Ice Steam (Loving All Wrong #3)

BOOK: Ice Steam (Loving All Wrong #3)
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2015 by S. Ann Cole

All rights reserved.

 

Cover Design: S. Ann Cole

Formatting: S. Ann Cole

Editor: Karen Anne L.

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright(s) reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Making or distributing copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

For permission requests, contact the publisher via email:
[email protected]
.

Visit my website at
www.AnnCole.net

 

 

 

 

For all those who suffer from Anxiety & Panic disorder.

 

This story is in no way connected to that topic. But I want to dedicate a project I poured my blood sweat and tears into, specifically to sufferers of the mental illness; only those who have been/go through the horrific sensations from day to day knows
exactly
what it is like.

Use this book as a reminder that
you are not alone
, and that you
can
be a
survivor
.

 

Heads-up from the Author

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Acknowledgements

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeze a beg sumting, my fren.”

About the Author

Do Not Hesitate to Contact Me!

 

Heads-up from the Author

 

 

 

Heads-up #1:

 

Just in case you skipped reading the blurb, or reviews, and decided to come in blind, I want to point out that this book is a
love triangle
. It’s not
hinted
at, or implied, or mild—in which the heroine only kisses one guy and screws the other, or she has a best friend who’s always been in love with her. No. This is a
full-blown
love triangle:
The heroine consciously sleeps with two different men.
No remorse. No invocations of absolution.

If you have ever been cheated on, or if you have a sister, brother, best friend, mother, father, uncle, aunt, dog, cat, mice, hamster, or pet gold fish that has been
cheated
on, or if you are a recovering cheater, or if the very thought of cheating repulses you, makes you nauseated, infuriates you, makes you want to throw stuff, or be compelled to
rate an author’s hard work badly on the basis that you “hate cheating in books”
, then please,
for the love of God and all things Holy
, STOP.

Right here.

Right now.

You have absolutely no business reading this book.

Anyone who wishes to read this book and enjoy it must be willing to accept the story for what it is, and the characters for who they are. This is fiction. Please leave your personal issues out of it. Bad ratings, reviews, and bashing based on personal issues is not fair to
any
author.

 

Heads-up #2:

 

When I first created Alina’s character in
Jahleel
, I never intended on writing a story about her. Alina was first created merely as a supplemental character (or rather her parents) to fatten the background story for my previous release,
Chad’s Chase.
It was while writing the prologue for my yet-to-be-released project,
Free Hostage
, that the idea for
Ice Steam
came to mind, and I was so excited about it that I promptly pushed
Free Hostage
aside and jumped to writing
Ice Steam
.

If you have read
Chad’s Chase
, you’ll know it was about power and greed and control, which meant some outrageous amount of capital was mentioned. Alina’s parents were insanely wealthy—more so her mother who received an inordinate inheritance that has been passed down a long line of females, from generation to generation. As the next female in line, when Alina’s mother died, the inheritance went to her.

The reason I’m giving you this heads-up is because I did not explain Alina’s wealth in this book. Why? Because
Chad’s Chase
was a dark, dark read.
Ice Steam
is a light read, rock stars and all that. I didn’t want to bring the dark, twisted stuff from
Chad’s Chase
over into this book, so I chose not to delve too much into explaining Alina’s inheritance. Those who’ve read
Chad’s Chase
will understand where I’m coming from.

So if while you are reading
Ice Steam
, Alina’s inheritance seems a little outrageous to you (as it was for one of my beta readers), please understand that I
did not
plan on writing a story about Alina when her character was drafted, and when I
did
decide to write a book about her, I couldn’t change the figure of her inheritance to something more believable for
this
particular story, as doing so would cause inconsistencies with the previous stories. Most readers might not even bat an eyelash at this, but I know some readers pick apart
every single thing
.

This happens sometimes. You don’t plan on writing a story about a certain character and then
bam
, a story flies into your head, and you groan, knowing you have to work with whatever you wrote in your previous books for the sake of consistency.

 

Heads-up #3:

 

If you are a doting mother who can’t
imagine
ever
being away from your kid(s) for more than a week/month… then there might be some motherhood triggers in this book. *wince*

 

Heads-up #4:

 

If you haven’t read the previous books in this series (you don’t need to in order to read this), then the characters in this book
will
seem like a lot to you. And I guess there
is
a lot of characters in here. Among the rich and famous, not exactly a quiet and lonely place. There’s always someone for you to meet

 

Heads-up #5

 

This book ends in a not-so-cliffy cliffhanger. It all depends on what
you
consider a cliffhanger. In fact, I’d go as far as to say reading the second book is optional—there is a pseudo-HEA, but some things were left unresolved. This book is already long, and to resolve things would’ve made this book ridiculously long (I don’t know about you but I
hate
long books), so I decided to resolve the unresolved in a follow-up. Which might be full-length
or
a little longer than a novella, depending on how the story unfolds (I don’t like stretching a story—I’ve got too much characters in my head dying to have their stories told—so I rather to just get straight to the point and put out a shorter book than to fill the pages with uneventful banalities to make up for a full-length novel.) If you end up liking this book and want to read the next, don’t be disappointed
if
it’s not a full-length. I’ll keep ya posted!

 

That is all…I think. :)

 

HAPPY READING!

 

 

 

Why must I be judged for how I choose to love?

Scratch that.

Why must
love
be judged in the form that it comes?

Love is.

It exists outside of time and space.

It is uncontrollable.

      
Unfathomable.

      
      
      
Ineffable.

No start. No end. It is.

And like the air we cannot see but only feel, love cannot be caught and bottled. Cannot be given a shape or form. Cannot be told which way it should flow, how it should flow, or how much of it should flow.

No.

Love is wild and frenzied. It sees with blind eyes. Flies with broken wings. It is out and about. Around us. Inside of us. Flitting in and out.

Unseen, we walk right through it. And even after we are long gone, it still remains. Uncontained. Flirting with new fools.

It sweeps us up and fills our pores, jerking us every which way.

We love one.

      
We love
two
.

      
      
      
We love
three
.

Who knew love was this much? This wide? This galactic?

But if love is this great, this abundant, this cosmic…

Existed before, exists after, exists always…

Why then must I believe I can only love once?

Why then must I accept I can only love ONE?

 

BOOK: Ice Steam (Loving All Wrong #3)
6.41Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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