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Chapter 2 - Laurel
This is it. I’m finally going to do it.
My fears melted away as I backed up to get a running start. Everything was perfect—the blue sky, the mountains in the distance a glorious backdrop. Another moment and I’d be flying.
Well, I went flying all right, except not over the cliff like I planned. One second everything I’d been working toward for months was about to happen, and the next, I was on the ground, tackled by some big, meaty oaf.
I hit the dirt hard enough to get the wind knocked out of me, but I still had the sense to start swinging on the moron. I managed to get a good hit somewhere in his midsection, but it turned out my attacker must work out because, on top of him ruining everything, his rock hard abs probably broke one of my knuckles.
“What are you doing?” I hollered as I tried kicking him instead.
I got a glimpse of tanned skin and dark hair that flopped across his face as he tried to wrangle my arms. I managed to get up and tried to make a run for it again. Maybe I could still jump and things wouldn’t be completely ruined.
He got his beefy arms around my shins and took me out again. A sharp pain rocketed up my ankle when we landed, and I knew there’d be no jumps for me today. The disappointment made me blank for a second, and he managed to get ahold of both my wrists and pin them to my sides. He slung his knee over me and straddled me.
“I’m trying to save your life,” he grunted. He grunted harder when I kneed him in the groin. Not hard enough to shake him off, though. “Damn it, woman, stop fighting.”
“Like hell,” I said.
He was ready for my knee this time, and a second later, I was squished into some kind of wrestler pose I had no hope of getting out of. I went limp and shut my eyes, playing dead. I just had to buy time. As soon as the psycho got up, I’d make a break for it.
“Listen,” he said, sounding surprisingly reasonable for a psycho. “You don’t have to do this. There’s always an answer. You can get help.”
I cracked open an eye to find him looking sorrowfully over me at the beautiful vista. His wavy hair was off his face now and he was shockingly handsome. The late afternoon sunlight highlighted his chiseled jaw and cheekbones and he was slightly red from attacking me, making his blue eyes compete with the sky.
“Wait, what?” I asked, then laughed. Nothing was funny. This asshole, this incredibly gorgeous asshole ruined months’ worth of effort. Still, what could I do but laugh? “You think I was trying to kill myself?”
Now he looked down at me like I was the idiot and shrugged one very broad shoulder. “You were about to jump off a cliff.”
I went berserk, thrashing until I got a hand free and punched him hard in the gut. Oops, rock hard. That’s another broken knuckle, probably. “It was a stunt, you absolute, freaking moron!”
He clearly didn’t believe me, because those blue eyes were full of pity. “Kind of a stupid stunt,” he said.
I realized he’d never leave me alone until he believed I wasn’t about to end it all and I pointed. “No, really, look. That’s my line.” With my free hand, I pointed down to where it was attached to my climbing belt. “I was doing a combination of free soloing and BASE jumping. You ever heard of those things?” I barely kept myself from calling him another name.
His brow furrowed when he saw the line, followed it back to the sturdy tree it was firmly attached to, and finally got off me. “Yeah, I’ve heard of those things. But I wouldn’t be foolish enough to try either one, let alone a combination of them.”
“Not brave enough, more like.” That was childish, but I didn’t regret it. Well, I regretted it a little when he ran his fingers through his hair, looking frustrated and upset.
“Look, I couldn’t let—I’m sure someone somewhere might have missed you so I just acted.”
“But why would you even assume that?” I wailed.
“It looked like you were crying and saying goodbye to someone on your phone.”
I might have been able to see where he could have gotten the wrong idea, but then I prodded my ankle and felt the sharp sting again.
“I get a little emotional about super important things in my life,” I said, and suddenly remembered who I had been saying ‘goodbye’ to. “Holy crap, I’m still live streaming.”
“Of course you are,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ignored his offered hand and got up on my own, not putting any weight on my bad ankle.
“It stands to reason that an adrenaline junkie would also be an attention hound,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
My jaw must have hit my clavicle. The absolute nerve of him. I managed to keep my cool long enough to get my phone out of its strap and check it. Sure enough, there were eight hundred people watching and the chat was going crazy. I caught a few comments as they scrolled by.
He’s so hot!
