Queen of Hearts: (Family Stone #6 Shelley) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) (2 page)

“Is this seat taken?” He spoke directly to her, forcing her to acknowledge him. His voice deepened as he leaned closer and inhaled her sexy, earthy scent. Up close, her skin glowed with a healthy tan. Her inner exuberance for life completely overshadowed that subdued, demure façade.

She lifted her vibrant green gaze and held his for one long moment. The she dropped the thick fringe of her dark lashes and shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”

“Ric.” He held out his hand, knowing she’d take it. Her good manners would force her to shake even if she wanted to avoid him.

“Shelley.” Her voice was husky as he slid his palm against hers. The shock of electricity was instantaneous and physically visceral. A bolt of attraction zinged straight to his cock. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such an incendiary reaction to a mere brush of hands.

Instant lust. Damn. He wanted her.

Now. For hours. If just the touch of her hand evoked this kind of physical reaction, he couldn’t begin to imagine what would happen when he covered her body with his and drove home. Just thinking about it hardened his cock into a club.

Her hand was small and delicate in his, but not soft. She had some calluses as if she were unafraid of hard work. The contrast was highly intriguing.

Which enthralled him even more.

She snatched her fingers away. Goose bumps peppered her arms and her nipples poked the black silky fabric. Ric suppressed a wickedly satisfied grin. Oh yeah. She was as affected as he was.

He knew had to proceed carefully or she would bolt.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“No, thanks.”

Ric raised his index finger to signal the bartender. When he sauntered over his face was set in an annoyed frown. “I’ll have another Sam Adams. And can you please put the lady’s drink on my tab?”

“It’s already taken care of,” the bartender responded shortly. Ric had seen him hit on the woman earlier, clearly her sex appeal wasn’t limited to forty-year-old guys. Because the bartender was easily ten years younger than her. Possibly more.

Ric understood the bartender’s animosity but no way was he going to let this kid win. His life’s strategy had served him well. She was his. Win at all costs.

She jerked. “But—”

“It’s already taken care of,” the bartender said again firmly.

Her smile lightened her face and brightened her moss green eyes. “Thank you.”

The bartender glared at Ric before speaking to Shelley. “My pleasure.”

“What brings you to Las Vegas?” Ric propped his elbow on the clear bar with lights embedded in the Lucite, and turned his back to the bartender effectively cutting him off and enclosing them in a private circle of two.

“Look. I’m sure you’re a perfectly nice man.”

Nice. The kiss of death. Ric suppressed the urge to snort. He wasn’t nice. But he also didn’t want to scare her.

“I can be not so nice,” he said silkily. The insinuation registered in her small inhalation of breath. Not giving her time to complete the brush off, he leaned so close he could see the dilation of her pupil as her body reacted to his words. Clearly he’d sparked a chemical reaction and she was thinking of something not so nice too.

Hoo-yah, she was as affected as he was.

Her skin warmed and her scent, something floral with a hint of earthy musk, heated and surrounded him. God damn, he could just eat her up. Her breath caught at their combined heat and the promise in his eyes. He wanted her. Wanted to spend the night with her, exploring all her sweet feminine places. Her hand fluttered at the base of her neck where her pulse beat rapidly in her throat. Her tongue came out again, this time to lick at her lips. Ric nearly groaned. He’d never had this kind of primitive reaction to a woman in his life.

She might be saying not interested, no thank you, but her body was giving him a completely different message.
Come and get me
.

He wanted to fist pump in triumph, but he kept his reaction under wraps.

“I—”

“No games.” He didn’t want to waste time on some sexual dance that was half seduction, half innuendo, but all fake. He wanted to press up against her. Wanted to show her without words how much he wanted her. “I am insanely attracted to you.”

She rolled her eyes. He could tell she was getting ready to blow him off. And God, for the first time in his life, the thought of begging didn’t fill him with disgust. He was ready to get down on his knees and plead with her to spend time with him.

“I think you’d have better luck with your previous companions. I’m sure you can catch them if you run.” She dismissed him with a cool smile and feigned disinterest. Except the flush across her chest and face had deepened and her pupils had dilated nearly encompassing the bright green of her iris.

