Let’s get wet

Ha! Caught you! I bet you thought it was going to be something dirty…NOPE
This week’s T13 is in honor of my future release Tides of Maryna’s Love. This book is part of my four book series Elemental Desires and it has a release date of July 2008. So I’m going to share thirteen clips from Maryna.

Elemental Desires is based on the premise of a contest between four magical sisters who reign over individual elements. There is Maryna, water witch; Storm of the air element; Ember of fire and Tara, gentle earth witch. The challenge is a game to win the heart of a mortal man. Who snags him first is decreed the winner. After she got him, she could drop him and move on with her life. They couldn’t use magic to catch the man. He has to deal with her element in his work, they have to live in the mortal world for the duration of the contest and their aunt Meggie, the referee of the game is to assign them each a chaperone.

Maryna’s plan is not completely thought out. She doesn’t have a prize specified at the onset. She never realized that each sister would win in the end.

Maryna’s Love

1. (Maryna is in Greece and she’s relaxing at a small café over looking the Mediterranean.) She strolled down along the docks and looked out over the crystal blue water. There were all kinds of occupations that dealt with her element. Fishermen, oh, sailors! She pictured the men in their tight white uniforms. They were out to sea for long stretches. A sailor would be particularly easy to catch. She immediately pushed the thought away, easy was boring.

2. (Maryna and Triton are discussing possible occupations for her to choose a mortal from) Maryna looked down at Triton. “What kinds of mortal deals with my water element?” She wondered aloud, tapped her chin and paced back and forth just above the water’s surface.
“Hmm, there are underwater cameramen, divers, Coast Guard, Navy, oceanographers, Biological oceanographers, marine biologists, ichthyologists, phycologists, invertebrate zoologists, biotechnologists, aqua culturists, the list goes on and on. There are so many men in those jobs that surely you can find someone in that list.”
“I don’t know. Navy, sailors in particular have definite possibilities. They are out to sea for months at a time, no…well I’ll keep it clean.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Still, I don’t think I want a sailor. I’ve seen them, sexy and all, but they can get orders to ship out at any time and I need someone who will be around for a while. Once I win I may enjoy a little extra time to…you know.”

3. (Maryna is swimming with Triton and she’s meeting River for the first time) Maryna swam in his wake. Suddenly the chain holding a boat anchor was there in front of her and she hit it full force into her chest. It knocked her back and she shook her head. She moved to swim around the chain but felt her hair catch.
She felt a brush on her arm and turned her head to smile at Triton. Seeing the man wasn’t what she had in mind at all.
She gasped and tugged, then she saw a blade in his hand, a sawing motion released her hair. Maryna felt herself being jerked to the surface. She came up sputtering and flailing. “Who are you? What were you doing?” She shouted between coughs.
“Saving you. How did you get down there anyway?”
She brushed her hands across her face and leveled her gaze at him. “The same way you did, I swam, and I didn’t need you to ‘save’ me, I was fine.”
He shook his head. “Fine? No air tank, your hair was tangled and seemed to be getting more so as you pulled harder.”
“Oh just bugger off would you?” She looked around them.

4. (River has come to visit her for the first time since their rocky meeting. He ha a rose in his hand and has come to make a peace offering. Her smile was so brilliant it made a funny ache inside his chest. “Thank you. River, the man is ever so much nicer than River the ‘ist’.”
There it was again. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why is that you call me an ‘ist’?”
Her porcelain face pinkened. “You are an ‘ist’. A friend of mine and I were discussing men and were trying to come up with different occupations involving the water element. Included in our list were, ichthyologists, marine biologists, anyway, there are so many scientific titles I just call all of them ‘ists’.”
Her smile was so sweet he couldn’t help but return it. “Makes sense.” It didn’t but things were going so smoothly he didn’t want to spoil it.

5. (Maryna’s magic has begun to go haywire) She snapped her fingers to put herself to bed and only half of her disappeared.
She turned her upper torso towards the steps and floated her way up to the room. Once there she lay down on the bed and breathed hard then pushed the two halves together. In a whole body once more she sighed and closed her eyes. Maybe tomorrow things would be better. They had to be. They couldn’t get any worse.

