One Bite with a Stranger

by Christine Warren

  Praise for New York Times bestselling author

  Christine Warren

  Howl at the Moon

  “Warren delivers a rapidly paced tale that pits duty against honor and love. Populated with intriguing characters who continue to grow and develop, it is fun to see familiar faces in new scenarios.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews

  “A fantastic addition to the world of The Others…grab a copy as soon as possible. Christine Warren does a wonderful job of writing a book that meshes perfectly with the storylines of the others in the series, yet stands alone perfectly.”

  —Lori Ann, Romance Reviews Today

  “Warren weaves a paranormal world of werewolves, shifters, witches, humans, demons, and a whole lot more with a unique hand for combining all the paranormal classes.”

  —Night Owl Romance

  “Howl at the Moon will tug at a wide range of emotions from beginning to end…Engaging banter, a strong emotional connection, and steamy love scenes. This talented author delivers real emotion which results in delightful interactions…and the realistic dialogue is stimulating. Christine Warren knows how to write a winner!”

  —Romance Junkies

  The Demon You Know

  “Explodes with sexy, devilish fun, exploring the further adventures of The Others. With a number of the gang from previous books back, there’s an immediate familiarity about this world that makes it easy to dive right into. Warren’s storytelling style makes these books remarkably entertaining.”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews (4½ stars)

  She’s No Faerie Princess

  “Warren has fast become one of the premier authors of rich paranormal thrillers elaborately laced with scorching passion. When you want your adventure hot, Warren is the one for you!”

  —Romantic Times BOOKreviews

  “The dialogue is outrageous, funny, and clever. The characters are so engaging and well scripted…and the plot…is as scary as it is delicious!”

  —Romance Reader at Heart

  “Christine Warren has penned a story rich in fantastic characters and spellbinding plots.”

  —Fallen Angel Reviews

  Wolf at the Door

  “A great start to a unique paranormal series.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “This book is a fire-starter…a fast-paced, adrenaline- and hormonally-charged tale. The writing is fluid and fun, and makes the characters all take on life-like characteristics.”

  —Romance Reader at Heart

  “Intrigue, adventure, and red-hot sexual tension.”

  —USA Today bestselling author Julie Kenner

  As always, to my best girlfriends—JoJo, Kim, and Sham. Because they always put up with me. Even when they shouldn’t.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Preview

  Chapter 1

  “Good Lord, you should have seen her face! I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head.”

  Regina McNeill laughed along with the friends gathered in her apartment for their semimonthly girls’ night ritual. As said ritual had already involved several bottles of truly exceptional wine, Reggie was currently stretched out on her living room carpet with her head resting on a sofa pillow and her gaze fixed on the ceiling, which spun in wide, gentle swirls overhead.

  True to form, her friends noticed her distraction and reacted by setting her wine glass on the edge of the coffee table near her shoulder and continuing the conversation.

  “Are you kidding? And miss one second of staring at that gorgeous hunk of a man? Our Corinne would never be that stupid.” Danice topped off her wine glass from a nearly empty bottle of cabernet and grinned slyly. “Besides, if her eyes had popped out, they probably would have just landed on her chin. I think it was on the floor by that point.”

  Missy laughed. “That accounts for the puddles, then!”

  “Hey,” Corinne protested with mock dignity, finishing off the white wine in her own glass. “There were no puddles involved. At least, not that early on.”

  “And they didn’t consist of drool anyway,” Ava quipped as she selected a chunk of havarti from the plundered plate of cheese on the table in front of her. “I hope those sheets of yours didn’t stain, Corinne, darling.”

  “If they did, I don’t want to know about it.” Reggie laughed and pushed herself into a sitting position. It took enough effort that she figured she should forget another glass of wine.

  Reggie wasn’t normally a heavy drinker, but if tonight’s company hadn’t provided enough of an excuse to relax that rule a little, the damp, dreary spring weather had. She’d had three and a half glasses of pinot grigio, which was two more than it took to bring her solidly past tipsy. “There’s such a thing as too much information, you know.”

  “There is not,” Danice protested, her pretty brown eyes sparkling with wine and mischief. “Friends share everything, Reggie!”

  “Mm, especially the dirty parts,” Ava purred. Her sleek, dark eyebrows wriggled suggestively and drew another laugh from the group.

  Even Reggie laughed while she snagged a cracker from the coffee table full of munchies. Predictably, it had only taken four hours and a bit of alcohol to send the conversation among the five close friends straight to the gutter. As the self-acknowledged prude of the group, Reggie had been figuratively dragged along behind the others.

  “I don’t get the dirty parts,” she commented for probably the hundredth time to this particular audience. “I thought that’s what blue movies and romance novels were for. I mean, who wants to hear about the sex lives of people they actually know? It’s like watching your parents get freaky. Ick.”

  Danice gave a theatrically disappointed sigh. “Regina Elaina, where did we go wrong with you? All sex is interesting, sweetie, ’cause hearing about it is the next best thing to doing it.”

