The Sea God's Disguise: Fishing for Love

Sixty years ago, a young Edmund Ashford freed a nailed man from a rock. The man was a sea god; he gave Edmund a golden conch and promised to make him master of the seas. Now old and ill, Edmund sounds the conch and asks the god to protect the Ashford family for three years after his death. The god agrees and arrives as Magnus, a fisherman. Edmund binds Adriana, head of Ashford Shipping, to marry him. Adriana calls the marriage a formality and rules out love.

Three years later, three days remain. Magnus has spent the marriage as a deckhand while Adriana keeps him at a distance. Pirates attack an Ashford ship; Magnus gives them three seconds to leave, stops cannonballs with a water wall, and summons a giant octopus. The pirates retreat. He has kept storms and sea beasts away from the family fleet in secret, and brewed medicine from his own scales for Adriana's skin affliction.

Adriana collapses from anemia. A bet circulates on whether Magnus would give his blood for her; he offers it at once. Adriana recovers and calls the bet a prank. Bob, a member of her social circle, mocks Magnus as a trained circus animal. Eloise, her sister, calls him useless. Adriana defends him only as her husband.

A fleet carrying Princess Rosalind of Cassaria is trapped in the Devil's Triangle. Eloise pushes Sebastian Haverford, Royal Navy General and Adriana's old flame, as the only man who can help; Adriana writes to him. Sebastian is under audit for war funds and sees the Ashford crisis as a way to cover the shortfall and reclaim Adriana. Magnus goes to the Triangle, defeats a monster, and saves Rosalind. Rosalind offers marriage; Magnus declines because he is married. Sebastian later takes credit for the fleet's return. Magnus says the navy did not save the fleet and that he did; Eloise calls him a liar, and Adriana demands an apology to Sebastian.

Sebastian visits the manor. Adriana gives him Magnus's room, and Sebastian taunts Magnus as never good enough for her. That night Sebastian enters Adriana's room and makes a move on her. She admits she never forgot him but refuses to betray the marriage. Sebastian persists; the marriage is only on paper. Magnus pulls him off and hits him. Adriana demands an apology to Sebastian; Magnus refuses.

Adriana accuses Magnus of doing nothing while she built the business. Magnus reveals that for three years he stood between the Ashford ships and every disaster in secret. Adriana calls him vain and says she needs a man who shields her from storms, not one who steals credit. She threatens divorce unless he apologizes to Sebastian. Magnus answers, "Then I'll give you your freedom." The three-year term ends; he tears up the contract and walks away. Adriana, who spent three years looking past him, is left to seek a second chance.