I didn't move as I stared up at him, not trusting my ears. No one knew my secret, and no one had ever guessed it. Shock and fear rocked through me in hot and cold waves, but I still noticed the softening of his gaze as he stared down at me, almost as if he pitied me.

"You didn't hear me wrong, Britney. I know you are not human and have known since we first met. Now go, the dolphins are waiting, and our time is limited," Cap said again and returned to his water samples as if this was nothing special.

"How?" I asked, and he lifted his hand, making a shooing motion toward the water. Was this a trap? I was petrified, yet some of me wanted to trust him so badly. Trust was the scariest thing on earth, at least with my secret.

"Later, we must be back on the boat in an hour for a conference call with Nora," Cap warned, while writing down readings.

I hesitantly stripped down to my bikini before jumping into the water and kept glancing at him, but he ignored me as if knowing a mermaid was no big thing. Why was he so calm and unconcerned? What did it mean? I went to the rear of the boat, slipped off my bikini briefs, and, as unobtrusively as possible, put them where they would be out of his line of sight.

I let myself sink and allowed the change before speeding away from the boat. The dolphins were there before I even made it halfway, and I remained under the water to play with them but was distracted. How the hell did Cap learn what I was? Had I slipped up? It was not a sensation I liked. What had he seen in me that tipped him off? Was he a threat or an ally? I couldn't enjoy my swim because I wasn't sure what would await me back at the boat. My mind kept trying to convince me this was a trick. If it was, was Nora and Andrew in on it? Was I the next truth they intended to reveal?

Trepidation churned through my stomach, my pulse raced, and my thoughts milled around in circles. I almost decided to make my way back home on my own, but I dared not swim that far in unknown waters with no place to rest—being a mermaid had its limitations. We were more like seals, sea lions, and penguins. And, despite the tail, we were not cold-blooded. Like dolphins and whales, we were mammals. I once cut my tail on a reef, and it bled bright red into the water, attracting a shark that chased me all the way home. I was twelve and terrified.

I surfaced, watching him, and he glanced up almost as if he sensed me looking at him. He stood so I could see him clearly and motioned for me to return, tapping his watch.

Had an hour passed already? I glanced down at my dive watch and raised a brow. It showed fifty-three minutes, which meant we would cut it close.

I sank below the surface and sped toward the boat. The two dolphins followed but veered off just before we got there, and I surfaced at the back, changing as I did.

He had placed my bikini bottoms conveniently where I might easily reach them, and my cheeks and ears again turned red. I pulled them on, almost losing my grip on the slick material, while my cheeks burned at the idea of him having touched them.

Cap appeared above me and held out his hand as I stepped onto the ladder. He helped hoist me out of the water, and damn, was he strong. I almost fell against him, managing to regain my equilibrium just as our skins almost touched. My mouth turned dry as dust, and my brain stalled.

We stood there for a second, the tension between our bodies even stronger than in my dreams. I looked up, and he looked down, and the world stopped existing. The chirp of his laptop alarm returned us to sanity, and he stepped away from me to take us back to the ship.

Butterflies cavorted in my stomach, and although fixated on how Cap discovered I wasn't human, the loud purr of the boat's engine made conversation impossible.

"Tie off the boat, and unload the samples, please; I must speak with Nora." I nodded mutely, and the deck hands soon arrived to help me. I started cataloging and placing the samples in the correct containers since a chopper would soon pick them up. It distracted me just enough not to fixate on my fears.

I had barely finished when Cap strode into the specimen room. It was not very large, and his massive frame made it seem even tinier.

His gaze fixed on me and the heat between us was instant, but I ignored it—I had bigger things on my mind.

"How did you figure it out?" I asked. He smirked as he came closer until I felt the heat of his skin, but we were not touching.

"Smell my skin, Britney, and tell me what you detect?" I would have looked up at him, but his tone made me concentrate on his scent. I usually toned down my senses to cope with the world around me and taking a whiff of that distinct male odor with my mermaid senses and not my human ones, did bad things to my already raging libido.

Something woodsy, wild and oddly familiar tantalized me. My eyes widened as our eyes met, and it became clear he was just as affected by me as I was by him. He wasn't human, but it was a teasing fragrance I had never encountered before, and I instinctively breathed deeper.

"What is that?" I resisted the ridiculous urge to lick the visible skin at the juncture of his neck and shoulder.

"You haven't encountered any other supernaturals before, have you?" Cap asked incredulously, stepping back to see my face, and he frowned at me. "Never?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"Then I am your first, Britney, and I'm a werewolf." His eyes glowed luminous yellow, his fangs showed, his nails turned to claws, and his scent profile changed.

It was woodsy, faintly doggy, and powerfully masculine. I thought it would repel me, but I was fascinated.

I did not have to hide my secret from him, and a mountain lifted from my shoulders. Although why I, a mermaid, would be so attracted to him, a werewolf, I didn't understand. It was somehow more than lust that drew me to him like a magnet. Until it occurred to me that if anything about werewolves were true, he detected the change in my scent. He would have been aware of my lust on the boat and my face heated, but he stepped forward again.

There was nowhere to go as our eyes met, and I couldn't look away as he leaned down and kissed me. It was the same as in my dream, only better. My blood heated before he broke the kiss, and I almost whimpered.

"Sorry, if I realized you didn't know about werewolves and mermaids, I would not have walked into your dreams last night," he apologized.

My brain came to a screeching halt. My face flamed red, and my stomach dropped. My eyes must have been big as saucers, and for a moment, it amused Cap until he realized I was in shock and mortified.

"Hey, shhh, it's okay. I experienced all the things you did. As I said, I thought you understood more about being a mermaid and how we are similar, and I thought you understood the games we tend to play with those similarities. I had no idea you have never done that before," Cap apologized, looking stricken when I attempted to back away but couldn't.

"It was real?" I asked, wanting to die of shame. What must he think of me?

"In a way, yes. Having sex would be like that, but only better. I am sorry, Britney," he apologized again. Cap stepped into my personal space until his frame trapped me against the shelf, our eyes met again, and the attraction between us was undeniable.

"How?"

He took my face into his hand.

"It's something both our species can do. We can invade the dreams of people like us who are physically attracted to us even if we're miles apart. I thought you knew, but I suspect you don't understand much about yourself or what mermaids and mermen are capable of?" He asked, and I nodded in defeat as much as possible with his warm hand still on my face. My skin tingled from the contact.

"So, you could tell I am a mermaid, and you smell faintly like a dog. Do I smell like a fish?"

He laughed, and the change it wrought on his face as the stern lines that made him seem so intimidating melted away fascinated me.

"Yes and no. You smell like the ocean breeze on a crisp morning with the faintest tang of something wild, not exactly fish, more salt water."

Cap leaned forward until he was too close again. It was as if I had never really seen him before, yet some part of me knew him as if he was always a part of my life. Why did this make me anxious, as if I was doing something very wrong?