  Reggie rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard that argument before, Nicie, and I’m still not buying. If I’m not having the sex, I’m not interested in hearing about it.”

  “And that brings up something I’ve been wanting to talk to everyone about,” Ava interrupted, her mouth curving in the kind of smile that always made the hair on the back of Reggie’s neck stand up. “Thank you for the lovely segue, Reggie dear.”

  Unease pushed Reggie into an automatic protest, but Ava characteristically plowed right over her like a Prada-wearing steamroller.

  “It has come to my attention,” Ava continued, “that you, Regina, are the only one of our little group who has yet to take part in her very own Fantasy Fix.”

  The suggestion was met with a half second of silence followed by a rousing cheer from everyone but Reggie; because she was too busy snapping into instant sobriety and experiencing a sudden and debilitating empathy for trapped lab rats around the world.

  And were those cat’s whiskers she could see sprouting from Ava’s nose?

  “Oh, no,” Reggie protested, holding her hands out in front of her as if she could beat back her best friends’ intentions. “I’m
not going to be your next victim. I was never wild about the Fix idea in the first place, but you guys ignored me back then. You said I was being a silly Puritan and that I’d get over it. Well, I haven’t. Pick someone else.”

  The idea of the Fantasy Fixes had come out of a night Reggie would never forget. And she ought to know, because she’d been trying to do so for the past six months.

  “You know, I don’t think we can do that this time,” Danice said, leaping onto Ava’s bandwagon with an unrepentant grin. “I think Ava’s right. Every single one of us here has taken at least one turn so far. Ava and Corinne and I have even taken two each. It just wouldn’t be right if we kept skipping over you. Why, personally, I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself if we didn’t make it our first and foremost priority to get you Fixed just as soon as possible.”

  “Maybe I’m not broken,” Reggie growled, but her protests fell on deaf ears. Not that she’d expected much else. No one could talk Danice Carter out of an idea, which is why the Fantasy Fixes had gotten off the ground to begin with.

  Ava had thought it up, with Danice quickly throwing her support behind it, and since the whole thing had been born on another wild and wine-filled girls’ night, Corinne and even Missy had quickly jumped onto the bandwagon. At the time even Reggie hadn’t fought that hard against it. Six months ago, she couldn’t see the harm. Now she was considering applying for disaster relief funds.

  The Fantasy Fix had exploded into being when one too many drinks had led the five women’s conversation to the subject of fantasies—in particular, to sexual fantasies.

  “Have you ever acted one out?” Ava had wanted to know. “One of the really steamy ones you didn’t want anyone to know about?”

  Danice scoffed at that. “When would I get the chance? And with who? Reggie’s the only one of us with a long-term relationship. I’m lucky if I can get lucky, let alone find a guy to act out the good stuff with.”

  “I don’t know if that makes Reggie lucky though,” Corinne observed. “Sometimes it’s even harder to do the fantasy thing with a real partner than it would be with someone you don’t know as well. There’s more at stake. Personally, if I’m going to admit I want to dress up in red leather and have some hunk call me ‘mistress,’ I think I’d rather do it with a stranger.”

  “Mistress, huh?” Missy giggled and grinned. “You go, girl. I wouldn’t have pegged you for it, but I think I like this side of you. You’re right though; strangers might be easier.”

  “Exactly,” Danice agreed. “Besides, you pull out the big guns with a lover, and he’s gonna want in on the fantasizing. Lovers want to get inside your head. At least if you were doing the fantasy thing with a stranger, you can do it all the way, not worry about him whining that he wants to be the emperor this time.”

  They had all laughed, except for Ava. She’d had that look.

  “You know, Corinne,” she said slowly, “I know a guy, a real hunk, who would love the opportunity to call someone ‘mistress’ without paying for it or doing the long-term thing. I could maybe hook you two up.”

  Missy laughed. “Playing matchmaker, Ava? You know, I’ve been looking for a nice mountain man to kidnap me and keep me in his cabin for a weekend or two. Know anyone like that?”

  “I don’t know about Ava, but I do,” Danice chimed in. “I could fix you up with that fantasy.”

  “In fact,” Ava murmured, beginning to smile. “I would be willing to wager that if we put our heads together, the five of us could design a way for any four of us to fix up the other one. Make it possible for her to live her fantasies. Give her, as it were, a Fantasy Fix.”

  That had been the beginning of the end. A vote had revealed the five of them to be just drunk enough and just insane enough to agree to help each other find a way to live out their wildest sexual fantasies. They’d drawn up a plan, collected five fantasies from each member of the group, and plunged headfirst into round one.

  By putting their heads together, the five friends found they knew an awful lot of men who fit each other’s visions of a fantasy lover. After that, making the arrangements had been easy. Round one had gone off like gangbusters, with each woman taking a turn at acting out one of her five fantasies with one of the eligible bachelors in the fantasy pool. Well, each woman had taken a turn except for Reggie.