6. (River has come to see Maryna, who is in one the worst moods ever. They fight from the moment she opens the door and she takes all she can)
“How dare you laugh at me!”
“Once again it sounds like you’re threatening me. So tell me why I should be afraid of you?”
“Because I’ll…I’ll…I’ll destroy you!”
Her flustered stammering made him laugh harder. “You going to take away my research grants?”
“I’ll blow you to pieces! I am Maryna Duile, a powerful witch! I control the water element and I can see to it that your boat will never make it back to port!”
He grabbed his sides, his laughter coming out in booms. “Little girl I was only half thinking you were nuts, now I know you are!”
She threw out her arms, her head back and she roared in anger. The house shook. Indeed it felt like the entire island trembled. He watched in amazement as she lifted and hovered above the floor. He shook his head hard, squeezed his eyes shut then opened them to look back at her.
A shimmering light surrounded her body. Rage filled her eyes. “No one laughs at me! No one!”
It was his turn to back away in fear. He raised his hands in front of his face. “Maryna? I don’t understand, what’s going on. Help me figure this out, please.”
She pointed a finger at him and his entire life flashed before his eyes his past, his present and even a glimpse of the future he wouldn’t have. An apparition of two small children throwing their arms around his neck calling him daddy while Maryna stood in the back ground hit him, his chest constricted then it was gone.
A blinding flash sparked and filled the room then all was dark.

7. (Maryna and River have made up and out boating. She has also been satisfied that her magical issues have been resolved…) As he trailed his hand downwards he noticed how sheer her blouse was. It hadn’t looked like that before had it? The glimpse the material allowed was so enticing. Turning his attention to the ocean he tried to ignore the rising desire building up inside him.
“River, I want to kiss you again.”
It was said so simply and quietly that he wasn’t sure he’d heard right, he looked at her and any response he might have had died on his tongue. Her clothes were even more transparent than before. “Um, Maryna?”
“Yes?”
“Is that some kind of special material?”
“What do you…Oh Cronos! My clothes!” Her face flushed a deep crimson.
Before he could say anything she’d stood up. “What are you doing?”
“I can’t let you see me naked I’m going in.”
He put out a hand to stop her, the sheer material all but dissolving before his eyes. She hit the water with a splash but she wasn’t swimming. She sank and managed to pull herself up before sinking again. Each time she broke the surface brought on coughing and sputtering. “Give me your hand!”
“I can’t, my clothes are gone!”
“Which is worse, drowning or me seeing a glimpse of skin?”
She sank below surface and came back up. “Give me…a minute to…think it over.” Her words were broken between coughing up water and gasping for breath.

8. (Maryna reveals her true self to River.) His face paled slightly and he looked like his legs wouldn’t hold him. “Chair,” she said and one appeared behind his knees, he landed with a plop. “Are you all right?”
He only stared at her. “A water witch?”
“Basically,” she nodded. “But isn’t that wonderful? I’m the water witch and you’re a marine biologist. We were made for each other.”
He stood and walked to her, grabbing her in a tight embrace. “I think that is absolutely marvelous! When I want to study something specific I tell you and you can bring it to me.” He danced in a circle dragging her with him. “ I’m in love with a witch! A real life witch, amazing, She’s beautiful, gentle, and she’s not just any witch, she’s a water element witch.”
Something wrong here, the thought flashed through her mind with a red warning light. It had gone too well, too easy for him to just accept it and be excited about it. Mortals never acted this way. What was his deal? She pulled back and looked up into his eyes. “River?”
“What Lovey?”
“Lovey?” shaking her head. “This doesn’t shock you? Make you nervous or curious or whatever?”
“Why should it? Like you said, we were made for each other. You can help me with my research and we can spend days and more importantly nights with each other on the ocean.” He waggled his eyebrows and smiled suggestively. “Watching the sunset from a boat, holding each other close, making love on the waves.”

9. (Maryna has kissed River and once more her magic interferes) Her arms wrapped around his neck of their own will and their lips touched. AS the kiss deepened she felt something change. His body became harder to feel, she opened her eyes and watched as his body began to shrink.
In what was only seconds where he had been standing sat a large green frog. “Uh oh,” she uttered to the empty room. “What have I done now?”
She paced back and forth feeling his green eyes watching her every move. Closing her fist she stuck out two fingers forming a V and stood over him. “Where the man once stood, a frog now sits, bring back the man before I have the fits,” she incanted as her hand made small circles over the body.
River simply met her gaze and croaked.

