Page 30 of Release Me

“Do you and your partner have an understanding?”

“Yes, Blue and I are both clear on the parameters of our relationship.” She gets out of her seat and moves around to my end of the table. “I’m not making the same mistakes I made with you.”

Her hands go to my shoulders and glide down to my chest until she has her arms wrapped around my neck. It’s an innocent embrace, and I lean into it, laying one of my hands over hers.

“Well, that’s comforting. I’m so glad I could be your learning curve.”

“I’m glad you could be too.” She presses a kiss to my temple. “You were a terrible husband, Sebastian, and I was a terrible wife. But I think I might get it right this time around.”

“What changed?” I ask, glancing up at her. “After the divorce, you swore you wouldn’t get married again.”

“I didn’t think I would. Then Blue came to work at the resort, and it was like…”

“You finally found the thing you didn’t even know you were looking for,” I finish her sentence, surprising Talia and myself. I don’t know where the words came from, but they feel right. They perfectly encompass the way Nadia’s presence in New Haven has interrupted my existence. She walked into my life and cracked open my reality, upsetting the delicate balance of control and predictability I’ve thrived in for so long. Now, I’m just like Talia’s sentence: fractured.

Waiting.

Wanting.

Wondering about how we could fit together. Not physically—because I have no doubts about the way her long legs would wrap around my waist or the perfection of her curves in my hands—but spiritually.

I have questions about her soul. About the pain it holds and the joy it might find intertwined with mine. I have thoughts in my mind I only want to share with her. Secrets I don’t even know yet that can only be heard by her ears and seen by her eyes.

I used to think what Talia and I had was all I was capable of giving someone. Now I know I can give more, and I want to. None of it makes sense to me, but Talia nods like she understands.

“Exactly. Is it that way with you and Nadia?”

I shrug her off, blowing out a breath of frustration. “When are you going to stop asking about her?”

“When you finally let me meet her.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Oh, come on, Seb, please. I mean how can I not want to lay eyes on the woman when you talk about her like that and send her flowers just to be nice?”

“Oh my, God. Can we please let the flower thing go?” If I had known they were going to cause this much commotion, I wouldn’t have sent the flowers at all.

Okay, that’s a lie.

The truth is nothing would have stopped me from sending those flowers to Nadia, from showing her how happy I am to have her on my team, and in my life. I wanted her to have the best first day possible. The flowers were my first attempt at ensuring that, and keeping Talia out of her way is the second.

Talia hasn’t made it easy.

She brings Nadia up almost as often as she crosses my mind, which makes it hard for me to stop thinking of her. Wondering what she’s doing, if she likes her office, whether she’s already made her way through the to-do list I left her and how annoyed she is that Regina’s only assignment for the day is keeping her from running into Talia. I know she’s noticed. She’s too smart not to, and Regina isn’t exactly subtle.

Talia pushes her lips out into a pout that’s supposed to make me give in. “Why don’t you want me to meet her?”

“Because it’s her first day, and she needs to get her bearings without you asking her invasive questions or, worse, flirting with her and making her uncomfortable.”

Everyone who knows Talia knows she’s a relentless flirt and a fiercely protective friend. While I appreciate those qualities about her most of the time, I don’t want to subject Nadia to them just yet. I know I won’t be able to keep them apart forever, especially if Nadia stays on past her trial period, but I can prevent their worlds from colliding today.

“Does she look uncomfortable when you flirt with her?”

Talia’s question brings images of Nadia’s panicked eyes that night in my office to the front of my mind. My stomach flips, awash with anger and disgust for my earlier thoughts about her legs wrapped around my waist. I shouldn’t be thinking of her like that. I shouldn’t be thinking of her at all.

I push to my feet, trading my spot at the table for the chair behind my desk. Talia watches quietly as I shift through the stack of folders on top of it, moving things around just to have a reason not to look in her in the eyes. “I don’t flirt with my employees.”

“You flirted with me,” she tosses back, bringing up the other reason why I’m determined to keep her and Nadia apart. Our relationship started when Talia was working for me. I don’t want Nadia to know that just yet. Not before she gets the chance to know me, to learn that I’m not the kind of man who makes a habit of using his employee roster as a dating pool.

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