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Night Bites
By Nina Bangs
Dorchester Publishing
Copyright © 2005
Nina BangsAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0-505-52614-X
Chapter One
Cindy Harper had werewolf burnout. Six had checked in this
week, and once a werewolf sat on your furniture it took days
to get the hair out. Why did it always have to be werewolves?
Why not wereducks, or werebunnies?
She stood near the front door, smile already in place and
electronic organizer in hand, waiting for the last few guests
to check in. She knew the organizer sort of jarred with the
old-fashioned feel of the inn, but she couldn't help it. She
was addicted to technology. Electronic gadgets were now, and
her motto was: Always look forward, never look back. Looking
back was useless. She hadn't found the answers she needed
there.
Cindy couldn't wait to meet people who checked in after
sunset. Guests who arrived at nightfall were usually the most
interesting. They understood the game. Her inn only awoke when
night mist crept from the surrounding forest and twined around
the old inn like ghostly fingers. Travel guides always gave
the Woo Woo Inn five stars for atmosphere.
"Uh, Cindy, could you tell me how to get to that cemetery you
mentioned in your brochure? It's dark now, so I figure the
spirits will be up and running soon." Her guest from the
Dracula room offered Cindy a toothy grin showcasing his long
pointy canines.
Running away, if the spirits had any sense.Cindy always
wondered what dentists thought when patients walked in and
said, "I wanna be a vampire, Doc." She smiled at the mental
picture. "No problem, Latrienne." Also known as Jim Kehoe on
his American Express card. "Just take the path into the woods
behind the inn. It's about a five-minute walk, and don't
forget your flashlight."
He frowned. "Won't the light scare away the spirits?"
She shrugged. "It's an old graveyard so I'm pretty sure the
spirits are down with flashlights. Besides, lots of murderers,
bank robbers, and worse are buried there. No wimps in that
bunch."
"Worse? Oh." He swallowed hard. "I think I'll take my
girlfriend along. She won't want to miss this." He scurried up
the staircase, his black cape flapping as he went.
Cape? She needed to take him aside for some advice on the
latest styles in vampire gear.
Cindy shook her head in wonder. Didn't these people know that
none of this was real? Obviously not, because her inn was
always full. With enough capital to indulge her sense of
humor, she'd bought and renovated the old place, then
dedicated it to all those who were fascinated by the strange
and unexplained or who thought they were the strange and
unexplained.
She'd named it the Woo Woo Inn in a moment of wild whimsy then
stepped back to see what happened. What happened was that she
had a spectacular success on her hands.
During her six months in business it had been pretty easy to
separate her guests into two categories? the delusional or the
curious. A select few were genetic scientists she'd
specifically invited to visit the inn in the hope that ...
Her thoughts scattered as one of the final guests she'd been
expecting walked in.
The impact of the man striding toward her made Cindy suck in
her breath. She dealt with the weird, wacky, and wonderful on
a daily basis, so she felt she was pretty much immune to
anyone or anything that walked through the Woo Woo Inn's
doors. But this man ... It was as though every woman's darkest
fantasy of the ultimate alpha male had suddenly materialized
in her hallway.
She didn't need to burn any brain cells analyzing him. This
was a man to be enjoyed on a strictly primitive level. Cindy
let her basic instincts do their thing.
First impressions- Tall. Broad-shouldered. Long leather
coat? unbuttoned. Jeans? buttoned. Damn. White shirt? mostly
buttoned. Double damn. Of course, her basic instincts never
spoke in complete sentences, so once her gaze wandered above
his neck she had to move up a step in the evolutionary process
to do justice to him.
Describing any other man, she'd simply say he had blond hair,
but on this man blond didn't say it at all. Blond evoked
images of all things soft and golden. No one in their right
mind would describe him as soft or golden. The wind had
whipped his hair into a long tangled glory lying across those
incredible shoulders. Each strand was the sun rising over the
icy North Sea, the swish of a longboat's prow cutting through
the gray waves, the battle cries of sea-borne invaders. It
was ... Viking. He was a dark warrior no matter the color of his
hair.
Dark warrior? Whoa. She was skating on the thin ice of purple
prose when she usually just laid everything out in the fewest
possible words. He had a great bod and sexy hair. That's all
there was to it.
"You must be Cindy Harper." He stopped in front of her and
offered his hand. "Thrain Davis."
His voice matched the rest of him, all husky and filled with
dangerous erotic traps for unwary women. And she definitely
detected a touch of Scotland there, not so much in his choice
of words, but in the cadence of them. Cindy shifted her Viking
imagery to purple hills, shadowed glens, and sexy Highlanders.
"Hi." She automatically took the hand he offered, but still
kept her unblinking gaze on his face.
His eyes were a strangely brilliant shade of blue. Blue was an
ambiguous color. It was a flame's superheated center and
winter's coldest waters. She suspected he could be both.
Uh-oh. She'd just fallen through the ice.
"Welcome to the Woo Woo Inn." Her brain's welcome.
"Oooh, yes! Pant, pant, pant. Woo-hoo, come and get me, you
big beautiful hottie." The welcomes from the sluts who lived
in her basement.
"Thanks." He smiled.
