Hard As Stone Read online

  “Good morning. Have a nice sleep?” I asked with a chuckle.

  She sat bolt upright and tugged the sheet around her body to cover her. Why, I had no idea. After what we’d done all last night, I’d seen every inch of her intimately.

  “Oh my God! What time is it? My plane leaves at eight,” she said as she swiveled her head back and forth looking for a clock.

  I looked across the room and shook my head. “I’m sorry to tell you you’re not going to make that flight.”

  Summer buried her face in her hands and sobbed, “Oh, God. I have to be back in New York for Monday morning, and I’m never going to be able to do that now that I’ve missed that flight. My boss is going to kill me if I’m not in the office bright and early for work.”

  “Relax. It’s okay. You can catch a ride back with me,” I offered, hoping to make her feel better.

  She looked up and twisted her face into a grimace. “That’s a nice offer, but sitting in first class isn’t going to get me back to New York any faster.”

  “I’m not in first class. I have the Stone Worldwide private plane. I’d planned to leave around nine today, so you’ll come with me.”

  “A private plane?”

  “Yeah. I’m happy to help. So relax. You’ll be back in plenty of time. In fact, I’m going to call down to get some breakfast and then we’ll head to the airport. Why don’t you take a shower and when you’re done, the food will be here.”

  Instead of making her happy, my suggestion did the opposite. She lowered her head and mumbled, “God, I must look a wreck.”

  I sat up and tilted her chin up to see her face. Shaking my head, I smiled. “You look great. I just figured a shower might relax you.”

  She forced a smile and stood up, tugging the sheet to cover herself. I pulled harder, though, and she ended up completely naked. Glaring at me, she said, “I needed that, you know.”

  “No, you didn’t. I’ve seen every square inch of your body from half a dozen vantage points, Summer. Trust me. You don’t have to cover yourself around me.”

  A blush crept over her cheeks, and she smiled shyly. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  And with that, she hurried away to the bathroom. I had to admit, I liked the view as much as I’d enjoyed everything else with her. And I’d been right. That nice girl had been a freak in private.

  Leaning back against the headboard, I put my hands behind my head and thought about how to proceed with my plan. It had gone a little faster than I’d intended, no doubt. I’d figured we’d take it slow, get to know one another, and then she could meet the family. Since we’d launched into warp drive last night, I needed to figure out how to go from here. The end game remained the same. I needed her to help me convince my family I’d settled down with a nice girl.

  All that had changed was finding out that behind closed doors, my nice girl was the best sex I’d ever had. I’d heard stories about nice girls rocking it in bed, but I’d assumed that was just lame guys lying to make up for the fact that they couldn’t get models to sleep with them.

  Everything I thought was wrong.

  Maybe it was because she ate like a normal human being, but Summer had more energy during sex than any model I’d been with. It had been too damn long since I slept with a woman who could fuck for hours. She’d been a little self-conscious about her body at first, but she had no reason to be. So she was a little soft around the middle? I’d never really been crazy about how thin most of the women I slept with were anyway.

  And even though I had a feeling most guys wouldn’t believe me, my sexual escapades with models hadn’t been as exciting as most people would have thought. Women used to being worshipped as gorgeous creatures tended to be pretty damn selfish in bed, sad to report. The sex was good, but it rarely made it to great.

  Summer didn’t suffer from that lack of interest in her partner, though. I’d forgotten how good a woman’s mouth on my cock felt, but a few seconds of her going down on me brought it all back. Even thinking about it as I sat there in bed while she showered made me rock hard and ready for another round with her.

  So the plan would continue, and it would include the added benefit of a nice girl who offered mind-blowing sex. I didn’t think my life could get better, but I’d been wrong about that too. I had to give it to myself. Not only was my plan brilliant, and the person who came up with it equally as amazing, but my choice of Summer to join me in my plan was nothing short of genius.

  This was going to work out beautifully.

