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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

Family Stone Romantic Suspense series

Stone Cold Heart
:

Jess Stone, former FBI sniper, always felt like the kid who looked in the candy store window but could never afford to go in. But on a humanitarian mission to aid an earthquake ravaged country, finally she finds a place where she fits, in Colin Davies' arms, and working for Global Humanitarian Relief, her big brother's company. But can the former SAS thaw Jess's stone cold heart?

Carved in Stone:

Connor Stone has always been odd man out in his family. Not the oldest, not the most charming, he'd had a lock on the youngest until another half-sibling came to live with them, so he raised hell in his youth. Con knows now the only way to redeem himself is with deeds, not words and sets out to prove once and for all he is worthy of the Stone family. When his older brother asks him to take care of business, Con finally will have redemption he craves. Except when Ava Sanchez, his brother's assistant, is threatened, he must choose between saving the girl or protecting his family. Will his choice bring him love or break his heart?

Heart of Stone:

Riley Stone is the handsome brother, the charming one. Everyone who meets him compares him to his father, which in his mind is not a compliment. But he's never met a woman he couldn't charm, until he meets Di, an acerbic, smart-mouthed, passionate activist who has no time for him or his charm. On the run, in the midst of danger, the blistering passion they share explodes. Can these two opposites find common ground, or will Di smash Riley's stone heart?

Still the One:

Jack Stone, former Navy SEAL, and oldest Stone sibling is determined to keep his family strong. Family is everything. So he starts Global Humanitarian Relief and Stone Consulting to do some good and keep his family together. But when he has to team up with his old flame, Bliss, on a missing persons case, an evil threatens him, his family and the one woman he could never forget and doesn't want to let go. Can these two former lovers put aside past hurts and heal their hearts?

Jar of Hearts
:

Prickly Keisha Johnson has the hots for Shane Washington. But she’s not about to reveal her inner soft heart to the player pilot and open herself up to hurt, until a favor to their boss sends them undercover and under the covers. Can she trust his sensual attention or will he shatter her fragile heart?

One

“Keisha!” Jack Stone shouted from his office.

Sheesh.
“Hold your damn horses, Jack,” Keisha shouted right back but she also didn’t dally at her desk once she heard his bellow.

She wanted to kick herself. She'd been so threatened by the fact that her boss Jack had hired not one, but two, new employees, Jess and Colin, that she’d tried to hold too tight to control during the Port-du-Bois mission. Luckily in the end it had all turned out okay, but if they had been unsuccessful, the bulk of the failure would have rested with her. So now every time Jack shouted at her from his office, a little niggle of worry followed. Perhaps today was the day he was going to fire her.

Dammit, Keish, why can’t you trust more easily?

Keisha rolled her eyes at Ava Sanchez, Jack’s assistant, as she passed her desk. Ava just smiled serenely as Keisha pushed open the door to his office.

“Yes,
sir
?” she replied sharply and fought the urge to salute Jack. Always the smart ass. So hard to turn it off even when she knew the term of authority annoyed Jack.

“Cut that out.” Jack twirled his finger indicating she should shut the door. “And come on in.”

Her heart thundered in her chest. She’d been waiting for the hammer to come down on her since that op. It had been a little crazy around the office with all the Stone family siblings hooking up during the holidays. But in the back of her mind, she’d been expecting to get reamed for the mistakes she made on the island.

She loved this job. She did not want to lose it. But instead of adopting a quiet subservient demeanor, she flipped on her ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude and shut the door with a snick. If she was getting fired, no way was she going to let him know how much that upset her. She’d learned at a young age not to show her true feelings.

“What do you know about the local food bank?”

The question was so out of left field, Keisha couldn’t process. “About what?”

“Food bank,” Jack said impatiently.

“Ummm, they give out food to needy families.” Keish wrinkled her brow. Maybe she wasn't getting fired. Phew.

“Yeah, yeah. Any idea on how the structure operates? Where they get their food from?”

“Sorry, boss.” She'd never gone hungry. Thinking back on her childhood, she realized there were probably nights her mother had gone to bed starving because she’d always given food to Keisha and her brothers first.

“I need you to do a little undercover job for me.” Jack stroked his index finger over the streak of scar tissue in his eyebrow.

Keisha scanned her knowledge of current disasters and couldn’t come up with anything recent or high priority right now. And
nothing
that had to do with a food bank.

“Sure.” Keisha rubbed her hands together. “Where'm I going?”

“Monterey County.”

Right here at home?

Yeah, she got all the hotspots. But that was okay. She loved this job.

“Solo?” Because really, how dangerous could it be working a job for the food bank?

“Nope.”

Hmm, maybe she'd get to work with Jess. That would be fun. Since they'd started going to lunch after the LeRoy mission, Jess had been working on Keisha to open up and hang out more, and somehow they had become friends. It was weird because Keisha didn’t really have girlfriends. But Keisha liked it.

Before she could ask any more questions, someone knocked on the door, pounded really.

“Come on in,” Jack yelled.

Keisha would have thought that having a live-in girlfriend would have mellowed out her very gruff boss but he still had the voice of a bull and no compunction about using it, loudly.

