Tides of Love (Seaswept Seduction Series)

Tides of Love

by

Tracy Sumner

First published in paperback by Kensington Publishing

Cover Copyright 2011 HOT DAMN Designs

Published by Tracy Sumner © Tracy Sumner 2011

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Thank You
.

To Dad—

Thanks for being the best

"hooker" any book signing ever had.

Prologue

"The individuals comprising a species have a

definite range of variation strictly limited by the circumstances under which the group of individuals is placed."

C. Wyville Thomson

The Depths of the Sea

1873

1888

Pilot Isle, North Carolina

Marielle-Claire's father always said misfortune clung to her like a shadow. As she stared at the diary in her hands, she realized he spoke the truth.

Crouched under the Garrett's attic staircase, she struggled to understand why God found it necessary to throw her into one appalling situation after another. She fluttered the pages of the diary, trying to think. Hadn't Noah told her that deep thought solved problems? Heaven above, she wanted to listen, wanted to show him how sensible and intelligent she was.

Maybe then he would love her as much as she loved him.

Glancing at the faded volume in her hands, she traced the flowery script and felt a renewed surge of grief. She had only volunteered to pack Mrs. Garrett's clothing because none of her sons seemed able to face the task. Too well, Elle understood the need to escape death.

Elle had only read a few pages because she thought the diary might tell her things her mother would have told her if she had lived long enough. What to do about loving a boy fast becoming a man.

"Hey, Ellie, whatcha' got?"

Elle wrenched around as Caleb Garrett snatched the diary from her hands. From the corner of her eye, she saw Noah step through the shadowed doorway, the ghost of a frown twisting his patrician features. Her stomach unclenched, a flood of relief rocking her where she stood.

"Jesus, Cale." With all the grace his brother lacked, Noah pried Caleb's fingers from hers and shoved his brother back a step. He squeezed her hand, then glanced down, his frown growing. Walking backward, he let her arm flop by her side.

Caleb tapped an impatient tattoo upon the floor, dried mud flaking off his dirty heel. "Don't you realize what this King Alan stuff makes her think about you?"

"King Arthur." Noah sighed and gave his ever-present spectacles a nudge. "Just hand her the book, Cale. You wouldn't know what to do with one unless you thought to use it as a weapon."

Elle's heart pounded as she crossed her fingers in the wrinkled folds of her skirt, her thumb finding a tattered hole and slipping inside. If anyone could make Caleb do something, it was Noah.

However, Caleb's effrontery billowed, full sail, and he skipped around them, coming within an inch of knocking his head on a slanted ceiling beam. He dropped to his haunches beside the portable gas lamp, then skimmed his fingertips over the page Elle had marked with a piece of pine straw. "I begin with the woeful tale of Elle Beaumont's undying love for Noah Garrett."

Elle fisted her hands, her nails biting into skin. She glanced at Noah, standing so close she felt the heat radiating from his body, smell the hint of sea clinging to his pressed shirt. A weary, terribly familiar grimace tugged at the corners of his mouth.