  * * *

  Twenty hours later, the Stone company plane landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. In that time, Summer and I got to know each other better than I knew practically anyone but my best friend and my sisters. I found out she cries at sad movies and then apologizes for being silly and crying, which was way more charming than I would have thought it could be. I found out turbulence terrifies her, but she doesn’t cry when she’s scared.

  And to my surprise, I found out that it was possible to spend nearly an entire day with a woman and have a good time that didn’t include being in bed with her. I couldn’t remember the last time I enjoyed being with someone as much as I did with Summer on that flight. We laughed, she cried at a few movies, and it felt like I’d known her all my life.

  I was sorry our time alone ended, but I planned to have more. But as she prepared to leave, she turned toward me and took a sledgehammer to all my plans.

  “I need you to promise me you won’t tell anyone what happened between us, okay, Ethan?”

  Her brown eyes pleaded more than her words, but I sat there stunned. Was she embarrassed that we’d slept together? Women usually wanted to tell the world they’d spent the night with me, and now Summer was saying she wanted to keep it a secret, like it was something wrong.

  My ego didn’t appreciate the hit, and even more, what Summer wanted threatened everything I needed her for. I couldn’t decide if I was offended or disappointed.

  “Why?”

  A sheepish look came over her face, and she looked down at the floor, avoiding my gaze. “Because if my boss found out, she’d fire me.”

  Then she lifted her head and added, “I can’t imagine keeping this quiet will bother you. I never expected to see you again after last night anyway.”

  Fuck. Now I definitely felt insulted. Even more, I felt my plan begin to crumble around me. My mind raced. She wanted to keep our rendezvous quiet, and I needed her to make my family believe I’d found a nice girl.

  Then an answer came to me. It wasn’t nice, but then again, I never claimed to be nice.

  “I’ll keep what we did quiet if you do something for me.”

  She looked hurt as she waited to hear what I wanted from her. “What could I do for you? You have everything and I have next to nothing, compared to you.”

  That she thought I was such a dick that I wouldn’t want to see her again after our night of incredible sex and then nearly a whole day with just the two of us together on the flight back stung, but I couldn’t let hurt feelings get in the way.

  “I want you to meet my family. Maybe once or twice you could come out to the house with me.”

  “Why?”

  Taking a deep breath, I sat back in my chair and confessed the truth. “I need you to make them think I’ve settled down with a nice girl. If they think we’re together and happy, they’ll leave me alone and I can live my life as I want to. You do that for me, and I promise your boss will never find out about the night we spent together.”

  Now she looked even more hurt. Shaking her head like she couldn’t believe what she’d heard, she asked, “Is that why you followed me up to my room? You wanted me to fall for you after a night of great sex so you could pretend to your family that you cared for me?”

  “No, not exactly. I didn’t plan on sleeping with you, Summer. I just wanted to get to know you so you’d help me get my family off my back.”

  “Then why are you blackmailing me with telling my boss?”

&nb
sp; Clearly, this situation had gotten away from me, so I stood up and walked over to her. Taking her hand, I tried to explain. “I’m not blackmailing you. I had just hoped you’d help me. You’d have a good time, I’d have a good time, and everyone would be happy.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, and I thought she’d begin to cry, but then she took a deep breath and forced herself to smile. “Fine. Then I have a demand. If you’re going to be pretending to be with me, you can’t be with any other women. I won’t be made a fool of simply because you want to lie to your family.”

  She’d forced my hand, so I had little choice but to agree. But it would only be for a month or so. That didn’t sound too bad.

  “Deal. While we’re a pretend couple, I won’t go with any other women. But you can’t go with any other men, either.”

  Summer pulled her hand away and shrugged. “You’re lucky you caught me between boyfriends. So when does this whole charade begin?”

  Knowing my father would question the pilot like he always did after every time I used the plane, I smiled. “Right now. Make sure when I kiss you as we get off you make it look good.”

