Authors: Jorja Lovett
Titanic's Ondine
Titanic’s Ondine
Jorja Lovett
www.nobleromance.com
Titanic’s Ondine
ISBN
978-1-60592-198-3
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Titanic’s Ondine
Copyright 2013 Jorja Lovett
Cover Art by Fiona Jayde
Edited by Bonnie Walker
This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any existing means without written permission from the publisher. Contact Noble Romance Publishing, LLC at PO Box 467423, Atlanta, GA 31146.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Chapter One
April 1912
“I’ve signed on for Titanic.”
The excitement in Joe Marlowe’s brown eyes sparkled as bright as the stars shining down on the Southampton docks.
“You never have!”
Only days earlier, Madeleine had witnessed the passenger liner slip into its White Star berth in the dead of night, its sheer size dwarfing her in the water below. She never would have guessed Joe would be part of the circus surrounding it. A selfish sadness rained down on her at the thought the great ship would now carry away the love she had spent a lifetime searching for.
“I might not even sail. I’m only part of the standby crew,” Joe said, clutching her hand.
Madeleine chastised herself for making her sorrow so apparent that he already regretted the momentous opportunity.
“For your family’s sake, I hope you do, Joe.”
She reached a reassuring hand up to stroke his face, brushing through the black locks curling softly over his ears and luxuriating in the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips. She loved to touch him. In the unending cold of her world, his warmth was a heartening reprieve.
“With Dad out on strike with the rest of the miners, we need every penny at home.” Joe sighed as his thoughts diverted from the glamor of Titanic to the reality of his home life.
Madeleine forced down the anticipated loneliness already swelling in her chest at the prospect of his departure and concentrated on the practicalities.
“How long will you be gone?”
“A few weeks, if I sail. Unless I meet a rich heiress, of course, in which case I may never come back.” Joe teased her with a nudge and a wink.
Madeleine let him coerce her into a smile.
What difference will a matter of days make?
she thought. After all, she had endured a long past without him.
“Don’t fret. You’re the only one for me, my love.”
He dropped a kiss on the back of her hand. The mere touch of his lips sent a tingle of illicit sensation along her suddenly sensitive skin.
“When I return, I want us to get serious. I would like to meet your parents and discuss our future, Madeleine.”
Joe’s earnest proposal reached into the place where Madeleine’s soul should have been and caught her unawares. His youthful naivety was a stark contrast to the cunning of the men who’d used and abused her over the years. In the quest for her “happy-ever-after,” she had succumbed to many false promises only to find, in the end, her body was all they wanted. Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse.
With hair like spun gold, eyes the color of the sea, and a figure most men fantasized about, Madeleine knew she could easily pass for someone younger than Joe’s twenty-six years. No one would ever imagine her to be eons older, burdened with immortality until she married a human and bore a child. Caring, kind, and yet to lay a hand on her, Joe Marlowe was the only human she wanted to break the curse.
“We will discuss that when the time comes,” she said, knowing a difficult conversation lay ahead.
“Madeleine, we’ve been seeing each other for a while now.”
Joe snatched the flat cap from his head, unleashing a mop of unruly black hair, and stuck it into his pocket. He tapped his finger on his lips the way he always did when he had something on his mind. She loved that he was such an open book to her.
Was this it?
Madeleine rejoiced, expecting him to finally gather her into his embrace.
“So . . . you can tell me what it is you’re hiding from me.”
His words knocked the romantic daydreams clean out of her.
“I . . . er . . . I don’t know what you mean.”
She did not wish to divulge her secret now, when they were about to part. Better they discussed the matter when a commitment was imminent.
“I don’t know anything about you, Madeleine. Except you have a strange fascination for these foul-smelling docks.” Joe gave an exaggerated sniff of the air.
She knew the smell bothered him no more than it bothered her. He spent his days here, patrolling the dockside in a search for employment. She had first laid eyes on him on these docks and visited here every day since, following his progress. She grimaced. How could she tell him she daren’t venture too far from the water’s edge because of who she was? What she was?
Not enamored with the direction of the conversation, Madeleine tried to throw him off course.
