As the boat thudded softly against the dock, Venus took a step back, her eyes wide with astonishment as she touched her lips, her gaze locked onto Odin's.
"Sir, the—" The sailor began, but Odin silenced him with a simple gesture.
"I know you feel the same," Odin's voice was low, almost a whisper, yet it carried the weight of months of unspoken feelings. "I've seen it—the way your heart races when we're close, the way your breath hitches, and the spark in your eyes. Let's end this charade, Venus. Let's stop pretending we're enemies when we both know it's more than that. I want us to be together, not as enemies anymore, but as lovers."
There were so many things Odin wanted to say, emotions he had never fully understood or expressed. The words felt clumsy on his tongue, incomplete, as if they couldn't capture the depth of what he truly felt for her. Perhaps it was because love had been absent from his life for so long that he struggled to articulate it now.
