Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
She never imagined that a casual mention in a chat would stick with James-that he’d actually go out of his way to have a winemaker craft cherry wine just for her.
On the rack nearby, beautiful glass bottles gleamed. And it wasn’t just cherry wine.
There was white peach, lychee, blueberry, passionfruit… everything she could imagine.
“Leila, I tried this one too-blueberry. It’s really good. Want to give it a shot?”
After Lily took a sip of the cherry wine he poured and her eyes lit up with pure joy, a rare smile bloomed in James’ usually cold gaze.
“Sure.”
Seeing her agree, he quickly poured her a glass of the blueberry wine.
Then she tried the strawberry. Her lips grew glossier, glimmering with each sip.
Watching those plump, dewy lips move, James suddenly felt parched.
As warmth bloomed through his chest, flooding him with unfamiliar emotions, he found himself unable to look directly at her mouth. His ears burned red. He kept pouring her glass after glass, trying to hide it.
The winemaker he’d found really was top-notch-every flavor tasted incredible.
Lily didn’t feel tipsy at all. The wine was sweet, smooth, and low in alcohol, so she didn’t give it a second thought.
Before she realized it, she’d tasted over a dozen varieties.
But after the last glass, her world suddenly tilted sideways.
“Elias, why does it feel like the mountain’s spinning? Is there an earthquake?”
Startled, she stood up in a panic and grabbed his hand, ready to bolt.
But her legs were unsteady-like the ground itself was tilting. Instead of dragging him along, she stumbled. straight into his arms.
“Earthquake?”
Confused, James quickly realized what had happened-she was drunk.
He hadn’t expected the fruit wine to hit her so hard, and now he was genuinely worried.
“Leila, how do you feel? Are you okay anywhere?”
He bent down to check on her carefully.
At the sound of his voice, Lily raised her dazed eyes to his face. As she looked up, her soft, sticky-sweet lips brushed directly against his.
It was like fireworks igniting across his skin. His mind exploded in a blinding white flash.
Suddenly, it felt like peach blossoms were blooming in his head-millions of them, all at once, drowning him in color and scent.
He couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe.
She didn’t pull away.
If anything, she leaned in even closer, pressing her lips to his again like she’d found something she liked.
Her body inched toward him, and the soft scent on her skin curled into his lungs, clinging to his heart.
He was losing his mind.
The taste of her lips, the way they trembled against his… it reminded him so vividly of Lily.
But that couldn’t be. Leila was a man. Lily was a woman.
There was no way they could be the same person.
Leila’s skin was dark and coarse, with a prominent scar and a big mole on her face.
Her eyes, though… those were remarkably similar to Lily’s.
They both shinimered with that same bright, glistening light-clear, lively peach blossom eyes.
But their noses were completely different.
Lily had a delicate, well-defined nose. Leila’s was big and round, heavy-looking, like a giant meatball planted in the middle of her face. It gave her whole appearance a clumsy kind of awkwardness.
Most importantly, Leila had an Adam’s apple. There was no way she could be a woman!
The reason James felt something so eerily familiar when their lips touched-why Leila reminded him of Lily-must have been because their lips were shaped similarly. Both of them had lips like soft, sweet cotton candy.
“Leila…”
It took what felt like a full century before James could drag his soul and senses back into his body.
He had always known he could never accept being with a man.
After finding out Leila was male, he’d even sought out a movie to understand what a relationship between two men would look like.
The moment those two men in the film held hands and embraced affectionately, he’d felt too uncomfortable to keep watching. Kissing? Anything more intimate? Absolutely impossible.
He had believed, no matter how deeply he liked Leila, that the most they could ever be was spiritual companions. At most, they might hold hands. Hugging, kissing-he wouldn’t be able to bear it,
But now that he’d actually met her…
He felt possessed. He wanted to touch her, to hold her, to be with her, to tangle himself in her forever- body and soul, life after life.
Right now, all he wanted was to cup the back of her head and deepen the kiss, hard and reckless.
But he knew better.
She hadn’t kissed him on purpose-she was drunk, barely aware of where she even was.
He couldn’t take advantage of her/
James silently chanted calming mantras for a full thirty seconds. Still, the tremor running through him wouldn’t fade.
With his fingers shaking, he carefully lifted her into his arms, planning to let her rest inside the tent. Once she sobered up, he wanted to take her for a walk, talk to her, show her more of the beautiful scenery.
Only once he had her in his arms did he realize just how light she was.
She couldn’t have weighed inore than ninety pounds. Abo the same as Lily.
But Leila was a grown man. How could he be this thin?
Is he not eating properly?
He thought back to the way she’d nibbled on the skewers earlier-small, delicate bites like a cat. After fewer than ten, she’d already declared she was full.
What kind of man ate like that?
James’ brows pinched together in concern.
If she keeps skipping meals, her body will never stay strong. Too light. Too fragile. Like a girl.
When we’re together, I’ll make sure she eats right every day.
He gently set her down and was about to step away when, suddenly, she pushed forward with surprising strength and forced him down onto the nearby soft lounge chair.
“Leila…”
As she inched closer, James’ breath began to hitch.
He knew she was in no state to know what she was doing. He should push her away.
But watching her draw closer, lips flushed and soft, remembering the sensation of their earlier accidental kiss… the warmth, the sweetness, the electricity… his body betrayed him.
Even though he had easily carried her just moments ago, his arms now felt limp. He couldn’t summon the strength to create any space between them.
He closed his eyes, ears burning, as if praying for spiritual enlightenment-but no prayers could stop the temptation.
He wasn’t some monk. He was being dragged from the clouds back into temptation by a beautiful little demon.
Back when Lily had been with John, in those darkest, hardest times, she’d drunk to help him win business.
But even then, she always kept her guard up. She knew the kind of men she was surrounded by-smiling and laughing on the surface, but nothing short of predators underneath.
She’d take medicine beforehand to dull the effects. Or sneak away to vomit in secret. She always forced herself to stay alert.
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.