Page 50 of Troubled Skies (Blue Skies #3)

“There was no mess to clean up,” Ren said. “At least none of Adrian’s making. You did not have to ask him to leave. And you did not have to offer him this.” Ren picked up the check and waved it at his father.

“Henri, sit. I refuse to have a conversation with you if you’re yelling at me.”

Ren knew his father’s tone of voice very well.

It was the one that brooked no dissent, that expected complete obedience.

If Adrian had said Ren was in “prince mode” when he spoke with the antiquities ministers in Valetta and Athens, this was “sovereign mode.” This was a head of state, someone used to dealing with ministers and leaders of countries and CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations, someone who was used to having their word obeyed as law.

This was also a man who had little familial warmth or patience for the role of father.

Ren sat.

“Please take a look at that paper, Henri, and let me have the check.”

Ren complied with both requests, passing the check to his father and glancing at the paper. It turned out to be a non-disclosure agreement with Adrian’s signature at the bottom.

“You didn’t need him to sign an NDA,” Ren said. “And you definitely did not need to pay him. If you had let me talk to—”

Ren’s father held up the check, then leaned over and fed it into a document shredder. “That was a lot of money for someone like him.”

Despite his agitated heart still hammering away, Ren took comfort in the fact that Adrian had not taken the money his father offered. “What do you mean, ‘someone like him’?”

“Did you know he’s a flight attendant?”

The information stunned Ren, not because of Adrian’s job—he already knew Adrian wasn’t from the same economic or social strata as himself—but because he hadn’t cared enough to ask.

They had talked about many things, but now Ren realized he hadn’t asked one very important question: how had Adrian come to be on the plane that crashed?

But, Ren realized, the fact that Adrian worked as a flight attendant accounted for the way he had handled Maurice and the rest of Ren’s partying friends. He smiled at the memory of Adrian trying to bring them to order with a studied competence.

“Henri?” His father was looking at him as if he were some interesting figure on a spreadsheet.

“It does not matter,” Ren said with a wave of his hand.

“I think it does.”

“Why? Because you think he is not good enough for me? He is the most amazing man I have ever known. You have no idea who he is, what he has been through, and still he is strong and full of hope. Still he sees the good in people. If you knew him, if you had taken the time to talk to him before you threw him out, you would know this.”

“I did take the time to talk to him.”

Ren scoffed. “Did you talk? Or did you lecture and scold?”

His father sighed. “Stop behaving like a petulant child, Henri. I talked to your young man.”

“And?”

“I want to know how you feel about him.”

Ren had been steadfastly staring at the family crest that hung on the wall behind his father.

It depicted a heraldic eagle suspended over water in the center with mountains on one side and a castle on the other, and the background was full of symbolic flora and fauna ascending to a knight’s helm that was crested by a crown.

Their family’s motto appeared on the bottom: Unitate et Honore. With Unity and Honor.

“I love him.” Ren lowered his gaze and met his father’s gaze straight on.

“It is my intention to go to him as soon as I am off this ship.” His father took a breath as if preparing to say something, but Ren beat him to it, his voice gaining strength and sureness with each word he spoke.

“I know you will say I am not allowed, and I say to you that I do not care. You may threaten me with another punishment, you may take away my credit cards and tell me there will be no more, but I do not care. You have made it clear you do not like me to be with men, but Adrian is not just a man. I love him. I want to be with him. And I will do what I must to make that happen.”

“Does he feel the same way about you?”

“Oui. He does.”

For a long moment, Ren’s father stared at him.

Ren returned that stare without flinching.

He wasn’t going to plead with his father.

He wasn’t going to justify his feelings or his actions.

He’d stated what he wanted and what he was going to do.

Now, he just needed his father to be done with him so he could get on with it.

“It was never about you being with a man, Henri.”

His father’s words struck him speechless, and Ren ended up gaping at him, powerless to ask him to explain. And when his father smiled, Ren nearly fell out of his chair.

“I can see this surprises you. But, no, you are my son, Henri, and when I saw that you were attracted to both men and women, I knew you would have an easier time if you could be with a woman. You know how brutal the press can be, the gossip, the paparazzi. You are a prince, Henri, you are the stuff of fairy tales and romance novels, and you have seen how you become scandalous fodder whenever there is a hint of you with a man. I knew, if this were the path you chose, it could compromise your ability to perform some of your official duties and expose you and your partner to the vilest insults from some of the public as well as other leaders and possibly endanger your lives. This is the kind of thing that can destroy even the strongest relationship, and Henri, until now I did not know if you had the fortitude to endure it. I did not know if there would be anyone, man or woman, who captured your heart enough for you to fight for them, and I did not know if you would be able to stand by your partner’s side and tell the world to fuck off. ”

His father’s final words were so unexpected that Ren laughed. And then stared at him as the full meaning of his speech sank in.

“Then I have your approval?” he asked, his voice shaky with the emotions that were welling inside him. He held his breath as he waited for his father’s reply.

“I think you should be more concerned with Adrian’s forgiveness,” his father said. “He has quite the temper.”

“Oui. Je sais.” Ren laughed again. “It is one of the things I love about him. He does not let me get away with much.”

“Good.” His father shook his head. “At first, I was angry with you for subverting my orders about your punishment, but Captain Giordano told me you had agreed to behave if Adrian was allowed to stay on board, and I decided to let things play out. When the captain told me you had defended Adrian in front of the officers, I knew something had changed for you, and now I see that I am correct. Adrian brings out something wonderful in you, Henri, and I hope you do the same for him.”

Ren thought about the way Adrian found comfort with him, the way he had found his strength, and nodded at his father. “I believe I do.”

“Then you should probably be on the next flight to Los Angeles.”

His father stood and came around his desk, opening his arms. Ren folded himself in them, tears in his eyes as he returned his father’s embrace. “Bonne chance, mon fils.”

“Merci. Je t'aime, Père.”

When Ren left his father’s office, his head was spinning. That had not been what he was expecting. But now, he had a bigger problem. He needed to find Adrian, and then he needed to go get him.