THE BILLIONAIRE'S FORBIDDEN OBSESSION

TWO YEARS AFTER

Shantal Vance sat huddled on the jagged edge of the sea cliff, her knees pulled tight against her chest. Below, the ocean thrashed against the rocks, a violent echo of the storm ripping through her heart.

How was she supposed to move on? How did she untangle her life from someone who had stolen her youth, only to smash it to pieces?

Her long time boyfriend was cheating. That's why the salty-air tasted exactly like her tears.

The words felt like broken glass in her throat. But the true betrayal... is like a blade that twisted deepest into her back. Because the third party, is her best friend. The one person who had promised to hold her secrets was now sharing her boyfriend's bed.

"f*****g liars," Shantal choked out.

She hurled a pebble into the abyss. "Both of you. Go to hell!"

"Poison... heavy... night."

The voice was strange, clunky, and broken. It sounded like someone trying to force words through a throat that wasn't used to making sound at all. Shantal gasped, her tear-stained face snapping downward toward the water.

Floating in the churning foam was a girl. She looked impossibly ethereal, her long, spun-gold blonde hair swirling around her shoulders like seaweed made of light. But her expression was strained, her lips moving awkwardly as if trying to remember how human jaws worked.

Above the surface, the blonde girl inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring. She possessed an unnatural sharpness, a primal awareness that read the atmosphere like a map. She could smell the sea, the ozone, and something else. Lingering on Shantal’s skin was the faint, the distinct scent of Gabriel, the man she was looking for.

The mermaid knew that scent well. It was the only reason she had chosen to break the surface, even if her human speech was still incomplete and full of gaps.

"Who's there?" Shantal wiped her eyes quickly, her voice trembling.

"What are you doing down there? It's dangerous."

"Dangerous... if... no swim." the blonde girl strained, each word popping out like a heavy lump.

Shantal felt a bit shy that someone have heard her crazy words tonight. When she turned around, about to leave, she paused.

"You... stay." the blonde girl in the water said.

"I'm fine," Shantal mumbled, looking away to hide her swollen eyes.

"Inside... you... bleed," the girl in the water said, her eyes locked onto Shantal.

Her sentence always has a missing words, but the intensity in her gaze filled the gaps. It felt deeply empathetic.

Shantal gave a hollow, defensive laugh, taking a small step back from the ledge. She was completely unaware that the girl looking up at her was no ordinary human. She had no idea that beneath the shimmering surface of the water, a tail of iridescent scales was keeping the creature afloat, or that she was currently forcing a primitive human tongue to work just to hold her there.

"Yeah," Shantal whispered, her eyes narrowing as she stared down at the strange blonde girl.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but you're creeping me out." Shantal added to say.

The blonde girl did not blink. The accusation of being creepy meant nothing to a creature who had spent centuries listening to the deep, silent rhythms of the ocean. Instead, her head tilted, a single golden strand of her hair sticking to her cheek as her eyes traced the invisible outline of Shantal's pain.

"Creep... out," the mermaid repeated, testing the jagged syllables, but then she shook her head.

"No. Stop. Danger."

The blonde girl lifted a pale hand from the roiling bubbles. Her fingers were long and slightly webbed at the base, though the darkness concealed that imperfection. She pointed her sharp fingernail at Shantal’s face, noting the small mole on her left cheek, before slowly lowering her aim directly to the girl's chest.

"Gabriel," the mermaid said.

This time, the name came out smooth. It was a word she had practiced in the dark, a word she had carved into her memory from the scent of a man who had broken the surface tension of her world.

"Gabriel... I. looking. to." the blonde gird said.

Shantal froze. The hollow, defensive walls she had built around herself over the last hour instantly shattered. Her breath hitched in her throat, as the cold sea air burning her lungs.

"How do you know that name?" Shantal demanded, her voice cracking as she took a step back toward the edge, her defensive laugh completely gone.

"Who are you? Did he send you? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

The mermaid felt the shift in the air. The scent of sorrow on Shantal’s skin had rapidly morphed, sour sting of fear and adrenaline. The water around the creature's waist swirled more violently as her iridescent tail thrashed beneath the surface, a subconscious reaction to the human's rising distress.

"No joke," the blonde girl strained, her brow furrowing in frustration as her unpracticed tongue failed to keep up with the urgency in her heart.

"He... take. He... left me. Like... fish in net." the blonde girl said.

She reached up, grabbing the wet rock of the cliff side. The strength in her grip was immense, her nails digging into the stone with unnatural force. She leaned closer, her golden hair pooling against the dark rock.

"He... kidnap," the mermaid said, her gaze locking onto Shantal with a terrifying move.

"No. He wasn't kidnapped. And that is impossible!" Shantal reacted. She stared down at her, like she was being paralyzed. Her chest heaved as she tried to process the bizarre accusation.

"I... talked to him," the blonde girl said. Her words were broken, but that was crystal clear.

This time, Shantal understood her. A cold realization came over, and her fear morphed into a bitter, familiar ache. She thinks that maybe this girl is one of those women of Gabriel's flirting for. It made sense, the strange girl's obsession with him, the intense emotional state, the lingering trace of his scent.

Shantal opened her mouth to snap at her, to tell her that Gabriel wasn't worth the heartbreak, but the words died in her throat.

A sudden wave crashed violently against the rocks, lifting the blonde girl slightly higher out of the water. As the water surged, Shantal caught a fleeting glimpse of something shifting beneath the foam, a flash of brilliant, shimmering scales that looked nothing like human legs!

Shantal froze, her breath completely trapped in her throat. Her mind screamed at her to step back, to run away from the dark cliffside, but her feet felt glued to the stone. The bitter anger she felt a second ago about her boyfriend and to her bff girl vanished.

She leaned forward over the ledge, her eyes wide as she tried to peer through the churning white foam. She was amazed to see that in reality. That the stories, the fairy tales, the impossible myths, it was all alive and breathing right in front of her.

"What... what are you?" Shantal whispered, her voice barely audible over the roaring waves.

The mermaid tensed, sensing the shift from defensive anger to pure astonishment. She sank a little lower into the water, the iridescent scales of her tail dipping back into the dark safety of the sea, though her golden hair still floated like a halo around her.

"Not... human," the blonde girl said, watching Shantal’s face closely for any sign of fear.

Instead of panicking, Shantal dropped to her knees on the wet rock, getting closer to the water's edge. The sheer wonder of the reality before her made her forget the danger of the cliff entirely.

"You're a mermaid," Shantal breathed, an amazed smile tugging at the corner of her lips despite her tear-stained face.

"You really are... and you already talked to Gabriel?"