  She pointed to her bag and said, “Well, then any boyfriend of mine would carry my luggage. If we’re going to do this, we might as well do it all the way, right?”

  Happy to act like a gentleman since she’d agreed to my plan, I smiled and lifted her bag as she watched. “As you wish, honey.”

  Chapter Six

  Summer

  As I waited for Ethan to come around to my side of the car, I questioned why I’d ever agreed to any of this lie in the first place. True, if Julia found out what I’d done, she might fire me and I’d be penniless, but I felt like a complete fraud coming out to meet Tristan and Nina Stone and pretending to be their son’s girlfriend.

  For his part, he seemed to be as at ease with lying to them as he was with everything else. Nothing ruffled this guy’s feathers. Maybe that was because he’d lived such a charmed life, if the looks of the enormous house just outside the car was any indication.

  I’d never known anyone who lived in such an opulent home that it required a gate and a guard to enter like the Stones’ estate did. I assumed that came along with the billionaire lifestyle, something I knew nothing of.

  The car door opened, and Ethan smiled down at me as he extended his hand to help me out. “Welcome to the Stone Family Compound.”

  Hesitating, I thought to myself I’d never known anyone who called their home a compound.

  I took his hand and joined him, gawking at the sheer grandeur of the house as he closed the door and happily began guiding me toward the front door. Clearly, he was used to all this splendor, but I wasn’t, and I suddenly became quite aware that I didn’t fit in there.

  “Ethan, maybe this wasn’t a good idea. I feel really out of place,” I said as I literally began dragging my feet along the sidewalk.

  “You’re perfect. Don’t worry. Just remember that we’ve been dating for two weeks since the Australia shoot. I’ll do most of the talking. You just have to look like you’re really into me.”

  I rolled my eyes. God, why had I agreed to this?

  “You mean like gazing at you longingly when your parents are watching?” I asked sarcastically.

  He shook his head and cringed. “Let’s go easy on the gazing longingly stuff. That might feel weird in front of my parents. How about just trying to look like I don’t disgust you, which is how you look right about now.”

  That made me feel bad, so I looked down at the ground and my lame old black shoes I wore for every special occasion. “I just wonder if they’re going to know this is all a lie because of how I look. I mean, I don’t look like anyone a billionaire’s son would date.”

  Ethan lifted my chin with his forefinger, and I saw him smiling at me. “Don’t put yourself down like that. You’re a nice girl from Philly. They’re going to love you. You’ll be lucky if you escape this dinner without my mother picking out her mother-of-the-groom dress.”

  He took my hand and led me to the front door, but with each step I knew what was wrong. Well, besides the lying. For the past two weeks, I’d pretended to be Ethan’s girlfriend, which meant little other than talking a couple times on the phone for a few minutes to arrange this dinner tonight and driving up here from the city. It cost me nothing but my ethics to do this, but I wanted more.

  I wanted him to like me for being a nice girl from a town outside Philly, not just his mother. I wanted him to genuinely like me and not just put on a show pretending to care.

  Oh, God. This was bad. I was falling for Ethan Stone.

  And at that moment, the front door opened and I saw a beautiful woman with shoulder-length brown hair and beautiful blue eyes beaming a smile and a man no less stunning who couldn’t deny being Ethan’s father, even if he wanted to, they looked so much alike.

  Talented, gorgeous, and wealthy, Tristan and Nina Stone welcomed me into their home, and what was I going to give them in return?

  Lies.

  And the biggest lie wasn’t me pretending to be their son’s girlfriend.

  Chapter Seven

  Ethan

  Just as I predicted, my parents adored Summer from the moment she walked through the door. My mother fawned over her like she was some kind of movie star. I didn’t remember ever seeing my mother fangirl over anyone, but she did for Summer.

  Even the always cool Tristan Stone turned on his charm and seemed to take a real shine to her. That was saying something since the last time my father had mentioned anything to me about women, he’d snarled and said, “Maybe you can find someone who doesn’t look like she’s just left the club five minutes before you’re seen in public with her.”