  At the time the idea came together, Reggie had still been seeing Greg—had still been living with Greg, unfortunately—so she’d been exempt. They’d skipped over her, and Reggie had told herself she didn’t need a fantasy lover when she had a real one sleeping by her side every night. She hadn’t realized that while Greg slept by her side every night, he also fucked his receptionist in his office every afternoon.

  The relationship with him hadn’t made it past the beginning of round two. Their breakup had been four months ago, and while Reggie had finally reached the stage when she could admit she was better off without the scum-sucker, she still didn’t quite feel ready for a Fantasy Fix. Heck, she was barely ready for a shopping fix!

  Of course, try to tell that to her friends.

  And she was. She was trying really, really hard. They just refused to listen.

  “Get the hat,” Danice instructed Missy while Corinne returned from the kitchen with a fresh bottle of white. “Who’s got custody of Ms. McNeill’s fantasies? Missy? You’re our record keeper.”

  Four women looked at each other, and Reggie had the fleeting hope her fantasies had been lost to the ether. Maybe then they could just forget this whole insane idea.

  “I didn’t bring them,” Missy admitted. “I didn’t know Corinne was finished, so I didn’t think we’d be drawing tonight.”

  Reggie started to grin.

  “No matter,” Ava dismissed. “Just get a pen and paper. She can draw up five new ones. Knowing our bashful, old-fashioned, and monogamous friend, her old ones probably all featured the Slimeball, anyway.”

  Reggie felt the first stirrings of panic. Her friends had never liked Greg—neither did Reggie these days—but that didn’t mean she felt ready to hop into bed with a stranger. Even before Greg, she’d never done anything like that. In fact, he’d only been the third lover she’d ever had. She wasn’t the type for one-night stands, let alone for acting out sexual fantasies. Her friends might be all Sex and the City, but Reggie was more Leave It to Beaver.

  “You know, I really think—”

  “That you need to make these good, girl,” Danice interrupted firmly, handing Reggie a pad and a pen. “Now is your chance to live it up. Get fantasizing.”

  Reggie shook her head and tried to hand the pen back. “No, really. I don’t have any fantasies.”

  “Don’t lie, Regina. It’s not polite,” Ava said, pinning her with a hard stare. “Everyone has fantasies.”

  Missy returned to the group and held up the straw hat she had snagged from Reggie’s hall closet. “Who’s going to draw?”

  “I will,” Corinne offered, and set her refilled wine glass on the cocktail table. “Since I had the last Fix.”

  Reggie felt her already nebulous control over her own fate slipping permanently from her grasp. “No. Wait a minute, you guys. I’m not so sure this is really a good idea. I mean, I don’t think I’m ready for this. Maybe I need to finish getting over this thing with Greg—”

  “Trust me when I tell you, darling, the best way to get over that asshole is to screw him right out of your memory.” Trust Ava to lay it all out in black and white. She never had been one to beat around the bush. “And since I don’t see you going out and picking up an assistant to help you with that, it is up to your friends to pick one up for you.”

  “But—”

  “Plant it, Reg.” Danice pushed Reggie down onto the sofa and handed her a large glass of wine. “It’s your turn, and you are not backing out this time.”

  Reggie barely hit the cushions before Corinne took a turn with the browbeating. “No more stalling. You had your chance to veto this Fix in the beginning, just like we all d
id. But once you threw in your fantasies, and we started round one, you were committed.”

  Reggie scowled. “I ought to be committed.”

  “Actually, that’s a really good point,” Corinne interrupted. “She was in this beginning with round one, right? But she never got a turn. So I think”—she paused to grin at the other women—“Reggie should get a double draw. Two fantasies for the price of one, so to speak.”

  “Yes!” Danice’s exclamation overrode Reggie’s protest. “It’ll be our job as the Fixers to find a way to fit the two fantasies together. Don’t worry, toots. We’ll find a way to make it happen for you.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “It’ll be great.”

  “Just trust us.”

  Oh, God. She was doomed.

  Reggie looked at the solid wall of sisterly unity in front of her, and knew resistance would prove futile. There was no getting out of this. Not with Ava leading the charge right over the edge of the cliff.

  “Write!” the woman ordered, pointing imperiously at the blank paper on Reggie’s lap. “We need five fantasies, Ms. McNeill, the kinkier the better.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Concentrate on butts.” Corinne grinned. “And pecs and abs and talented hands. And maybe one or two other things.”

  They all laughed, and Reggie knew her reprieve had come to an ignominious end. She could never get away without listing five fantasies and throwing them—and herself—on her friends’ nonexistent mercy.

  “I don’t see the pen moving, Reg,” Missy teased her, waggling her eyebrows. “Get going. This is your chance to do all the things you weren’t sure were even physically possible.”

  Reggie started to snap that she’d prefer the impossible, but she stopped when a thought occurred to her.