The Naiad's Gift: MM Fantasy Romance by Isabel Murray

Author:Isabel Murray [Murray, Isabel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

9

ERIK

I’d set myself to rights by the time Berglund and his companions reached me. The dog, Lilia, happily chased after Sayan down to the edge of the water before staring after him in confusion as he vanished beneath the waves. She rushed back over to me and I bent to fuss her, stroking the fluffy top of her head and patting her wriggling flanks.

“Hey, hey,” Berglund said loudly, “leave the man alone, Lilia. Come along, now. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”

I straightened and gave Berglund a level look.

He had the nerve to grin at me. “A friendly jest,” he said. “No need to look sour.”

“Good morning, Mr Berglund.”

“Henrik, please. I’ve told you often enough! And it was a good morning when we headed out, but not so much now, eh? Blasted rain. Ah, well. It’s good for the crops. We’ll have a scorcher of a summer, I reckon.”

I drew my greatcoat around me against the cool drizzle. “If you say so.”

“I do! I’ve been knocking around long enough to see where things are headed.” Berglund allowed his pointed gaze to travel over my shoulder to the lake and back again.

I slowly raised my brows. Berglund was not a subtle man.

Again, he grinned. “I don’t think you’ve met my nephews, have you? They decided to come along for a walk with me and Lilia this morning. Unprompted and all by themselves. What unforeseeable luck we ran into you! Now I can make the introductions.”

I couldn’t hide my amusement. Not a subtle man at all.

Berglund’s shrewd eyes twinkled. “For what it’s worth, anyway, though I think they’re about as likely to interest you as Lilia is. This one’s Mikko. The other one’s Ral. I kept waiting to catch you in town but you haven’t been in for a while. So I thought, why not be friendly and bring them around?”

Mikko was tall and blond, with blue eyes as shrewd as Berglund’s and a long-suffering look on his handsome face. He shook my hand and gave me a brisk nod. “A pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Berglund said, “And Ral is—hey. Ral!”

The other man, younger and taller than his brother, with ash-blond hair and slender limbs, was gazing out at the lake, transfixed.

Oh, dear.

Sayan stood waist deep in the water, watching us all.

Ral’s hands opened and closed at his sides as he shifted from one foot to the other. “He’s beautiful.”

That he was.

And, I realised with a sudden burst of clarity, Sayan was mine.

Perhaps I should have panicked at the revelation. What kind of fool claimed a powerful naiad as his own? But I didn’t panic. Like it or not, that was exactly what Sayan was.

Mine.

I didn’t see an immortal being thousands of years old when I looked at him, or even the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, although he was both.

I saw my sweet Sayan, a lonely, affectionate boy who inexplicably yearned for my attention and my touch. I wanted to give it all to him. Everything. I wanted to keep him with me for as long as he’d allow.

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