He moved the tray off the bed and reached for a medical kit on the floor.
“I’m going to give you another shot of Demerol,” he said. “To help with the pain.”
I started to shake my head but I wondered why I would. It wasn’t like I was going anywhere, not with the storm raging outside. There was no sense in battling out the pain when he had medicine for me in arm’s reach.
“All right,” I agreed. “Thank you.”
The needle slid into my upper arm and gently, he helped me back onto the pillows, his face inches from mine.
For a hopeful second, I thought he was going to kiss me but he didn’t and the warmth of the painkiller spread through me, making me sleepy at once.
“You’re safe here, Sasha,” Dan murmured as I succumbed to my tiredness and although it wasn’t necessary for him to say it, the words filled me with such comfort, I wanted to cling to the feeling forever.
8
Graham
I gathered everyone in the front room while Dan stayed with the girl. I stood near the fire, one eye on the door in case Dan ventured through, not that I was concerned that he’d overhear.
He should be here, listening to this and not tending to that woman.
“What’s this about, Graham?” Seth yawned, looking at his wristwatch. “All this excitement is killing me.”
“You know what this is about,” I retorted. “We have this stranger among us.”
My announcement was met with a round of deadpan looks.
“Come on!” I cried. “You can’t tell me this doesn’t bother you.”
“Graham,” Harry sighed. “Can we not do this tonight? I’m with Seth. I’m exhausted.”
“When would you like to do this?” I growled back. “When everything goes south?”
Stevie snickered.
“You are such a drama queen,” he laughed and lowered his voice, furling his brow in mock seriousness. “When everything goes south.”
He was mimicking me and I resented it. I was always looked at as an alarmist but oh, how quickly they forget.
“You don’t think there’s anything suspicious about this?” I barked at them, willing them to think for once. “She just happens to be out here, at the end of the earth, in our place? You don’t find that a little suspect?”
“It’s not a mystery,” Jim muttered. “My bear trap got her.”
I could hear the guilt in his voice.
“Jim, how did she get out here to get into your bear trap in the first place,” I snapped, trying to keep the exasperation from my tone. I loved the guy but sometimes he just didn’t use his brain.
“Maybe she’s a tourist,” Bash suggested unexpectedly and I glowered at him. Were they all purposely being dense? I could see the others weren’t nearly as concerned as they should be.
“I don’t like this,” I muttered, turning to pace before the huge fireplace. The flames crackled intelligently, working as intensely as my mind was in that moment.
“She’s a hurt girl,” Stevie sighed, rolling his eyes. “Why do you always have to make such a big deal out of nothing?”
“Nothing?” My voice was like whiplash as I spun to glare at him. “Nothing?”
Instantly, everyone’s eyes shot to the floor and I saw I’d finally gotten through to them.
“Oh good,” I said sarcastically. “You finally remember.”
“Graham, I think you’re overreacting,” Harry told me but I could hear the reservation in him. At least I was getting through to someone.
“I’d rather overreact than end up in the same place as—”
“This girl needs our help!” Bash interrupted and again I was stunned that he was speaking out of turn.
It’s like this woman has them under some kind of a spell or something. Are they that trusting after all that’s happened?
“She can’t stay here,” I insisted, folding my arms across my broad chest, my grey eyes flashing with indignation. “I won’t sleep with one eye open.”
“My God,” Stevie muttered. “You really should try out for community theater.”
“And you should get your head out of your ass!” I roared. His eyes flashed angrily.
“What would you have us do?” Stevie demanded. “Throw her out in the snow, injured and alone?”
“She might get eaten by a polar bear,” Jim added and we all glared at him.
“THERE ARE NO POLAR BEARS!” we yelled in unison and Jim flushed in embarrassment.
I flipped my eyes back to the others.
“As soon as this storm lets up,” I growled. “She’s going. I don’t care if we have to fly her to England on the chopper.”
“Oh Graham,” Stevie started to say but my scathing look seemed to shut him up at least temporarily.
“Oh Graham what?” I barked back. “Do I need to remind you what happened last time something like this happened?”
An uneasy silence fell over the room and again, all eyes were on the floor but I wasn’t happy with that as a response.
“Well?”
“We remember, Graham,” Harry muttered. “But I don’t think this is the same kind of thing.”
“We didn’t think anything of that either, did we?”
“Why don’t we just play this out,” Seth yawned again, his eyes growing heavier as if the conversation was draining him. “Let’s not do anything rash.”
“It’s not like we can do anything now anyway,” Stevie interjected. “She’s wounded and the storm is apt to go on for days.”
I loathed that they were right. No matter how apprehensive I felt about this Sasha Snow being there, I couldn’t very well toss her into the storm, regardless of her intentions.
“Fine,” I relented. “But the minute the last flake falls—”
“Yes, yes,” everyone chorused and they seemed relieved that I’d caved.
“Are we done here?” Bash asked and I was surprised he was being so outspoken about the matter. He was the last person I would have expected to give me a hard time.
“I guess so,” I conceded.
