Page 10 of Heart of Stone

“Excuse me?”

“Stone. He was asking for you a little while ago.”

Oh, shit! Alexander Stone is here?

My heart began to race at the thought of seeing him again. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why that beautiful man would want to seemeof all people. But more importantly, I didn’t understand why I became instantly excited by the mere ideaof laying eyes on him again. That was a confusing concept that I’d have to delve into later.

I tried to keep control of my composure, not wanting to look too eager and risk hurting Jim even more. I made a conscious effort to steady my voice and sound indifferent.

“Mr. Stone is looking for me. Are you sure?” I asked evenly.

“Yeah, he’s here. You’d better get a move on,” Jim said with a lazy shooing motion of his hands. “I get the impression that he’s not the kind of man that likes to be kept waiting.”

Say no more.

“Thanks, Jim.”

I turned to go, struggling to walk at a reasonable pace. It was hard to keep myself from running all the way to aisle nine.

As I rounded the corner of aisle nine, I noticed that the end cap had been changed. The racking no longer stuck out. I moved to look at the new display, but stopped short when I saw Alexander Stone standing just a few feet away. He was facing away from me and didn’t see that I had come up behind him. I couldn’t help but pause to take in the view.

He was wearing a suit again today, although this time it was navy blue. He had removed his suit coat and had it draped casually over one arm. Without the coat, I was able to faintly see the outline of his well-muscled back and shoulders through his pricy white collared shirt.

My gazed moved down past his tapered waist to his perfectly tailored pants. They looked as if they were made specifically to fit that magnificent contoured ass beneath them.

Boxers or briefs? Or maybe he just goes commando.

My cheeks flushed pink at the thought and my hands clenched tight, fighting against the urge to reach out and touch him.

Down, girl!

He had a shopping basket of groceries in front of him, which I found to be somewhat strange. I didn’t think millionaires shopped for their own groceries. I had always thought that they had a hired minion to do it for them. Out of pure curiosity, I chanced a quick glance in his shopping basket. A could see a few boxes of pasta, almonds, bananas, chocolate, eggs, olives, honey, and pomegranate juice. It was certainly a peculiar combination of food items to say the least.

As if he finally sensed my presence, his shoulders squared and he slowly turned to face me. And there it was – the spark.

My heart began a steady pitter-patter that quickly evolved into a strong thumping in my chest. He was even better looking than I remembered – the definition of pure male beauty. He skipped wearing a tie today and I had to try very hard not to look at the small area of skin that was revealed near his collar. I had no trouble imaging myself unbuttoning that neatly pressed shirt and running my hands over his chest, down his abdomen...

Get ahold of yourself – you’re thinking like some hormone-crazed teenager!

“Miss Cole,” he said with a short nod, the two words sliding over me like warm whiskey.

“Hello, Mr. Stone. I heard you were looking for me,” I said evenly, proud that I was able to sound controlled despite the fact that the man had the ability to turn my knees to liquid.

“Indeed I was,” he said. He was chewing gum. Alexander Stone chewing a piece of gum was probably the sexiest thing I had ever seen in my life.

“Was there something you needed?” I courteously asked, while watching his jaw move up and down over the piece of gum.

A slow leisurely smile began to form on his face, and he waited a moment before responding.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing after your fall yesterday.”

Of course that’s what he wanted.

A potential investor in Wally’s would naturally be concerned about the accident.

The word ‘lawsuit’ is probably a flashing neon sign over my head right now.

“Oh…my fall.” I tried to hide my disappointment. I felt self-conscious about my black and blue eye and hoped that my makeup did a better job of covering it than Jim led me to believe. “I’m fine, really. It’s just a bump on the head. I owe you an apology for my clumsiness. Thank you for your assistance in helping me up.”

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