Instead, it was his cousin.

No, it wasn't Perez, but his brother. The middle brother who I haven't met yet, I believe his name was Pazel.

I figured Nicandro would probably not be here, since he couldn't be seen leaving his own party in the middle of it without it looking bad. But I also thought it would be Efren, not his cousin who I had never met.

I realised he wasn't attracting a lot of attention from people, probably he was just a teenager. He looks about sixteen, has the same jet-black hair and grey eyes as his brothers. I approached him, he noticed me before rolling his eyes.

"Finally, you're here." He sulked and started walking off already. He sure seems nice.

"I'm sorry." I decided to say, not wanting to get on the wrong side with a prince.

He took out his phone from his suit pocket and typed something. "Whatever. I only agreed to be part of this sneaking around lovebird operation because I will combust if I spend another minute in that ballroom." So he wasn't a sociable person like his two brothers, that I can tell.

I didn't bother to ask him where we were going, not wanting to fuel to his frustration. Did Nicandro have to force him into this? I hope not. Not long after we reached the elevator, which he took out his phone and I saw him texting on Discord, which I had discovered is a social media platform, mostly used for gaming though. I was also pretty sure princes weren't allowed to be on any social media platforms.

Before I could continue my thought process, we had reached the highest deck of the ship. In fact, we were at the far end of the deck, where no one was. Pazel opened a door which then I saw Nicandro standing at the railing, looking out at the ocean. He quickly turned his head around when he heard my heels clicking as I walked through the door.

"Remember to hold up your end of the deal, Nicandro," Pazel called out.

"Of course. Thank you, Pazel." Nicandro replied before Pazel closed the door shut behind him.

What deal? I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and before I could ask Nicandro about that, he had somehow appeared right in front of me, put his hands on my neck and pulled me towards him for a toe-curling kiss.

I completely gave in and melted in his arms. After everything I had been through since the last time I saw him; getting stabbed by my biological father's ex-fiancé, saying goodbye to my half-sister, confrontation with Anton and finding out Felon had known for months what I've been up to, plus even what happened tonight with finding out his grandfather has signed a contract that he is to marry some duchess, this just reaffirmed that after everything, my feelings for him never faded since he kissed me during the winter ball last year.

"I missed you so much." He whispered as he broke the kiss and leaned his head down so that his forehead is touching mine.

"I see you listened to me and kissed me without my permission." I teased him and we both chuckled before he placed a soft kiss on my forehead.

He then moved both his hands down to my waist and gestured me to walk towards the railing. "Sorry about the dance."

I turned my body, facing him and reached my hand to touch his cheek. "It's fine, I understand. Perez told me everything."

"I only found out about the contract about a week after the court decided I was going to be the next king and wasn't losing my title that it was 'suddenly' discovered. They're not even trying to hide how hungry they are for the Spanish throne anymore." He lightly scoffed before his hand touch my hand on his cheek, moving down to his chest. "Have faith in me that I'll get myself out of the contract?"

I gave his hand a squeeze. "Of course." Then I remembered a question that had been bugging me. "What does Perez have against the contract?"

"Alina's family. More specifically, her brother's fiancé. The woman he is engaged to, Janelle is Perez's ex-girlfriend. He was deeply in love with her, and she broke his heart when she showed that she only got together with him to try to get to me since I'm closed off by... kissing me." He threaded the last two words carefully.

I nodded in understanding, obviously I don't blame him for telling me every girl he kissed when I hadn't told him about Walter myself. I chose to tell him I wasn't bothered by lightening the mood. "Well, I hope they don't have anyone else in the family who is suited to marry you."

He let out a laugh and hugged me closer to him. "Even if they do, I'm going to cut all ties with that family during the discussion in the coming few days, so that no one else in my family or even future generations are dragged into another contract with them."

We stood in silence, looking out into the ocean. The waves were stable, they feel calming to look at night even. At a distance, I saw a flickering light. I remembered there were a few smaller ships following this big one, for protection and all.

I shivered, the cooler temperature in the night getting to me. The wind was blowing at a faster speed now, which sent chills into my body. Nicandro noticed it and gave me his suit which I accepted as he would've insisted either way.

"So... Pazel is interesting." I simply stated.

Nicandro chuckled. "Yeah, clearly very different from his brothers. The both of us get each other on a different level, being the only introverts in our family."

I quickly connected the dots. "I'm guessing your part of the deal was covering his ass for leaving the party so early."

"My plan worked perfectly well, didn't it?" He smirked which I blushed at.

All of a sudden, I heard the door opened behind us and on instinct, took one step away from Nicandro. My body completely stilled when I saw Walter behind.

So much for not running into him the entire time on the cruise.

He must have noticed me, because he was practically staring at me, while I turned away from him, pretending to be ignorant to this situation. I wonder what he must be thinking right now, seeing me here after our awkward encounter a while back, on a deserted part of the ship with the crown prince of Spain.

Nicandro definitely noticed the prolonged silence from Walter. "Anything I can help you with anything, Walter?"

