Read Online The Selkie by Rosanna Leo - Free Book Online

in a card game. Perhaps you’ve seen it? The skin of a selkie? ” His brown eyes flashed, boring into hers.
    “ That smelly, old thing? Is that what all this is about? ” Maggie cried. “ Have it! ”
    His eyes widened. “ You’d let me take it? Just like that? ”
    “ Look, if she tricked you, I’m sorry. She was old. I think her mind was going. I don’t know why she’d want it. ”
    “ Don’t you? It’s not an ordinary pelt. ” He drew closer to her. She could feel his hot breath on her cheeks. “ Don’t you know what I am? ”
    She stared up at him, so lost in his dark eyes that she couldn’t have formed an answer to his question if she had one. Even still, words issued from her mouth of their own petulant accord. “ I don’t know. A taxidermist with a grudge? ”
    “ I am, ” he continued quietly, ignoring her pert suggestion, “ of the selkie race. Your granny took the pelt and hid it as a final gift for you. She wanted you to have some happiness in your life, happiness only a selkie man could provide. I was starting to show you some of that happiness on the beach, when we were interrupted. ”
    “ You’re crazy, ” she said, breathing a little harder, all too aware of how close he was to her.
    “ Oh no, I’m not, ” he replied, sanity shining through his eyes like a flashlight being turned on her. “ And neither was your gran. I told Nora that’s not how it works. You cannot win a selkie for someone else, but she begged me. Begged me to keep you safe. She worried others might know of the hidden skin, but not where. And I have to admit, I was curious. My people have … certain gifts. One of them is the ability to see in dreams. And I began to see you. I’ve been seeing you for months. ” He reached two fingers toward her cheek, the lightest of strokes, as if unable to refrain from doing so. “ You’ve haunted me like a bewitching phantom. ”
    The impact of his words hit her, but her brain was too addled to accept the truth. “ Wait. You’re telling me you really were in my dreams, and that you were the seal in the water? ”
    “ That was me, although not fully formed without the pelt. You see, I could never return to the sea without it, but I can still create the odd illusion. ”

She shook her head and felt faint. Needing something solid to brace her, she plopped onto the bed again. “ This isn’t real. Please go away. ”
    He grasped her gently by the arms. “ I’ll prove it. Look. ” He held up his hands, slowly spreading his fingers in front of her. For the first time, she noticed that his large fingers were slightly webbed. A thin membrane of almost translucent skin stretched between the bottom of each finger. One might never notice if one wasn’t close enough to him.
    She continued looking at his hands. They were astoundingly beautiful, if unusual, and she wished she could touch them. Wished she could dance her tongue over the sheer membrane while she sucked on those luscious, long fingers.
    What is wrong with me? Stop this!
    “ Okay, ” she argued, desperate for reason. “ But that doesn’t prove you’re a selkie. I’ve heard of people with webbed fingers. ”
    “ Oh, I see you have all the answers, ” he whispered, his voice thick with what sounded like tightly leashed desire. “ Well, according to the old lore, there is another way to prove it to you. Let me love you, Maggie. I’m unlike any lover you’ve ever known. ”
    She knew she should offer a retort, a smart comment to bring him down a notch for his boastfulness. But all she could do was look up at him in complete wonderment. Her body was already crying for the touch of this clearly insane stranger. She was dying for him to crush her under him and was losing the will to resist.
    Something in him spoke to her. And something in her was responding with aching clarity and need.
    Calan put a finger under her chin. As he did, she grabbed his hand and stared at the webbing as if it were a beautiful