Page 42 of Release Me

“Don’t.” I stop her retreat with gentle fingers that wrap around her wrist and hold her hand in place. “You’re not hurting me. You just surprised me is all.”

“Oh. Sorry. I should have asked for permission to touch you.” She bites her lip, a bit of self consciousness passing over her features. “I just really hate seeing people bruised like this. Just thinking about the violence that leads to it…”

I don’t know a lot about Nadia’s past. Actually, I don’t know anything at all besides she used to do sex work and has probably, on more than one occasion, been a victim of sexual assault. Now, I know that she’s also sensitive to violence, which is probably a result of being on the receiving end of it. The knowledge breaks my heart.

“I’m okay. I just got into it with Vince when I was in Los Angeles this weekend.”

Some emotion passes behind her eyes too quick for me to catch or attach a name to.

“Vince is in LA?”

“Yeah, he went to school out there and lived there for a while before I hired him. He moved back after I let him go.”

We’re still touching, locked in a moment I didn’t expect to have. Her scent, those same notes of bergamot and amber, wraps around me like a cloud of citrine sweetness, teasing my senses and making me want to close my eyes. I don’t though. I keep them trained on Nadia, on the frown on her lips and the soft slope of her nose.

“It doesn’t seem like you like him very much, why’d you go and see him?”

It doesn’t occur to me to lie to her. “To beat his ass for disrespecting you.”

“Sebastian! Why would you do that? I told you it was nothing.”

“He made you feel uncomfortable, that’s not nothing.”

Frankly, it pisses me off to hear her minimize it. Vince doesn’t get a free pass just because he didn’t subject her to the same level of depravity the people who hurt her in the past did. And when I learn who those people are, I’m going to find them and give them something worse than a broken nose.

Nadia looks like she wants to scold me, to say something dumb and untrue like she isn’t worth all this trouble, but my eyes stretch in a silent plea for her not to. Not because I don’t want to hear that I was wrong—especially since I know I was right—but because I don’t think I can downplay the way I feel about her when she’s this close to me.

She sighs, and her breath is warm as it passes over my face. “I still can’t believe the two of you are related. Vince is so creepy and predatory, and you’re….”

My brows lift. “And I’m what?”

Her teeth sink into her lower lip again. “You’re you.”

“That almost sounded like a compliment, Miss Hendrix.”

The sultry smile she gives me is almost enough to take away the sting of her letting me go. Almost. “It might’ve been, Mr. Adler.”

Even though we’re no longer touching, we’re still in a moment. Currents of something unspoken and unnamed pass between us, building up momentum until it feels like I have to do something, to say something, so it doesn’t pass us by. I push to my feet, and Nadia gulps and takes a small step back. She’s not running, just making space for me and this thing growing between us that seems too big for the room. She feels it. I know she does, but I still hesitate because I have to be careful with her.

That hesitation costs me everything when Regina comes barreling through the door with the tablet she uses to manage my schedule in her hand. She’s so preoccupied with it, she doesn’t see Nadia and I step back from each other, our moment dissolving into nothingness.

“I was able to move everything but your first meeting of the day. It’s with the director of the New Haven Victim Assistance Network. She’s in the conference room waiting for you. While you’re dealing with that, I’ll watch some YouTube tutorials on how to cover bruises,” she says, finally looking up. “Oh! Hi, Nadia. I didn’t realize you were in here.”

“Hey, Regina.” Nadia turns to face her, angling her body away from me. “I just stopped by to speak with Sebastian about something really quickly, but I’m on my way out.”

She only manages to take one step towards the door before I catch her hand in mine. “Wait. What did you come to talk to me about?”

Nadia glances at Regina, who couldn’t care less about our exchange, and pulls away. “Nothing important enough to delay your meeting.”

“You sure it can wait?” She nods, already moving away. My body rejects her departure, forcing me to blurt out more words. “I’ll stop by your office later, so we can discuss it.”

“Sounds good. Maybe I can help you out with your face.”

“What’s wrong with my face?” I ask, just for the pleasure of hearing her giggle echo in the hallway.

17

NADIA

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