry acted guilty before he even unlocked his phone for us.

  Luna grabbed it first and went straight for the text messages. “There’s nothing here. He didn’t send that picture to me.”

  “Maybe he deleted the text,” I suggested.

  “Or,” Shy said, taking his turn with the phone, “he’s got it hidden somewhere…” He poked at the screen, thumbing through the pages of unorganized apps filling up the phone. It didn’t take him much longer to go, “Aha.” I watched all the color from Henry’s face drain. He was caught, and he knew it.

  “Look at this.”

  Shiro handed me the phone. It was an app that generated new numbers for anyone using it. In it was a text message sent to a contact, and that message contained a photo of Shy and me. It was the same message Luna had received.

  “Fucking bastard.” I showed the phone to Luna and Theresa, both of them looking at Henry with intense disappointment in their eyes.

  “Why, Henry?” It was Theresa. “You know the kind of hell Nicholas goes through. Why would you be one of the leeches who puts him through it? And on a vacation that Luna tells us is supposed to be private?”

  “It was good money.” Henry let his shoulders slump. He had nowhere to run now, and he had no more photos to sell. I’d make sure of that.

  “Well,” I said, turning to face the ocean, “use that money to buy you a new phone.” I let the phone fly, throwing it as hard as I could. I watched it splash into the ocean, the tide tugging it deeper into the darkness. Henry shouted a curse but didn’t run after it. He just put both hands on his face while Theresa gave him a slap over the head.

  “And that’s too bad. You probably would have wanted to capture this up close.” I turned back to Shy and grabbed his head in my hands. I gave him the sloppiest kiss I could have, making sure it was clear that tongue and spit was involved. It may have been a little over-the-top, but fuck it, I felt like this was the perfect way to end this messy paparazzo saga.

  Besides, there was nothing else I could do. Maybe legal action, except the damage was already done, and I also didn’t want to negatively affect Luna or her mom either. Let Henry learn from his lesson and be banned from the palace for the rest of his life.

  Done and done.

  “All right. I’m going to go enjoy the rest of my Christmas.” I wiped the shine off my lips. Shy looked a little shocked, but the smile playing on his face told me he quite enjoyed closing this case.

  As we started to leave, Henry and Theresa went off in the direction of the ship, the two of them loudly arguing. Luna walked with us back to the table where Shy’s friends were sitting.

  “Nicholas, I’m so sorry. I never would have even imagined… I shouldn’t have let that slide.”

  “It’s all right, Luna. Shit happens. I’m just glad we’ve plugged up this leak. I can enjoy the rest of the cruise now.”

  “Okay, good… And Shiro, when you interviewed me, I didn’t even bring them up because, well, I really wouldn’t expect one of them being involved.”

  Shy waved a hand in the air. “I should have dug a little deeper. We both dropped the Christmas ornament on this one.”

  Luna pursed her lips. As we reached the table, I could tell she was about to keep walking, most likely to stand a few feet away so she could keep watch over me discreetly. Shiro stopped her before she could go.

  “Hey, guys.”

  The table quieted down and looked to Shiro, who had Luna’s hand in his. “This is Luna. She’s a friend of mine and just so happens to be Nick’s undercover guard. He needs it, considering he’s the prince of Spain and all. So, yeah, everyone, meet Luna!”

  His friends all stared for a moment before the table broke out into laughter. Shy laughed, too, finally saying, “No, guys, I’m being totally serious right now.”

  Ace was the first to break out of the stunned spell. “I fucking knew it!” He clapped his hands and stood up, pointing at Rex. “This one here said that maybe you were someone from an oil family, but nope, I called royalty!” He flipped his hand and opened his palm. Rex, with a defeated grin, pulled out his wallet and slapped it on Ace’s palm. Ace opened the cracked brown leather wallet and pulled out a fifty.

  “Thanks, babes.” He kissed Rex before sitting down, pocketing his win. The rest of the gang still appeared stunned. Lou blinked a few times, his girlfriend typing away furiously on her phone before lifting up and saying, “He isn’t lying,” with a picture of me and my family on her screen, the palace rising behind us.

  A deluge of questions fell on me then. All at once. I tried answering them, but it was futile. The dam had broken. We spent a good twenty minutes covering the bare basics of life as a prince, but the questions were just not stopping.

  Shy was able to press pause. “Okay, all right, guys. We’ll continue this Prince Silva meet and greet in fifteen minutes. Let us go get drinks first. We’ve gotta fuel up,” he said, interrupting as Jada started to ask me how the crown was cleaned. Luna took over the questions as we excused ourselves.

  We walked through the sand, over to the bar that sat tucked inside of a straw hut.

  “That was kind of you,” I said, leaning against the polished wood as the bartender worked on making someone else’s drink. “To introduce Luna to the group.”