  While I thought that was pretty shitty of him to say, I had been in my dancer phase at the time, so maybe he wasn’t entirely wrong.

  But with Summer, even he seemed to approve.

  Dinner went off without a hitch, and almost on cue as my parents began their after-dinner conversation, I announced we’d have to leave. “Well, it’s been great, but we need to get back to the city. Summer’s job requires her to be practically on call twenty-four seven.”

  I had no idea if that was the truth. Hell, all I knew about her boss was she treated Summer like shit, and in turn, her assistant hated her. But whatever it took to get out of that house before anyone else showed up worked for me.

  My mother’s legendary pout came out as soon as I finished speaking. “No, you can’t. Tressa is due here any minute, and I know she’d be so disappointed if you don’t stay to at least say hi. Your sisters and we miss seeing you, Ethan, and I’m sure she’d like to meet Summer.”

  The last thing I wanted was for Tressa to be involved in this at all. I loved my sister, but she had a nose for bullshit that might blow the whole lie for me.

  “Another time,” I said as I stood from the table and tugged on Summer’s arm for her to do the same.

  But I’d waited too long.

  Behind me, I heard Tressa yell from the hallway, “Anyone home? I’m not too late, am I?”

  “We’re in here, honey,” my mother called out as she stood up to cut a piece of roast beef for my sister.

  I looked down at Summer, who had no idea what had just happened, and quickly sat down. Leaning over, I whispered in her ear, “Now might be a good time to start that gazing longingly business. My sister Tressa is a much harder sell than my parents.”

  Summer smiled, but I saw fear in her eyes. She had every reason to be afraid. Tressa was a pain in the ass and would like nothing more than to expose my lie right there at dinner, no matter who she had to humiliate in addition to me.

  My sister appeared in the doorway and stopped dead. Smiling in that way that made her look menacing, she said, “I’m so glad I didn’t miss all the fun. I’m starving, and I’m thrilled I got here in time.”

  “We were just talking to Ethan and Summer about Christmas. It’s been unseasonably warm, so we’re hoping to get some sno
w, even if it’s just for the holiday,” my father explained, unaware that Summer and I wouldn’t even be together by that time.

  Christmas was nearly four weeks away. I planned to be single and heartbroken by then.

  Tressa sat down next to Summer and excitedly said, “So this is my brother’s girlfriend. It’s so nice to meet you. I never know what to expect with Ethan, but I have to say you’re lovely.”

  As the two of them talked and became friendly, I thought my head might explode as I waited for Tressa to say something terrible meant to humiliate me. It was what she did best when it came to me, so to think I’d make it through this get-together unscathed was expecting too much.

  Better for me to escape while I could.

  I picked up my plate and silverware and said, “Let me clear the table for you, Mom.”

  Everyone stopped speaking and turned to look at me like I’d just announced I planned to move to Jupiter. Not surprisingly since I didn’t exactly offer to do things like that ever.

  “That’s so nice of you, honey,” my mother said, beaming her happiness.

  Whatever it took to get away from that table and the inevitable nightmare that would ensue if I remained.

  I quickly gathered up the empty dishes while my mother raved about what a good son I was, and as I walked out of the dining room toward the kitchen, I heard my father say, “I think I’ll help Ethan with the dishes.”

  With my hands full, I found a place on the counter to put everything and tried to think of a way to get Summer away from my family and quick. My father walked into the kitchen with his plate and, without a word, stacked his on the others.

  Maybe I’d get away with at least not having to discuss my new relationship with him.

  “Ethan, I’m impressed with Summer. She’s a very nice girl.”

  Damn. No escape for me.

  Without looking at him, I nodded. “Yeah, she’s great. I knew you and Mom would love her.”

  “A pretty brunette from outside Philadelphia who works in the city. It’s almost as if you ordered her from Central Casting,” he said in a low voice behind me.