The sun had settled high and lazy in the cloudless sky, casting its gold across the vast stretch of turquoise as if the entire ocean had been brushed with sunlight. A gentle breeze licked the sea, warm and soft like a lover’s sigh. The motor of the private yacht purred low as it slowed to a stop in the middle of an impossibly blue lagoon, where a floating bamboo deck waited—tethered to nothing but a single invisible anchor, drifting in blissful solitude.

Kingsley stood at the edge of the ...