Stars sparked in the darkness behind Demi’s eyes. There was darkness, and ringing, and bright bursts of pain. Air rushed into her lungs on a gasp as feeling returned to her body.
Her palms stung. Her entire foot resonated with the numbness of impact, and her knee. Her knee. She managed to roll onto her ass, grabbing at her knee. Light made its way into her vision as sound returned to her ears.
“Ow, fuck,” she finally managed to express herself.
“You okay? Matty call the ambulance, she might have broken a hip or something.”
Demi glared in the direction of the voice. She had been feeling her age, but she wasn’t that old.
“I didn’t break my hip,” she bit out through the pain that radiated between toes and knee.
There was a sudden warble of a siren. Demi closed her eyes with embarrassment. She tripped, she didn’t need an ambulance. The siren was off seconds later and the rumble of a truck engine idled in the street nearby.
“You okay there?”
Too many emotions battled in Demi’s mind. Unable to properly focus around the pain and humility, she breathed deeply before seeing if her eyes would work and cracked them open. The face that greeted her was breathtaking. She was mesmerized the most by his sage green eyes.
His brows were lifted as he looked at her questioningly.
Demi managed to nod. Truth was, she wasn’t okay. She had embarrassed herself epically by stubbing her toe, and now she was having heart palpitations because the rescue hero they had to call in was distractingly handsome. No, not handsome, he was beautiful with darker skin and paler eyes, and bone structure that artists had been trying to capture for centuries.
His fingers caressed the inside of her wrist, and the breath she had struggled to reclaim left her again. It wasn’t fair that a dashing smile and good cheekbones could inject butterflies straight into her bloodstream.
“What’s your name? Can you tell me what happened?” He was professional, didn’t he realize how much worse he was making everything? “Matty said an elderly lady fell and broke her hip. Your pulse is elevated.”
“Matty has greatly over-exaggerated the situation,” she finally managed to say. And of course, her pulse was elevated, he was touching her.
“I stubbed my toe, scraped up my knee, and smacked my hands.” She held up her palms so he could see the pebbled bite marks of small stones.
He ran his thumb gently over the inside of her palm as he examined her hands. “That must sting.”
Demi nodded.
“Can you stand?” He held out a hand to her. “What’s your name?”
“My name’s Demi.”
The few spectators who had gathered when the emergency vehicle arrived began clapping as Demi made it to her feet. If she didn’t physically hurt so much in so many places, she would have found the wherewithal to glare at them. Elderly!
“Nice to meet you, Demi. My name is Eli. Let’s get you over to the truck, and get you cleaned up.”
She was distracted by the way his arms bulged, straining the sleeves of his department-issued t-shirt. It took a moment too long to let go of him to walk on her own. Demi limped behind Eli. She took her time. She had to be careful with her knee. Maybe she broke a toe? The view from behind Eli was almost as good as the one from the front. She was being sexist and ogling him, as long as she didn’t say anything out loud it shouldn’t matter.
She sat where he indicated by patting the bumper on the tail of the truck. “New in town?”
“I’m just visiting,” she answered.
“Family?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Oh, don’t do that,” he said, reaching out for her.
“What?”
Suddenly his fingertips were on her scalp, dancing down her neck and along her jaw with gentle probing touches. He artfully dodged her gaze as she stared up at him.
“Wanted to confirm no head or neck injury. After all, when the elderly fall we don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’m going to give Matty a piece of my mind,” Demi grumbled.
“Don’t be too hard on him. He’s a good kid, always does what he’s told.”
“He’s a kid?”
“Yeah, didn’t you see him? He’s the one who called.”
“I got that. No, I didn’t see him, just the actual old geezer out front when I kicked the curb.”
She was grateful for the distraction, Eli was running his hands over her limbs, touching her in a very detached professional manner. But he was touching her.
“That’s Matty’s dad, Tim. He’s a good guy. I’ll suggest he get his glasses checked. It had to be the hair that confused him.” Eli picked up a section of her hair.
She was going to melt into a puddle of her own juices if he didn’t stop doing things like that.
Her hair was currently white with blue and pink ends, in homage to her favorite comic book anti-hero. She thought she loved bad guys who did the right things for all the wrong reasons. But confronted with this real-life hero, she was having a serious change of heart. She was beginning to understand the appeal of good guys who did good for all the right reasons.
What do you do when your imaginary friends start pestering you with images of sexy male strippers and hot were-shifters? You write stories about them. Well, that's what I did! Oh, and then I combine them and toss them in a kilt for good measure!
Hi, my name is Lulu and I write sexy hot contemporary and paranormal romance. Welcome to my website.
Making the Para "Normal" and the Supernatural Extraordinary.