10. (River has hunted down Triton to help Maryna because her magic has failed her and she needs help. River is in a deep undersea grotto calling for Triton) He patted the waters surface and waited but nothing happened. “Triton? If you can hear me I’d like to see you. To talk to you, Maryna’s in trouble.” Still nothing happened, he knew it wouldn’t how stupid to have thought it would work.
A sound drew his attention and he aimed the flashlight beam in the direction it came from. The beam landed on the sleek head of a dolphin. “Triton?”
It swam to him, bobbing its head like it was nodding.
“I don’t know if you can understand me or not, but Maryna needs help. She’s having trouble with her magic, her spells backfire and she ends up with a mess. She needs to get a hold of Meggie, but she can’t find her whistle.”
As he listened to himself speak he realized how ridiculous he sounded. “I’ve lost my mind.” When he’d been in college there had been a comment he’d heard, how did it go? Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time. But in his case, being in love equaled being a lunatic. “You’re not crazy,” the voice spoke.
He looked at the dolphin. “Excuse me?”
“I have to admit your reaction is rather cavalier. I’d have expected a much different reaction. Fear, disbelief, and finally looking for a means of escape. But you have chosen to accept the truth and not bat an eye.”
“I love her, I have seen her in action. What choice do I have?”
“What choice indeed. Quite curious,” Triton was closer and examining him.
“Do I pass the test?”
“Maybe, but no matter for the time. Maryna is having magic problems you say? I’ll call her aunt and we’ll go to her.”

11. (While they wait for Meggie to find the answer to Maryan’s magic trouble she and River enjoy an intimate dinner. While they dine…) She picked up one of the goblets and sipped the wine. “Perfect.” She handed the other glass to him, “laetifico.”
“Cheers?” he clinked the glass to hers.
She nodded. “Yes, cheers. Remind me to teach you Latin.”
“Hey I know some Latin, for example, Braccae tuae aperiuntur”
She couldn’t contain her laughter, the tears rolled down her cheeks and she could barely get a breath.
“Wait, what did I say?”
That only made her laugh harder. “Never say something in another language unless you know exactly what you’re saying!”
“So what did I say?”
“Your fly is open’. What were you trying to say?”
His face flushed and he started to chuckle, “I was trying to say, ‘good wine gladdens the heart.’”
“You weren’t even close. That is Bonum vinum laetificat cor hominis.”
“Well I the “b” right anyway.”
She wiped her eyes. “Tell you what. We’ll stick to English, huh?”

12. (Maryna and River are in a delicate situation and Meggie has popped in unexpectedly) She opened her mouth to say something but he heard a sound and saw her look for its source. Her face contorted and she gabbed a blanket to throw over him then she rushed to pull her clothes back on. “Hurry,” she hissed.
He didn’t waste time to ask questions, hearing the footsteps on the stairs spurred him into action. He got his shorts on and was trying to help her with her skirt when he heard a throat being cleared.
At the landing of the steps was an elegant woman somewhere between seventy and one hundred. Her hair piled up on her head, wearing a gown made up of several layers of fine linen.
“Aunt Meggie,” Maryna said as she tried to stand.
“Maryna, I assume this is the young mortal you’re in love with?”
“Yes Meggie, this is River.” She turned to him. “River, this my aunt Meggie.”
He stood and took her hand, something inside him pushed him to place a light kiss on the back of her hand. “Pleased to meet you ma’am.”
She perused him and then Maryna finally she clucked her tongue at them and took a seat on chair. He assumed it was so she could get a better look at them.
Maryna followed her lead and pulled him down onto the sofa beside her. “I’m surprised to see you back so soon Auntie.”
“I’m glad I didn’t come any earlier, it may have made things uncomfortable for all of us.”

13. (Another man has found an ad Maryna placed in the paper’s singles section. He has come for her and they’ve had dinner and are out dancing. River remembers nothing about their short-lived romance but he sees Maryna and the man in club) Only a few feet ahead of him he watched as the man put his arm around Ryna and pull her close. Ryna? He didn’t have a chance to mull it further. The man kissed her and a red haze filled his mind. He had no right to be kissing his Ryna!
Charging like a bull at the couple in the darkness he gained on them quickly. He grabbed her arm and jerked her to face him. “Ryna! What are you doing?”
She stared at him, her jaw dropped. “River? I’m on a date. What are you doing here?”
Was she glad to see him? Why did he care if she was or not? “Ryna, I need to talk to you.”
The man next to her shifted and placed his hand on her back. “I don’t know who you are, but you are most unwelcome. Mar, we should go.”
Ryna stood there, not speaking, looking from one man to the other. “Zander, can I have a few minutes? I promise it won’t be long.”
The date, Zander, nodded but looked like he’d swallowed a bag of lemons. River took her hand and led her to a quiet corner. “Ryna, I don’t know what’s going on, can’t understand it, but watching you with this guy…”
She placed her hand on his lips. “Come to see me tomorrow and I’ll try to explain it to you, all right?”
Let her go and watch her walk off with him? Reluctantly he nodded and released her hand. “I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”
He watched her walk back to her date, the man put his hand on her back and she turned to glance back at him before they disappeared into the darkness.




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