by Starla Night
And so they went on their picnic and enjoyed the fresh spring afternoon in Upstate. The weather didn’t know whether its dark-bottomed clouds skiffing across the blue sky would pass over or dump rain. They scarfed snacks just in case. Jonah played cards with Bella, and then, while her back was turned, he stripped to his water socks and raced Balim into the water. Their polar bear run and Jonah’s subsequent frigid shrieking startled the other families at the park and inspired a few brave children to do the same, much to their parents’ chagrin.
Jonah’s hair was longer now. Shaggy to the point of needing a trim.
Once, she’d feared he’d never make it to his eleventh birthday. She’d been so angry at Chaz for abandoning Jonah a second time a decade after his first exit.
But even that difficult visit had turned out a surprising, happy result.
Upset by the vision of Chaz abandoning his other sons in a time of medical need, Caro had marched him to the local registry the next day and gotten them both swabbed. She was not a match.
Chaz was.
Surprisingly, his fears of the procedure hadn’t been completely unfounded. He’d donated and experienced a rare side effect that caused a slight limp.
The limp was expected to wear off. His celebrity status as a local businessman who’d given a little girl on the West Coast a second chance at life was not.
According to their church gazette, Chaz had joined the bone marrow registry because he “knew it was the right thing to do,” and once he’d been matched, he’d “never had a doubt in his mind that he would save that little girl’s life.” Also, “anyone who refused to test should be ashamed of themselves. Don’t call yourself a Christian or a man.”
The article had made Bella’s eyes roll so many times, she’d nearly gotten dizzy. But she would roll her eyes a hundred thousand times more if even one more child was saved from leukemia by a pompous, arrogant man. To that little girl, Chaz was a hero.
And for Bella, that was the true happy ending.
Now, she packed up the picnic supplies, a protective eye watching over her child.
Jonah hadn’t needed Chaz then, and he didn’t need him now. He had her. Now he was laughing, shrieking in the frigid waves, seizing what life offered. And, when he got too deep, he had Balim’s helping hands to guide him safely back to shore.
She wrapped Jonah in a thick towel she’d packed in the minivan just in case. He shivered under the thick weave and struggled in his dry clothes. On the way home, she stopped at a drive-through and bought hot chocolates.
Balim eyed his. Although they felt safe here, his iridescent red tattoos were still identifiable, and they knew someday that this utopia would end.
She sipped his chocolate, waited a moment, and swallowed. “Look, no Rotenone.”
His mouth tugged into a smile. “You have a line of chocolate on your lips.”
She licked it away and tilted her chin to follow it with a kiss. He tasted of cocoa with cinnamon. Yummy.
This was the life she’d wanted. Trips to the local beach, stopping to savor the cocoa, and watching movies on the couch while her son struggled to keep his eyes open and her husband passed out, mouth open, snoring through the end credits.
She rested her hand across her belly.
There were more consequences than just sensation when she’d decided not to wear condoms. Another child could get sick. Be targeted by the Sons of Hercules. Bella could live in fear and grief.
Or she could cling to hope. Accept the gifts of happiness while not blinding herself to a multifaceted reality.
She had so, so much happiness.
Sadness existed. It was a sand kernel inside the pearl of her blessings. She and Balim had a long road to free the mer from the tyrannical hold of the All-Council and to make the surface safe for them from the Sons of Hercules. But so long as she drew breath, Bella would walk that road.
And when she could no longer draw breath, she’d dive in the water and breathe there.
Bella turned off the movie and roused the boys for bed, kissed Jonah good night, brushed her teeth, and joined Balim under the covers of her newly made bed. He nodded off again; he worked long hours in the hospital, and weekends were his time to catch up. She closed her eyes beside her husband, near her son, in the house with the extra bedroom for a child that might grow into a son or a daughter.
She chose happiness.
She chose strength.
She chose love.
Queen Bella, double agent to expose the Sons of Hercules and protect Atlantis, dreamed of how her new family would change the world.
Dear Reader,
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Starla
Seduced by the Sea Lord ~ Brief Excerpt
The adventure begins…
Buy or borrow the first book in the series at Amazon.
