Queen of Hearts: (Family Stone #6 Shelley) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) Read Free Page B

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.
    Wanted him for herself.
    “Everything okay?” His liquid dark eyes pierced her as if he could see inside her soul to the anticipation that fired her body.
    “No problems.” She wasn’t about to confess that she was texting her adult daughter. This wasn’t about getting to know each other, about beginning a relationship, this was about mutual attraction. Mutual satisfaction. Distilled down to its elemental level, this night was about sex.
    About him and her in a hot sweaty tangle of limbs and lips.
    Bringing up the fact that her daughter was twenty-seven was a sure mood killer. He’d probably dated women younger than Jess.
    That quickly, her confidence fizzled again. What was she doing?
    “Hey. Where’d you go?”
    Shelley pushed back her chair. “Nowhere.” She wasn’t about to share her mental journey into her sad, lonely history. Before she could stand, he grabbed her chair near her thigh and pulled it under the table. His bicep flexed as he easily moved her back into place.
    “Don’t go.”
    “I don’t know what I’m doing here,” she confessed.
    “Having a drink.” He smiled, but there was an edge to the smile that caused her pulse to speed and her heart to thunder. “And dinner.”
    “I don’t do this kind of thing.”
    “Eat?” he inquired with amusement.
    “Eat with strange men.”
    “Hey. I’m hardly strange.” His dark eyes glimmered, full of sensual intent, in the flickering candlelight. That focused regard set her off balance again. “But let’s change it so that we aren’t strangers anymore.”
    Getting to know each other? Once he knew her, he wouldn’t want