“I find the setting perfect for a romantic affair. Glamorous liners bound for faraway places, carrying young men with fire in their bellies. Why it’s enough to get any young lady’s pulse racing.” She ran a fingertip down his white shirt to distract him from his questioning. That slight contact with the man she loved was enough to start a fiery lust consuming her from the inside out.
“Madeleine—”
The ragged manner in which he addressed her didn’t sound like a scolding or an attempt to stop her.
“Shh!” A finger on his lips and a coy smile was all it took for him to discard his gentlemanly manners and let his passion take hold.
Joe was deceptively masterful in the seduction stakes. His firm lips staked their claim with a series of breath-taking kisses that almost made her mourn the time they had wasted thus far in their chaste courtship.
Crushed against the rough fabric of his jacket, Madeleine’s nipples hardened beneath the thin silk of her green dress—sensitized and begging to be noticed. Joe didn’t disappoint. He traced his thumb over one prominent peak. The simple over-the-clothing contact sent her body into raptures and generated an ache in her loins that only he could remedy.
Her head told her to tread carefully. He thought of her as a lady—pure and innocent—and not one to give herself away before her wedding night. But that other, sinful part of her wanted him regardless of the consequences. And that craving won out. She pressed herself closer to him until she was left with no doubt he felt the same. The ridged evidence in his trousers nestled into the skirts of her dress, and she couldn’t stop herself from running her hand along the impressive length of him.
She half expected him to back away in shock or disgust. So, when he took it one step further by cupping her breast firmly in his hand, her legs all but buckled beneath her. He scooped her breast from her dress, exposing it to the cool April air. Her pussy swelled with need. With each massage he gave her flesh, she came one step closer to nirvana, moaning as the moisture from her arousal soaked her skin and clothes.
Joe backed her away from the main walkway and pinned her against the wall of one ramshackle wooden building, creating a scenario Madeleine wouldn’t have believed possible. Of course, she imagined her reserved Joe to be a considerate lover, but she hadn’t expected their explosive chemistry to lead them to the point of making love outdoors.
Joe lifted her skirts, skimming his hand along the tops of her stockings, and then grabbed her ass to pull her onto his still imprisoned cock. Driven by mounting impatience, Madeleine reached to undo the buttons of his trousers and take the next step in their relationship.
It turned out to be a step too far. Moments later, the strong arms around her pushed where they once pulled her to him. Joe wrenched his mouth away.
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me,” he pleaded, voice unsteady.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” she told him.
Except, perhaps, being too chivalrous.
One brief encounter with the savior of her long-lost virtue wasn’t nearly enough, but she dared not raise his suspicions with further unladylike behavior.
“You deserve more than a rushed fumble by the docks, Maddy. When the time comes, I want it to be something special, a memory to be cherished forever. Though I don’t know how I’ll get through these next weeks without even kissing you again.”
Joe rested his forehead against hers. His was beaded with sweat from the effort of his restraint.
Not on my account,
she wanted to scream, but the moment had passed. She adjusted her clothes.
He behaved as though the last ten minutes had not happened and picked up the conversation regarding his departure. But all she wanted to do was move further into his embrace, make this night last forever.
“Will you wave me off when I leave?”
As much as he deserved a teary farewell, she shook her head. “It’s not my place.”
She wouldn’t encroach on the intimate family moment which accompanied his every journey. That was their time. This was hers.
“Let’s say our goodbyes now.” Madeleine stood on tiptoe to offer up her lips.
This time, Joe’s kiss was a slow exploration mapping out the contours of her lips, as though he were memorizing her taste. That sensuous perusal finally eroded the jaded view she harbored for the male species. Joe didn’t demand, only took what she willingly gave, and he returned it with love. He respected her, cherished her, and, for the first time in decades, Madeleine let herself trust.
* * * * *
Madeleine swam as close as she dared to the hull of the huge ship looming above the water. Titanic was one of the most impressive man-made sights ever to cross her path, and she held the same curiosity as her human counterparts.
A gentle wave lapped against Madeleine, heralding the arrival of her sister.
