Dani Harper - First Bite

He was all for leaving, but he wasn’t going to be fooled again. He seized Neva’s hand and yanked her hard against him. She felt like Neva. Smelled like her. Thumped him with her fists and glared at him just like Neva.

“Hey, we don’t have time for this crap right now!”

She sure sounded like Neva, but Meredith would know how her sister smelled, how she acted, how she talked. In fact, Meredith would have an entire lifetime of knowing almost everything about her twin. There was one thing she wasn’t likely to be aware of, however. He cupped her head with his big hands and tipped it up so he could press his mouth to hers. He took his time with the kiss, deepening it, needing to be certain beyond all doubt.

And there it was—or rather, there it wasn’t .

She doesn’t taste like Neva! That unique hint of apple wine and warm spice was completely missing. And oh, by the way, his body’s natural reaction to Neva was missing, too. He should be trying to hold himself in check, yet his physical self couldn’t be less interested if he’d been kissing a cold bronze statue in the park. The thing in his arms was neither woman nor statue—it was a monster, and its name was Meredith .

His first instinct was to throw her away from him like a rattlesnake and spit as if he’d been poisoned. Instead he drew out the kiss as if she was made of honey, slid his arms around her and pressed those round breasts tight against his chest, even grabbed her ass. Whatever it took to convince the crazy bitch that her disguise had completely fooled him, because it was his one and only chance to get the hell out of here.

Christ, he hoped he didn’t throw up…

Neva made use of the mirrored walls of the elevator, straightening her clothes and adjusting her hair, until the car stopped at the third floor. She strode out confidently, startling a young housekeeper into dropping a small stack of towels. “You,” she said, pointing at the girl, who was trying to refold them with shaking hands. “I want to inspect the guest rooms on this floor. I’m thinking of redecorating. Open them up for me.”

The girl half walked, half ran ahead of her. Neva knew from experience that all nine rooms were kept locked—including the one at the far end in which she’d spent her captivity. She had no idea which one held Travis, though. But she was certain it would arouse suspicion if Meredith was to wander the hallways, trying doorknob after doorknob.

The girl drew her keys from her apron pocket, dropping them twice before opening the room closest to them and reaching in to switch on the lights.

Biting her tongue to keep from saying thank you , Neva entered the room as regally as if she was a queen inspecting her troops. Recessed lighting revealed the room to be pale grayish white, with all the hues of the ocean gathered in the carpets and the bedding—but this was no cottage. The colorful paintings of seashells were O’Keeffe, and undoubtedly authentic. “I think I’ll move those,” she pretended to muse, tapping her red lips with the tip of her finger. Crap. I haven’t got time to go through eight more rooms. How can I cut to the chase?

She had no idea if more than one room was in use at present, but she took a chance. “Take me to the bedroom that’s occupied. I think I might switch these paintings with something in there.”

The girl led the way without hesitation. Neva was relieved to see that they were passing several rooms along the broad hallway—now she was getting somewhere! Best of all, she passed a large reception room that opened out to a terrace. Was it the one that Sonje and Nathan had used?

At the second-to-last door, the girl was about to put the key in the lock when the knob began to turn in her hand. “Oh, it’s not locked,” she said in surprise.

“I’ll take it from here,” Neva said quickly. “I need some time to study the decor, and I require absolute silence in which to concentrate. Take your towels and leave this floor.”

“Right away, Ms. de la Ronde.” The relief in the housekeeper’s voice was undeniable, and she wasted no time leaving.

As the light footsteps died away, Neva took a breath and opened the elegant door. Reaching for the light switch proved unnecessary. The light from the hallway behind her spilled into the room and illuminated Travis Williamson—

And the brunette in his arms he was currently lip-locked with.

Travis’s eyes were closed, not in bliss, but in an effort to distance himself from the creature he was kissing. The sudden change in light made him crack open a lid, however—and then both eyes shot wide. Meredith! Her long blonde hair tumbled to her waist, and her red, red lips were open in a perfect O as she stared at him from the open door. He froze, unable to make sense of the rabbit hole he’d just fallen down.

“Travis, what the hell are you doing?” she demanded, and it was Neva’s voice.

In his arms, the creature/woman/monster/whatever sprang behind him and tugged hard at his arm. “She’s found us! Run!” She had Neva’s voice, too—but not her taste.

For Christ’s sake, did he have to go around kissing everyone to figure out who was who?

Travis cursed the absence of his alter ego, knowing that his wolf would recognize the real Neva no matter what, because it knew her wolf. And maybe neither one of these women was Neva. But there was something about the blonde at the door, some elusive quality that called to him in spite of the fact that she looked like their worst enemy. Suddenly his shocked brain kicked into gear. Travis! She called me Travis! He hadn’t revealed his name to anyone in this house, especially Meredith. Immediately he leaped for the door—

And was yanked almost off his feet by something around his neck. He clawed at it, his fingertips identifying the silken thread as Fenrir’s Cord. High-pitched laughter behind him chilled him to the bone, and he glanced back to see exactly what he had seen in the forest bower—Neva’s face bearing Meredith’s mocking expression.

“Oh, my goodness!” She giggled, and it reminded him of her delight over the demons she’d conjured. “I simply can’t keep up the charade any longer. You should see your faces! Too, too funny.” She was holding the other end of the scarlet cord in her hands, but only loosely—it was moving on its own like a live thing. As Travis choked, the rest of the cord undulated around him like a python, squeezing until he was brought crashing to the floor.

“No!” shouted the real Neva. She ran toward him, but she was knocked back by some invisible force just as his vision started to gray at the edges.

“Oh, yes , my dear, darling little sister. And don’t bother trying that again, I’ll just finish strangling him and save us both a lot of trouble later.”

“Let him go, Meredith. It’s me you want, isn’t it? Aren’t I at the center of some grand plan of yours? You don’t need him.”

“ Au contraire, ma soeur chérie , I need him very much, because he means something to you. It’s just like when you had a doll you liked and I came and took it away from you. I didn’t want it, you know. I didn’t ever want your silly things. I just got such a kick out of seeing how upset it made you.”

“I already knew that. You like getting a reaction out of me. That’s what you always want, isn’t it?”

Meredith walked in a circle around him, but Travis only knew that by the sound. He couldn’t see her. His vision had tunneled down to the size of a nickel, as if he was looking in the wrong end of a telescope. Christ, he was going to pass out, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Most of all, there was nothing he could do to help Neva.