  “I figured her Christmas was turning out pretty shitty, I didn’t want her standing off to the side all by herself. And I also figured it would be a great way to just drop the news on them about you being a prince. They were going to find out eventually.”

  I leaned in for a kiss. “It worked out perfectly.” I looked back at the table. Luna was laughing and chatting with Jada and Nick. Lou danced with his girlfriend next to the tiki torch, twirling her around as the music picked up. Ace and Rex were being very touchy-feely with a handsome olive-skinned bartender they seemed to have lured out from behind the bar and who was now sitting on Rex’s lap as Ace appeared to be giving him a hand massage.

  “Who would have thought this would be how our Christmas played out,” Shy said, bumping into my s
ide.

  “Certainly not me. I had no idea what to expect when I boarded the ship.”

  Before I could order our drinks, my phone started to buzz. I thought maybe it was some family member or friend back at home calling to wish me a merry Christmas.

  The name on my screen made me freeze. Shy looked at the phone, his eyes opening wide.

  Above the picture of the smiling man who looked a lot like me was written the word “Papa.”

  “I’ve got to answer this,” I said, feeling the nerves rocket up inside me all over again. Shiro nodded and said of course as I stepped to the side, the wind picking up just then and rustling the leaves of a palm tree just behind me.

  “Hola, Papa,” I said as the call connected. My heart beat terribly hard. Shy wasn’t that far from me. I looked to him in an attempt to calm myself down.

  “Hola, hijo.” It didn’t work. My heart beat even harder if that were possible. His expression was hard to read and slightly pixelated. I could see a seriousness in his blue-gray eyes and the barest ghost of a smile on his lips.

  He still called me son.

  “Listen, about earlier,” I started, wanting to end this tension once and for all.

  “No. Let me speak.”

  Oh shit. Okay.

  I quieted down, like I was a seven-year-old boy again being scolded by his father for shouting at the fancy fund-raising dinner.

  “Nicholas, your news shocked me. It came from nowhere and took me by complete surprise. I’m not used to that. I know about everything that goes on around me, at all times. I have eyes and ears behind every door. And yet, somehow, I missed this. I missed the fact that my son was hurting.”

  Behind my father, I could see the painting of Sierra Blanca he had hanging in his office. It was a painting I had commissioned for him as a fiftieth birthday gift by his favorite artist of the stunning mountain range, its limestone facade depicted in beautiful bold strokes of paint.

  “I should have known,” he continued. “Should have sensed something was going on with you.”

  “You couldn’t have known. I worked hard to keep it a secret.”

  “Which makes me even sadder for you, son. And the way I reacted. It came from my own fears and prejudices, not from your news itself. I’m sorry for that, Nicholas.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, swallowing a sudden lump in my throat. This was the first time I’d ever heard my dad apologize about anything. He never said sorry, not to anyone. Even when he sorely needed to, he had never said it.

  He cleared his throat. “I still have a lot to digest. It will be a process for me, I can’t say it will be the easiest thing in the world. But, what I can say, Nick, is that I love you unconditionally. Nothing will change that.”

  That was it. What I’d been needing to hear from my father. The words that soothed my soul like an aloe vera balm applied to a fresh burn.

  “Thank you, Dad. I know it’s a lot to take in, but—” I couldn’t keep speaking. My voice cracked and emotion welled up, threatening to take complete control.

  “But I’ll manage,” he said, picking up where I left off. “So long as my family is still whole, that’s all that matters. I spoke to your mother, and we’ve already come up with a plan on how to handle the press. The church will be a different matter entirely, but we’ll tackle that, too. I won’t disappoint you, son.”

  That struck deep. I nodded, knowing I couldn’t get any words out without turning into a sobbing mess.

  “The blood that flows through you hasn’t changed, Nicholas. Nothing about you has changed. Except for your glow. That smile. I haven’t seen you smile like that in what feels like years. How can I ever do anything to compromise that kind of happiness for my own son? I would be a heartless coward, not a worthy king. I won’t abandon you, Nicholas. Te amo, mi niño. And I will always love you. Gay, straight, bi, or whatever color of the rainbow you fall on.”

  That was it—all I needed for the tears to spill over like a flooded riverbank. I nodded and wiped at the flow but couldn’t stop it. It was so intense, I had to wave Shy over and hand him the phone for a moment while I collected myself.

  This went beyond everything I thought I needed. It went back to being a child and just wanting my dad’s approval, knowing deep down that there would always be something stopping him from giving it to me in its entirety. And yet, that assumption had been proven wrong. So, so fucking wrong. My dad was giving me his approval, the real me. He knew the real me, and he accepted me. Loved me.

  I pulled it together and grabbed the phone back, thanking Shy, who gave me a reassuring back rub before stepping to the side.

  “Dad, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

  Shy’s eyes opened wide, a small shake in his head telling me “no, no, that’s okay,” but I grabbed him anyway and pulled him into the shot. He smiled at the camera and gave a friendly wave.

