Release Me (New Haven Series #3)

by J.L. Seegars

“Because even when someone is offering you something good, you should always remind them that you deserve better.”

I know I can’t. If Nadia needs or wants something, and it’s within my power to give it to her, she’ll have it.

wondering exactly when I lost my mind and if she’s ever going to give it back.

“Which part of what happened this weekend bothers you more? The violence or the fact that it was done in your name? Because I can promise you that I’ll never be violent towards you, but I can’t say that I’ll never be violent for you.”

inside the bracket of his arms is the safest place I think I’ve ever been.

The only reason I brought it up is because I wanted to tell you that one day I want to know your real name. The name your parents chose for you when they first gazed upon your face. The one they called you by when they needed your attention or wanted to reassure you of their love. The one that was probably the last thing on their lips when they knew they weren’t coming back home to you.”

That’s what Nadia is to me, sacred.

“You’re so good to me. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she gasps into my chest. I press a kiss to the top of her head. “You won’t ever have to find out.”

I have a home for the first time since my parents died, and I feel safe.

“You seem to be under the impression that you’re not the most precious thing in my life. There is no end to the list of things I want to have with you and give to you, chief among them is time. Time to heal. Time to trust. Time to prepare your heart for what mine wants to ask of it.”

I didn’t save yours, Nadia. You saved yourself. You didn’t need me then, and you don’t need me now, but I want you to want me.”

that’s tired of carrying shame that doesn’t belong to me all on my own.

I know she needs verbal confirmation more than anything else.

so I did what I had to do to put down roots beside her, to grow next to her until she trusted me enough for us to grow together.

“I think you look beautiful,” the destroyer of silk presses says,

Sebastian’s eyes melt, going soft in that way they only do for me.

“I can’t give you an answer, Nadia. What I want doesn’t matter because it’s your body, so it has to be your choice.” As much as I hate it, that’s the truth.

He knows my body so well.

“When I fell in love with you, I chose to love all of you. Your past. Your present. Your future. All of it. I don’t care

I became her justice and his reckoning.

when I took flight—eyes alight with fear and wonder because I forgot what it felt like to soar—he rejoiced along with me.

I wanted to give you back your home as a way to thank you for being mine.