CHAPTER ONE:
Vanessa had always been the kind of woman who carried her world with quite elegance. To strangers, she seems untouchable, her dark hair pinned neatly, her dresses sharp, her walk steady with a rhythm that suggests she knows exactly where she is going. But those who truly knew her understand that beneath the surface burned restless fire.
She worked as a designer of marine vessels at the Simandala dockyards a career most people never expected for a career most people never expected for woman like her. While others dreamed of boutiques or offices, Vanessa dreamed of waterlines, sails, and steel hulls. Her days were filled with blueprints and the smell of salt in the air, her evenings with long walks by the harbor where the ocean spoke in waves against the rocks.
It was in those works that she found both comfort and longing. Comfort because it gave her purpose. Longing, because it reminded her of something she didn't yet have: a love as vast and unyielding as the sea itself.
Her colleagues admired his dedication but they also whispered about her dedication, but they also whispered about her solitude. Vanessa didn't mind. She told herself she was waiting not for just any man, but for the kind who could match her fore and still steady he storms.
She didn't know yet that the sea was preparing to send her exactly that.
The night she first saw Zack, the docks were alive with the noise of sailors returning from a long voyage. Laughter spilled from the taverns, lanterns burned gold against the darkness, and the harbor seemed alive with energy. Vanessa, tired from a day of drafting, had only meant to stop for a drink before heading home.
But she saw him.
Zack.
He stood at the far end of the tavern, a man cut from the rawness of the sea itself broad shouldered, sun-darkened, with eyes that burned with the same restless fire she felt inside herself. His presence filled the room effortlessly, the way a tide commands the store. He wasn't just strong, he was magnetic, a man who looked as if he belonged to storms and victories.
Vanessa had no intention of speaking to him. Yet, when his gaze met hers, it was as if the world hushed. For one suspended heartbeat, the tavern, the laughter, the lanterns, all of it faded.
There was only the dark promise of his eyes, and the slow, dangerous smile that curved his hips.
It was the kind of look that said: I've seen you, and I won't forget you.
Vanessa's pulse quickened. She didn't yet know that this night, the one she thought would end with a quiet glass of wine, was the night that would change everything.