Read Online Loved By The Hero (Hero Romance 3) by Kalena Lyons - Free Book Online Page B

still at home, but he must have figured out I was lying and snuck through security. I’ll have to give them the real run around this time,” Marie said through clenched teeth as her right hand balled into a fist. “I’m sorry I lied, Claire, but that man’s no good for you.”
    She’d thought he’d ditched her and never even come to apologize for almost a week, and Marie was just telling her that the man she’d thought she’d love for the rest of her life had been coming by every day in order to see her. “What were you thinking? Lying to me like that?”
    Claire’s chest tightened and she felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She couldn’t put a name to the emotion as it swept over her. Perhaps it was betrayal.
    “I was trying to be a good friend. I wanted to protect you from him.” Marie could see that she wasn’t getting through to her friend. “Claire, I was trying to keep this from happening. You were happy!” She punctuated her words with her fist slapping into her left hand and stood to pace in front of Claire’s desk.
    “You’re right, I was happy. But it wasn’t because you protected me from Eric Slate. I was happy because I knew I had one person in this world I could trust, who wouldn’t lie to me.” Marie opened her mouth to respond, but Claire wasn’t going to let her make it any worse. “Please, I just need some space, okay? I have a lot of work to do for next week and tomorrow.”
    Marie recognized the dismissal for what it was and paused at the door with a hurt look on her face before she left. Claire looked at the white roses still sitting on her desk and wondered if she should even bother. This man wasn’t Eric, but it seemed everyone had something to keep from her.

Chapter Three
    There was an empty feeling in her when she took a cab home from work and stepped through the doors of her apartment complex. “Good evening, Claire,” her doorman greeted. He was a man in his late sixties who had taken on the part-time job due to his retirement funding not being what he’d thought it would be. When he’d called her Ms. O’Donnell, she’d corrected him. It had taken her over a year to get him to call her Claire when no one else was around.
    “Evening, John. How’s your granddaughter?” Claire had overheard him talking to the manager about having to see his granddaughter two weeks ago due to the little girl undergoing an operation.
    “She’s doing well. They think they’ve removed the entire tumor and she’ll be up and playing in another week or two.” John seemed to appreciate her interest and smiled as he spoke. From the way his crow’s feet crinkled next to his brown eyes, Claire could tell he really loved the child.
    “That’s good to hear. You tell her to get better soon. It looks like you need a good chase around the lobby,” she said as she motioned around the empty lobby. It was a Saturday night and she’d worked late. Most of the apartment building’s renters were either indoors now or they were out on the streets of New York looking for a good place to eat. At the thought, Claire’s stomach rumbled and she blushed.
    “I’ll see you around,” John said as he raised his hand and Claire smiled at his kind dismissal.
    “You, too,” she told him as she turned on her heel and adjusted her purse on her shoulder. The oversized, beige number was starting to get a little too full. Claire took a deep breath and let it blow out as she turned and punched in the number to her floor.
    She could see her reflection in the metal doors of the elevator and swiped a stray curl out of her face. Claire had gotten the pixie cut because she thought Eric would have liked it. He’d said it made her look like a darker version of Halle Berry with curled hair, but the way he’d said it had been demeaning. He had treated her as if she were a cute child that he was indulging, and that night he hadn’t touched her hair.
    Claire swallowed away the lump in her throat and rolled