Jude moved toward the center without thought. It felt inevitable. The golden pool called to him, not just as a man, but as something more the one who carried the island's rhythm now, the one who had passed through love, through pain, through surrender and unity. He stepped into the liquid.
It clung to him like desire thick and silky, crawling over his skin, sinking into him. His breath caught as heat bloomed low in his spine, spreading upward, downward, everywhere. He groaned, falling to his knees as the pool shimmered around him.
The women joined him one by one.
