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Family Stone Holiday Box Set: (including Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, and Heart of Stone) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense)

Page 27

by Lisa Hughey


  Stone Cold Heart, (Jess, Family Stone #1)

  Carved in Stone (Connor, Family Stone #2)

  Heart of Stone (Riley, Family Stone #3)

  Still the One (Jack, Family Stone #4)

  Jar of Hearts (Keisha & Shane, Family Stone #5)

  Queen of Hearts (Shelley, Family Stone #6)

  Family Stone Box Set (Stone Cold Heart, Carved in Stone, Heart of Stone, Still the One, & Jar of Hearts)

  Cold as Stone (John, Family Stone #7)…Coming Soon

  About Lisa

  USA Today Bestselling Author Lisa Hughey has been writing romance since the fourth grade, which was also about the time she began her love affair with spies. Harriet and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys later gave way to James Bond and Lara Croft and Jason Bourne. Exploring the complex nature of a profession that requires subterfuge and lies fascinates her. She loves combining her two passions into fiction. As evidenced by her Black Cipher Files series.

  Archangel Rafe was her first foray into the paranormal but after spending time in the Angelic Realm, it won’t be her last. At their heart, the Seven novels are about the dynamics of family relationships. But the really hot Archangels don’t hurt.

  And recently she’s been immersed in the Stone Family novellas, stories about a blended family of brothers and a sister who have a lot more in common than they realize. But of course she couldn’t just write about family and romance. There are complex plots, bad guys, and suspense too.

  Lisa loves to hear from readers and has various places you can connect with her, although, shh, Twitter is her favorite.

  Follow Lisa on Twitter

  Sign Up for Lisa’s Latest News

  Visit Lisa on the Web

  Her Group Blog, the Pens Fatales

  Follow Lisa’s Boards on Pinterest

  Email Lisa

  Be Lisa’s Friend on Goodreads

  Like Lisa on Facebook at Lisa Hughey: My Books

  Excerpt from Still the One

  Family Stone #4 Jack

  Bliss Lee rubbed her damp palms over her navy blue, Federally-approved pantsuit, and forced herself not to pace the elegantly appointed CEO’s office of Adams-Larson International and Associates, lovingly and humorously dubbed ALIAS by the employees. She was the ‘Associates’ part of the agency. Which was fine by her. She didn’t want the responsibility of running the whole shebang. She’d rather concentrate on their special clients.

  “Relax,” Jillian Larson, her boss, friend, and co-chairman of Adams-Larsen directed and threw up hands. “He’s just a guy.”

  But Jack Stone wasn’t just a guy. He was The Guy. The one who got away, even though she’d initiated their break-up. The one who, despite her attempts to find another guy, ruined her for every other man she’d ever been intimate with. Except that had been their problem. Jack Stone didn’t really know how to be intimate.

  Sex, yes. Emotional intimacy, no.

  He’d been excellent at the sex part. But he’d never bared his private self to her. Although she’d had her own issues with being completely honest, she’d tried as much as she could. Her lack of honesty was more omission than lying. But her awkward half-attempts and Jack’s inability had been too much strain for their young relationship. And once he’d joined the Navy, she’d been done.

  Unfortunately, Bliss had never found another bond close to what she’d had with Jack, flaws and all. Even her ex-husband couldn’t measure up to Jack Stone. And after a long two years of trying to make their marriage work, they had, less than amicably, decided to end it. Her ex-husband had accused her of hiding things. And she had been. Most of all she’d been hiding the fact that she was still in love with a man she’d kicked out years earlier.

  Bliss’s throat tightened. “Keep telling me that.”

  Jillian raised one exquisitely-groomed blond eyebrow and smirked. “Gladly.” Her friend was perfectly put together in her signature pencil skirt in black and a fitted black jacket with a flirty peplum accent.

  Bliss couldn’t pull off that outfit in a million years. Jill looked sophisticated, sexy, and in charge. Bliss stuck to borderline masculine suits and darted white or blue broadcloth shirts.

  The intercom crackled. “Your appointment has arrived,” Marissa said pleasantly through the communication system.

  Bliss’s heart boomed in her chest, furious and nearly out-of-control.

  Jill’s hand wrapped around Bliss’s wrist tightly, grounding her, reining her in. Bliss took a deep breath, gathered her scattered composure, and nodded. “Ready.”

  “Show him in,” Jillian said calmly to Marissa.

  The perfunctory knock was quick and then the door swung open. Bliss forced herself to turn, braced for the impact of seeing Jack Stone again.

  Jack strode into the office like he owned it. Dressed in khaki cargo pants and a black t-shirt, the cotton strained across his forty-six inch chest, his huge biceps tested the hem of his short sleeves. He had a canvas duffel slung over his shoulder and a multi-dial watch strapped to his solid, thick wrist.

  He didn’t falter when his gaze connected with hers, but she was pretty sure his shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly. They locked gazes, his ever-changing hazel eyes appeared almost pure green today and mesmerized her with their intensity.

  The shock of his penetrating regard held her immobile. She damned her extreme visceral reaction as stunning emotions and images from years ago waterfalled through her brain; Joy, Jack laughing as he picked her up and swung her around like she was a kid; Love, Jack lying in bed, sheets tangled around his legs, his large chest bare, arm propped behind his head, eager smile on his face, as he waited impatiently for her to join him; Lust, Jack with water droplets running down his body and disappearing into the wrap of his towel, the bulge of his erection a sign of his passion; Pain, Jack’s stunned expression when she told him goodbye; and finally despair, the stark, unrelenting ache that gripped her for weeks and months after he’d left.

  Each image and the emotion behind the remembrance pierced her heart, until she was sure she must be bleeding out onto Jill’s intricately woven, twenty-thousand-dollar Persian carpet.

  Jack stopped in front of Jillian, dropped his duffel to the floor, and held out his solid, wide palm. “Jack Stone.” His hands were big and scarred and tough, just like the rest of him. Those hands had caressed every inch of her body and brought her to heights of ecstasy that she hadn’t climbed since he’d left.

  He looked good. Damn him. Better than good, great. He had some new lines around his eyes, and his hair was a little longer. His face had matured, the softness of the young adult he’d been was now honed to a sharpness that only ramped up his attractiveness. A thin strip of hair was missing from his right eyebrow, a white scar creased the arch, and her heart stopped as she recognized that the missing strip was likely from a bullet graze.

  He’d almost had his head blown off.

  She swallowed down the fear that mushroomed through her. Based on the faded whiteness of the scar, the damage had happened a long time ago.

  He’d filled out since she’d last seen him, and he’d already been big to begin with. His physical size had been comforting and engendered a feeling of safety and security for a girl who’d had far too much upheaval and violence in her early life.

  Not that Jack knew anything about that, of course. She’d never told him about her childhood. She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. Ever.

  Jillian introduced herself, then said, “This is my associate, Bliss Lee.”

  Jack nodded briefly at Bliss, but didn’t offer his hand. Instead he propped his hand on his waist. “We’ve met.”

  We’ve met? We’ve met? That’s it? That was how he was going to acknowledge their history to her boss?

 

 

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