Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
He’d already gotten the tent ready per the boss’s Instructions. But he couldn’t exactly follow around twenty-four seven. What if the boss and the guy did stuff in the tent..
Ashton clutched the steering wheel with a grim expression, soul thoroughly crushed. What the hell was even happening anymore?
After nearly half an hour in the car, Lily had mostly recovered. She didn’t want to trouble James by making him carry her again.
The lighting in the car was dim, so she hadn’t noticed his appearance. But once they were back inside the room, she saw it clearly.
James’ usual crisp white shirt-always spotless-was now a total mess.
Her toes curled inside her slippers. She felt terrible. Her voice barely more than a whisper, she said. “James, I’m so sorry… I got your shirt all dirty.”
She wanted to offer to pay him back.
But James was so wealthy that her little pocket change would mean nothing to him. In the end, she didn’t bring it up and instead added. “I’ll be more careful in the future. I won’t mess up your clothes again. I’ll also try to avoid any physical contact.”
“Mm.”
James glanced down at his shirt.
Dust and tears had soaked into the fabric. It really was a mess.
Strangely, it didn’t bother him.
He’d had a mild cleanliness obsession since he was a child. He didn’t like people getting too close, and he absolutely hated having his clothes dirtied.
But when Lily curled up in his arms, it hadn’t felt unpleasant.
Her tears, mixed with dirt, had stained his shirt, but even that hadn’t made him recoil.
What lingered in his mind instead was the memory of her tears falling, one after another, and how each one had seemed to scald his chest. The ache still hadn’t gone away.
When he lifted his eyes again, he saw the red marks still visible on her neck.
His pupils constricted slightly. Then, cool and detached, he said, “Go shower and put some medicine-n afterward. I’ll use the guest bathroom.”
He grabbed a change of clothes and stepped out.
By the time Lily finished her shower, James had already returned to the bedroom.
In his hand was a small, elegant white porcelain bottle. When he saw her, his tone was calm but firm. “Lily, sit down.”
She didn’t know what he was planning, but she obeyed without question.
Quietly, she perched herself at the edge of the bed like a schoolkid on their best behavior.
Once she was seated, James walked over, still holding the porcelain bottle.
Her heart started to race uncontrollably.
She couldn’t believe it-he was going to apply the medicine for her.
The ointment he carried had been custom-made by a reclusive doctor he’d once begged for help when Lily had been hospitalized. It was said that even for deeper wounds, if used consistently for a month, the scarring would vanish completely.
The red marks on her neck-after just one night of applying this stuff-would fade by half.
He didn’t mention the lengths he’d gone through to get the ointment.
Without a word, he uncapped the bottle and began applying it gently to her skin.
Lily had already changed into her clean pajamas.
It was a conservative two-piece set-long sleeves and pants, not even the slightest bit revealing.
The wide square neckline of Lily’s pajamas made it easy to see things that shouldn’t be seen from above.
James glanced down-and immediately caught sight of her fair, delicate collarbones just be neatly that, faimly visible, was the gentle slope of a shadowed valley.
Soft, Lamminous, Alluring.
In that instant, countless images flooded his mind like a dark spell.
Those images seized his thoughts and wrapped chains around his chest-they became his personal demon.
That night in the hospital, he had been perfectly sober. But beneath the hazy moonlight, he had thrown caution aside and bitten down on her lips with reckless abandon.
That pillowy softness had bloomed freely in his palms. The sensation-so yielding, so unforgettable- seemed burned into the core of his being.
In his more frenzied, fevered dreams, he’d lost control entirely, gripping her slender waist with trembling hands….
James jerked his head to the side and squeezed his eyes shut in anguish.
He loathed nothing more than men who wavered, who couldn’t control themselves.
He had vowed to grow old with Leila. And yet, here he was-mind and body being pulled toward Lily. again and again.
What made him different from John? That selfish, shameless man who wanted everything and gave nothing? If anything, he was worse. Filthier.
The revulsion he felt for himself in that moment was crushing.
He abruptly set the porcelain bottle of ointment on the nightstand and took several steps back, putting as much space between them as possible.
Startled by his sudden retreat, Lily jumped.
Then came his voice-emotionless, cold, flat.
“Lily, apply the ointment yourself. And don’t forget the wounds on your arms and calves. Keep using the medicine on time. That way, you won’t scar.”
With that, he turned sharply and walked out of the room, heading straight for the study.
Only when she heard the loud slam of the door did Lily come back to her senses.
She had to be out of her mind
Just now… she’d actually thought he was going to help her apply the ointment himself.
How stupid could she bel
He hated her. Couldn’t stand to be near her. Even earlier, when she had lost her balance, he had only caught her out of pure instinct. That alone had probably pushed him to his limit. How could she have thought he’d be willing to get close again? To touch her?
When he’d been in the room, the air had felt warm.
Now that he was gone, it felt cold. Empty.
Her chest ached again-slow, dull, throbbing pain.
He really did hate her.
Even if he was too well-mannered to speak cruelly to her, his body language said everything. His rejection was uncontrollable. Involuntary.
Tomorrow, she would meet him as Leila.
And she had full confidence she’d make herself hideous enough to crush any lingering interest he might still have in her.
After they got the divorce certificate, it would all be over.
There was no way Lily could put on her disguise at the Luke estate.
So early the next morning, she went to a nearby hotel.
She’d been nimble-fingered since childhood-good at sewing, a great cook, and when it came to makeup, a natural. Whatever she saw, she picked up fast.
Two or three hours of effort in front of the mifror, and even she couldn’t believe the person staring back at her.
Her long hair had been tucked into a wig cap and covered with a short black wig.
The cropped cut gave her a dorky, vaguely boyish charm-ugly-cute, almost.
Her skin had been darkened several shades, and a large black mole-about the size of a pinky nail-sat prominently on her left cheek.
She’d glued a strip of transformation silicone across her nose, giving the tip a bulbous, garlic-like appearance.
Her real nose had been small and delicate. Now, it was heavy and clunky. Her whole face looked rounder, duller.
Her figure was too shapely, but after binding her chest and throwing on a thick puffer coat, there was no way James would notice anything unusual.
She’d added a fake Adam’s apple, a few ugly scar stickers, and drawn her eyebrows thicker and coarser than usual.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.