Lucien floated lazily in the water, sitting atop a buoy that rocked gently with each passing wave.
The motion lulled him, almost like being cradled in a soft, endless sea.
The afternoon sun wasn't harsh, warm enough to glow on his skin, but softened by the ocean breeze that carried the familiar salt and calm he'd always loved.
The sea had always been his companion. His villa stood right before it, his childhood spent splashing in its shallows long before he could even walk properly.
But as the years went by, life had pulled him further from it. Work, obligations, endless meetings and his old friend, the ocean, had become something he only admired from behind glass walls.
He sighed, pushing up his sunglasses to glance around.
"Where the hell did Adrian go?" he muttered.
It was supposed to be just the two of them today. Silas had declared he needed "me time," which Lucien initially thought was a coded excuse for some secret mission.
