By Invitation Only Read Online Free PDF

no man could have moved.”
    Her cheeks colored. “You’re incorrigible.”
    “You’re the bulldozer and yet I’m the bad guy? No wonder you’re not in a relationship.”
    “Who says I’m not in a relationship?”
    “Are you?”
    “No,” she said hotly, then muttered a curse and pushed up, breaking the light grip he had on her waist and scrambling to her feet.
    “Who was he?” Nick asked, sitting up.
    “Who was who?” She dusted herself off as if she’d gotten dirty simply by touching him.
    “The guy who soured you on men.”
    “Not all men,” she said. “Just men like you.”
    “Men like me?”
    “Arrogant, egotistical.”
    “What was his name?”
    “That’s none of your business.”
    “So there was a guy.” Nick snapped his fingers. “I knew it. What did he do?”
    “Nothing you haven’t done to hundreds of women.”
    He felt her pain like a kick to the gut. Someone had hurt her, and his impulse was to hunt the guy down and kick his butt the same way he would if any guy hurt one of his sisters. But there was an added dimension to this feeling that was far from brotherly, and that disturbed him. “Now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings.”
    “He was an irascible rake just like you.”
    “Rake? Who are you? Jane Austen?”
    “It’s a perfectly good word and fits you to a tee—charming, handsome but bad to the bone. Cavalierly tossing women away like used tissues.”
    “You think I’m handsome?” Feeling ridiculously pleased, Nick ambled to his feet.
    Olivia snorted indelicately. “Get over yourself already. There’s more to being a man than possessing a pretty face and killer body.”
    “You think I have a killer body?”
    “For crying out loud!” She threw her hands into the air. “Ego, ego, ego.”
    “Yeah, like you don’t have an ego.”
    “Not like yours.”
    “You’ve got Pulitzer dreams, Honey. It takes a big ego to pull that off.”
    “Don’t call me that.”
    “Hey, we’re undercover. Honey is the name you got stuck with, although…” He angled his head, studied her. “It fits. You’ve got that golden complexion, a bee stinger for a tongue and those sweet…” He dropped his gaze to her breasts.
    “Shut up.”
    He came across the room toward her. She was busy digging around in her purse and pointedly trying to ignore him.
    “I like this undercover thing,” he said.
    “You would.”
    “Getting down and dirty, unearthing dark secrets. I’ll be Deep Throat. You can be Woodward and Bernstein.”
    “Why am I two people?” She took a tablet computer and electrical cord from her purse and looked around for a place to plug it in.
    “It takes both of those reporters to make one of you.”
    A pleased smile flitted across her lips.
    “Ha!” He pointed at her sly mouth. “Gotcha. You do think you’re as good as Woodward and Bernstein put together.”
    Her smile disappeared. “Bite me.”
    “Oh-ho, you can dish it, but you can’t take it.”
    “Stop coming on to me. You broke my best friend’s heart.”
    “I didn’t break Mica’s heart. We only went on three dates. I never even slept with her.”
    That shut her up. Olivia eyes widened and she stared at him for a long moment and then finally echoed, “You never slept with her?”
    “You thought I did?”
    Olivia sniffed. “I assumed you sleep with everyone you date.”
    “And we both know what they say about people who ass-u-me. ”
    “Is everything a joke with you?” She found the electrical socket and leaned over to plug in her computer.
    Nick inclined his head. His gaze glued to her every movement as he hoped for a glimpse of those delectable upper thighs hiding beneath the flirty skirt hem.
    “Mmm, not everything.”
    She straightened, spun around, caught him staring at her rump and immediately flattened her palm against the back of her skirt. “You are a rascal.”
    “Yeah,” he agreed, grinning. “Rascally rake, that’s me.”
    She glared. He was getting a lot of those from her.