She would delay returning to her quiet little cottage. She was going to go down to the water.
Xia knew better, of course. There would be a price to pay. But sometimes, living life in
careful boxes got boring. Xia tried not to be boring, even as she lived with scrupulous
responsibility. With Power comes Burden, as Aunt Natty said. Right before she fell asleep
over her morning tea. No, Xia wouldn't be irresponsible. She wouldn't shirk her burden.
She'd just poke at it a bit, like a wicked child shaking a hamster awake in its cage. Hmmm.
Xia wasn't sure how that analogy reflected on her maturity.
She slowed at the foot of the pier, where the steps went from the raised road down to the
cobblestone beach. Hello, hamster, she thought with a grin. He was tall, and blonde,
dressed in a ragged brown T-shirt and jeans. She never liked blondes. They were too
intimidating, tending to ooze confidence. He was wide, and strong. She never pursued lean
men, as her soft hips tended to be in a different class than muscular, fit bodies. He
was tied to the sea down to his very soul. She feared it like nothing else on earth, above
or below. And Xia, of all women, knew there was much to be feared.
The hamster's name—now, stop that, she chastised herself—the fisherman's name was Adam.
Others might wonder what a single man of his work ethic and beauty was doing in this
struggling village, working in the freezing, harsh, terrifying sea every day. Xia knew that
he could be no other place. This was his territory, settled upon him with ancestral blood.
He was working on a thousand greasy pieces of a battered outboard motor, strewn across a
piece of plywood propped on two sawhorses.
"Hello, Adam." Wakey-wakey, hamster.
He looked up, and his hair glinted in the sun like gilt. He had black eyes. Some would find
this coloring combination odd, perhaps. It suited him. Xia never cared for men with black
eyes. Their thoughts were too deep, too private, to ever truly know them. To every truly
trust them.
He straightened, a tool and a cloth in each filthy hand. "Hello, guardian."
See, now that right there made this trip down to the beach worth it. To be reminded that
this was not a man she'd ever go for. Jerk.
She smiled brightly from her perch on the purple Schwinn, looking down on him from the tidal wall.
She ignored the uncalled for way he used her title, putting a gulf between them. "Such a
nice day, isn't it?"
"Aye. Nice hat."
"It used to be. Macgregor found it in the short time it took me to pick up the post."
"Aye. I was thinking it was him, and not you, that ate it." His tone was sardonic.
"How's the engine coming?"
"As expected. It's a piece of shite."
"Ah. Well, good luck then."
He didn't say a word in return. She stared at him, smiling like an idiot, brain frozen.
Those black eyes were as merciless as the sea. And as cold. People who said selkies were
lovers were morons. There was zero connection here. Why did she persist in these wretched
encounters when the hamster bit?
Before, she'd thought to delay opening the letter. In her pique, she'd gone down to the
water. She'd spoken to the beautiful fisherman, the seal-man, the cold-eyed hamster who
plagued her imagination. Tonight, the nightmares would be very bad.
"The always luminous Mima transports us into her sexy new universe in this paranormal romance
ebook. ... The chemistry among these characters sizzles, and even better, the emotional bond
that Xia shares with them both is magical."
"This is exactly my kind of story. It's intelligent. It throws you in the middle of action
and situations and demands that you hold on tight for the ride. It has an incredible,
detailed and very real-feeling magic system. Not to mention a tender/terrifying, funny,
complicated, very sexy love story."
