Free Queen of Hearts: (Family Stone #6 Shelley) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) by Lisa Hughey

clothes. She wanted her own life. It hadn’t been hers for all of an hour and she was already going stir crazy.
    She was used to being busy.
    Jess flipped the lock and opened the door. “Come on in.”
    Shelley shoved into the corner of the large sectional sofa. Her knees were pressed up to her chest and she rested her chin on them as she waited to see who was here now. It felt as if the whole world was going to know that she’d had sex with Ric Santana.
    “Hey, Shel.” Connor her youngest son and the hardest of all her children to figure out walked in to the living area of the suite. She loved Con. Perhaps more than the other kids. He’d been broken when she’d gone to live in the Stone mansion. Jack Stone Sr. could be a complete bastard. For some reason, he’d been most venomous toward his youngest son.
    After Shelley had arrived, she’d tried to act as a buffer. To protect Con from his father’s cruel mean streak. She’d never understood why Jack Sr. had such an intensely rancorous response to Connor. He was the sweetest and so intelligent that Shelley had known that he’d surpass her smarts by the time he was a teenager.
    “Con.” She pushed to her feet and headed for him.
    There it was. That slight hesitation, as if he braced himself for her touch, then he wrapped his strong arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder for just a moment. Sweet, sweet boy. Even if he did still hold himself away from Shelley’s affection.
    The only person he didn’t hold back with was Ava. His girlfriend.
    “Jack asked me to meet you guys here but I’m not sure—”
    The hotel room swung open. Jack and Ric strode into the room and over to where Shelley, Jess, and Con stood.
    Shelley noted Ric’s glare at her until he shifted his gaze to Con and it lightened. What did she do now? She’d tried to get out of his hair. He’d been the one who insisted that she stay in his room.
    “Con, there’s some leftover breakfast if you want it.” She reverted to mom mode, trying to take care of everyone, feed everyone.
    “Why are you eating breakfast in Jack’s former CO’s suite?” Con frowned.
    Shelley flushed.
    Jess whispered something in Con’s ear and his eyebrows rose.
    Wonderful. Maybe Ric would like to strip naked so Con could see him in the buff.
    Shelley turned her glare on Ric.
    He raised his dark eyebrows and held up his palms in surrender. His face was perfectly impassive but she could tell that inside he was laughing. She wasn’t sure how but she could tell.
    “Quit laughing,” she hissed at him.
    Ric blinked as if surprised. It was clear that she had shocked him by recognizing what was going on behind his blank face.
    “Nice to see you again Connor,” Ric said blandly.
    “I’m going to head downstairs and pick up some new clothes for you.” Jess hugged her tight.
    Thank Goodness. “Yes, please.”
    Shelley flushed again when Con said, “You don’t have anything to wear?”
    Jack diverted Connor’s attention. “Shel, we’ve got some pictures to show you.”
    They all sat on the sectional sofa. Jack on one side and Con on the other. Isolation surrounded her, separating her from her family and whoever was stalking her. Then Ric sank down on the glass topped coffee table directly across from her. His thighs bracketed her legs, heat rose from his body. His worn jeans and the body hugging gray Polo shirt were casual, without any attempt to make a statement. The kind of clothing a man supremely comfortable in his own skin wore.
    His subtle air of command wrapped around her, making her feel as if nothing could penetrate his shield of protection.
    Her tension wound tighter than Ric’s abs as he handed her a picture.
    The quality was decent, but the man had tilted his head at such an angle that she couldn’t see more than his jaw line. The baseball cap brim, a generic denim material, covered most of his face. The angle of the camera made it impossible to figure out how tall he was.
    But she