The gulf is nothing like I remember it. Of course, that’s because last time, the salt hurt my eyes. Also, the water felt cool and refreshing against the suffocating Florida heat. Now, like the hotel Jacuzzi, the Atlantic, and every puddle between here and there, the water feels lukewarm.

It’s almost as frustrating as Galen’s game of hot and cold. Thing is, I’m not sure it’s a game. From his expression, there’s out-and-out war going on behind the scenes. He leans in, pulls away. Leans in, pulls away. It’s like a battle between good and evil. I’m just not sure which one he thinks kissing me is.

Probably evil.

Which is pathetic. For the next twenty-four hours, I’m going to be stuck in a hotel room, unsupervised, with a guy who’s trying his hardest not to kiss me. Lovely.

I swim my grouchy self along the sloping bottom, making a game out of how many crabs I can irritate into snapping at me. Most are good sports and have a go at it. Even if one actually latches on to my finger, it won’t hurt anymore than a clothespin. But my strategy only works for so long before Galen and his succulent lips creep back into my thoughts. He’s like the club remix of a song I already hated, one I couldn’t get out of my head the first time around. One that plays over and over and over.

I wonder what Chloe would tell me to do. God, I miss her. Unlike me, she was a connoisseur of all things male. She knew when they were cheating. She knew when they were talking trash to their friends. She knew when they wanted her number even when all they asked for was a pencil. She would be able to take one look at Galen and tell me why he won’t kiss me, how to make him, and where to hold our wedding reception.

Too irritated to go farther, I turn around. The smell of metal hits me like a wave. Smell? Is that even possible? Then I see it. A cloud of blood. The ripple of a struggle. A fin. Two fins. I scream. It hears me. They hear me. They stop thrashing, pieces of a dead something falling around them like confetti. Bloody confetti.

Turning back around, I already know I’m dead. The good news is, two sharks will kill me faster than one. Two sets of jaws have a better chance of slicing an important artery right away. It should be quick. Part of me wants to stop and get it over with. The other part, the bigger part, wants me to swim like mad. Fight and kick and gouge. Make this their hardest kill ever. Hope they choke on my thick Syrena bones.

I hear the swish of their approach and tense up. One of them rams into me, knocking air bubbles from my lungs. I cry out and scrunch my eyes shut. No one wants to see their own death. A jaw clamps around my waist, powerful and tight. It lunges us forward so fast my head snaps back. This is it. I wait for the penetration of teeth. It doesn’t come. Just keeps swimming. I’ve heard of alligators doing this, of snatching its prey and taking it somewhere else. Saving the meal for later. Saltwater is probably a great preservative for keeping a corpse like me fresh.

I force one eye open. And gasp. Not a jaw around my waist, so powerful and tight. A pair of arms. Arms I’ve memorized every contour of.

Galen. And he’s so burning mad the water around us should be boiling. Maybe it is. Maybe we’re just moving too fast to see it. By the look on his face, he’s thinking about killing me himself. Maybe I was better off with the sharks.

Galen swims for a long time. He won’t look at me, won’t talk to me. I know better than to talk to him. After a while, jet lag, near death, and the security of Galen’s arms all team up against me. If I weren’t underwater, I’d yawn. Instead, I close my eyes.…

“Emma! Emma, can you hear me?”

The slap to my cheek startles me awake. “Huh?” Not my most attractive moment. I rub my eyes. I’m cradled in his arms, princess-style. The stars come into focus. When did we surface? Billions of beautiful stars on a clear night. Fish Prince Charming holding me. It’s probably the most romantic moment of my life.

Galen ruins it by growling. “I thought you were dead. Twice.”

“Sorry.” It’s all I can think of. Oh yeah, and, “Thanks for saving me.”

He shakes his head. Obviously it’s not my turn to talk.

“I wake up and you’re gone,” he says, his jaw tight. “Then you don’t answer your cell phone.”

I open my mouth, but his eyes widen. Still not my turn then.

“I told you to never get in the water alone—”

And that’s my cue. “I don’t take orders, Highness.” Oops. I can tell by his glower that I’m the opposite of smart.

He takes several breaths. Then several more. I wait for him to start hyperventilating. He doesn’t. Instead, he grabs my chin. Hard. Eyeing my mouth, his expression softens. Releasing my chin, he peers down into the water beside us.

Then he pulls us under.

Still holding me like a bride over the threshold, we descend faster than a free-falling elevator. But it’s the I-know-something-you-don’t-know smirk on his face that has me almost squirming.

Finally we stop. He nods behind me, then changes to blended form. By default, I dread turning around. And I’m right. I press myself into Galen, but he won’t let me get behind him. A whale. A ginormous one. And since Galen’s blended, I’m the only one it can see. “What are you doing, Galen? Get us out of here.”

“You’re the one who wanted to go swimming. Alone. Change your mind?”

“I said I was sorry.”

“You also said you don’t take orders—”

“I was just kidding.” Ha ha.