She turned around in the leather chair so she could see who had the heavy-handed fists.

And nearly swallowed her tongue as Shane Washington strolled through the door. He was a gorgeous hunk of man. Big, black, bald, and hot.

She'd been salivating over his superbly muscled physique and wicked smile since she started working for Jack months ago. And her initial physical attraction had exploded as she spent more time around him.

He was a total hottie on the outside and since she had the opportunity to work with him to save Maria Torres, she’d discovered what was inside was even hotter. His willingness to look out for those weaker than him was extremely appealing. In many ways he reminded her of Jack. But she didn’t have any desire to jump Jack’s bones.

The brother was built like a fricking Humvee. When he turned those striking dark chocolate eyes on her, Keisha wanted to melt into a steamy puddle of desire. Her lady parts tingled and her body perked up like he was a wide open fire hydrant on a hot summer day.

But of course, that wasn't her MO. Melting meant soft. And soft meant getting stepped all over. No. Fucking. Way.

So she got aggressive, pushed out of the leather chair, swaggered over to Shane, and then shoved out her hand. “Shane.”

“Keisha.” When his palm touched hers, her body jerked at the shock of sizzling attraction that bolted through her.

Day-am.

Shane blinked slow and easy, his lids drooped over his suddenly intense eyes and a deliberate, sexy smile spread over his face. He was sending out all the signals that he was attracted to her too. Even though he was a genuinely nice guy, he was also a player. A player who never seemed to settle on one woman.

And, she’d been burned by hope once before. She was still trying to get over her mortification from the last time they’d been in the same vicinity. A few months ago, when Shane had called her out of the blue and requested that she meet him, she’d hoped that he wanted to hook up with her.

So when she walked into that hotel room and saw Jack, Bliss, and Maria Torres, as well as Shane, her disappointment had been acute. Keisha needed to keep the memory of that disappointment front and center. Because that initial stab of reality in the face of her fantasy wishes had been painful.

Dumb, Keish. She’d set herself up for massive hurt.

Fortunately, no one had seemed to grasp she’d been disappointed when she’d realized that his call had been business, not personal.

Her mama had raised her to know that most people didn’t stick and that hopes got you hurt. Keisha didn't need any more hurt in her life. So she dropped his hand and sank back down into the leather chair.

“Nice to see you again,” Shane’s deep voice rumbled from his chest. He always looked like he was on the verge of a laugh, his full lips tilted up slightly in the beginnings of a smirk.

Keisha bobbed her head in acknowledgement. But she didn’t verbally reciprocate his sentiment since she’d hoped that she wouldn’t see him again. She made it a firm policy never to lie in her personal life. Work was another story. Her work called for deception pretty damn often.

“Have a seat.” Jack gestured to the unoccupied chair across from his desk. “I need your help.”

Help? That seemed a little silly since he was her boss. And certainly didn’t make sense if he was sending her on a job.

“What’cha got?” Keisha poised to take notes on her smart phone. Her actions helped her avoid Shane’s inquisitive gaze. She wondered if she was flying somewhere since Shane was their on-call pilot. Except Jack had said the job was local.

When Jack didn’t say anything, Keisha lifted her attention from the screen of her phone to look at her boss. He shifted his gaze between Keisha and Shane, who was uncharacteristically silent.

“Are you willing to go undercover?”

Jack knew she’d do whatever he needed her to do, so Keisha assumed Jack was asking Shane. She had a sudden premonition that she wasn’t going to like whatever Jack said next.

With reluctant fascination, Keisha turned her regard to the large man next to her. And all over again she was struck by his size. Damn, he was big.

Shane’s eyebrows rose, crinkling his forehead, and a wide smile graced his mouth. “Absolutely.”

“Awesome.”

Jack pulled a pair of tickets out of his suit pocket and held them up like cards. “I assume you have a suit?”

Shane grimaced. “Yeah.”

Then Jack’s intensity shifted to Keisha. “You got a formal dress or do you need the company credit card to go shopping?”

Keisha, normally pretty quick on the uptake, was having trouble processing. Her brain had gotten caught up as she pictured Shane in a suit.

“What—” she asked stupidly, “—do I need a formal dress for?”

“I need you two to go undercover.” Jack waved the tickets at her. “At a charity wine event.”

Undercover? Together? Oh, hell no, she did not need that. She was already way too fascinated with Shane Washington. The last thing she needed was to spend more time in his company. But she couldn’t say no. Not to her boss. She had no valid reason to turn the job down.

Shane tried to stop the snicker that escaped but it was too late. The look on Keisha Johnson’s face was priceless. She wanted to say no, but she wouldn’t because Jack was her boss. He had to wonder if she wanted to say no because it meant spending more time with him, or if there was another reason. He didn’t like the idea that she didn’t want to work with him. But he loved seeing her riled up. Ever since that op last November she would pop into his thoughts at random times and he’d wonder what drove her.

Keisha snapped her mouth shut and glared at him.

Shane cleared his throat. He knew when to pull out an apology and this was definitely the time. “Sorry.”

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