By Invitation Only Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Can you find somewhere else to be?”
    “You writing?”
    “Researching.”
    “What?”
    “Who.”
    “Huh?”
    Olivia plunked down at the rattan desk, powered on her tablet. “I’m researching a person. More precisely, this Honey person.”
    “On the internet?”
    “No, on my crystal ball.”
    “Ha! I knew it. You really are a witch.”
    “And you’re a jackass.”
    He winced. “That insult isn’t up to your caliber. I’ve got a knife sharpener on my key chain if your tongue’s getting dull. Wanna borrow it?”
    “Seriously, could you just go? I work better in silence.” Frowning, she pretended to focus on her computer screen, but he could tell from the rigid way she was holding her shoulders that she was very aware of him.
    “There are better ways of finding out who Honey is without cloistering yourself in a room when there’s a beautiful beach beckoning.”
    “Alliteration, the cheapest figure of speech. Why am I not surprised it’s your fallback position?”
    “Ah, there it is. You got your barb back.”
    “Are you always this annoying?”
    “Betcha I can find out more about Honey in five minutes than you can in a hour searching the web.”
    She jerked her head up, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “You’re on.”
    Ah, so competition was what revved Ms. Carmichael’s engines. He should have known. She was the overachieving, only child of an affluent family. It was pretty well a given. Yes, he’d looked her up on Google after she lit into him over Mica. She’d piqued his curiosity. He’d discovered she’d gone to the right schools, dated the right men, did exactly what Mommy and Daddy expected of her and did it better than most anyone else. No wonder she was so uptight, sitting there kneading her neck muscles.
    Damn, his fingers itched to knead them for her.
    “So what are we betting?” she asked.
    “Meet me back here in an hour. We’ll compare notes. Whoever has the most intel on Honey wins.”
    “Wins what?”
    Olivia tossed a gaze at the bed, and for one glorious minute he thought she was going to tell him he’d get one night of pure sexual pleasure with her. His cock got harder.
    “Winner takes the bed, loser has to sleep on the terrace chaise lounge,” she proposed.
    “We could share the bed,” he teased, mostly out of habit. He’d known bedding her was a long shot.
    “In your dreams and my nightmares.”
    “Hands to myself, I promise.” He raised his palms.
    “Do I look like a complete idiot?”
    “Not at all.”
    “If you want to take the bet, that’s as good as my offer is going to get. You win, you get the bed. You lose, it’s the chaise. Take it or leave it.”
    “I’ll take it,” he said hastily, even as disappointment tasted like day-old mutton on the back of his tongue.
    Why was he so disappointed? He’d been shot down before. Granted not a lot, but it had happened and when it did, the rejections had rolled right off his back and he’d happily moved on to a more willing woman. Life was too short to waste time with someone who wasn’t interested.
    Except suddenly, the philosophy that had dominated his love life seemed short-sighted. What if she really was interested, but just didn’t want to be? Maybe if he pushed a little he could knock down some of her resistance.
    “Honey,” he said. “You’ve got yourself a bet.”

4
     
    T HE SECOND N ICK LEFT the bungalow, Olivia heaved out a long-held sigh. She was alarmed to discover her hand was trembling. To stop it she sat on her hands.
    Okay, calm down. Do some yoga breathing.
    She’d taken yoga for years and it never failed to calm her down, but this time it didn’t work. She tried to concentrate and search the web, but feeling restless, she flipped off her computer after a few minutes, got to her feet and decided to take a walk on the beach. Never mind that she was going to lose her bet with Nick. The chaise looked comfortable enough, even though it grated against her competitive nature to throw in the