Broken Prime

Excerpt:

*ADULTS ONLY*

Evie Lane refused to die at twenty-one.

Panic pushed her pace to a jog, but though the whited-out landscape flew by faster, nothing looked familiar. Snow continued to fall, and she cursed loudly, blinking back tears that threatened to burn their way down her cheeks.

So stupid to tell the others to go ahead on their snowshoe trek. The sun had been out, the cabin smoke clearly visible in the sky, and she hadn’t realized there was zero cell service to be found. If she’d done what she’d said, taken a few pictures and caught up with her friends a little ways down the trail, things would have been fine. But she’d gotten distracted. Found a few shots she couldn’t resist. Decided to wait a little longer until the sun was perfect in the sky, providing just the right angle to the light.

And then the sun disappeared.

The storm rolled in so quickly, she’d barely noticed the first cloud on the horizon before the entire sky blotted out. She’d trudged on, even as snow started to fall, in the same direction the other girls had gone. When it got too dark to really see where she was going, she’d relied on their trail in the snow. Then the fresh snow piled high so fast that the trail disappeared, and she wasn’t even sure she was headed the right direction.

She forced a deep breath, then shivered violently. The air was cold, and her feet colder. She’d lost a glove at some point when she was still taking pictures, and her pocket didn’t seem to do much to keep out the chill.

Exhaustion seeped into her as she slowed to a walk.

“Help!” she yelled—or tried to. Her voice was wispy and thin after hours of calling out for her friends.

She crumpled in front of a tree and leaned against the solid wood, putting her face between her knees.

So tired.

The angry howl of the wind around her seemed to insulate her from the world, and for a while, time stood still. Regret filled her. She should have listened to her parents, gone with them to Europe. Might have been stressful, watching them try not to fight in front of her the whole time, but it would have been safe. Heck, she could have stayed at the dorm, used her break to study.

She’d wanted an adventure.

“Hey. Hey?”

Someone shook her, dragging her back into reality. She opened her eyes. The area around her was almost as dark as the one behind her eyelids. But she could make out a form, large and human-shaped, kneeling in front of her.

“I’m going to pick you up. Take you somewhere warm.”

Her mind moved slowly, and it took a few moments before she comprehended his words. But before she could nod in reply, the man had swept her into his arms and was moving. And either her perception was really messed up because of the cold and her freezing state, or the man moved fast.

Even with the wind blowing hard around them, with her face buried against his jacket, she could smell him. Masculine and wild, he smelled like the forest before the snow. His jacket was too light for the weather, but he didn’t seem to have been caught unaware like she had. He strode with confidence, never pausing to find his way.

Minutes later, they arrived. The thud of the door shutting behind them roused her from her half-stupor, and delicious heat stung her nose.

The man brought her close to the source, holding her while she warmed. He pulled her camera off her neck, tugged her boots from her feet and rubbed them, then did the same with her hands. Gradually, the world came back into focus.

The only source of light seemed to be the wood stove that burned somberly, but it was clear he’d brought her to a cabin even tinier than the one she’d rented with her girlfriends for their winter break from college. Theirs was made to look rustic. This one really was rustic, if the low lighting was anything to judge it by.

But the heat was welcome, as was the rescue. She squirmed a bit in her rescuer’s arms, but he continued to rub her feet, his motions slow and smooth, his big hands soothing the cold away.

“How do you feel?” he asked, his delicious baritone rolling over her in a way that made her shiver again, but not from the cold. The snow and wind had obviously addled her brain, because no way was she getting a little turned on from the guy’s voice alone. Especially not in her current state. Some kind of weird effect from the shock of it all.

Wordlessly, he helped her to her feet.

“I’m fine, thanks to you.” To her surprise, her voice came out strong, if a bit raspy from yelling so much earlier. She flexed her fingers, and wiggled her toes. “Seem to still have all my limbs.”

The man pulled off his hat and the mask he’d worn to protect his face from the cold. “Luckily for you, it’s warm tonight.”

Words escaped her for a moment, as she took in the man who’d saved her. His size had been apparent, even in her frozen, panicked state, but while he peeled off his coat, she had a moment to appreciate the rest of him. Big, yes. Not more than a few years older than her—maybe late twenties at the most. Chestnut hair brushed his shoulders, and his equally dark eyes sparkled in the low light.

Suddenly, his words hit her. “Warm? You call that warm?”

He chuckled, a sexy sound that filled the room. “Warm enough to snow.”

Whatever that meant. “Didn’t feel too toasty to me.”

“Like you said, you’ve got your fingers and your toes. What I can’t figure out is what an obvious city girl like you is doing all by herself in the mountains, freezing to death on my land.”

Heat crawled up her cheeks. “I didn’t know I was on your land. My friends and I, we’re renting a cabin,”—she waved vaguely—“somewhere around here. We’re on our winter break, thought it would be fun to come out here, hike around. Do a little skiing.” Mostly they’d wanted to hit on hot skier guys, but that hadn’t worked out so well since most of the snow bums they’d run into at the out-of-the-way ski resort had turned out to be less than panty-melting, and more stoners looking for women to buy them beer. That would teach them to book at the last minute, and to go somewhere not exactly known for catering to a lot of out-of-towners.

He snorted. “You wandered well off the path if you were headed for the rental cabins closer to the resort, city girl.”

His lack of seriousness about her near-death rankled. “Well, excuse me if I accidentally trespassed while trying not to die.”

“You’re excused.” He grinned. The expression took years off his face, and she mentally revised his age to a couple of years closer to her own.

“Well, thank you very much,” she replied, injecting as much sarcasm as she could into the words.

“You’re very welcome,” he said, still grinning.

She huffed at him and he laughed.

“Are you hungry, city girl?”

Her stomach rumbled in response. “It’s Evie.”

“I’ll warm us up some soup, Evie.” His gaze caught hers, and his amusement disappeared. “Evie,” he repeated, as if tasting her name.