by Lilly Cain
They had company too, the ruva of the various bands, should they want it. Right now he didn’t. He wanted to take his mate to their den and love her.
Returning home didn’t take long tonight. And the shift was easier now for them both. The pain far less now that he’d learned to accept and ease into the change. Soon enough he stood naked with his mate…his wife, just outside the old cabin. He’d renovated it for her. Given her all the bells and whistles, although she claimed she didn’t need them. Right now all she seemed to want was him on her, in front of the quiet fire he’d left burning in the big fireplace.
He was happy to oblige.
“God, there is nothing like sex after a run.” She sighed and rested her head against his chest.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I know. And I really want to stay another week. But we have to get back.” She ran his company with him now. And they had the working campground that paid for the Rom’s bigger one on the other side of the mountain. But work wasn’t the driving force it had been for either of them. A source of satisfaction, yes. But they had each other as a focus now. And their extended family, the Rom, as well as his parents and brother. And soon…
He slid his hand down her belly, feeling the curve there that held the life they’d made between them. Grandmother Donceanu had assured them the baby would be fine even if they shifted up until the day it was born. Helen seemed determined to try it.
He let himself touch her a little further down, and grinned at her restless movement at his touch. Her mystery, the one that had pulled him to help her, was long solved. Not they had a much bigger one to share. Love and family.
Afterword
A Note from the Author About The Rom
This book was made completely from my imagination. But the people, and some of their lifestyle and language, are real. I’ve taken a great deal of liberty with their history and magic—which I imagine they have in bounds—and hope I cause no offense. The Rom currently number as many as one million in America, although that number is difficult to prove as the members of the bands remain in the majority at least partially nomadic. They do travel across the country annually and many hold jobs that involve crafts and skills most city dwellers seem to have forgotten, as well as offer fortune telling and other small magics.
For more information about the Rom, please read this article by Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rom. I have spent a little time reading about their history and their language and names from this and other sources, and used a bit where I could.
Glossary – from source http://www2.arnes.si/~eusmith/Romany/glossary.html
Bokoli – thick pancakes stuffed with meat
Ruv – Wolf
Ruva – Wolves
Mulo – spirit of the dead
Sastipe – greetings
Puyuria – Gypsy followers or groupies
Gadjo – non Rom man
About the Author
Lilly Cain is a wild woman with a deep throaty laugh, plunging necklines and a great lover of all things sensual – perfume, chocolate, silk! She never has to worry about finding a date or keeping a man in line. She keeps her blond hair long and curly, wears beautiful clothes and loves loud music. Lilly lives her private life in the pages of her books.
All of the above is just so much silliness. When not living up to her pen name, Lilly lives in Atlantic Canada, although she spent eight years in Bermuda, enjoying the heat and the pink sands. She returned to her homeland so she could see the changing of the seasons once again. When not writing she paints, swills coffee and vodka (but not together), and fights her writing pals for chocolate (true story).
Lilly is a single mom who loves reading and writing, dabbling in art and loving and caring for her two daughters. She loves romance in all of its varying heat levels. She loves the chilling moments and the humor in her novels as much as the steaming hot interludes. Her stories are an escape and a release, and she hopes that they can give you that power, too.
To contact Lilly and to find out more about her books, reach out to her website at http://www.lillycain.com
Coming up next? Dark Redemption - An all new erotic vampire/dragon threesome, two men with history and a woman with attitude. This story will release in serial format with the first chapters available in April! Check Lilly’s website for dates and links.
Also by Lilly Cain
If the love story in Lilly Cain’s High Stakes
swept you away, don’t miss her other, hotter books!
Available wherever ebooks are sold!
Alien Revealed
The Naked Truth
Undercover Alliance
No Reservations
No Restraints
Working on Wicked
Return to Me
Building Magic
Dark Harmony
Dark Redemption
Having watched his vampire pack leader killed before his eyes, James Drummond is in trouble, big trouble. He is thousands of miles from what is left of the pack where he was once second in command. He’s being hunted, possibly by the vampire that destroyed his maker, possibly by something else, something worse. Stumbling into the territory of an ancient dragon doesn’t make things better and crossing paths with the one woman he’d turned and the only woman he’d ever loved makes life downright hell. Especially when the first thing she does is try to kill him.
Ava’s life is hard. What life she has, that is. Turned into a vampire and abandoned by her maker, she’s had to fight for everything she has—even for the understanding she has of herself. She’s vowed to kill him for that, even though she’d once loved him. James’s arrival simply means she won’t have to hunt him down some time in the future. Except somehow he has managed to become a captive of a dragon, something even she might not want to tangle with. That is until she meets the red hot sexy creature and finds herself at the mercy of his sensual flames. Then it’s a tossup—kill the vampire or obey the beast.
For Akio, an ancient Japanese dragon-man, James’s appearance represents a chance to find meaning in his days once again. He could be Akio’s one chance at redemption, a way to make up for the death of a family he’d once protected. All he needs to do is heal the soul-wounded vampire, give him back the life he should have had. He will do it, even if it means giving up a woman that makes Akio feel in ways he hasn’t in centuries. If, of course, he can keep James alive. For there is something hunting them…