The Mafia's Mermaid

"What do you call it when I do this?" Nixxia asked and pressed her lips against Vernon's. Vernon froze, the tantalizing feeling of Nixxia's unexpected kiss rendering him speechless. "A kiss..." He whispered, breathless. "It feels good to kiss you, Vernon," Nixxoia whispered and... kissed him again. *** Nixxia escaped her underwater kingdom, desperate to sever all ties to the ocean. But the human world wasn't the freedom she imagined...it was another kind of cage. Captured by Vernon, a ruthless Mafia boss who mistook her for a spy or a weapon, Nixxia quickly realized that her survival depended on playing along and on how fast she could learn. At first, Vernon saw Nixxia as nothing more than a threat...a strange woman with no past, no records, and an unnatural way of moving. But the more he interrogates her, the more frustratingly irresistible Nixxia becomes. Se's both naïve and sharp, defiant yet oddly fascinated by human life. And worst of all, she looks at Vernon like he's something worth knowing. Forced to keep Nixxia close, Vernon becomes her reluctant guide to the human world...a human encyclopedia; answering innocent yet dangerous questions. What is hunger? Why do humans lie? What does it mean to love? But when Vernon finally uncovers the truth about Nixxia...who she is, what she is...he faces a choice: free the woman he once saw as an enemy… or chain her tighter before she's stolen away. Because something tells him Nixxia wasn't just running from the ocean. Something worse is coming for her. And Vernon doesn't know if he wants to save Nixxia… or keep her forever.