Page 178 of Echoes in the Tide
When Adrian opened his eyes, the world before him was more vivid than ever. The endless blue of the sea, the golden shimmer of the sand, the painting of sky and waves merging in the perfect balance of light and motion.
And in the center of it all—hisson, resting against him, safe, warm, wrapped in love.
Hishusband, the man he had once thought lost to fear and time, a man that Adrian had no idea how he managed to get, now holding him like a vow, like a promise kept.
It was as clear as the tide beneath the sun, just as the ocean had created life,theyhad createdthis.
A family.
A love that had defied storms, survived distance, and now stood as unshakable as the shore.
Logan kissed his temple, whispering something small, something warm.
And Adrian smiled, knowing that the waves had done their part.
Logan caught his lips in a kiss—deep, brief, electrifying—before pulling back just enough to flash that devilish, all-consuming smile. The one that was all white teeth and mischief, the one that Adrian hated just as much as he loved because it meant Logan knew exactly what he was doing to him.
And oh, how Adrian was utterly mad for him.
He fell in love a little more every single time Logan’s silver eyes found his, like moonlight slicing through the darkest night, like the glint of sun on the crest of a wave before it crashes—powerful, untamed, breathtaking.
And when Logan laughed—oh, when he laughed—Adrian was lost. Completely, irreversibly, helplessly, his prisoner. Because that sound, beautiful sound that had once been buried beneath years of loneliness,was something Adrian would go to war for, something he would fight to protect.
Logan Vaughn was truly something else.
Something extraordinary, something so wildly unique that to love him, to have him, was to fight, to break, to dive into the deepest trenches of the ocean, to surrender to the tide and trust it would carry you back to shore.
Logan Vaughn was the essence of everything good.
Fierce and loyal, relentless in his love, forged in struggle yet soft in the ways that mattered most. He had come so far, through the wreckage, through the storms, through the waves that had once tried to swallow him whole.
And Adrian? Adrian was mesmerized, captivated, entranced.
Utterlybewilderedby the man currently holding him.
The man he had saved once.
The man who hadsaved himright back.
And eventually, the streams of water decided to take me back to you.
Through every storm, through every tide that pulled me away, through the currents that tried to drag me under—somehow, the ocean always knew where I belonged.
It let me drift, let me lose myself, let me crash and break and rise again, but it never let me go too far. Because no matter how far the waves carried me, they always brought me back to you.
Like the tide returning to the shore, like the moon pulling the ocean close, like the salt in the water that never fades, you were always there. The gravity that held me steady, the lighthouse that never dimmed, the home I didn’t know I was searching for until I found myself in your arms.
The End