I watched them all shuffle out of the room but I didn’t follow them. Instead, I wandered toward the window and stared out of the frosted panes of glass into the wonderland of snow which fell over the beautiful country.
I wanted to be as trusting as my brothers. We were good country boys at heart, all of us. We’d been raised in the southern US, believing in the good of people but circumstance had changed me.
No, I thought firmly. I won’t fall victim to another, never again. We’ve come too far to let anything like that happen again.
My back stiffened and I threw my shoulders upright. It was my duty to protect my boys, even if they couldn’t smell the danger I could sense coming right at us.
9
Sasha
When I woke again, I had no idea how much time had passed and I asked as much to the soft-spoken man reading a book in a chair.
“What time is it?” I called softly. His head jerked up instantly and he peered at me with gentle blue eyes.
“Oh, uh…” he looked nervously at his watch. “It’s about eleven.”
My eyes darted toward the window and I could see that the storm showed no signs of letting up. It was still dark but did that mean eleven in the morning or eleven at night?
I had lost all sense of reality being tucked away in this obscure place, surrounded by the most unlikely group to watch over me.
We were the only two in the room and I realized he’d probably been left there to keep an eye on me. I bit on my lower lip, trying to remember his name.
“Um…” I looked at him imploringly and a timid smile broke out over his face. He was such a cutie, his beam infectious like a small boy.
“Bash,” he reminded me. “I’m Bash.”
“Bash,” I agreed, exhaling. “Yes.”
“How are you feeling?” he asked, casting his book aside to approach. He kept a safe distance like he was afraid I might grab him and force him to snu
ggle me. Idly, I wondered what he would do if I did.
You know what they say about still waters…
“I’m feeling much better, actually.” And it was true. The rest had restored a lot of my energy and the dull throbbing in my leg wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been.
“Can I get you something?” Bash asked, seeming uncomfortable under my gaze.
“A phone?” I asked, hopefully. “My team is probably worried about me.”
Not that I believed that but surely they’d be feeling some guilt about letting me go off by myself.
Although knowing Queenie, she’d probably spun it as me trying to make them worry. I could almost hear her voice now.
“Leave it to Sasha to stick it to us. She’s probably out in the snow, trying to teach us a lesson. Well, we’ll show her. We’ll let her freeze to death!”
I wondered if Hunter felt any remorse.
I pushed both of them out of my mind and looked at Bash expectantly.
Bash shook his head, his blue eyes wide and apologetic.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Snow,” he said. “But the lines are all down.”
I grinned at him.
“Sasha,” I told him. “Call me Sasha. And yeah, I guess I should have expected that.”
A part of me was relieved to know that. I didn’t want the odd little rescue to be over, not yet.
My eyes met Bash and I was enveloped by the fuzzy feeling of the plaintive sweetness in his expression.
“I have an idea,” he said brightly and I sat up to look at him, my black tresses falling along my shoulders. I noticed his eyes travel toward my hair.
“What’s that?”
“We have a super soaker here. Can I draw you a bath?”
I nodded eagerly. There wasn’t a bathtub at the research container and given the battered state of my body, the idea almost gave me a sexual thrill.
“I would love that!” I told him. My answer seemed to please him immensely and he hurried out of the dorm.
“I’ll be right back,” he promised before disappearing. Slowly, I eased myself out of the bed, noting that my earlier dizziness had faded completely and I rose gingerly.
I’ve got this, I thought happily, hobbling toward the door cautiously. I can do this—
And then my legs gave out under my weight and I crashed unceremoniously to the floor.
“Oh!” Bash cried, running back into the room. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry,” I muttered, horribly embarrassed. “I thought I could do it. I mean, I was walking around earlier without a problem.”
“You were still working off nervous energy. Your body needs to recover, Sasha. You can’t push it after such an ordeal.”
I smiled and struggled to rise but Bash was on me protectively.
“I’ve got you.”
With shockingly strong arms, he scooped me up and carried me as if I was weightless into the bathroom.
The tub was still running, filling up with an insurmountable number of bubbles and the stone and chrome glistened against the dozen candles he’d lit. My breath was taken away by his consideration.
“You did all this?” I asked in awe and he ducked his head, nodding.
“It’s no big deal,” he demurred and I shook my head in disbelief.
“It is for me,” I replied quietly. “Thank you, Bash.”
He raised his eyes toward me and turned to leave but I called out to stop him.
“Do…do you think you could help me a bit?” I asked, wondering where I’d gotten the urge to ask such a bold thing of him. Instantly, he gazed at me, understanding lighting his eyes.
“Of course,” he mumbled, closing the door behind him. Slowly, he moved toward me and I let him unbutton the flannel pajama top which I knew now belonged to Harry. A spark of excitement flashed through me as the garment fell to the floor and Bash’s eyes trailed over my full breasts.
“Pants too?” he asked, his voice barely audible and I swallowed, nodding as his long fingers hooked into the waistband, lowering the pajamas with my lace panties to the floor.
I stood naked before him, relishing the heat in my body as Bash took my hand and led me to the bathtub which was almost full now.
