Free By Invitation Only by Lori Wilde, Wendy Etherington, Jillian Burns

tensed as she waited and waited and waited until finally she couldn’t stand it one minute more. “Are you ever going to say anything?” she asked.
    “I think we should just face this thing head-on,” he said.
    She sat up. “What thing?”
    “Don’t even try to pretend what’s going on between us doesn’t have you as jumbled up as it has me.”
    “I don’t want to be jumbled up.”
    “Neither do I, but damn it, I am.” Nick blew out a breath.
    In the darkness she heard rather than saw him shove a hand through his hair. “So let’s not do it. You were right last night. Bad idea.”
    “Granted, it might be unwise, but I want you so badly I can’t think straight and I’m pretty sure you’re just as addled as I am.”
    “More so.” Olivia’s toes curled in anticipation. This felt crazy, illogical, out of control, and she loved it.
    “What can I say, Olivia, is this feeling is all new to me.”
    “Why me?”
    “I wish to hell I knew. You’re confusing and confounding and irritating but whenever I think about you, I smile.”
    “Yeah, well thinking about you makes me smile, too.”
    “I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “I don’t want to get hurt.”
    “So where do we go from here?”
    They sat in the darkness for a long silent moment, the wind buffeting rain against the terrace door. Olivia’s head swirling, her body throbbing, her sex crying out for him.
    “Olivia?” he whispered.
    “Nick.”
    He reached out across the mattress and then she was in his arms. He tugged her into his lap, his lips weighed heavily against hers, his tongue languid and warm. Her pulse slipped through her veins brilliant as mercury—cool and quick.
    Her body heated up, her nipples beading even harder as his erection pressed against her bottom. The man was big. Bigger than anyone she’d ever been with and she was both thrilled and nervous.
    “You are such an intriguing woman,” he murmured. “You had my attention for months, but I always felt you were too uppity to give me the time of day.”
    “I was,” she confessed.
    “Why the change of heart?”
    She shrugged. “Getting to know you better. That playboy shtick is just a front. You hide behind it because you’re afraid of anything deep and meaningful.”
    “I could just be a jerk.”
    “You’re not.”
    He reached out to brush her hair from her forehead. “You have no idea how much it means to me to hear you say that.”
    Their mouths melded in a fresh surge of passion. Olivia had never in her life wanted a man as much as she wanted Nick. Any lingering misgivings disappeared in the thrust of pure sensation. Nick’s tongue explored her and she volleyed back, an equal partner in the erotic duel, kissing him with a force so all-consuming she felt as if she’d been swallowed by the universe.
    Silently, they undressed each other. He slipped her sleep shirt over her head. She yanked at the waistband of his cotton shorts. His palms skimmed over her body, caressing her breasts, her waist, her hips. She licked his skin, salty with sea air and delighted in the taste of him. Ravenously he kissed her and Olivia unfurled, coming fully alive, throbbing with the tympanic tempo of escalating hormones. Her fingers trembled with anticipation, her muscles tensed, anxious for more of him.
    Nick speared his fingers through her hair, held her still while he branded more kisses over her face. Touching his lips to her forehead and eyelids, cheekbones and chin—nibbling, sucking and licking.
    Then when he lowered his mouth to capture first one nipple and then the other, Olivia let out a low, soft moan of intense pleasure. Her muscles tightened and her body caught fire.
    “Do you have protection?” she whispered.
    “On that score, call me reliable,” he said, leaning over to search through the pocket of his shorts, which lay discarded on the floor.
    After a quick fumble, he got the condom in place and then Nick lay back and pulled her on top of him. Olivia straddled his waist;