Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
John thought James was too calculating.
?
Every word James had just said was deliberate, meant to make Lily hate him even more.
John loathed James for it. But deep down, he couldn’t deny the truth-James was right.
This mouth of his really had kissed Elsa.
Shame crushed him so heavily he couldn’t even muster the strength to get up and fight for Lily anymore.
Ashton drove the car.
James gently settled Lily into her seat before sliding in beside her.
Lily had felt a little satisfaction watching James kick John just now, and she was about to praise him when his low voice came.
“Lily, John is fickle, a hypocrite. Don’t let him fool you.”
“I’m not like him.”
“I’ve never kissed anyone else. I’ve never had anyone else in my heart. In this life, I only want you.”
For a moment, Lily froze.
John’s endless pestering always made her feel a little guilty in front of James. And now, hearing his words, her guilt only deepened.
Because his first kiss had been hers.
But she… though she’d never been intimate with John, she had once let him kiss her.
Her guilt burned hot, but Ashton’s burned hotter.
He was guilty on his boss’s behalf!
He never imagined his aloof, cold-as-ice boss could say such shamelessly sweet words.
And never imagined that this upright, principled man could lie so easily.
Never kissed anyone else? Never had anyone else in his heart?
What about that foppish young man James had once gone on dates with?
Ashton had seen him holding hands with that man. He had even witnessed James kissing him.
John was worthless, yes-but at least John had kissed a woman. His boss had kissed a man!
He knew Lily well enough to know how much she hated lies. She couldn’t even tolerate a grain of sand in her eye, much less deceit.
If she ever discovered that James had not only kissed someone else but that person was male- would she think him perverse?
Of course, Ashton didn’t think so. To him, his boss was still the best man in the world. But would Ms. Ginger see it that way?
And what if, someday, she bolted with the child in her belly? The old master would be furious.
Ashton gripped the wheel tighter. If not for the need to drive, he’d have been banging his head against it in despair.
Lily, lost in her own guilt, noticed none of Ashton’s turmoil.
Instead, she shifted closer to James and quietly hooked her pinky around his.
“James, I know John’s no good. I won’t fall for his lies, and I’ll never look back.”
“My boyfriend is better-looking than him, smarter than him, more upright, more dependable, more likable… in short, my boyfriend is better than him in every way. How could I ever let myself be fooled?”
James coughed softly, uncomfortable.
He hadn’t expected her to praise him like that in front of Ashton,
Thankfully, the neon light spilling into the car was red. She couldn’t see how his face, his neck, even his ears had flushed scarlet.
Lily mistook his silence for jealousy.
Her skin was thin, and with Ashton sitting up front, she was too shy to show him affection.
But she couldn’t bear to let him stew in jealousy either. Stealing a glance at Ashton’s head, she swallowed her shame, leaned in, and brushed her lips quickly against the corner of James’s mouth.
The praise had already left him red and unsteady. That sudden kiss turned the warmth in his chest into a blaze.
Sweetness and heat flooded through him, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might break free from his chest.
Yet the kiss was fleeting-like fireworks, brilliant but gone in an instant.
His throat worked hard as he swallowed down the surge of desire. What he wanted was to seize her lips again and again, to make her melt like spring water in his arms.
But Ashton was still there. He knew how shy she was, and he didn’t want anyone else to witness her trembling beneath his kisses.
So he restrained himself. Instead of pulling her close and devouring her mouth, he only clutched her hand tighter, his voice hoarse. “That didn’t count. We’ll finish later.”
She knew it wouldn’t end so easily.
Thinking of last night, when he had kissed her as if to bruise her lips, her face flamed red.
She forced herself not to dwell on those images, but even when she turned her head away, his hand-long fingers brushing down her back in a secret caress-still bound her heart fast.
Ashton wasn’t blind. He saw everything in the rearview mirror-the kiss, the blush, the sweetness.
And his guilt doubled.
His boss was playing the part of the devoted lover perfectly, and Ms. Ginger, smitten, was praising and kissing him for it.
But Ashton knew better.
He remembered that picnic with the foppish young man. How his boss had spent half the day in that tent.
He hadn’t seen inside, but he didn’t need to. He could guess well enough.
Whatever John had done, at least he’d done it with a woman. His boss? He’d done it with a
Their boss had even tasted a man before-how could he still play the role of an innocent boy to deceive Ms. Ginger, a pregnant woman?
Pregnant women couldn’t be upset like that. It was dangerous.
Ashton was terrified the old master might break his boss’s legs if this ever came out.
Should he remind his boss, tactfully, to settle things with that foppish man? If that man ever showed up, who knew how badly Ms. Ginger might be hurt while carrying a child?
But if he brought it up, would his boss break his legs instead?
Carrying all that worry, Ashton drove almost twenty minutes longer than usual before pulling up in front of the Luke family’s main house.
James carried Lily inside with care, but his sharp eyes caught Ashton squirming in the driver’s seat like a restless caterpillar.
He tamped down the urge to follow Lily straight into the shower, dropped her off in their room, and returned downstairs.
“What is it?”
The faint concern in James’s voice made Ashton’s chest tighten.
He truly wanted the best for his boss. After wrestling with himself, he decided he had to speak up-better to risk it now than watch everything burn later.
“Boss…”
He rearranged the words in his head before whispering, “You just… you just lied to Ms. Ginger.”
“She’s pregnant now. If she finds out you deceived her, it’ll crush her.”
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.