Tropical Lynx's Lover (Shifting Sands Resort 4)

“What are you, Switzerland?” Breck rolled his eyes. “You know you want an inboard this time to run the whale watching tours.”

But Travis couldn’t focus on the conversation, no matter how invested he was in the outcome. He washed his plate and tossed his napkin.

“What’s gotten into you?” Bastian asked, with genuine concern. “Are you okay?”

“I gotta talk to Tex,” Travis told him, agonized, and left him more puzzled than ever in his wake.

Tex was sitting on the bar with his guitar, playing something uncharacteristically happy. His mate -

Our mate! purred Lynx.

His mate! Travis corrected in despair.

- sat a few chairs away, a glass of ice water covered with condensing droplets in front of her.

She looked up at his approach, and Travis could see both confusion and longing in her dark eyes.

Travis made the mistake of letting his feet stop, and was still trying to screw together the courage to walk forward again when someone brushed by him.

“Sorry, Travis,” she said merrily, and Travis had to stare.

She was a perfect double, dressed in a red sundress compared to her mirror image’s blue. She sat between Tex and the other version, and Travis couldn’t believe that he had ever confused them. Tex’s mate was gorgeous, but his mate -

Our mate! sang Lynx.

- was utterly perfect.

Relief made his knees feel like water. Travis wasn’t crazy, it was the world that was crazy. There were two of them, twins, and he was sure he would never have a problem distinguishing them again.

“You alright, man?” Tex asked in concern, stilling his fingers on the strings of the guitar.

Travis could move again, and he strode forward with new confidence. “Never better,” he declared. “Though you ladies had me doubting my sanity until now.”

Tex’s Miss Smith exchanged an amused look with him. “You didn’t know there were two of us?” she asked teasingly.

“I thought I was going to have to skin my Lynx for insisting that Tex’s mate was our own,” Travis admitted frankly. “I couldn’t imagine a situation more impossible.”

“Your mate?! Oh, Jenny, how perfect!” Laura’s squeak was nothing but delighted, and Tex grinned congratulations at him.

Jenny only looked alarmed, not at all delighted, but Travis was still buoyed by the revelation that there were two of them.

He closed the distance between them and held out his hands. “My mate,” he repeated firmly, almost giddy with relief and joy. “May I kiss you?”

Chapter 8

Yes, her otter insisted. This is what we want. This is everything!

The rest of Jenny was in a white-hot panic.

If she let this man kiss her, she would be lost forever to her otter, anything of her human self washed away in the passionate wave of the lust that threatened to consume her. She’d never have any kind of self-control again.

“No!” Jenny said firmly, standing up and pushing her chair back. Instead of sliding, it toppled over backwards with a crash, and she was keenly aware of the stares of Tex, her sister, and most of all, of Travis.

He was perfect, she thought achingly. Gorgeous as a model, with golden skin in perfect planes, and shoulders that could carry the world.

He stood before her, hands outstretched, his look of delight and desire fading to confusion and puzzled rejection.

“Jenny,” Laura said hesitantly. “What’s wrong?”