Seduced by the Sea Lord

Chapter 1

A dead body.

That was what had fouled her anchor chain.

Lucy broke the surface, spat out her snorkel, and rubbed fog from her mask. On the horizon, the setting sun lit the ocean on orange fire as it sank beneath the waves. Lucy barely had any time to dive, and now a dead body tangled her chain.

This was her third trip to the isolated atoll off Cancun in the Gulf of Mexico.

And it was officially cursed.

Her first trip, she'd discovered the largest Sea Opal in the world. Her second trip, she'd gotten engaged to her now ex-husband, who then made off with her Sea Opal.

On this third trip, Lucy was going to prove herself. Her good friend Mel had double-mortgaged her family house to fund the expedition.

Lucy was seriously worried about losing Mel's house.

Only ten minutes ago, she had waded into the trawler's waterlogged engine room for what was going to be her final Facebook Live expedition broadcast.

"Mel, as you can see, the leak's gotten worse. I'm heading back to port tonight. I should probably leave right now, but I can squeeze in one last dive. Something's out there. Something big." Lucy had squared her shoulders, made the victory sign, and grinned. "Let's see what I can haul up."

She'd signed off, gone to the deck to don her gear, and noticed the issue in her anchor chain. As if she didn't have enough problems with the trawler. Instead of putting on her scuba equipment, she'd snapped on the mask, snorkel, and plastic fins to do a quick review.

Then she'd found the body.

She could pretend she'd never seen him and search for her Sea Opal. But...she just couldn't. He had relatives. Friends. Maybe he even had kids.

They deserved closure.

Lucy replaced her mask, chomped her snorkel, and dove.

Her magenta plastic fins propelled her quickly below the thermocline into colder water, and her ears squeezed. She moved her jaw. Her ears popped.

The anchor chain clotheslined the man's midsection. His arms and legs hung off either side, horizontal in the current.

She grabbed his huge, muscled biceps.

His skin was slick, like trying to grab a fish. Her hand slid from his body.

Ew.

She grabbed his biceps with both hands and yanked.

His body rotated around the anchor chain. She tried again, and her lungs reminded her that she needed to breathe. He inched over the chain like an underwater pole vaulter scraping his thighs and knees. At his ankles, the chain hooked his feet.

His feet looked strangely giant from this perspective. Flattened out like wide scoops. She tugged, but he just was not going anywhere.

Her lungs convulsed.

Air!

Lucy raced for the surface. Her lips cleared the water. She spat her snorkel and gasped.

Could she haul him up with the anchor? Winding the chain would raise him closer to the surface, but it was sure to dislodge him. And by the time she donned her scuba gear, he might have already floated away.

The sun disappeared below the horizon.

Soon it would be too dark to see.

Lucy dove again.

The body hung from the anchor chain by one weirdly flat foot. She kicked too hard, overexerting herself as she reached out for him...and her lungs clenched.