Nicandro called Walter informally. This meant they probably talked sometime tonight during the party. Now I'm more intrigued to know why Walter was invited on the cruise ship.

Walter finally snapped out of his trans. "Not at all, your highness. Was just finding a private spot for some air and a smoke." He chuckled awkwardly and waved the cigarette in his hands. "Didn't know you were with someone out there. Sorry to interrupt, I'll leave you two alone now."

When I heard the door close, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. But I wanted to know Walter was on the ship. "Who is he?" I asked Nicandro.

"His father is the minister of foreign affairs in Russia, which was why he was invited. We talked a short while, about him wanting to join an advanced enrolment programme for pilots." He answered which I was relieved by. The conversation will probably be a one-time thing, I hope.

I didn't want to think about this yet another awkward encounter with Walter any longer, so I changed the subject. "I had a chat with the prime minister of the UK right before I came to see you."

"Right, Breton's sister. I'm surprised he didn't come onto the ship." Nicandro stated and I widened my eyes at him.

"You-you knew the man I've been staying with me is the brother of the prime minister of the UK?" I hit him lightly on the shoulder. "And you didn't tell me?"

He held up his hands in defence. "I assumed you knew."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do I look someone who has ever read British politics? I never even had a social media account."

"Neither have I." He shrugged. "And I'm not interested in politics in general, but I've to be updated of it, for my job." That earned a face from me. Because there was no way he didn't search him up. Whenever any of my friends came to my house, no one pointed out that Breton was the prime minister of the UK's brother. Plus, Breton wasn't one to want to be in the spotlight.

"Okay fine, I searched him up after the winter ball last year." He threaded his last words carefully, what he meant was after I ended whatever that was going on between us and left Spain. "I wanted to make sure you were in the right hands."

The conversation took a sudden drop in mood. Because we both know, as hard as we tried, that the next thing we were going to say had relations to Felon. Basically, most of our problems led back to him.

"Maybe I shouldn't have left Spain. I should've known he was never going to leave us alone." I sighed. "Despite it being almost half a year since the winter ball, I still worry every single day that one day, he's going to stop lurking in the shadows and strike at you or me, as he did with your grandfather, I-"

I was cut off when I felt Nicandro's arms around me as he embraced me into a hug. "Don't say that, you deserve to live a normal life and I'm glad you got even a snippet of it in these past few months. Don't let him dominate you." I nodded my head against his chest.

I had several things to tell him regarding Felon, but I just stood in silence, holding him, and listening to his heartbeat. Felon had ruined our lives enough already; I won't let him ruin tonight for us too. The next few minutes, just the two of us facing the ocean and the sound of his heartbeat was the most peaceful I've felt since the night of the winter ball when we were enjoying the magnificent view from the balcony in the castle.

He then said he needed to get back to the party, which I was saddened by, but I understood. I told him I was retiring for the night since there was no reason for me to go back, but not before I went to the bar Sha said she was at, just to check on her. Naturally, he insisted that he walked with me to the bar, as he knew where it was, then back to my suite with me.

"Which one is your friend?" Nicandro asked.

"The one wearing the bright red dress, with the sparkly top," I answered.

When we reached the bar, we stood at a distance and saw that Sha has occupied herself just fine. Clearly, she was able to fit in way better than I do. She was sitting at a table with six other people, one of them being the Australian guy, probably telling a joke as they all laughed soon after.

As soon as we were beyond hearing distance, Nicandro commented. "She seems fun, I look forward to meeting her tomorrow after the game."

"What game?" I questioned.

"There's a football game tomorrow in the evening, ten guys will be playing, including the guy who saw us back on the deck." He explained. Bloody hell. "Of course, the both of you are invited."

"I'm not going to be able to see you for the whole day until evening time?" I pouted.

"I'm afraid not, I've back-to-back meetings the entire day." He gently rubbed my back. "Which is why, once the game is done, I'm all yours."

"To be fair, I'm yours too." The cheesy line I said surprised myself. What surprised me more was the next thing I said. "Since I'm your girlfriend."

Nicandro was very taken aback by my impulse to declare that, but he managed to go with the flow. "And as your boyfriend, I've planned something special for us."

I turned to face him as we reached the door to my suite. He looked like he was going to say something, which I then pressed my lips on his before he could get a word out. "I can't wait," I said between the kisses I planted on his lips.

"You beat me to it." Nicandro was panting from the kisses I was giving him. "I was going to ask you tomorrow to officially be my girlfriend with a whole set-up; flowers and candles."

"Good thing I did it then, I think Efren will thank me for not putting him through setting up all that." I joked, in response, he picked me up and spun me around, which I yelped before putting me down again.

"Alright, I've to go now or else I'm never going back." He did a quick peck on my lips. "Goodnight, Alveanea."

"Goodnight, Nicandro," I said back before painfully letting go of his hand and seeing him walk away from me.

I then remembered I forgot to return this suit back to him. I was going to call out to him but stopped myself as a thought surfaced.

Let Alina see my lip gloss on his lips, his ruffled shirt and that his suit is gone.

That won't get her to back off, but at least it will be satisfying to think about how distraught she would be the rest of the night.