Torun’s words awoke something in Lucy’s soul.

Join with me and become my mermaid queen.

She longed to say yes. She longed to run her hands across both broad pectorals, down to his tapered waist, and follow with her tongue. She longed to give him even temporary happiness, and rediscover her own in the process.

But she could not.

Because that was crazy talk.

He had a shiny, dark bruise on his forehead. It must have scrambled his knocked-around brain. He’d also drunk gallons of salt water. And didn’t dehydration cause hallucinations?

His earnest, chiseled face awaited her answer.

Aw.

She should have realized something was wrong the minute he found her attractive. Her body was beautiful? Say what?

That aside, she didn’t have much experience with crazy people. Was she supposed to go along with the hallucination or try to return him to reality?

He’d been through a lot today. No need to upset him further.

Lucy touched his rough jaw. “I’m sorry. I’d like to.”

He grew more intense. “Good. You would like to.”

“I would,” she emphasized, stroking her index finger along his powerfully masculine jaw, trying to ignore the answering pulse of desire in her body, “but I’m not the mermaid queen type.”

“You are.” He squeezed her. “I have seen a thousand women. You are mine.”

Stardust fell on her soul, twinkling with beauty and promise. Why was she so tempted? Perhaps it was the way he towered over her, powerful and gorgeous, and begged her to join with him.

Well, since he begged her…

“Sorry,” she repeated, more to herself than to him, “but I’m definitely not. And once a doctor checks you over, you’ll know that, too.”

“On behalf of the mermen of Sireno, you must accept my claim.”

Thinking he was a merman was a totally plausible hallucination. He had survived drowning.

“Mermen? So, there’s more than one of you, huh?”

He nodded.

“And are you all men who are half fish?”

“We are not fish.” He lifted his noble chin. “Nor are we men. We are marine warriors.”

Uh huh.

“Well,” she started to pull free, “you sure look like a man.”

“I change in the water.”

She paused. Remember his feet? They’d been flat, like fins. Or what about his skin, slippery as a fish?

What if it wasn’t a knock to the head? What if it wasn’t a delusion from near drowning? What if he was telling the truth?

“We must go now to Sireno,” he continued. “It lies ten songs underneath the water.”

“Songs. I see.” What did that even mean? She extricated herself from his arms and focused on the radar. Obviously, she was the one who had been drinking the sea water.

“Lucy, your shine is diminishing.”

“Oh, is it?” She tsked. Funny how a girl could lose her shine when things didn’t go his way. “You’re not the first man to say that, turns out.”

“Now your light is almost completely out.” He tilted his head. Dark hair curled around his curious features. “I did not know the light could swell and fade.”

“Probably you’re just catching me from a different angle.” She kept a steady hand on the steering wheel and a steadier eye on the instruments. “I look thinner from the front.”

The mega resorts of Cancun stained the night sky and washed out the stars. Soon, the whole strange start to her expedition would be behind her. This sexy, crazy tribal “merman” would become the hospital of Cancun’s problem.

Perhaps, when the swelling went down in his brain and he got his stories straight, he’d look her up. Thank her for dragging him on board and saving his life. Maybe he’d even volunteer to join the expedition. She could use another hand, so long as it was free.

Oh, his wide, sexy hands.

Speaking of the expedition, she had forgotten to document this event. She took her phone out of the undersea case, queued the live broadcast, and trained the camera on herself.

“Hi, Mel. Here’s the prize I pulled out of the water. He insists he’s a merman and I’m supposed to be his mer bride.”

“Mer queen,” he corrected. “A queen stays forever.”

A shiver of awareness sizzled through her.

“Well, that sounds important. You’ll definitely need the right woman for the job.”

“The right woman is you.”

Heat flushed through her pores.

“You shone brighter than the sun. Even now you are twinkling like the brightest lights. It is your destiny to stand with me against the Council and liberate our race. Why do you not see it?”

She wanted it to be true.

Of course, she had wanted a lot of things in her life. “Smile for Mel.”

He looked deeply into the camera. That charisma lit by the dash lights would certainly give her old friend something to appreciate.

“Fight with me,” he said.

He was gorgeous and absolutely bonkers. “We’ll put it on the to-do list.”

“Lucy?”

“You make revolution sound very attractive.”

“Attractive?” He frowned at her. “You are teasing me.”

Lucy put on a brave face for the broadcast. “Sorry about the last dive. We’ll brainstorm our options when I see you.” She shut off the camera.

“Lucy.” Torun arrested her before she could walk away. His deep bass voice tightened with a terrible urgency. “We must remain together. I do not have the offering you deserve. My pouch fell from my grip before I ever reached your boat. But—”

Pouch? “So that’s what you were holding.”

“I… what?”

“Some pouch. I thought it was seaweed. You were holding it so tight I couldn’t get it out of your hand.” She led him down the stairs to the guest room. “You had it in the bunk…” It had rolled into a corner of the room. “There.”

He fell upon the pouch. His aquamarine eyes shone. He fished something out. “Now you will become my queen.”

“Are you forgetting everything we just talked about?” Right. Head injury. “I guess that’s pretty common, probably.”

She turned on her heels and huffed back up to the cockpit. This close to Cancun, if she left the radar unattended too long, she was likely to plow into a yacht or broadside a cruise ship.

“Lucy.” He followed her with a new intensity. “You will accept.”

“Forget it.”

“Look here.”

“Give it up.” She did not want to spend even one second staring into his gorgeous eyes and fantasizing about things she should not have. “There’s not a single thing you could show me that would change my mind.”

He lowered his palm to her level. In his grip rested a gigantic Sea Opal.