by Lisa Hughey
Table of Contents
Jar of Hearts
Copyright
Family Stone Romantic Suspense series
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Author’s Note
About Lisa
Excerpt from Stone Cold Heart
Excerpt from Blowback
Books by Lisa Hughey
Jar of Hearts
A Family Stone Novella
by Lisa Hughey
Copyright
May 2014
Lisa Hughey
Jar of Hearts ISBN: 978-0-9903793-0-0
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written consent from the author/publisher.
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 doo
r. 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.”
Way to get off on the wrong foot, Washington.
And, shit he should not be thinking about getting off while he was sitting next to the hottest woman of his acquaintance. He’d always thought she was gorgeous. Her curves had curves and she had an ass that he’d love to dig his hands into.
But what really did it for him was her attitude and smarts. A killer combination. But she worked for Jack, and in business Shane stuck to a ‘no frat’ policy. Leftover regs from his days in the military.
But damn, she was fine.
And he wasn’t going to lie, he’d occasionally fantasized about her while he’d been alone. With his dick in his hand and a massive erection.
Of course, after he laughed, she wasn’t going to get with him. Especially not if she thought he was laughing at her. But now was not the time to explain, so he returned to Jack’s favor. “More of a beer guy, Jack.”
“Not tonight you’re not.”
“It’s Valentine’s Day.” Keisha ignored Shane, propped her fists on her hips, and tilted her head at Jack. “What if I have a date?”
Shane was fascinated by everything about her. She…shimmered. There was no other word for it. Her broad, flat cheekbones were dusted with some sort of bronze powder. Her eyelids sparkled with a subtle gold shine that only enhanced her hazel eyes, and her dark mahogany hair was streaked with deep gold and auburn.
She was like a shimmering, shiny star and the urge to reach out and curl his fist around all that shiny was intense, overwhelming. Shane swallowed and shoved the desire way down inside. Business. No frat, he reminded himself reluctantly.
Jack blanched. “Geez, Keish, I didn’t even think about that.”
“Well if you want to keep that girl of yours you better think about it quick,” she snarked back at him.
A goofy smile spread over Jack’s face and his whole countenance shifted.
“Hey, I know.” Keisha snapped her fingers, a bright yellow polish on her nails. “Why don’t you take Bliss to a charity wine event?”
“Ha. Ha.” Jack shoved the tickets at Shane.
Shane gripped the thick paper in his meaty fists. He wanted to know why Jack was sending them to a charity event. Somehow Shane didn’t think Jack was playing matchmaker.
“What’s the problem?” Shane asked.
“Someone’s giving food to the food bank.”
> “Isn’t that the point of the food bank?” Keisha’s question sounded eager as she reached for a reason to turn this assignment down. “People donate and then it’s distributed to those who need it?”
“Someone is depositing fresh produce in the warehouse after hours.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest, his butt was on the edge of his desk, and his legs were extended straight, feet crossed at the ankles. “The problem is that the food hasn’t been vetted and they have no idea where it came from. I’ve got a lab testing the broccoli right now but the food bank can’t distribute the food until we know for sure that it is safe and where it came from.”
“So how and why are we undercover?” Shane couldn’t get the image of Keisha under the covers out of his head. He leaned forward and bent slightly at the waist, so that his semi-hard cock wouldn’t be visible to Jack or Keisha.
Jesus, he needed to stop thinking about her naked. Like, now.
“Here’s your cover.” Jack pointed at them, his face serious. “The Washingtons are considering a sizable donation to the food bank but before they fork over the money they want to check out the facility and the way the organization is run. They are very hands on philanthropists.”
“A wine event.” Keisha snorted and her head rocked a little. “Stupid. Wouldn’t it be better to have the philanthropists actually donate food?”
“They have several fundraisers a year where they wine and dine the local population and then they convince them to open their checkbooks.” Jack frowned. “Food for Life is a particular favorite of my mom’s. And The Stone Foundation contributes a fair amount every year.”
“I still don’t understand why we have to go undercover as a couple.” Keisha pursed her mouth, her bronze lip gloss gleamed in the early morning light of Jack’s office. Shane forced his attention away from her luscious mouth. “Why can’t you just investigate?”
“We’ll actually be there too.” Jack said, “The chairman asked me as a favor to get to the bottom of what is going on. But the board knows me and my brothers and my sister. It’s clearly an inside job in some way. So…I needed to bring in someone they don’t know.”
Shane listened to Jack babble on about times and locations and other logistics for tonight’s ‘mission’, but he was still stuck back on one heart-pounding, libido-inciting, temperature-raising fact.
