“I was going to say ‘even if I wanted to ask,’” Hæra said. “But I don’t want to ask you for sex.”

If Madeleine’s face had been hot before, it was on fire now. So was all the rest of her, burning with instant humiliation. It looked like Hæra found her pearl-clutching exactly as ridiculous as it was.

Then, Hæra’s mouth was at Madeleine’s ear, her breath hot against Madeleine’s neck. “I don’t like asking,” she whispered. “It’s not my nature. My kind doesn’t ‘ask’ for what lies right before us.”

Her hands closed around Madeleine’s shoulders. She didn’t grab or squeeze. Rather, she held Madeleine with an easy grip that only served as a reminder of what she could do, if she chose.

At Hæra’s touch, Madeleine’s knees nearly buckled again. She kept her balance but could not swallow a sharp gasp that Hæra surely heard. Take me in your arms, she wanted to moan again, make me forget⁠—

“You followed me into the bedroom,” Hæra growled. “You accepted my intimate invitation.”

“I didn’t know!” How was Madeleine finding the air to speak, even if it was barely audible to her own ears? “I wasn’t sure you meant it like—like⁠—”

“Like you would have, in my place?” For a moment, Hæra’s grip tightened. “I see.”

“H-Hæra…”

“Are there any more human intimate invitations I should be aware of?”

There were thousands of them, but at the moment, Madeleine couldn’t think of a single one. She couldn’t think of anything at all. “I don’t know,” she choked. “Nuns don’t do that.”

“You’re no longer a nun.” Now Hæra’s lips brushed the shell of Madeleine’s ear. She smelled, again, the sea. “So, Madeleine…”

If Hæra leaned in even a millimeter further, she’d be nuzzling Madeleine’s throat. If Madeleine turned her head, their mouths would meet. There was nobody here to stop them—to save them⁠—

Please, Madeleine thought, as her head began to turn, as her body began to melt. Please…

“Do not put yourself in a position,” Hæra said, “when you think I might take, and hope that I won’t.”

She let Madeleine go.

Madeleine was left standing on shaking legs, with a desperate throb between them. Her vision swam as if she were about to lose consciousness. Would that be a bad thing? The last time she had, Hæra had awakened her on the beach with a voracious kiss.

Madeleine would never make sense of her. One moment, Hæra was a bright-eyed, inquisitive creature who seemed as if she couldn’t hurt a fly. The next moment, she was all teeth and appetite, someone who’d spent nearly a century gliding through the waves toward her prey.

Her prey had probably never wanted to be caught before.