She didn't say the word. Didn't nod. Didn't even move for several seconds.
But when she finally stood, the weight of her decision wrapped around her like the pull of the tide gentle, inevitable, inescapable.
Nerina followed him.
The night air outside Theo's beachside villa was thick with salt and the scent of jasmine from the garden. The stone path beneath her bare feet was warm from the day's sun, and the quiet hum of distant waves echoed in her ears, a soft reminder of who she was and what she was giving up.
She had never done anything like this.
The door closed behind them with a soft click, sealing her away from the sea and from everything she had been taught. Her heart beat against her ribs like a drum calling storm, wild and terrified.
Theo's home wasn't what she expected. Modern, yes. But not cold. The space breathed with quiet elegance. Tall windows framed moonlight over the ocean, and soft, amber lighting curved along the edges of textured stone walls. The living room opened into a wide space of deep greys and worn wood, with sleek furniture that looked untouched, as if no one really lived here only passed through.
Nerina stood by the window, arms folded, fingers curled around her elbows. Her eyes scanned everything his leather armchair, the untouched wine decanter, the minimalist paintings hanging like secrets on his walls.
She didn't belong here.
Not in this world of sharp lines and expensive silence. Not in this man's life. But still, she was here. And her heart fluttered at the sound of his footsteps disappearing down the hallway.
"I'm going to shower," Theo said casually, without looking back. "Make yourself comfortable."
As if comfortable were something that could be summoned at will.
Nerina swallowed hard and lowered herself to the edge of the wide sofa. Her palms pressed into her knees, steadying. The cushion beneath her barely gave way firm and unfamiliar. Everything smelled like sea air and something deeper. Him. She could feel him all around the room, in the shadows, in the warmth left in the air, and it made her nerves crawl in the best and worst ways.
What am I doing?
This is madness.
But I chose it.
She pressed a hand to her chest, right above the last pearl. It hadn't fallen but it trembled, pulsing faintly, as if sensing the flood of emotion tightening her throat. She felt dizzy, suspended between fear and want, between tradition and the overwhelming pull of this man.
She had never been touched before. Not like this. Not with intention. Not with desire swimming under the surface.
And just as her thoughts grew too loud, too impossible to manage
He stepped out of the hallway.
Wet hair clung to his forehead in disheveled strands, droplets sliding from the tips and disappearing against the hard planes of his face. A white towel clung low on his hips, riding dangerously close to the edge, revealing the deep grooves of his V-line. His skin still slick with water shimmered beneath the warm lighting, every droplet tracing the sculpted ridges of his abdomen, gliding over the tight curve of his waist and down the length of his lean, powerful frame.
The broadness of his shoulders drew the eye first solid, commanding. But it was the way his chest rose and fell in an unguarded rhythm, the slow clench and release of his jaw, that made him feel real. Mortal. Vulnerable, even.
Each breath seemed to animate him from within, like he was carved not from stone but fire. His presence filled the room, quietly magnetic, and Nerina couldn't look away.
Even the faint scar slashing diagonally across his left pec held her gaze evidence of pain, of a life lived behind walls and battles she hadn't yet seen. He wasn't perfect. But he was devastating. Real. Tangible in a way no vision or dream had ever been.
And for the first time, she didn't feel like a creature from the sea.
She felt like a woman, suspended in the heat of desire she didn't yet know how to name.
He wasn't posing.
He wasn't trying to seduce her.
But he didn't have to.
Nerina's breath caught. Her eyes widened, her body freezing in place as unfamiliar heat rushed up her neck, into her cheeks, blooming across her chest like a wave breaking over stone.
So this is desire.
Raw. Fierce. Alive.
Her fingers curled tighter into the fabric of the couch, knuckles whitening, as her eyes were dragged helplessly along the slope of his torso. The subtle flex of muscle beneath damp skin. The trail of dark hair disappearing beneath the low dip of his towel. The way the water clung to him shining over his collarbone, tracing down his ribs like it, too, was reluctant to leave him.
Heat surged through her chest. Her throat tightened.
But it wasn't just the body it was him. The man behind it. The silence in his gaze as it locked with hers. The flicker of something unreadable in his eyes when he caught her staring. His jaw clenched not in arrogance, not to gloat but like he felt it too. Like this moment had wrapped its fingers around both their throats and squeezed.
Nerina's breath hitched. Shame battled with desire, with fear, with an ache she couldn't name. Her pulse roared in her ears. She had never touched a man before never even been this close and now, every nerve in her body screamed with the unfamiliar burn of wanting.
Something wild and ancient stirred in her belly. Not from magic. Not from prophecy.
From him.
And she didn't know whether to run… or let it consume her.
Theo ran a towel through his hair, saying nothing.
He didn't smirk. Didn't tease. Just looked at her with something unreadable and real. It made her chest ache.
"You can take the bathroom now," he said finally, voice low.
Nerina nodded, too breathless to speak. She stood carefully, her legs shaky beneath the weight of her decision, and disappeared into the bathroom with her thoughts a whirlwind behind her.
Inside, the scent of his soap lingered in the air earthy, clean, masculine.
She peeled off her clothes slowly, her fingers trembling just enough to betray the storm inside her. Each layer fell to the floor like a whisper, like a secret she wasn't sure she should be sharing. The silence in the room wrapped around her, thick with anticipation and something close to fear. It was a silence that seemed to hold its breath with her, as if even the walls knew she stood on the edge of something irreversible.
The mirror caught her reflection, and she froze.
The woman staring back wasn't the same Nerina who had walked barefoot onto the island, salt clinging to her skin and heart heavy with destiny. No this woman had flushed cheeks and wild, uncertain eyes. Her lips were parted, breath shallow, hair tumbling loose around her shoulders like a dark curtain. Vulnerable. Terrified. Beautiful.
Her hands hovered over her bare stomach. She'd never seen herself like this before not just naked, but exposed. Open in a way that had nothing to do with skin and everything to do with the flickering flame inside her. She was trembling not from cold, but from something deeper. The knowledge that she was about to step into the unknown, not just with a man, but with a part of herself she'd never dared to meet.
A part that craved.
The air felt different on her skin now charged, alive, tingling with every breath. She could still hear the water running in the other room, could still see the faint mist curling through the crack of the door. He was in there. Theo. Waiting. Unaware of how monumental this moment was for her.
She didn't know what came next only that something inside her had already shifted. She wasn't just surrendering to desire. She was surrendering to choice. To the terrifying, powerful freedom of saying yes.
And yet a quiet voice inside her still asked was it worth it, if his heart would never truly be hers?
She blinked at her reflection, and for just a moment, she thought she saw her eyes shimmer not with magic, but with something deeper. Longing. Hope. Maybe even love.
Then she turned away, stepped toward the steam-fogged door, and let her fate unfold.
When the warm water hit her skin, she braced herself.
But nothing changed.
She didn't shift. Didn't become scales and fin and tide.
Because it wasn't being wet that triggered her transformation. It was submersion. It was the sea itself.
Here, she was only Nerina. Only the girl in love with a man who might never understand the truth of her.
She pressed her palms against the wall, eyes closed, breathing deep.
You asked for this, she reminded herself.
You followed the pull. Now see it through.
Moments later, wrapped in the towel she found hanging by the door, she stepped out of the bathroom heart racing, body warm, and soul trembling with all the things she was afraid to say out loud.
And Theo... Theo was waiting.