This was very reminiscent of the Regency romances I used to read way back when, with the poor, helpless heroine and the kind, studly aristocrat who rescues her. Although I used to enjoy some of those stories, I was never all that fond of that particular dynamic, and having the poor, helpless one be a man instead of a woman didn't make me like it any more. I'm also no more fond of heroes who burst into tears all the time than I am of heroines who cry at the drop of a hat.Yeah, Kyle does finally take some action to protect himself, so it's not just James riding in to rescue him. The stereotypical heroine probably would have done almost exactly what he did. In fact, I think you could have changed his name to "Kyla" made the corresponding changes to genitalia, and it would have been exactly the same story. I thought several times of DNFing it, but somehow found it just enjoyable enough to read all the way through.