Fall Into Me (Heart of Stone) Read Free

because I was crafty or clever. It wasn't because I
was lucky either.
    That
steel rod hadn't found my heart because I didn't have one. I'd spent my entire
life caring for no one enough to call it love. Why would my heart be anything
to pierce, much less damage enough to kill someone like me?
    So
I lived, a sole survivor with everything he could want. Except the one thing he
needed.
    That
all changed when I met Nina. I hadn't intended on anything happening with her.
I'd accepted my life alone as a punishment for all that I'd done for so many
years. I didn't expect a reprieve. I didn't deserve one. All I wanted to do was
try to make up for what my father had done. That she made some good come alive
in me was something I wasn't ready for, but I couldn't let it go. Some small
part of me was reborn that night we drove up the Taconic to this house.
    So
now I had a choice to make. Give up or fight. I let all those times I held Nina
in my arms fill me, all those times she made my heart leap with one of her
gentle smiles. For someone who had never had to fight for anything, it was strangely
easy. Whatever I had to go through for her, I'd endure it.

Chapter Two
    Tristan
    Nina
was sitting on her bed when I gently pushed the bedroom door open. She was
doing something on her laptop, and I stood there for a moment to watch her. Her
brown hair had grown much longer since she first moved here. It hung halfway
down her back in soft, natural waves as she sat cross-legged and hunched over
looking at something on her computer's screen. The sweet memory of twirling
those waves around my finger as she lay in my arms made an ache form in my
chest as I stood there.
    Not
wanting to scare her, I tapped on the door and quietly said her name, but she
nearly jumped off the bed from fear anyway. Wincing at my clumsiness, I put my
hands up to calm her.
    "I
didn't mean to frighten you. I'm sorry. I was just hoping we could talk."
    Shaking
her head, she made her apologies. "No, no. I'm sorry. I didn't hear you
there. What's up?"
    "I
wanted to talk."
    She
closed her laptop and pushed it aside. "You can sit down, if you like. Or
would you rather talk somewhere else?"
    What
I rathered was taking her back to our room on the other side of the house and
showing her all the ways I was crazy about her. Instead, I merely nodded and
sat down beside her.
    "This
is a great room, Tristan. Thanks for letting me stay with you."
    I
forced a smile at her statement, which sounded like something a long lost
relative would say to someone who wasn't thrilled about having them visit.
"You're welcome, but this is your home, Nina. You don't have to thank
me."
    Lowering
her head, she looked away from me. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine how hard
this is for you. Jordan's told me how crazy in love I was with you, and I get
that." Looking up at me, she blushed. "I mean, look at you. Who
wouldn't be crazy in love with you? I just don't remember. But I don't want you
to think that I don't want to remember. I do."
    Nina
looked away again, her cheeks red from embarrassment. Maybe that was a good
thing. At least she seemed to be attracted to me. That was something I could
work with.
    I
took her chin between my thumb and forefinger and gently turned her head to
look at me. She still looked down at her hands sitting in her lap, though.
"Look at me, Nina. Please."
    She
lifted her beautiful blue eyes to gaze up at me, and I swallowed hard, my mouth
suddenly dry and my brain devoid of all thought about what I'd planned to say.
Licking my lips, I began, hoping the right words would come to me.
    "Nina,
I know this is probably a confusing time for you. Whatever I'm dealing with is
nothing compared to what you're forced to deal with. I don't want to make this
worse for you. If I do that, let me know. You never have to be afraid to tell
me if you're uncomfortable."
    "Okay."
    "The
doctors think that if you get back to your life like it used to be, you'll
begin to remember what we were. We just have to