Chapter 2
For the first two days after I brought Adrian home, he had been… sweet.
That was the most confusing part.
He had pressed close to me on his own. Brushed his face against my shoulder. Even kissed me first once, quick and shy, like he had not meant to do it.
But this house was too small. The tub was too cramped. My money was too little. His skin dried out fast away from the sea, and sea-born men like him needed expensive oil to keep their scales and skin healthy.
By day three, all his softness had burned away.
He yelled.
He sulked.
He cried when the water was too cold, cried when the water was too warm, cried when the lard was rubbed on unevenly, cried when I took too long coming home, cried when I suggested river water instead of seawater.
He was high maintenance, high temper, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
And because he was so beautiful, I kept enduring it.
That afternoon, after nearly an hour of him yelling at me over whether I had missed a spot on his back, a splitting pain bloomed between my eyes and I finally snapped.
“Maybe I should just send you back to the ocean.”
Silence dropped so fast it was like the room had been struck mute.
Even the hens outside stopped scratching for a second.
Adrian slowly turned to look at me.
His eyes were red-rimmed. His face was wet. His expression was terrifying.
“Say that again,” he said softly.
I swallowed.
Then immediately backed down.
“I was joking. Keep going.”
He had such a nice voice, even when he was threatening me.
I cleaned the room in silence while he kept scolding me from the tub.
“Heartless,” he grumbled. “I just used a little lard. When I finish shifting, I’ll make money. I’ll support you. You hauled me up here and now you’re already嫌弃—”
“I’m not嫌弃 you,” I cut in, rubbing my temple. “I just think maybe I’ve wronged you. You’re not comfortable here. You deserve better than—”
I broke off because he had turned his back on me.
And that did not help.
At all.
His back was broad and smooth, tapering to a narrow waist before disappearing under shimmering scales. He was all lean strength and wet skin and moon-pale beauty, and one glance wiped every sensible thought right out of my head.
Beauty really was dangerous.
I picked up the lard again with a sigh.
“Don’t be mad. I was just teasing. Let me do your back.”
He glanced at me over his shoulder, annoyed and pink-eyed and so pretty I felt my face warm.
By the time night came, I was exhausted.
I climbed onto my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
Somewhere deep in the night, something cold brushed my cheek.
Then lips.
Wet and soft and insistent.
Teeth scraped lightly over my mouth. A hand pinched my face.
I jerked awake with a gasp and found Adrian leaning over me.
My heart nearly stopped.
“Adrian?” I whispered. “You can stand?”
Because he was upright.
Really upright.
His upper body gleamed in the dark. Water dripped from his collarbone, down his chest, over the carved lines of his stomach—
My eyes kept moving lower on instinct.
Then my vision tipped sideways and everything went black.
When I woke the next morning, sunlight had already flooded the room.
My neck hurt. My lips felt strange. And under my palm was something hard and heavy.
I sat up, blinking, and nearly screamed.
Silver.
A whole pile of silver coins.
For one wild second I thought I was still dreaming.
Then I touched my mouth again, remembered the shape of Adrian above me in the dark, and bolted out of bed.
He was back in the tub, curled up exactly as always, his giant tail coiled beneath the water. When he saw me peering in, his brows drew together.
“What are you doing? Trying to scare me to death first thing in the morning?”
I stared at him.
Last night, he had been standing by my bed.
I knew he had.
I held up the money. “Did you shift last night? Did you come over to my bed?”
He looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“Were you dreaming?”
His expression was too natural.
Too annoyed.
Too real.
But then where had the silver come from?
I explained, and his face filled with even more disdain.
“You probably forgot your own hidden savings,” he said. “Humans are always forgetting things.”
“Sell my whole house and I still wouldn’t have that much money,” I shot back.
And that was the exact moment strange translucent words suddenly floated across my vision.
Dense lines of glowing text.
Like comments on a livestream.
Well, well, signal finally connected. Let’s see what world this is.
Top-tier siren predator? Why is he soaking in a wooden tub?
What backward little village girl kidnapped him?
Female captor x dangerous beauty? This setup is wild.
I rubbed my eyes.
The coins in my hand felt real.
Adrian glaring at me from the tub felt real.
And the comments drifting across the air in front of me felt… impossible.
Then another line slid into view.
She’s got a pigpen at home and thinks she can play captivity romance? Does she even know a top-tier siren’s tears turn into pearls? She’s been throwing money away.
I froze.
Slowly, I looked down at the floor.
Then at Adrian.
Then at all the times I had swept his pearls out with the dirt.
My mouth fell open.