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”
Elizabeth sniffed; her superiority complex was in fine fettle where mortals were concerned. Madeleine suspected neither marriage, babies, nor soul-gaining was high on her sibling’s list of priorities.
“It’s the greatest ship in the world!” Madeleine exclaimed. “Unsinkable, so I’ve heard.”
In her optimism, she thought of it as an evolution of sorts. Somehow, sailing on that vessel would bring Joe a step closer to her world. If man could conquer the seas, then surely someday the barrier between the mortal and legendary realms would be broken and they could co-exist without fear. Her true nature was the one thing keeping her and Joe apart.
She needed to trust him completely if she were to confide in him; the survival of her species depended on it. If word spread of the existence of water nymphs, how long before her family were rounded up for freak shows and medical experiments or, worse, hunted to extinction?
“Besides, the hustle and bustle here is infinitely more exciting than lolling in a lake waiting for something to happen.”
Madeleine knew the romantic notion many harbored about maidens of the water was a far cry from reality. Much to her family’s chagrin, her low boredom threshold led her to seek out adventures, both on land and under water.
“I suspect it is not only the ships that draw your attention here, little sister.” Elizabeth’s suspicious aquamarine eyes bobbed above the surface of the water as she watched the stream of folk, passengers and crew, boarding the Titanic.
Madeleine followed her sister’s gaze; her heart gave an extra beat when she spotted Joe among the throng.
“What’s so different about that one?” Elizabeth didn’t even try to hide the cynicism in her voice.
Madeleine didn’t blame her. So often she had invested her heart only to have it smashed to smithereens, leaving poor Elizabeth to put the pieces back together.
“He’s not like the others.” Madeleine was quick to defend him.
Among the masks of despair on the unemployed who trawled the docks, Joe’s cheery smile never left his handsome face. She also knew, unlike his counterparts, Joe didn’t make The Grapes Pub his first port of call when he returned from the seas.
“He looks after his family.”
Where many of the seafarers indulged their thirst for alcohol while their skeletal children waited outside the pub, Joe headed straight home to his mother and siblings.
“He has company with him today.” Elizabeth nodded, but her approval still wasn’t forthcoming.
“His sisters,” Madeleine confirmed.
Many a time, she had eavesdropped on Joe’s conversation with the dark-haired young women before she was brave enough to go ashore and interact with him. His heartfelt promises to the weeping girls every time he set to sea that he would be home soon brought tears to her eyes and hope to her heart. His respect and love for the women in his life spurred Madeleine in her quest to make him her husband.
“I’m moving closer,” she told Elizabeth.
She longed to hear Joe’s soothing voice once more before she lost him to the high seas for another spell.
“Be careful,” Elizabeth warned, but didn’t make a move to stop her. No matter what mistakes she made along the way, Madeleine’s family supported her, and she loved them all the more for it.
She gave her sister a quick hug and dived deep into the gray depths of the harbor, only surfacing when safely under the jetty where Joe and his sisters stood.
“Listen, girls, I’m only on standby today. I won’t know for certain if I’ll sail until the last minute.” His warm voice floated down to raise the hairs on the back of Madeleine’s neck.
“I don’t want you to go.” One of the girls wept.
Madeleine knew without doubt the endearing Joe would sweep the child up into his arms for a kiss as he always did. She trembled, imagining him doing the same to her in an other than brotherly fashion.
“I can’t turn down the chance to work on the Big ‘Un, now, can I? It’s not every day someone from Chapel gets to set foot on one of the finest steamers in the world.” The pride in Joe’s voice pacified the girls; their wailing quickly subsided to a few sniffs.
“Will you write to us, Joe?”
“’Course I will. I’ll send you a postcard from the RMS Titanic herself.”
Madeleine could almost see that cheeky smile of his, a smile that could persuade a girl to do anything.
“Look after each other, and I’ll be home before you know it.”
Madeleine tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but she only succeeded in producing a hiccupy sob. The sound of heavy footsteps across the walkway and his sisters’ renewed distress told her that Joe had departed.
Madeleine felt the loss as deeply as his family.
At the stroke of noon, the ship’s horns blasted three times, echoing across Southampton. Madeleine rejoined her sister to watch the proceedings from afar.
