After the evening Nerina spent by the cove, where her shimmering skin briefly glowed beneath the moonlight and the sea whispered secrets only, she could hear, she returned to the island village feeling both hopeful and uneasy. Her presence stirred something ancient and unpredictable in the air.
Theo, meanwhile, found himself restless in his sleek villa overlooking the shore. Since their last encounter at the tavern, Nerina's image haunted his thoughts her soft voice, the way her eyes seemed to hold the ocean's depths. His carefully constructed world of spreadsheets and contracts suddenly felt fragile, like it could shatter with the slightest touch.
That night, unable to ignore the pull any longer, Theo sought her out again.
He found her sitting alone in the dimly lit tavern the same quiet refuge where they first spoke, but now something different hung in the air. Nerina's usual ethereal grace was tinged with vulnerability, the weight of her secret and their uncertain future pressing down on her.
Theo slid into the seat across from her, his jaw tight, fingers drumming once against the table before stilling. His usual composed mask cracked just enough to reveal something raw beneath.
"Nerina," he said, his voice low, rough, like gravel under silk. "I don't do love. Not anymore. Not after what it's cost me. And right now, with this island deal hanging by a thread and my board breathing fire down my neck I don't have space for it."
His gaze locked onto hers, a storm behind his eyes.
"But you..." He exhaled sharply. "You're the one thing on this island I can't control. I can't predict you. Can't reason my way around you. And it's driving me insane."
The air thickened between them, charged and humming.
"I'm not asking for forever," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I just want to feel something real with you. No labels. No tomorrows. Just this moment, before everything else pulls me under."