He had one dating rule. No mermaids. She’s not going to let that stop her. Will they overcome their assumptions so they can have their happy ending?
Ursula Potts has seen the light and made a switch from vengeful sea witch to an assertive businesswoman.
Almost a century later, Ursula is the number one potions retailer on the East Coast, and it’s time to shed her public persona for another identity. Only the best is good enough for her. So she isn’t exactly falling on the sword helping out an associate by assessing the life event firm, Harvenheit & Jewelrose.
Tristan Harvenheit is the best life event planner in the business and is looking to expand his reach.
Tristan agrees to plan the life event of one Ursula Potts in order to impress the head of Paris in Springtime. Sparks fly at his first meeting with Ursula—and not all of them are the sexy kind. However, circumstances change when he finds himself on a blind date at the most important social event of the year with none other than the obstacle in his path—Ursula.
It’s sink or swim. The two need each other to accomplish their goals. Will they come together or will they both lose out on a sexy second chance?
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I think we can find a use for you in your new life.
I shot up in my clamshell. There was no point in trying to sleep after reliving the past. Glancing at the clock at my bedside, I groaned.
The early maid gets the ingredients.
Grand Ti had been famous for tossing that maxim in my face as she yanked my seaweed blankets off of me. Many days I cursed her. Her words remained even if she didn’t. The hagfish was two thousand years old when she turned to seafoam, and I missed her every day. My life would have been less complex if I had listened to her when I went through that drama with Poseidon.
And I certainly wouldn’t owe a debt.
I tossed back my three hundred leaf count seaweed covers away then swam to the surface of my bed pool. Lemon incense greeted me with my first breath of air. All was as I left it. My en suite still welcomed me with my favorite air scent. I willed my tail away as my legs were better suited for the rest of my day out of the bed pool. I opened the closet door. The day’s ensemble was laid out on the hook–a dark pants suit with a purple shirt, stiletto heels, and a pearl necklace set. To the side, I still debated the fedora hat. It was the final piece to my power suit, but for most situations it was overkill. Then again, I was in a mood.
Or I would be.
I had a meeting with a life event planner. It was time Ursula Potts died. She was a human who had lived in North Carolina for fifty years. She was active enough in the community not to arouse suspicion but too much to draw curiosity. I even wore a pendant imbued with perception magic to sell the persona. Naturals that saw me perceived a version of me with white hair and aged coffee brown skin–a face I wouldn’t see for several more centuries. Supernaturals would see through the magic while Naturals could go about their business of leaving me alone.
The whole charade was a necessary evil. I learned quickly when I started my life on the surface world, and I ended up having to terminate my first persona early and move from Norfolk to Corrolla.
I planned to move back to Norfolk. My first potions shop was there, and the strong merfolk presence didn’t hurt. Normally, I would avoid that, but my business flourished in that environment. Besides they didn’t know about my past. My life in the sea had been reduced down to vague mention in a fairytale and a skewed animated movie. Neither got it completely right, but at least the cartoon gave me sass and fashion sense.
I could make another fresh start. I had already laid the foundation by making the drifting mermaid the Norfolk’s icon. They placed it on all of their tourism materials. Naturals didn’t know it, but those statues declared it a safe space for merfolk and put out a perception field throughout the city. Other Supernaturals benefited too, but I set it up to protect my shop, Ocean’s Potions. The number one retailer on the mid-Atlantic, but I would say the East Coast. In a few centuries, I would topple my rivals and be number one.
But first the life event planner. I’d wear the hat after all.
* * *
Harvenheit and Jewelrose were the best in the life event planning business or so I had been told by an associate. Urd always had some type of angle. She had been insistent on me using them for my next persona, probably to do some research for one of her Paris in Springtime matches. Urd fancied herself a matchmaker. She was really a master manipulator. She took two lonely hearts and put them in a situation that was ideal for romance. The only talent I would give her credit for was knowing her subject well enough to stage her lavish “matches.”
It was hokey.
Bad enough she roped me into her antics from time to time. I was a paid contractor for Paris in Springtime. When Urd enlisted me, I thought I would be creating love potions by the cauldron but no. It would ruin the challenge and tarnish the agency, she said. Instead, I provided sleeping drafts, energy potions, and fairydew–for hangovers and nausea. However, she used them, her business thrived and more suckers came to Paris for matches.
Love was overrated.
“Do you have an appointment ma’am?”
Ah, yes. I stood in the reception area off in la-la land. Not a good first impression.
“Yes, I am Ursula Potts.”
A pretty little thing with brown hair and glasses straightened in her seat. The lack of seawater in the blood meant she was not merfolk, but she smelled of magic. She was either sidhe or a mage. My money was on her being a mage. There was a sense of mortality around the girl.
She stood and ushered me towards a large oak door with a brass plaque. “Mr. Harvenheit asked me to usher you in right away. He wanted to meet with you.”
Urd knew how to get everyone moving. One of the owners would handle me personally. I deserved the attention, but I smelled a setup. She had her own agenda. I was even more sure that she wanted me to scope out the firm for her needs. I was her guinea pig.
At least I’m experimenting for her in style.
She owed me for the last job I did for her. While all I had to do was look the other way while a member of the nobility made mischief in my shop, the assignment had been inconvenient. I preferred to steer clear of the upper echelon of sidhe. Getting involved with Seelie politics was a headache and yet dealing with Urd put me in dangerous situations. The–whatever she was–female was nothing but trouble. However, whenever she asked, I was there. It was better than living a quiet life stewing over what could have been. I had no desire for a repeat performance of “almost dead” while everyone lived a happy ever after, especially while he continued on with her.
Almost a hundred and fifty years old, and still I pined after Poseidon like a tadpole. He was my first. My only.
Damn it to Hades.
I never should have split my tail for that faithless idiot. He ruined me for others. And I should’ve left Melody with Grand Ti instead of bringing her to the palace. Then they never would’ve…
Get over it, Ursula. It’s over. You got your revenge–sort of–and their love withstood it. It’s over. You’re on the surface, and the past in the sea.”
“Ms. Potts?” the mousey receptionist asked.
I straightened the jacket of my suit, and I followed after the girl. My new life waited with one of the top firms in the area. Like my past in Atlantica, the last fifty years were about to be wiped away. There was nothing that celestial witches, interfering sidhe, or even exes could do about it.
“Let’s do this.”
The receptionist opened the oak door and ushered me inside a large office. Soft carpet cushioned my Sanducci heels. A striking male figure stood at the opposite end facing the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
Rude.
Sexy body and impolite.
His dark sea blue suit perfectly framed his broad shoulders and athletic thighs. I loved a man with a strong body. One with muscular arms that held me tight when I needed it.
And tall too.
In my human form, I was a curvy female about five foot nine inches in height. Males were intimidated–Natural ones anyway. The others were boring with their dominance games. Shifters populated most of the southeastern Virginia and OBX area. They were not worth the trouble. Besides, I had no desire to be part of a fetish game. My time was worth more than that, and my massager didn’t give me trouble.
“Mr. Harvenheit, Ms. Potts is here.”
Sexy turned towards me at the same time the brine of his blood slapped me in the face.
My body heated. My vision turned red at his bearded visage. His auburn hair was long at the top, short on the sides, kissable full lips peeked out from his neatly trimmed beard. He was almost a dead ringer for Poseidon. If he had a full waist-length beard, longer hair, and warrior’s braids, I would be on the attack. Instead, a suave mirror version stared at me. There was no way that this was a coincidence.
Urd set me up.
To be continued…
Thanks for reading my excerpt of Ursa Major. Want to know what happens next in Ursula and Tristan’s meeting? Download this villain romance to find out!
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