Free Wicked Demons by Reece Vita Asher Page A

muttered, “My cell phone…” It had been on her lap.
Who the hell knew where it was now? She should have thought to look
for it before the climb. “Too late now. Shit.”
    There was no way Andi could physically
descend the mudslide safely. It had been a huge chore just to climb
up, and her left knee was already reaping the stress. It pulsed
with the promise of greater pain to come.
    The world was a safer place as she rested,
eyes closed. That is, until she felt a shift in the air and opened
her heavy eyelids to find a man standing over her.
    Leaping to her feet, Andi screamed, “Jesus!”
and limped backwards.
    “Not quite.” The stranger stalked her, pacing
her steps two to one as he yelled, “Stop!” Lunging forward, he
grabbed her waist, tugging her close.
    “What the hell are you doing? Get off
me!”
    His dusk blond hair swung in tandem with
their bodies as he backed her to the nearest tree, his hard chest
pressing against her breasts.
    “Are you mental?” Andi fought the need to
scream again.
    “You were about to step off the edge of the
embankment.” He glanced down, meeting her gray eyes, and whispered,
“Stop panicking.”
    His square jawline, visible even under a
short layer of facial hair, and the barely crooked bridge of his
slender nose created a charming appearance at first glance. Though,
Andi had known plenty of “charming” men who turned out to be real
douche rats.
    “Hey, it’s not like a bee landed on me and I
overreacted,” she snapped. “You just snuck out of the darkness
after a crazy accident and scared the shit out of me.”
    “I did that.” His baby blues looked
sympathetic. Genuinely sorry, even. “For that, I apologize. Do you
need help?”
    “No, I-“ That’s right, her phone was lost.
She was lost. The worry didn’t fail to cross her crinkled brow, or
the stranger’s attention.
    Andi could feel the steady beat of his heart,
strong and restless. It mingled with hers, the rapid tempo of a
bunny in the throws of a heart attack.
    “What happened?”
    Everything about him caused a response in
her. The warmth of him so near pulled the muscles in her chest up
around her heart. The even baritone of his voice caressed her mind
like a heavy quilt in a cold house. And he smelled like nothing she
had ever come across. Something mingled with the musk of his
deodorant. Wrapping her arms around the stranger and kissing him
would be nothing like kissing Kirk From the Second Floor, who was
practically emaciated and comatose from marathon work weeks and
lack of vitamin D.
    Loosening his grip around her waist, the
stranger repeated, “What happened? Are you okay?”
    “I… Can you get off me?” She couldn’t think
while practically wearing him.
    “Sorry.” He backed away and Andi was
immediately sorry to feel the distance.
    “I wrecked. Something blurry and loud made me
drive off the road.”
    “Like a bear?”
    “Yeah, like a big fucking bear having a bad
acid trip.” She eyed him. “Where did you come from?”
    “I was walking,” he answered. “Luckily,
right? My campsite is just down the road. I’ll show you.” He made a
gesture to grab her arm, but she dodged, moving just out of
reach.
    “How convenient.”
    Finding her suspicion quite amusing, he
crossed his arms and added, “Yes, it is,” so sincerely, it was just
plain aggravating to Andi.
    “What does your campsite have that I can’t
find right here?”
    “Lights. Shelter from the elements. A cell
phone.”
    After a moment of consideration and a
flashback to whatever had been the cause of her accident, Andi
begrudgingly muttered, “Damn it,” and followed him to the road.
“Can I at least have your name?”
    “Why? So the cops can identify me faster?” He
turned to meet her absolute shock with the largest smile she had
seen from anyone in years. The kind that inspired poetry. And not
shitty poetry. The premium Keats kind. “You have no faith in the
goodness of strangers, do you?”
    “Just asking