Page 107 of Storm and Sea

“Who says I don’t?”

Marina guffawed with a very unladylike snort. “Sure. What’s mine?”

She could practically see the smoke coming from his ears as he searched his memory for her name. He sauntered closer, taking her hand in the most sickeningly chivalrous motion she’d ever seen.

“What does a name matter when its owner is as radiant as you?”

And stupidly enough, for half a second, those dark brown eyes almost had her in their snare again. But she’d learned her lesson and wasn’t about to let her heart be played with like a cat with a ball of yarn. She wasn’t here for this man’s amusement, whoever he was.

Quickly, her mirth turned to anger as her face hardened.

Who does this guy think he is?

“Nice save. I almost believed you,” she said, jerking her hand back before he could place a kiss there. She spun, ready to leave him in the dust. So when his steps quickened, and she found him keeping pace with her, irritation reared its ugly head.

“Oh, you must at least credit me with that bracelet I gifted you. I’m sure it compliments your pretty wrists so nicely.”

“Bracelet?” Marina raised a brow.

“It wasn’t a bracelet?” He thought momentarily before snapping his fingers. “Earrings. That’s right. I gave you earrings, the ones you knocked off the table like a stumbling oaf.”

Marina’s jaw fell open, and she increased her pace. The man was undeterred, his long legs keeping close.

“Do you lure in all your conquests with pretty things? Or are your pretty words usually enough?”

“A healthy dose of both,” he said with so little remorse Marina wanted to kick him in the shin.

She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Why, thank you.”

“That wasn’t a… Don’t you have better things to do? Other innocent girls’ feelings to play with?”

He checked an imaginary watch on his wrist. “Not right now.” He checked it again. “Though I am booked out this evening.”

The audacity!

“Well, I have things to do, and spending my day with an egotistical jerk isn’t on the list.”

She marched down another lane, fists clenched, half-expecting footsteps to follow. But when she turned to tell him off, he was gone.

Serves him right.

Yet deep down, she’d wished he’d followed. If only to tell him off some more.

“Well, this is one girl who knows your tricks,” she muttered, jaw tightening as embarrassment flushed her cheeks. “And I’m not a stumbling oaf.”

A minute later, she tripped and nearly toppled into the marble fountain.

Nyel wanted to talk to his brother, but Nephi was like a shadow—there one moment and gone the next. Anytime Nyel tried to get close, the figure hovered at the edges of his vision before vanishing. Days would often pass without a single glimpse of his half-brother. Yet inevitably, Nephi would slink back into the periphery, like a stray alley cat—always lurking, unseen but ever-present.

“I just want to talk,” Nyel grumbled after another failed attempt to catch his brother, watching the hooded figure dart around a shop and vanish.

It was obvious that Nephi wasn’t going to make this easy. Maybe he didn’t want a relationship with Nyel. Maybe there were too many years of damage. Too much pain to overcome.

That won’t stop me from trying, Nyel thought with determination as he watched Atreus and Leo return to the docks while he remained at the sorting tables.

Nyel didn’t mind the slimy work, and he’d finally stopped needing to stuff newspaper up his nose. But he couldn’t help the longing in his chest as he watched Leo and Atreus descend the hill and pad toward the floating docks, where fishermen waited for fresh bait or to unload a catch. Atreus was barefoot as always, which Nyel thought was risky—one stray splash could trigger Marvassa. But he trusted Atreus knew what he was doing; he’d been doing it all his life, after all.