Stone Romance (Stone Passion #2) Read Online Free

brains; you must have to fight off unwanted suitors with a stick.”
    Her smile broadened at his statement; she was also charmed by his somewhat archaic words. “What suitors? Most guys tend to run the other way when I tell them I have a daughter.”
    “Then they’re idiots,” he said definitively. “Ferris is adorable; she can talk a stone statue’s ear off.”
    Jenna inwardly cringed at the familiar refrain ; while she usually enjoyed listening to Ferris talk incessantly, she knew that not everyone felt the same. Why i t should bother her that he would remark upon it she had no idea . Holding a smile, she managed to laugh, “She is chatty. Her teacher is always sending home notes letting me know that she tells the most outlandish stories and that she needs to learn to be keep her tales to herself .”
    “Never,” Rhys murmured vehemently, his nostrils flaring at the thought of anyone muzzling the little girl. “It would be like clipping a fairy’s wings.”
    Jenna stared at him with a measure of awe; he felt the same way she did when it came to Ferris and her tales. Her stupid heart did another little lurch in her chest and she knew that it was starting to thaw from its icy prison of almost seven years. But why did it have to be with Vaughn’s brother? A man who looked like sex on two legs and probably had a harem of willing women? His defense of Ferris tipped the scales and made her eager to flirt with him . He was gorgeous and kind; why wouldn’t she flirt?
    And for a moment the years melted away and she was her old self once again .
    With a relieved laugh, she shrugged her shoulders, “Ferris is simply too smart for her own good and far too imaginative. She and Lenni spend hours together pretending that they live in an enchanted forest with fairies and dragons and her latest obsession, gargoyles.”
    Rhys made a strangled, choking sound and she narrowed her eyes as she teasingly glared at him. “I blame you, of course.”
    “Me?” h e asked, the picture of innocence as he held his arms out to the side to show her that he had nothing to hide . “Why?”
    “Well, not just you but your brothers, too,” she waved her hand through the air to encompass the lavish hall way. “ Because you live in this magnificent building that represents everything enchanted and wonderful. Ferris fell in love with the three gargoyles that sit on the roof and she has been asking for her very own gargoyle ever since she came for a visit.”
    Rhys chuckled as the elevator arrived. When the doors yawned open, he held out his arm to allow her to precede him into the elevator. “And what did you think about the gargoyles when Lenni brought you up onto the roof?”
    “How did you know about that?” Oddly wary, she eyed him as the doors closed and they headed to the ground floor, where the rest of their party was hopefully waiting for them.
    He arched an eyebrow and she simply knew. With a wry chuckle, she rolled her eyes and sighed , “Lenni told you. I swear she talks just as much as Ferris; it’s no wonder where my daughter gets it from. You would think that they would be constantly battling for attention but when they get together they build upon each other’s imagination. It’s really quite spectacular.”
    “Quite,” he agreed without any hint of mockery and with a slight smile. “ Ferris is very lucky to have you for a mother.”
    “Thank you,” she said, slightly uncomfortable with his praise. Suddenly finding the floor extremely fascinating, she stared at her feet as she murmured, “She’s the light of my life.”
    When he remained silent, she chanced a glance at him and caught him staring at the region of her chest, as if he could see what was beneath the thick layers of her coat. Taking a breath, feeling the embers of the old Jenna stirring to life from its long slumber, wanting to remember what it was like to take a leap without looking, she cleared her throat . H e looked up and smiled without