  “Hi there.”

  “And this is?”

  “This is Shy—he’s my boyfriend.”

  My father’s ghost of a smile solidified, his face transforming completely when he wore a smile. He had one of the kindest faces ever, so long as his eyes crinkled and his dimples appeared.

  “Please to meet you, Shy. I’m Ricardo.”

  “Nice to meet you, Ricardo. Eh, King Ricardo. King Silva. Mr. Silva. Mr. King Si—”

  “Ricky is fine,” my dad said, laughing as Shy’s cheeks turned as red as rosebuds.

  “All right, Dad, I’ll let you go. Thank you for calling me. It really means a lot. Coming out is the scariest thing I’ve ever done, and now I can see that it’s also the most worthwhile thing, too.”

  “Of course, Nick. You deserve happiness, and you already seemed to have found it.” And through the pixels, I realized then that my father had shed tears of his own, a rogue glint of wetness shining at the corner of his face before he brushed it away.

  “Goodbye, hijo, and Feliz Navidades.”

  “Feliz Navidades, Dad.”

  Shiro shouted a merry Christmas from off-screen. My dad gave a friendly wave before another tear slid down his cheek. The call ended, his image freezing on his big grin before cutting to black again.

  I looked to Shiro, feeling both exhausted and relieved and ecstatic, all in one nerve-racked package. I pulled him in for a kiss and held him against me.

  “I can feel your heart beating through your shirt,” Shy said, putting his hand against my chest and looking up at me.

  “I’ve never been more scared.”

  “I’m so glad he came around to the rainbow side. I told you he would just need time. Thankfully it wasn’t too much time.”

  I kissed the top of his head. The deliciously fruity scent of his shampoo filled my nose. “My mom has a way with words. I’m sure she worked her magic.”

  “Yeah, but I think your dad would have come around regardless. His love for you is obvious. He wouldn’t have been upset for long.”

  “Thank you for being there for me, too.”

  Shiro looked up at me, the light of the torch dancing in the pools of his golden brown eyes. “Of course, Nick. I’ve got your back. Always.”

  “Always?”

  “Always.”

  I couldn’t keep my lips off him. I kissed him again before saying, “And I’ve got yours.”

  “Oh get a room, you two!” shouted a voice from off to the side. We both looked, seeing Ace and Rex walking away, the cutie bartender walking in between them, all three of them with their arms looped behind the other. “And when you do, give us that room number! We’ll be over with our party of three,” Ace said over his shoulder with a wink, sticking his tongue out.

  They left toward the ship, leaving me and Shy laughing, Shy’s cheeks blushing again.

  “Looks like they’re gonna have a good night,” Shy said.

  “And I plan on having an even better one.” I grabbed him and dipped him, kissing him, claiming him right there on the beach. In that moment, I had zero doubt about one thing:

  Thi
s Christmas truly turned out to be one for the books.

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  Shiro Brooks

  I kissed Nick softly, on the cheek first before pecking my way to his lips. He gave a tired little groan and stretched under the covers before flipping over, his naked body pressing against mine as he threw an arm over me and pulled me into him, stopping the kisses. I slipped into little-spoon mode and curled my body into his, crossing my ankles with him. His erection throbbed against my ass, making my own morning wood twitch in response. I looked out the open window of his bedroom, the morning sunlight filling the space, causing tiny dust motes to pop like sparkles in the air. Outside, the winter sky was cloudless, an expanse of azure stretching out for what seemed like infinity from my vantage point on the bed.

  “Good morning,” Nick said sleepily into the back of my head.

  “Merry Christmas, babe.”

  “Feliz Navidades,” Nick replied, sounding slightly more awake.

  His hand traveled the length of my side, stopping on my hip, his fingers just inches away from my cock.

  I flipped back over, facing him, our dicks rubbing together. I pushed my thigh between his, feeling his balls press against my skin. I smiled and kissed him again. I knew I could never get tired of waking up like this. It had been close to a month since Nick and I had slept naked and in the same bed together. Ever since our relationship began, we both worked hard to make sure not a lot of time passed until we saw each other again. Nick would fly me out to Spain or he’d fly to Miami, or we’d end up flying somewhere entirely new together. So long as we were together, then it didn’t really matter where we were.

  It helped that we didn’t care about the paparazzi anymore. I didn’t have to worry about sneaky shots, since there were already plenty of photos of us kissing. It meant Luna’s dad had to go find a new gig (and a new wife, since Theresa dumped his sketchy ass).

  This morning was extra special. Not only was it Christmas and I was waking up in Nick’s arms, looking out at the view of a beautiful palace rose garden dusted in pristine white snow, but it was also our one-year anniversary. It was last Christmas that Nick and I became official, marking the beginning of the best year of my life.