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This is the shortest story in the anthology, more of a short story than a novella.

Meg Jennings has a secret identity: Paparazzi, with a suit that makes her fly and renders her invisible. At least she's no longer using the suit to be Sneak Thief. So it's a little hypocritical of her to break up with billionaire Richard Drake because of his secrecy.

Before she can sort out her feelings, however, she gets caught by superhero Cougar, who both frightens and excites her, ever since he caught her and her father 6 years ago. Cougar and his brother Lynx take her captive and, well, once she realizes what they have in mind, she doesn't resist very much.

I'd really have liked this story to be longer, but all the elements are there--the h/h have known each other, so the romance doesn't come from out of the blue, and there's even some credible emotion between them. I also enjoyed the twist, though I suspect more alert readers would have figured it out sooner than I did. And there's the bit of a theme of keeping secrets that's rather nice.

The sex scenes, of course, are very hot, which is not at all surprising.

This story is the more usual novella length that I expect in anthologies.

It's mostly the story of Natalie, David, and Nico. Natalie wants both David and Nico, and they both want her. And though he doesn't mention it to Natalie and Nico, David wants Nico, too. Deep inside, Nico's also attracted to David, but he doesn't admit it even to himself.

So Nico and David decide to settle things like men--they make a bet. Whoever has Natalie in his bed on Valentine's Day gets to keep her. Fortunately for all of them, Nico's father Luke is a demon, and he decides to nudge things along.

I really enjoyed this story--the development of their 3-way romance was emotional, particularly for the men, and David's fear of rejection and Nico's fear of admitting his attraction to David was realistic and poignant.

The demon parts, on the other hand, seemed extraneous and distracting. I kept wanting to get back to interactions between the 3 main characters. Once again, length could be the problem--in a longer story, I wouldn't have minded Luke's role as much.

And oh, yes. Very steamy, very hot.

Victoria Brittain has a secret admirer. She receives a gift of lingerie with no name, just the instruction to wear it to the company party that evening. She complies, enjoying the anticipation, and wondering who it is.

It's good news and bad news. The good news is it's William Hunter, whom she's lusted after for the past year. The bad news is, he's a client. He takes charge of an incredible sexual encounter in her office during the party, then invites her to his home for the weekend (the 2 days, 3 nights of the title).

This was my favorite of the stories. It's pointed out that Hunt had known from Victoria's ex-fiance that she enjoyed "kinky sex," so you know his approach didn't just come out of the blue. The romance is sweet, with both of them being surprised by the strength of their feelings for each other, and the emotions are realistic. The sex scenes are hot, clear, and plentiful, while still leaving enough space for a believable story.

Workaholic Anne Logan hasn't had a date in far too long, and because she's responsible for every little detail at work, what she wants most is for a man who'll take charge of everything. So when her best friend Sarah attends a bachelor auction and bachelor Garrett describes taking care of a woman's every need, she knows exactly what to get Anne for her birthday.

According to the rules of the auction, there's no sex allowed on the date, not even a good-night kiss, but between Garrett being completely in charge (he'd even asked Sarah about Anne's food preferences so he could order for her), and the "accidental" touches and friendly flirtatious conversation, Anne's more than willing to have a second, more private date beginning immediately after the official date is over.

This story gets props for having the most fun and unusual description of an orgasm I think I've ever read: "You mean, does playing the game while you make love always feel like someone's opened the top of your head and filled your brain with Pop Rocks?" But that also brings me to my main objection. Despite that great description, the characters remain matter-of-fact, nonchalant, casual. They might as well be discussing the weather or a grocery list. The actions are steamy, but their thoughts and dialogue are tepid. And calling their D/s play "the Game" started bugging me after a while. I appreciate the point that it's a game rather than a lifestyle for them, but it started feeling like I was being bashed over the head with it.

The ending, though, was clever, happy, believable, and fair to both of them--and unusual, at least to me, and I read enough to be thrilled by an unusual ending.

Annie's master Mark and Tom's mistress Claudine give Annie the gift of Tom for her birthday. Sub Annie had planned to dominate Tom, but he dominates her instead.

This story is all about the sex. Which is hot, but there wasn't enough emotional context for me to really enjoy it. There's a brief bit confirming Annie's devotion to Mark and Tom's to Claudine, but as Mark and Claudine are perfectly fine with the arrangement, there's no conflict there, and no conflicted emotions from Annie or Tom.

Maybe I'm jaded, but I need more story with my sex scenes.

This was the best of the bunch, I thought. Harriet thinks she's been hired as a personal assistant to American actress Rowena, but she was actually hired as a catalyst to upset the sex/romance triangle between Rowena, her director husband Lewis, and her brother Chris.

Lewis proposed the experiment with a two-fold purpose: to use the presence of another woman to break up the incestual relationship between Rowena and Chris; and to plot out the course of what he expects to be his finest film.

Harriet is the only one not in on the scheme, and it's soon apparent that she's the wild card, and she affects them all in ways they hadn't predicted.

There's plenty of sex, of course, but there's also a lot of emotional and plot content to it. The incest was icky, but as it was consensual and not coerced at all, it could have been worse. I wasn't sure about the need for the bit about making a movie at first, but it provided a good framework and reason for both Lewis and Rowena to stick with the charade even when things started to get sticky.

This one, I didn't like. Half-sisters Louise and Gina are reunited after a 10-year estrangement when Louise leaves her husband and, having nowhere to go, asks Gina if she can stay for a while.

Turns out that Gina's lucrative job is as an exotic dancer and sometime prostitute, and she lives with her lover Ahmed, who owns the club where she's the headliner.

You can see where this is going, right? Louise decides to dance to earn the money she needs. It takes her a whole weekend to become great at it. There's a lot of what seems like juvenile snickering going on--oooh, she showed her boobs!

Near the end, there's an attempt at a role reversal, which could have been good, if I'd cared about either of the sisters. I didn't. They were both unpleasant and self-righteous (if that term can be applied to a person who looks down on someone who's reluctant to join in a sex-and-drug orgy), and the only interesting character was ex-porn star Rick who was trying to make a new life for himself, and who had far too small a role in this story.

This one also starts with a woman, Eleanor, leaving her husband, and needing money. Eleanor is a non-fiction writer, and her agent's latest project is for her to work with sex researcher Marcus Grant on a book about awakening a woman's sexuality.

She is, of course, resistant--in large part because she feels her low libido caused her husband to "turn gay." She's persuaded to collaborate, but only if she can test out his theories on herself, because she's planning to prove him wrong, though subconsciously hoping he's right.

Marcus's theory is that by exploring various facets of sexuality, a woman will learn what turns her on, and she'll become more sexual. His list of facets is pretty simplistic: massage, pornography, exhibitionism/voyeurism, lesbian experiences, and S&M; and Eleanor's response to the tasks was almost unbelievably naive.

Still, the story was saved because of the non-sex aspects. The collaboration and experiment have consequences neither of them anticipated, both emotional and sexual.