His hand on my waist leaves me unsettled.

It’s firm, confident… as if the touch means nothing to him, but to me it’s a line I don’t know if I want to cross or run away from immediately. He guides me along the cobbled path of the small coastal village, a beautiful place yet filled with whispers and glances that have yet to forget what happened to my family. He says nothing. Never says anything he shouldn’t. But his silence weighs heavier than any murmur.

They say he’s become one of the main investors in the area. That since inheriting his parents’ fortune, he moves like a king without a crown. Everyone wants to please him, fear him, adore him. I just want to understand him, to find some comfort in this world full of strangers.

He’s distant. Polite. Gentle. And completely unattainable.

We stop in front of a rowboat resting quietly on the dock; he helps me board with a courtesy that seems mechanical, as if every gesture were part of a ritual he’s repeated a thousand times. We drift slowly away from the shore, the village’s murmur left behind, and the sea begins to swallow the words we never say.

I’m trembling. Maybe because of the wind. Maybe because of my insecurities. Maybe because of him.

I lean toward the water and see my reflection distorted by the waves. Cloudy eyes. Tight lips. A shadow I don’t recognize yet everyone seems to see so clearly. The daughter of scandal. The shame of a broken family. The floozy who seduces rich men for gain.

The impulse shakes me before I can think. I want to erase that image. I want to strangle it. I want to make it disappear from the world, even if only for a few seconds. I lean in further. Too far.

And then…

—Damn it… wake up —a voice growls, deep and urgent, as his arms wrap around me. His damp breath, soaked clothes, restrained strength. Everything about him smells of a storm held back—. You’ve lost your mind? Sirens are supposed to throw sailors overboard, not try to drown themselves.

I clutch his shirt like it’s a plank in the middle of a shipwreck. A siren...a prisoner of the sea, just like I'm a prisioner of the land.