Determined warlord Torun cannot wait to claim Lucy, who mistook him for a shipwreck survivor and pulled his injured body from the ocean. All his instincts tell him she is his soul mate. Now she must join with him and give him a child.
Lucy can’t believe the words coming out of this dominant male. He insists her destiny is to become a mermaid queen and mother to his future children. The one thing “destiny” forgot to mention was that Lucy’s a broke divorcee who can’t even have a child. It’s really too bad, because his gorgeous lips are all too kissable, and she’d love to see his iridescent gold tattoos moving as he flexed those broad, hard pectorals under the water…
But Torun’s in more immediate danger than a bad bump to the head, and Lucy is the only one who can save him. Their choices will either save the entire race of mermen, or destroy it forever.
This is a complete novel with a happy ending! Also, it features steamy mer-shifter love scenes, underwater gun fights, and a giant female octopus named Mr. Huggles. Fall in love with these men of the sea!
Enjoy this brief excerpt!
A dead body.
That was what had fouled her anchor line. Lucy broke the surface, spat out her snorkel, and rubbed the fog from her mask. The bright sun set the ocean on orange fire as it sank beneath the waves, and there was a dead body tangled on her chain.
She had sailed to this isolated atoll three times now. Each time, she found something amazing that turned out to be cursed.
Her first trip, she discovered the largest Sea Opal in the world. Her second trip, she got engaged to her now ex-husband, who made off with her Sea Opal.
The third time was the charm. The atoll was skipping the “seems-amazing” part and going straight for the curse.
Only ten minutes ago she’d stood in the water-logged trawler engine room and trained her cell phone on herself for what was going to be her final Facebook Live expedition broadcast.
“Mel, as you can see, the leak’s gotten worse. I’m heading back to port tonight. I’ve got time for one last dive.”
And that would be it. Her last chance to find a Sea Opal. Mel had double-mortgaged her family house to get Lucy this far. There would be no second expedition.
<
br /> Lucy squared her shoulders, made the victory sign, and grinned. Her grease-smeared cheeks ached. “This is it. I know I’m going to get lucky.”
And now…
Now her last chance was fouled by a dead body on her anchor line.
She could pretend she’d never seen him and search for her Sea Opal. But…she just couldn’t. He had relatives. Friends. Maybe he even had kids. Worse than a tragic closure was the unfinished, senseless ache of never knowing for sure what was in store.
Lucy replaced her mask, took several deep breaths, chomped her snorkel, and dove.
Her magenta plastic fins propelled her quickly below the thermocline, into colder water, and her ears squeezed. She moved her jaw. Her ears popped.
The anchor line cut into the man’s midsection. His arms and legs hung off either side, floating straight out in the current.
She grabbed his bicep. It was huge with muscles, and his skin was slick, like trying to grab a fish. Her hand slid off.
Ew.
She grabbed the bicep with both hands and yanked.
The body rotated around the anchor line and started to come free. It was slow going. And she really needed to breathe.
His feet hooked the anchor line.
Son of a sea biscuit.
She tugged. Almost free…
Her lungs convulsed.
Air!
Lucy raced for the surface. Her lips cleared the water. She spat her snorkel and gasped.
The body was at her limit. Could she haul him up with the anchor? He didn’t seem that securely attached. If she changed to scuba gear, he might float away. Also, the sun had disappeared below the horizon. Soon it would be too dark to see. No, she had to bring him up now or lose him forever.
She dove again.
The body was hanging on the anchor line by one foot. Was the current stronger? She reached him… and her lungs clenched. No! She left him behind and raced for the surface again alone.
Lucy clung to the bobbing ladder on her rusty trawler.
Maybe she couldn’t save the body. She wasn’t the same person who had visited this atoll the other two times. She used to compete in triathlons, and now, she was fat. Her belly was scarred with old injection sites. She could hardly swim ten feet.
Why would I want to stay married to you? Look at yourself. You’re a failure as a woman and a failure as a human being.
