“You’ve only got Two Days!”
I always loved that ominous commercial warning of time rapidly ticking down, urging you into hyper-speed if you wanted to take advantage of the savings. Here’s your warning if you haven’t picked up a copy of RISE BY MOONLIGHT, the final book in my “By Moonlight” dark paranormal series!
He felt her before gates opened onto the long drive leading to their gracefully crumbling plantation house. Her essence teased up his nose, stirring his awareness like a smooth stone dropping into a still, deep pond. Ripples of warmth and desire spread outward in eager little shivers. She was home, and everything calmed in his complicated world.
Max waited, still as the heavy antique furnishings, a tall indistinguishable shape teased out by flames from the low parlor fire as the front door opened. With a brisk staccato on marble tiles, her silhouette hurried by, then the tap of heels paused, backtracking until Charlotte Caissie framed the doorway the way she did his life, with her strength, proud stature and shrewd intuition. A smile flashed with her welcoming, “Hi.”
His reply rumbled, a rough caress. “Welcome home, sha. How was your day?” Simple domestic comments steeped in an intimacy that relaxed the taut line of her shoulders.
“Same ole, same ole.” She entered the room with her long, confident stride, crossing to him as an end rather than a means to the rest of that day. Her fingertips brushed over the bristle of evening stumble on his cheek on their way to cup the back of his dark head, drawing him down for a slow, reassuring exchange as vital to both their lives as oxygen.
Separately, the unlikely couple walked a parallel line of complications both tried not to cross. He was a criminal turned business powerhouse ruling a clan of shapeshifters threatened with extermination, she a fiercely determined detective sworn to protect a very different kind of citizen from a deadly truth about to overtake them. Though their paths were different, they led to the same end . . . to this house, this moment, and ultimately, to the survival of those they loved.
Max feared for her, not because she was weaker, but because she was his. Just, as she would ferociously claim he was hers. Two parts of the same whole now that they were a bonded pair. But those two parts would soon become a trio. They’d never had any kind of normal family life growing up. But their child, he vowed every time he glanced at that ever-increasing midsection, would be different, fiercely loved, protected, spared the isolation and fear that had shaped both parents. Max would do anything to see that dream to fruition.
Anything.
RISE BY MOONLIGHT was my favorite . . . and the most heartbreaking book of my “By Moonlight” shapeshifter books because it’s the last of 15. Debuting in 2010 with MASKED BY MOONLIGHT, these continuing characters have been part of my writing life for the last 15 years and as the song goes, it’s so hard to say good-bye.
The good news is that that I’ve just gotten the rights back to Books 4-8 in the series (S&S wouldn’t return the first three - Masked, Chased and Captured - because of a poorly worded contract loophole that slipped past my then agent. Sigh.) I’m going to work on reissuing those five titles as soon as my thoughts return to business after three weeks in Ireland (Yes, my next post will be c/o the Emerald Isle!!).
Until then, Slainte!
♚♚♚♚♚
Nancy Gideon on the Web