His body seized with almost frantic desperation. She was trying to shut him down. His entire endorphin system was going haywire, as if an EMP had wiped out every cogent thought except one. Get closer to her.

“I don’t want them.” If he didn’t get to touch her, he would expire on the spot. “I want you.”

“Eeep.” She gulped down the martini, her lips pursed against the glass rim, and Ric’s entire body froze, paralyzed with lust.

“I’m not bluffing.” The rough edge to his voice had her leaning back.

“Um.” Her painted fingernails pushed the almost empty martini glass between them as if she could create a barrier to protect herself. But she couldn’t protect herself from her own body’s reaction to the pheromone cocktail that was making him dizzy and drunk on her.

Ric’s heart thudded with an unrelenting sense of panic. He couldn’t stand it if she shut him out.

“Problem here?” The bartender interrupted.

Ric responded quickly, “No.”

“Not at all,” she replied politely and shot the bartender a bland, half smile before turning to address Ric. “You certainly are direct.”

“I’m old enough to know what I want and go after it.” Ric slid closer to her and yes! she didn’t back away. Her tongue came out and licked the sugar that dusted her mouth.

“My,” she said faintly.

She clearly wasn’t used to the honest approach or the fact that he considered her sexy. But damn, his body was on fire.

“Have dinner with me.” He curled his fingers over her free hand, the one resting on her bare knee. “Let’s get to know each other better.”

What he wanted to say was,
Come back to my room with me. Let me feast on your curves and learn every erogenous zone on your delicious form. Let me worship your body and discover your secret places and subtle turn ons
.

But as skittish as she was, if he confessed what he wanted to do to her, she’d rabbit. And in this monstrosity of a hotel, he’d never see her again.

“I have plans,” she said huskily.

“So do I.” He threaded his fingers through hers. Her hand was cool to the touch but a fire burned beneath her prim dress and her lowered lashes. She was thinking about it. “But I’d rather make new plans.”

He wanted to push harder. Being passive wasn’t in his nature. But instinctively Ric knew if he didn’t back off some he’d lose the opportunity. He hadn’t made O-6 pay grade because he’d been tentative or indecisive. He’d risen through the ranks of the Navy because he’d been a creative problem solver.

“I’m sure you could find an easier…dinner companion,” she demurred. Still trying to deny their attraction.

“I look at obstacles as opportunities.”

She laughed breathlessly. Her fingers tensed under his, as he carefully stroked his index finger over the back of her hand. And he prayed that she’d throw caution to the wind and agree to have dinner with him.

He was so close he could see the striations of green in her eyes along with her clear longing to leap. “No strings.”

She raised one perfectly groomed auburn eyebrow as if to say, really?

He kept up the honesty. “Didn’t say I don’t want there to be strings. Just that I won’t attach any to dinner.”

She traced the rim of her almost empty martini glass with one French-manicured nail. Her shoulders had hunched slightly and he knew she was getting ready to say no.

“Take a chance.” Ric urged. “Throw the dice. It’s Vegas.”

Acquiescence flowed over her body like a wave crashing on the shore of Coronado. “Where are we going to dinner?”

For some reason, Ric felt as if he’d already won the war. “Follow me.”

Two

Ric. The insanely hot man who’d just asked her to so much more than dinner lead her away from the bar, his fingers curled around hers loosely. She might be inexperienced but she wasn’t stupid.

Shelley tried not to shiver but her body was lit up like the neon flashing, frenetic lights of the Strip and she buzzed with adrenaline and the anticipation of doing something wicked. She was so far outside her comfort zone right now she might never find her way back to the settled land of easy and comfortable.

As he rubbed his thumb over the sensitive valley in her palm, Shelley wasn’t sure she cared.

Her heart beat in her chest, pounding out an uneven rhythm as she realized that for the first time in years she was doing something strictly for herself. His forearm, muscled and thick and dusted with dark hair, brushed against hers, causing a cascade of tingles through her entire body. From his forearm. As if he was having a similar response to her, he gripped her hand tighter, possibly worried she might run away.

