9. Gabriel
GAbrIEL
PRINCE GAbrIEL OF VALORIA AND CROWN PRINCE ALEJANDRO MAKE A SPLASH AT SOLTERRAN WINE FESTIVAL
That was a fun headline to wake up to. It wasn’t the first time I was the top story of the day, considering it came with being born into a royal family—not to mention I had a tendency to…color outside the lines, as it were.
I was standing on the balcony of my suite, tea in one hand, my phone in the other, watching a clip of our fall for the third time. There I was, on my ass in a barrel of half-smushed grapes, looking more than a little mischievous only seconds before Alejandro lost his footing and went down hard.
Then came my favorite part. I grinned as I watched his head snap toward me, reddish-purple grape juice dripping down his face, his dark hair loose and his eyes full of murder.
Ahh. It was magnificent. It also brought our scores even:
Alejandro: 2
Me: 2…and climbing.
I chuckled to myself and took a screenshot for memory’s sake. Not because he looked good—he did, obviously, but that was beside the point. The look he was giving me was priceless, and it would go perfectly on the dartboard I planned on stealing back from Nicholas when I got home.
Before I could watch the clip again, my phone lit up with Nicholas’s name.
Speak of the devil.
My visit had been free of check-ins from my brother so far, which didn’t bode well for why he was calling now.
I accepted the video call and smiled at the screen. “Good morning, Your Majesty. You’re looking rather stern today. Has Noah decided to enjoy the honeymoon you put off all on his own, then?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
I lifted my cup. “Having tea.”
“Gabriel.”
“Fine. Standing on a balcony admiring the view and having tea. Would you like to see?” I turned around with my back against the railing and held the phone up so he could get an eyeful of the sea.
Noah appeared beside him, leaning into the frame so he could get a good look while Nicholas shook his head.
Well, I thought that was what Noah wanted to see, but he was biting back an amused expression as he said, “He means why are you trending under the phrase ‘royal grape fight’?”
“That’s what’s trending? Not how good I looked with my pants molded to my body from grape juice? How disappointing.”
Nicholas closed his eyes briefly. “You are supposed to be mending fences.”
“I am.”
“You dragged Alejandro down into a wine barrel with you. How is that helping?”
“Hey, I did not drag, I tripped. But he tripped me first.”
Noah’s brows shot up. “He did?”
“Was that not clear on the replay? Go watch it again; you’ll see his foot—”
“Gabriel,” Nicholas growled.
“It’s not my fault. I didn’t even want to get in the barrel, but apparently you have to work for your wine here. Alejandro said so himself.”
“Well, he also looked like he wanted to drown you in grape juice.”
“Yes, but only briefly.” When Noah couldn’t help but laugh before he coughed over it, I winked. “Don’t worry. The feeling’s entirely mutual.”
“Please don’t encourage him,” Nicholas said to his husband, but Noah only nuzzled in closer beside him and pressed a kiss to his jaw.
“I married you. Encouraging impossible royal men is apparently one of my flaws.”
Nicholas turned his head to look at Noah, his expression softening slightly.
I still couldn’t get over the change in my twin, and it was both strange and wonderful to see him in love and happy, not just carrying the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders.
Nicholas sighed and faced me again. “Tell me honestly. Is he being difficult?”
“Alejandro? Nah.” I took a sip of tea and looked out at the waves crashing against the rocks, and wasn’t that just a perfect visual of the two of us? We were both big and persistent and constantly striking against something hard…
My mind went back to last night, and how hard Alejandro had been when I caged him in against the wall.
Hell, how hard I’d been. He could deny it all he wanted, but there was a fine line between hate and hate-fucking, and we were walking that tightrope just waiting for the other to teeter off the side.
It wouldn’t be me. I’d done the right thing and walked out of the fencing salle last night…and then taken a long, hot shower with my dick in my hand.
“Hello? Did the connection drop?”
Nicholas’s voice had me blinking, shoving those thoughts back into a box under lock and key. “Sorry, yeah, the connection went wonky for a second.”
