He didn't need her smaller. He just wanted her.
Freyja Larsen doesn't fall apart. One of Manhattan's most formidable divorce lawyers, she fights for abused women with the ferocity she wishes she'd had at twenty-three. Behind the corner office and ironclad routine is a woman who was made small and rebuilt her life so it would never happen again.
Arlo Reid walked away from a life most people chase. Now he drives nights with a grief he's sure was his fault, present for everyone, absent from himself. He's driven her home seven times. She never looked up once.
Until the night she breaks. After a case goes wrong, Freyja meets his eyes in the rearview mirror and stops pretending she's fine. What follows is gentle, patient, and more terrifying than anything she's faced in a courtroom, because Arlo doesn't need her smaller. He just wants her.
But Freyja's walls don't fall without a fight, and the hardest part is still ahead of them. To choose each other, they'll each have to do the one thing their pasts forbid: she has to believe she won't disappear, and he has to show up for himself.
Tropes:
- He falls first (and hard)
- Slow burn
- Strangers to lovers
- Opposites attract
- Grumpy / sunshine (inverted, she's the guarded one)
- Forced proximity
- Hyper-independent heroine
- Patient, observant green-flag hero
- A fierce, ride-or-die best friend
- Trauma recovery and healing
- Dual POV, first person
- Standalone with a HEA
Heat: Low. Emotionally led, sensual but not explicit. One open-door scene, soft focus, no explicit content.
Content Note: This story touches on domestic abuse, emotional and psychological abuse, and the loss of a loved one to suicide (all discussed, not shown on the page), as well as grief and survivor's guilt. These themes are handled with care and are integral to the characters' journeys toward healing.
