Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) by Kathleen Royce Read Free Book Online Page A

from work. Don’t worry. You
won’t see me much.” Alex jerked on her arm to get him to loosen his iron grip.
    He only increased the pressure of his
long fingers, not wanting her to escape yet. “Why wouldn’t I want to see you
Alex? How long will you be staying? We used to be friends once. Maybe we could
start over, and see where it takes us?” He smirked down at her, waiting for her
response.
    She sucked in her breath. Not trusting
her ears, she couldn’t believe he really assumed she was so stupid as to fall
for this again? The way he was acting, you would think he cared. Even so, Alex
knew differently. He is so arrogant! He really doesn’t know how much I
despise him! That’s why he was behaving the way he was, he didn’t know she
knew the truth. She smiled back with pure mockery. She knew Ty for what he
truly was. He was just another person after the money. He wasn’t asking because
he cared about her or her family. He was just as selfish and unfeeling as he
ever was. It had just taken her growing up and having it thrown in her face to
come to that hard fact.
    “I guess I need to stay out of the fresh
air around here, because obviously, the fumes from the cow manure are somehow
affecting your brain. Seriously? That’s the line you’re going to try on me?” At
his look of bewilderment, she continued, wanting to make it crystal-clear what
she thought of him, “Oh, what the heck? I’ll probably be staying a couple of
weeks, although I don’t have any definite plans. However,” pausing poignantly,
she said, “if I need a friend, I will look for someone I know I can trust.
Thanks, but no thanks. I’m sure you can find some activity to keep you
entertained other than me,” Alex bristled.
    He let go of her arm as if she had
burned him, he growled, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” As she
stiffened and clenched her fists at her side, he was truly shocked by the
hatred he saw radiating out from her green eyes.
    “Let's just say that I’ve grown up some.
I don’t trust people who betray and use me. Go find some cowgirl jockey to play
with,” she remarked, forcefully.
    Stunned, he didn’t know whether to laugh
his head off or shake her until her teeth rattled for the nasty accusation.
“When did I ever betray you?” he demanded, grabbing her chin and forcing her to
look him in the eyes.
    There was contempt peering back at him,
and bitterness. It dawned on him that she held him responsible for the hatred
burning in their depths. It was there in the way she held herself rigid in
front of him.
    “Believe me, it's hard not to notice
that you’ve grown up Alexandria.” Taking notice of how her eyes flared when he
had called her by her given name, he pulled her further into his arms, giving
into the temptation to feel her breasts through her sweatshirt. He needed to
experience her, to know she was real and not a dream.
    No one called her Alexandria except Ty.
No one would ever dare to. Her grandfather would have a seizure if he caught
him calling her that, she thought. However, Ty was a rule unto himself. Looking
him in the eye, she squared her shoulders and raised her chin a notch.
    Not able to control her tongue, knowing
even before she spoke she would regret revealing what she knew, “I heard you
that night at the party. I was just a joke to you, a way to amuse yourself. I
was a fool to believe I could trust in you! All you cared about was yourself!
You could have cared less about me or my family. You used me!” she accused, her
voice raw with emotions she still felt after all these years. “Now, if you will
excuse me, I would like to leave,” she said discourteously.
    His grip on her arm lessened
inadvertently from the shock and anguish he saw in her eyes. She jerked out of
his entrapment and stepped around him toward the door. He thought by now she
would have figured out why he’d said what he had that night. He would have to
make her understand that what she had overheard was only