“I asked if you were lying.”
It took me a second to remember the last thing I’d said. Oh, right. Alejandro being difficult. “Would I lie?”
“Yes.”
“Your dear ex-fiancé—sorry, Noah—is behaving just as I expected.”
“Meaning?”
“He’s very”—I filtered out the indecent words—“Solterran. Dramatic, proud, a little homicidal. Nothing I can’t handle.”
Noah’s eyes went wide. “Homicidal how?”
“With peppers, mostly. Oh, and then his big sword.” His eyes got impossibly wider, and I added, “You remember, Noah, you were there.”
“For the love of…” Nicholas pinched the bridge of his nose. “Gabriel, you promised you would smooth things over, not make them worse. These headlines? The videos? They’re not helping. If you can’t do this—”
“I didn’t put my digestive tract in harm’s way for nothing.
” I set my cup on the balcony table and then ran my fingers through my hair, only for the wind to immediately muss it up again.
“I know why I’m here, but you’ve got to own your part in this too.
It’s not my fault he’s a little pissed off and I happen to share your face. ”
There was silence on the other side of the screen as he took that in. He knew I wasn’t wrong, and I understood the frustration, but the situation was a little more complicated than just giving Alejandro a simple apology and going on my way.
“Look, you sent me here for a reason. I’ll charm him. It’s just going to take a little longer than we expected. I know, I’m shocked too.”
Noah snorted. “Is this a first for you?”
“You know, I don’t remember you being this mouthy when you were a footman.”
“Oh, I always was. I just didn’t verbalize it.”
I pursed my lips. “So when you were beating me at mahjong, you didn’t mean it whenever you apologized?”
Noah grinned. “Of course I meant it. I was sorry you were so bad.”
My eyes flicked to Nicholas. “You did ask him,” he said.
“And you’re going to let him get away with talking to me like that?”
“He can talk to you however he likes. In my opinion he’s still a little too polite, but that’s just Noah’s way.”
I chuckled, pleased with what Noah’s presence had done for my brother’s usually drab sense of humor.
“Maybe I’ll become a mahjong expert while I’m here,” I said to my cheeky brother-in-law. “Then throttle you when I return.”
“I don’t know,” Noah said, and then winked—yes, our former footman just winked at me. I was kind of proud of that. “From what you’re saying, it seems Solterra is more of a hand-to-hand competing kingdom.”
“I believe I said sword-to-sword. You should know about that—”
“Gabriel,” Nicholas finally jumped in, as Noah started to laugh.
“What? I just meant a little fencing. Stop being so stuffy.”
“Then you stop being so incorrigible. You promised you’d behave.”
“And I have. I’m meeting Alejandro on equal ground. If he brings me a challenge, I rise to meet it.”
“Really? Is everything a reference to your cock?”
I frowned for a second. “Oh, I didn’t even mean that one. If your mind went below your pants, that was all you, brother.”
Noah laughed as Nicholas shook his head. “If you’ve got nothing else to tell us…”
“You called me, remember?”
“Something I’m beginning to regret with every passing minute.”
“Now, now, don’t go off all half-cocked.” That one I did on purpose. “Noah will never forgive me. I’m going to win Alejandro over. I just need time.”
Nicholas let out a sigh, and Noah put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
“He’ll do it,” Noah said, putting his support fully behind me. Something I appreciated, since I was used to having to convince Nicholas of my skills all on my own.
Not an easy feat when you were known as the “fun” one.
“Yes. I will. And the two kingdoms will become one.”
Nicholas raised a brow. “Now you sound like you’re planning to propose.”
“Uh, no. Now I sound like I’m going to end the call.” I plastered on my fakest of smiles. “So why don’t you two go and do whatever married couples who don’t take honeymoons do, and leave me to—”
“Fence?” Noah suggested. That little shit.
“I’m going now.”
“Bye, brother.”
“Mhmm. Bye.”