Free Titanic's Ondine by Jorja Lovett

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