Even if a portal to Hell had opened at her feet, she wouldn't
have felt more shocked. Sure he had sensual lips and great
teeth, but that's not what his smile was about. It was about
temptation. Every woman who ever saw Thrain Davis smile would
wonder about the pleasure his mouth could give her, and from
there go on to imagine what his mouth combined with the rest
of him could accomplish. His intense blue gaze and sexy smile
were an invitation that said, "Press any of my body's hot
spots for sensational sex." Cindy allowed her glance to slide
the length of him. Both her basic and higher-level instincts
agreed that it would be fun to explore those hot spots.
"I think you need to blink now." His smile widened.
Cindy blinked then quickly dropped his hand. What had that
been all about? She'd learned when she was eighteen never to
let a man's physical appearance affect her judgment, and she
hadn't been eighteen for a very long time. But she tried to be
honest with herself most of the time, and she couldn't deny
that something about him touched all of her hot spots.
"You're a spectacular-looking man. I'm sure women all over the
world have suffered dry eyeballs after meeting you." She
smiled back at him.
It was his turn to blink. He was probably used to women
playing coy around him. Well, she said what she thought.
Within reason. She didn't think she'd share her hot spot
fantasy with him.
"Spectacular-looking? I don't think so." He frowned then raked
his fingers through his hair. "At least, I hope not. I want to
blend in with your other guests." He actually looked worried.
"It's the hair, isn't it?"
Cindy thought about some of her other guests. No, he
definitely wouldn't blend in. "It's the whole package." His
response sort of surprised her. Most men she'd known loved to
have their egos stroked. "You mustn't look in a mirror often."
A smile tugged at the corners of his expressive mouth, and she
had the feeling he was laughing at a private joke. "No, I
don't. But you're wrong, Cindy. What you see now is the
ordinary me. I save 'spectacular' for dark moonless nights."
Cindy felt a stab of disappointment. He must be just like most
of her other guests who liked to play at being something they
weren't. She glanced at her organizer. For some reason, Hal
hadn't entered any info next to Thrain's name. An oversight.
"So are you a vampire, werewolf, demon ...?" She waited, ready
to put in the details.
His soft chuckle mocked her. "None of the above. I'm only here
to observe. Paranormal events fascinate me."
Cindy glanced up to meet his suddenly intent stare. Sheesh.
She was back to the unable-to-blink thing. And she
felt ... different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it
was like something alien had touched her mind. Whatever it was
slipped away before she could think about it. Probably just
the beginning of a headache. She hadn't slept well today, and
lack of sleep always gave her a headache.
"You don't believe any of this, do you?" Thrain swept his arm
wide to encompass all that she didn't believe. "Why do you run
this place if you don't believe in any of the paranormal
stuff?" For some reason, he seemed really bent out of shape by
his insight.
How had he known? She'd never talked about her personal
beliefs with anyone. Cindy shrugged away what she couldn't
explain. "I don't know what makes you think that, but I guess
the truth is that I'm an observer like you. I'm open-minded,
but I need proof before I believe anything." And proof was the
one thing that no one had ever offered.
But someday, someone might walk through the inn's door with
all the answers to her questions, and she wanted to be here
when it happened. "I opened the inn because I wanted to invest
my money in a business, and this seemed like it would be fun."
Not the only reason. Definitely not the only reason.
He latched on to just one part of her answer. "I think we're
entirely different kinds of observers."
She sensed disappointment before he seemed to close off his
emotions. His expression gave away nothing. Since she couldn't
think of anything meaningful to say, Cindy simply shrugged.
"Are you really open-minded? Would you accept proof if it were
standing in front of you?" He sounded sincerely interested in
her answer, but his eyes remained neutral.
Now he was creeping her out. "Sure." Maybe. She shifted her
attention to her organizer and carefully entered him as an
interested observer. "I'll have someone carry your?"
"I can carry my own bag."
Cindy looked up from her clipboard at his terse comment. Yep,
she'd somehow managed to annoy him. Not a good beginning to
his stay. She smiled in the hope it would improve his mood.
"Your choice. I'll have someone show you to your?"
"I can find my own room." He held out his hand for the key.
Now he was making her mad. She barely stopped herself from
slapping the key into his palm. "Fine. You're in the Incubus
room. Second floor, turn right. Breakfast will be in a
half-hour, and then you have a choice of activities. The
brochure in your room will give you the details." She forced
some warmth into her voice. No matter how strange her guests
acted, they were still paying for an enjoyable experience, and
she'd play the happy hostess even if it killed her.
Cindy tried to look past him, but he stayed planted in front
of her, his body blocking her view of the front door.
Impatient, she looked up at him. "What?"
A sudden smile softened his mouth and actually reached his
eyes. "You deserve some good memories. I do great memories."
Memories? What did memories have to do with anything? He left
her staring after him as he strode past her then climbed the
stairs. Mmm. He looked just as wow going as he did coming. She
smiled. What a totally sexual animal. Within that context, she
understood the great memories thing perfectly.
Only when he was out of sight did she return her attention to
the front door. What had just happened? Because something had
definitely happened.
Okay, she wouldn't think about it now. At least there was one
thing she knew for sure. No way could the last guest top that.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Night Bites
by Nina Bangs
Copyright © 2005 by Nina Bangs.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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