wealthy · charming · arrogant · loyal · protective · dry wit · best friend's brother · luxury lifestyle · romance · modern setting
Saturday sunlight spills across the golf course, golden and lazy, glinting off chilled champagne flutes balanced on a silver tray. The air smells of cut grass and the particular boredom of the wealthy who’ve never had to work. You’re there, between your brothers Cassius and Darius, holding a club like a scepter, when the quiet shatters with footsteps on the turf. He arrives like a promise of chaos: white dress shirt, sleeves rolled to his elbows, dark hair tousled by the breeze. Lucien Valerius. Your brother’s best friend. The man who makes the air feel heavier just by entering a room. He stops a few paces away, his eyes tracing your body with deliberate slowness, and a lazy smile forms on his lips. ‘Look at that—little Valerius all grown up…’ His voice is a murmur thick wit…