In Want of a Wife by Rebecca Paula

Author:Rebecca Paula [Paula, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

The more time Lily spent around Rafe, the less she worried about what Henry would think of her, and even more about what it would be like to say goodbye to Rafe when she finally met Henry.

Which was a problem.

A very big problem.

Certainly not one she had anticipated when she had replied to the marriage advertisement in the first place. Love, it seems, no matter what, had its complications.

And she was beginning to suspect she was attracted to Rafe.

He rose out of the ocean under the moonlight, looking about as near perfection as anything she had ever seen, and she had discovered a very rare comet cutting across the sky last summer. She crossed her arms, still furious with how he had bounced around, paying attention to everything all afternoon as she smiled and did her best to remain polite when all she wished to do was hide away in a room.

In the morning, she suspected the entire village would know that she would be Henry’s wife. That she had answered an ad.

And Rafe had returned home, with her.

Everyone loved Rafe.

The woman all clucked and fussed over him as he sang and helped his mother bake in the kitchen. He danced with his sister, Mari, around the small sitting room and played cards with his mother and her friends after dinner.

And Lily sat in the corner, watching.

Seething at how he seemed to not notice her.

No, but that wasn’t it entirely. He noticed her but refused to acknowledge her, as if she were a secret. As if he were a coward.

Which he was.

He froze in the ocean. The waves bobbed his body up and down as their eyes finally met. She was so angry and yet couldn’t find the right words to say, so she thought it best to remain still.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Rafe ran his hands up through his hair, slicking it back. Thank goodness for the full moon and the way the argent light washed over his body. Strong arms and stronger forearms. A wide chest that whittled down to a trim waist.

Perhaps she had hit her head and fallen in love with a mermaid.

Because sure as the sun, he floated there in the ocean, and she knew without a doubt, there was nowhere else he belonged.

Her grandmother had once told her tales of the selkies — magical creatures of the sea that transformed from seals to humans. She had never believed those stories until now as she strongly believed in science, not legend.

She wrapped her arms around herself tighter, afraid she might confess something she shouldn’t.

“I needed to see the moon,” she said instead. Lily snickered to herself, realizing only afterward how foolish that sounded. Her room had a bay of windows with a great view of the sky.

He nodded, dipping back down under a wave before shooting up through the surface. “I needed a swim.”

She inched closer to the water until it finally licked the tips of her toes. Lily had wished it for years, but she’d never had the chance to visit the ocean before.

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