Free Fall Into Me (Heart of Stone) by K.M. Scott Page A

You have everything a person
could want. I can't imagine not being happy with money, success, power—all the
things everyone thinks ensure happiness."
    "All
they ensure is that you'll have people wanting you for everything but
you."
    "Like
Chase tonight?"
    I
gave a snort at the sound of my Top partner's name. "Chase is one of the
best examples of the people money brings to you. If I didn't have the money to
help him get that business going, I'd be invisible to him. Not that being
invisible to the likes of Chase Mitchell is a bad thing."
    Nina
rolled over and propped her head up on her hand. "How did you get involved
with him and that club? You two don't seem a thing alike."
    "Chase
is a remnant of my time before I took over Stone Worldwide. Remember I told you
that I wasn't always the man you see?" For a second, I couldn't remember
if I told her in the last few days or before the accident.
    She
gently touched my shoulder with her fingertips. "No, no. I remember. You
said when you were twenty that you would have been just like any other guy I've
ever met. And I can tell you that I think you're full of it. There's no way you
would ever be like anyone else I've ever met."
    "Yeah,
well, Chase is from those days. He comes from money. Not as much as I came
from, but his family's got some. Not that they would have been interested in
giving him a dime so he could set up his club in a sleepy town outside New York City. That's where I came in."
    "If
you're not into that, why did you agree to be his partner?"
    "Silent
partner."
    "Okay.
Why did you agree to be his silent partner?"
    "Because
I know a good investment when I see one. When he came to me with his idea, I
knew it would make money. So I agreed to go in on the club with him as long as
he agreed that I'd have nothing to do with the day-to-day operations."
    "So
you just sit back and collect the money?" she asked with a sly grin on her
face.
    "Exactly.
I prefer to stay in the hotel business and keep my involvement with Top
silent."
    "Why
stay silent about it?"
    "I
don't care what people like, but there are certain segments of society that
wouldn't approve of the owner of the Richmont Hotel chain as co-owner of that
kind of place, even if he's a silent partner."
    "Doesn't
the board of your company have a problem with it?"
    Shaking
my head, I explained, "They don't know. I financed Top with my own money,
not Stone Worldwide's money or credit."
    Her
eyes grew wide as saucers. "Holy shit! You are loaded!" Instantly,
she covered her mouth with her hand and mumbled from behind it, "I'm
sorry. That's not the way the girlfriend of someone like you should act."
    I
pulled her hand away from her face. "It's not a problem. I am. I always
have been. Money is something I've been blessed with. I'm not one of those
people who thinks it isn't important. It is. But it's not the most important
thing in life."
    "I
always hate when you see wealthy people or movie stars talking about their
success in interviews and saying things like the money isn't something they
think about or it doesn't mean anything to them. That kind of thing just bugs
me. For those of us without money, it's a big thing and we always think about
it."
    Her
honesty washed over me like a refreshing summer rain. This was Nina, and I
loved her. "And then you find out they give little to nothing to charity
and you wonder what they do with that money they say they care nothing
about."
    "Exactly!"
she said as she sat up. "I hate that kind of hypocrisy."
    I
suspected she hadn't checked her bank account since she'd gotten home from the
hospital and didn't know how much money she really had now. Not that it would
matter. I had the feeling that she could have millions and still be the same
down-to-earth soul she'd always been.
    Running
my fingertips over the soft skin of her arm, I continued, "By the way, you
act perfectly to be my girlfriend. Don't ever think you aren't exactly what my
girlfriend should be."
    "Yeah.
I'm sure the board of