Lucy sniffed and cleared her mask. So what if she was weak and fat? Focus on the man. Her problems could wait.
She grabbed the chain and dove. Hand over hand, she pulled herself directly down. This time, she wasn’t coming up alone. No matter what.
The man was no longer entangled! He floated away, face down, and disappeared into the depths.
No.
She let go of the chain and kicked harder. Her lungs screamed. There, his leg. Something was wrong with his feet. They were flat like fins. Ugh, were they disintegrating? Gross. She grabbed the ankle joint. Hopefully, he’d stay together—yes, his ankle was firm, although slippery.
Lucy rotated for the surface and dragged him by the ankle. He was heavy, awkward, and water-logged.
Her lungs convulsed again.
Almost there. The surface glimmered. Almost…
Air now!
She spat her snorkel and gasped.
Seawater hit the back of her throat.
Ack.
The surface broke around her like shattered glass.
She grabbed the ladder and gagged up seawater. She coughed and hacked. Her muscles trembled.
A hundred years later, her throat finally cleared.
She was still gripping the man’s ankle. Success!
Of course, it wasn’t really a success. At the end of the day – which was right now — her expedition was ruined and this man was still dead.
What had happened to him?
He bobbed face-down on the waves. Possibly disintegrating feet aside, his body was in good shape. Hard, thick muscles bulged in every direction like a body builder. Dark hair lay upon firm skin swirled with incredible tattoos. They were an unusual gold color. Possibly tribal. In the setting sun, they almost seemed iridescent.
Long, white scars raked his powerful shoulders. Propeller blades? The wounds looked raw and deep, but they were no longer bleeding.
How bad was his face? Maybe the guys back at the shop could get an identification. Maybe his grieving relatives were rich and would back a second Sea Opal expedition out of gratitude. She could dream. Lucy tightened her gut and rolled him over.
His face wasn’t gross. Just sad.
He had dark brows, high cheeks, an aquiline nose, and a firm chin. His skin was pale from being in the water. And he had more tattoos. Tattoos everywhere.
Also, scratches. Ragged claws had raked his chest. She traced the gashes across his massive pectorals with her wrinkled fingertips. His body was the same temperature as the water.
Once, he had been handsome. Now, he was gone.
The weather had been clear recently. Of course, there were a hundred thousand ways to die at sea. Around Cancun, the most frequent cause was stupidity. Had he power-lifted himself over the side of a cruise ship? Thrown back a fifth of tequila and flipped a jet ski? Or was he actually the victim of—
Wait. What was that she felt? She rested her palm on the center of his chest.
Thub-thub. Thub-thub. Thub-thub.
Was that … a heartbeat?
Impossible. He had been submerged. And face down. No—
The man spasmed. Water splashed her mask.
Lucy shrieked.
His eyes fluttered open. Aquamarine, like the ocean, they struggled to focus on her. His mouth opened and closed.
He was still alive!
… Find out what happens next it Seduced by the Sea Lord!
Or, read Seduced by the Sea Lord in this four-book boxed set including an exclusive bonus scene. Buy or borrow the Lords of Atlantis Boxed Set at a discount from the full books. Save and one-click today!
Buy/Borrow the Lords of Atlantis Boxed Set.
Also by Starla Night
Lords of Atlantis
Seduced by the Sea Lord
Sacrificed to the Sea Lord
Enslaved by the Sea Lord
Stolen by the Sea Lord
Surrendering to the Sea Lord
Secrets of the Sea Lord
Spellbound by the Sea Lord
Saved by the Sea Lord
Sheltered by the Sea Lord
7 Virgin Brides for 7 Weredragon Billionaires
~ ONYX DRAGONS ~
(Series Novels)
Malachite
Pyrochlore
Kyanite
Amber
Jasper
Alexandrite
Flint
~ CARNELIAN DRAGONS ~
(Linked Novellas)
Syenite
Peridot
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Starla Night was born on a hot July at midnight. She hikes, scuba dives, and swims naked in the ocean. She writes about smokin’ hot dragons and tattooed mermen at StarlaNight.com.
starlanight.com