Which was a fairly intuitive reaction, because with every other step she second-guessed her response. What was she doing? She was supposed to be meeting her kids and their significant others for dinner. Not running off with a stranger.

A stranger whose bicep strained the ribbed hem of his short sleeve white Polo shirt. The bright clean white emphasized his darkly tanned, smooth skin. The pique shirt clung to the pectorals and rippled abs beneath the simple cotton. His khaki pants cupped an interesting, mouth-watering bulge. His quads bunched and released beneath the innocuous pants as he strode purposefully toward a small steak house hidden in the corner of the giant lobby.

He wore the uniform of the casually rich, like so many of the men in her home town, but instead of a gym-toned body and slight paunch, he radiated power and a unconscious virility that had her weak in the knees.

Her insides tightened and her sex clenched as she thought about all that power and strength between her thighs. She pictured him above her, his strong jaw tight with determination as he invaded her body with long luxurious thrusts and a fierce sexuality.

She was crazy.

She was imagining sex with a stranger.

A stranger who evoked a pure intense sexual desire that she hadn’t felt in a very long time, if ever. She’d been an infant when Jackson Stone Sr. had swept her off her feet.

Now, she was a mature woman.

A mature
horny
woman who hadn’t had a man in a long damn time. And she wasn’t sure she’d ever had a man that was this much man. He exuded testosterone and radiated a sexual power that would be thrilling and overwhelming in the bedroom. That was still no reason to run away from her commitments and consider doing inappropriate things with a stranger.

Or imagine a man she just met naked and sweaty and rocking her world.

“We’d like a table in the back, if possible.” Ric smiled at the young hostess. His teeth were startlingly white in his swarthy face and emphasized his full, dark red lips. One smile and the girl scrambled to make him happy.

Shelley couldn’t stop the instinctive eye roll at the girl’s obvious reaction to his sensuality. She tried to ease away but he anticipated the move and pulled her closer. So close the heat of his body seeped into hers. Her entire body sizzled as if he exerted some sexual force field that caused the air to whoosh from her lungs and the atmosphere around them to snap and crackle with unfulfilled cravings.

Ric stared into her eyes. “You are so beautiful.”

“You’re in the land of beautiful.” She tried to deflect because really, telling her she was beautiful?—Of course the initial pleasure at a compliment was nice, but—let’s get real.

There were beautiful women everywhere in Vegas.

“It shines from inside you, in your bright eyes and the glow of your skin. And it’s all the more potent because you don’t seem to realize how attractive you are.”

With those words, she melted. Because even if it was a line, he’d delivered it with such sincerity that she was loathe to contradict him. She hadn’t been complimented like that since Connor when he was in third grade and he’d written a poem about her hair and eyes. Connor! The kids.

She was supposed to be going to dinner with them. Crap. “I need to let my…friends know I won’t be joining them for dinner.”

“Ah, yeah.” He smiled deprecatingly. “Me too.”

He moved with an innate grace. He pulled her chair away from the table in an unconscious move that told her that he was no stranger to the chivalrous gesture. As she sank into the cushioned chair, Ric trailed his fingers across the back of her bared shoulders. What should have been an impersonal touch became a sensual caress as his slightly callused fingers scraped along her nerve endings and shimmered over her skin. Goose bumps peppered over her arms, arrowing from her shoulders down to her neglected sex. Everything tingled.

Shelley needed to focus and settle her family so that she could enjoy this dinner, date, whatever this was.

She sent a quick text to her daughter Jess.
Going to bow out for dinner. See you tomorrow morning at the spa.


Her phone dinged. Jess:
Everything okay?

All good. Enjoy your dinner. xo mom

Jess:
U want me to chk on u?

No! Panic immobilized her, but she had to play it cool. Otherwise, Jess would be at her door and realize that she wasn’t in her room.

Shelley quickly texted back to her.
All good. Just tired. Love u. mom Turning off my ringer for the nite. Have fun!

The hesitation that had gripped her earlier was gone. She wanted to be here. Wanted to spend time with this man. Hopefully the promise of him would live up to her expectations. She suddenly knew that she needed this night for herself.