“Keep your leg outside,” he instructed. “I don’t want the bandage to get wet.”
With his arm around my bare waist, I allowed him to drop me into the tub, his forearm flexing against my prickled skin.
Slowly, the water coursed around me, the temperature perfect and relaxing. Bash’s hands travelled up my slippery skin toward my hair, his fingertips twining through the matted strands.
“Can I wash your hair?” he asked but he was already reaching for the shampoo, pausing to turn off the water before he lathered the soap into my waves.
I sighed, savoring the feeling of his gentleness as he worked through my hair, a heady sensation overwhelming me when I watched him.
He seemed lost in concentration but I knew he had to be feeling the same heat in him as I was in me, particularly when his hands moved down my shoulders to massage my back.
“Lay back,” he instructed gruffly and my body immediately responded to his command, the tops of my breasts showing over the bubbles, my nipples rising over the waterline.
A loofa appeared in his hand and with even circles, he moved over my chest, tongue jutting out to seek out my crevices under the guise of bathing.
My hands slipped between my thighs, my eyes closing to half as I continued to study his face.
Lower went the loofa, over my flat stomach and toward the spot where my hands had found my pulsating clit.
My breaths began to escape in short, uneven rasps but I dared not move too quickly, lest I break the moment, the intensity in Bash’s gaze as his shirt sleeves dipped into the water to rub against my upper thighs.
My eyes closed fully now, a tooth almost puncturing a hole through my lower lip and I panted slightly, knowing I was going to bring myself to a climax while Bash watched.
One hand cupped my right breast, my other moving feverishly and a low moan escaped my mouth when the loofa met my center.
I quivered and allowed myself to release, cautiously opening my eyes to meet Bash’s intense stare.
“How’s that?” he asked and I laughed shakily.
“Amazing,” I replied.
He rose, his shirt drenched now and he stripped it off, displaying a washboard stomach I would have never guess he had.
“I’m going to get you a towel,” he said, moving out toward the hallway. I couldn’t do much more than nod, unsure if I was disappointed or relieved that it wasn’t going much further than that.
Or was it?
He returned a moment later and offered me a hand to rise, quickly entrenching me in a huge, fluffy and very warm towel when I did.
“This is luxury,” I mumbled, realizing that I was sleepy again. “Heated towels?”
“Only the best,” he chimed lightly and suddenly, I was back in his arms again, my damp skin against his.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, not because I was worried about falling but because I wanted to inhale him once before he placed me on the bed.
From somewhere, he’d located a fresh set of pajamas and he helped me get dressed, the lines of his fingers pausing subtly over my goose-fleshed skin.
“Let me brush your hair and I’ll tuck you in.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Had a man ever brushed my hair for me? Certainly not since I was a little girl.
He was as good as brushing my hair as he was at bathing me and I almost fell asleep against him as the bristles of the hairbrush massaged into my scalp.
“There,” he breathed into my ear, disentangling himself from behind me. “How’s that?”
I could only manage a weak grin but I was losing the struggle to keep my eyes open.
“Sleep now.” The blanket was pulled up around my chin and I felt the feathery breath of his lips against mine like a whisper in a dream.
Adre
naline pumped through me, overriding my tiredness and I opened my eyes to stare at him, the heat inside my loins ignited again.
Maybe we were going to finish what he’d started after all.
10
Sasha
I reached up to pull him closer but he had moved just out of reach before I had opened my eyes. Before he could register my intention, voices drew our attention toward the door and Bash seemed to jump back an entire foot.
“Well!” Stevie cried. “Sleeping beauty is awake!”
“She was just about to go to sleep,” Bash muttered almost angrily but Jim bypassed him as if he wasn’t there and plopped uninvited onto the foot of the bed.
“We can take over from here, Bash. We’ve come to entertain our fair lady.”
“Oh! You had a bath!” Stevie moaned, shooting Jim a wistful look. “I was going to offer to run you one.”
“You’re too late,” I quipped lightly, looking toward Bash but to my disappointment, he had disappeared, leaving me alone with the boisterous duo.
He’s overrun by the others, I thought. A shadow among them.
“I heard something about entertainment,” I said, turning my eyes on the men who grinned at me boyishly. “What have you got?”
My earlier tiredness, the hypnotic feel of the bath had all dissipated in the wake of the new arrivals.
“Well…” Stevie drawled, bouncing his butt on the bed. “We’ve got chess. Do you play chess?”
“Oh,” Jim groaned. “Not chess. Anything but chess.”
Stevie snorted and eyed him.
“Jim hasn’t quite figured out how to play,” he explained. “Too much brain work for him.”
“Hey!” Jim protested, looking hurt. “It’s just boring. I’d do something interesting!”
“She’s a scientist, Jim,” Stevie reminded him. “Which means she’s cerebral.”
Even I could see that Jim didn’t know what the word meant but I stopped the argument from escalating quickly.
“Jim’s right,” I replied. “There’s no point in two of us hunched over a board when there’s three of us here to play, right?”
Snow and the Seven Men: A Reverse Harem Fairy Tale Romance Page 5
