Read Online Queen of Hearts: (Family Stone #6 Shelley) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) by Lisa Hughey - Free Book Online
Authors: Lisa Hughey
Tags: romantic suspense
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was proud of that, of them.
“I’m lonely, Jess,” she confessed. “You’re all grown up and have your own lives now. I just wanted one night….” She trailed off.
“Oh, mama.” Jess lay her head on Shelley’s shoulder and curved her arm around her waist. “I can imagine.”
“Don’t imagine too much,” Shelley said dryly. “It would scar you for life.”
“I love you,” her daughter whispered against her shoulder.
“Love you too, punkin’.” But she wanted more. Was that wrong?
Six
Ric was on his way to talk to security at the hotel. The only reason he’d left Shelley with her daughter was because Jess knew how to fire a gun.
Ric strode down the hallway toward the hotel’s security offices. His mind on the break in, but his body itching to get back to Shelley.
Yeah, he knew her daughter had been a sniper and was proficient with firearms, and still, he didn’t like Shelley out of his sight.
This low level of panic that streamed through him was unsettling. They had just met.
It was supposed to be a one night hook up, no strings, just some hopefully awesome sex and then adios .
Instead he found himself worrying about what was really happening here. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop while he’d been in the bathroom getting dressed, but he had excellent hearing and he’d caught Shelley’s forlorn confession when she’d blurted out to her daughter that she was lonely.
Her admission had affected him deep in his gut, because she’d nailed his problem exactly.
That restless, uneasy antsiness that had plagued him over the past year finally had a name. Loneliness.
Maybe it was because in the past he’d spent most of his days with his team, or embroiled in planning and executing ops, but since he’d left the Navy and started his own business, his life had been a series of short term dating partners juggled between jobs.
For the first time in a long time, since his divorce at age twenty, he was interested in pursuing a relationship.
Shelley Stone came with a lot of strings, most specifically four. Three of whom were taller than him and outweighed him by several pounds. But he’d grown up scrapping and scrounging to defend himself and he was pretty sure he could take them in a fight. Individually.
If they ganged up on him, he was a goner.
Even so, he had the strange and overpowering urge to fight for her if they didn’t approve. He couldn’t believe he was thinking like that.
Focus on the damned problem, Enrique.
Jack had found both listening devices and cameras in Shelley’s room. Fairly high tech equipment too. Ric was meeting Jack downstairs in the security offices so they could review the camera footage from Shelley’s floor.
Once he was buzzed in to the casino’s highly secure offices, Ric beelined for the monitor in the corner where Jack sat with a uniformed security professional.
“What have you got?” Ric hoped they had something to go on.
Jack handed him a stack of photos. “Check out the pictures of her room again. When I went back and looked objectively, something kept niggling at me.”
Ric flipped through the pictures. Her clothes were strewn over the floor, looked like they’d maybe been slashed. The cosmetics in the bathroom had been opened and dumped in the sink. Her shoes had been ripped. Ric paused on a particularly pair of sexy red heels and wished they hadn’t been destroyed.
His mind arrowed back to last night. Shelley in nothing but her bra and those black patent leather pumps, her legs curled around his ass and her heels digging into him. He’d bet he had bruises on his butt. His lips tilted up.
“Ric,” Jack said sharply.
Oops. Ric wiped the smile off his face and studied the pictures again. His first thought when he’d seen the chaos on Jack’s phone had been a lot of rage but, after analyzing the larger sized pictures, he had different perspective. “It’s a little too….” he struggled for the right word. It was a mess, no question but
“I’m lonely, Jess,” she confessed. “You’re all grown up and have your own lives now. I just wanted one night….” She trailed off.
“Oh, mama.” Jess lay her head on Shelley’s shoulder and curved her arm around her waist. “I can imagine.”
“Don’t imagine too much,” Shelley said dryly. “It would scar you for life.”
“I love you,” her daughter whispered against her shoulder.
“Love you too, punkin’.” But she wanted more. Was that wrong?
Six
Ric was on his way to talk to security at the hotel. The only reason he’d left Shelley with her daughter was because Jess knew how to fire a gun.
Ric strode down the hallway toward the hotel’s security offices. His mind on the break in, but his body itching to get back to Shelley.
Yeah, he knew her daughter had been a sniper and was proficient with firearms, and still, he didn’t like Shelley out of his sight.
This low level of panic that streamed through him was unsettling. They had just met.
It was supposed to be a one night hook up, no strings, just some hopefully awesome sex and then adios .
Instead he found himself worrying about what was really happening here. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop while he’d been in the bathroom getting dressed, but he had excellent hearing and he’d caught Shelley’s forlorn confession when she’d blurted out to her daughter that she was lonely.
Her admission had affected him deep in his gut, because she’d nailed his problem exactly.
That restless, uneasy antsiness that had plagued him over the past year finally had a name. Loneliness.
Maybe it was because in the past he’d spent most of his days with his team, or embroiled in planning and executing ops, but since he’d left the Navy and started his own business, his life had been a series of short term dating partners juggled between jobs.
For the first time in a long time, since his divorce at age twenty, he was interested in pursuing a relationship.
Shelley Stone came with a lot of strings, most specifically four. Three of whom were taller than him and outweighed him by several pounds. But he’d grown up scrapping and scrounging to defend himself and he was pretty sure he could take them in a fight. Individually.
If they ganged up on him, he was a goner.
Even so, he had the strange and overpowering urge to fight for her if they didn’t approve. He couldn’t believe he was thinking like that.
Focus on the damned problem, Enrique.
Jack had found both listening devices and cameras in Shelley’s room. Fairly high tech equipment too. Ric was meeting Jack downstairs in the security offices so they could review the camera footage from Shelley’s floor.
Once he was buzzed in to the casino’s highly secure offices, Ric beelined for the monitor in the corner where Jack sat with a uniformed security professional.
“What have you got?” Ric hoped they had something to go on.
Jack handed him a stack of photos. “Check out the pictures of her room again. When I went back and looked objectively, something kept niggling at me.”
Ric flipped through the pictures. Her clothes were strewn over the floor, looked like they’d maybe been slashed. The cosmetics in the bathroom had been opened and dumped in the sink. Her shoes had been ripped. Ric paused on a particularly pair of sexy red heels and wished they hadn’t been destroyed.
His mind arrowed back to last night. Shelley in nothing but her bra and those black patent leather pumps, her legs curled around his ass and her heels digging into him. He’d bet he had bruises on his butt. His lips tilted up.
“Ric,” Jack said sharply.
Oops. Ric wiped the smile off his face and studied the pictures again. His first thought when he’d seen the chaos on Jack’s phone had been a lot of rage but, after analyzing the larger sized pictures, he had different perspective. “It’s a little too….” he struggled for the right word. It was a mess, no question but
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