Besotted

She asked for a ride home. He offered her the ocean.

Ali has scars from the car crash that killed her mother and a job at a diner where the owner's son — her ex, John — just threw her out into a dumpster. She's half-soaked, half-sobbing, and completely done when a black Town Car pulls up and the man inside asks if she wants work.

Gerard Norouzi owns a yacht called *Roxanne* after his mother, an airline, an architecture firm, and a twelve-month schedule he would set on fire for the right woman. He needs a companion for the Atlantic crossing to the Azores. Six months at sea. Private cabin. No questions about the scars on her back.

She says yes before she remembers she's terrified of water, men, and trusting either.

Forced proximity at sea. Employer–companion. Scarred heroine / soft alpha. Slow-healing intimacy across three countries.