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“I’m a fan of you,” he murmured and her eyes widened briefly as if startled by his admission Was it possible she was oblivious to his interest? Not one of the waitresses thought he caht just to drink

It did no good to rereeable That with her long lean frairl mother and her father’s wavy brown hair, she was not his type Or that her strong

-willed personality had been cultivated by his estranged uncle, Tiberius Stone, her surrogate father Ahis disinheritance

“You can take a coupleto the empty space beside him

Her eyebrow arched at his implied command, but she settled sideways on the couch and crossed her long legs She’d fastened her waist-length hair into a high, sleek ponytail The look was both e brown eyes and bold cheekbones to great advantage

With the toe of her black stiletto a , she propped her elbow on the back of the couch, rested her cheek on her palm and waited for him to speak Quick to smile, she was the ht to his shadow Forever close, always untouchable

He sipped his drink and surveyed her over the ri harder than ever since Tiberius had been o

“You should take some time off,” he said, aware that what she did was none of his business

“And do what? Sit around and grieve?” She h, she continued on a milder note “I know it’s what most people do when they lose a parent, but I can’t think of a better way to honor Tiberius’s memory than to work”

JT nodded in understanding “I’m sure he’d approve”

Although he’d been given the er brother, until the last few months JT had never had the chance to know his uncle by anything other than reputation JT had been raised in Miami where Stone Properties had their headquarters Tiberius rarely left Vegas And the bad blood between Tiberius and his brother-in-law and JT’s father, Preston Rhodes, made any chance of a relationship between JT and his uncle impossible

The hard feelings between Tiberius and Preston went back twenty-five years According to what JT had gleaned fro from Stone Properties and had convinced James Stone to fire his son Then, five years later, James had died and JT’s father had used his influence over his wife, Fiona Stone—bowing to pressure froet the board of directors to vote in favor ofhim chairman and CEO

“Thanks for co,” Violet said “I know you and Tiberius weren’t close, but lately he’d talked a lot about how he regretted all the years he kept you out of his life and hoished he’d gotten to know you”

Regret tightened in his chest “I had no idea Tiberius felt that way” JT sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly

When he’d arrived in Las Vegas to run the local family operations, his opinion of his uncle had been forrandfather Although relations between hi how s said about his uncle by other Las Vegas businessun to suspect that if Tiberius had done what his father had accused hiood reason

“When it came to your family, he could be hard-headed,” Violet said with a faint smile “And he really hated your dad”

“The feeling was definitely mutual”