"Mari." The stranger - Remy - looked down at her and put one big warm hand on her cheek. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"Huh?" Her brain was still frantically plotting escape routes, but the moment Remy had touched her, all her nerve endings sprang back to life. Gods, he was tall, and radiating heat. She resisted the urge to rub her cheek against his calloused hand.
"Okay, cherie. Time to take this inside, I think."
Remy debated whether to take the terrified little selkie home to wherever she lived, or back to his motel room. He could see the wheels turning in her brain. She was thinking that she had to flee, run somewhere and change her name so that she wouldn't end up as a government experiment, locked in a lab somewhere. He knew the feeling. He was perfectly willing to convince her otherwise, but not out here on the beach, in the open. Her teeth were chattering again, and his motel room was just across the street.