Edwina and the Seven Snowed-in Scientists (10 page)

“No,” she said, needing to reassure him quickly. “That was

incredible.” It was almost like all of her bones had melted. She felt calm and peaceful and stress-free and complete in a way she couldn’t

quite describe. It was almost a feeling of coming home. She closed

her eyes against that disturbing thought. She wasn’t home. This was a fun diversion, a reaffirmation of life after going so close to dying. It was just sex.

“I need a shower.”

* * * *

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Kieran felt something change, but for the life of him couldn’t

explain it. He’d been feeling completely mellow, and more than a

little triumphant, but then Edwina seemed to pull away from them

again. Not physically of course, she had nowhere to go with him

pressing her to the mattress, but he sensed an emotional withdrawal

that he couldn’t quite explain.

“Sure,” Jake said, sounding just as confused as Kieran felt. “I’ll

show you where the shower is. Kieran, could you find some clothes

for Edwina? The others will be back for the evening meal soon, and I

think our woman would be more comfortable greeting them with

clothes on.”

“Damn straight. And I’m not your woman,” Edwina said,

sounding like the cranky woman they’d traipsed through the snow

with, not the woman who’d just let them both make love to her.

“I don’t know,” Kieran said, unable to control his mouth in the

face of her obvious withdrawal. “Maybe we should just keep you

naked. That way we won’t waste time with clothing anytime we want

to fuck you.” He saw her eyes darken with passion, but her mouth

drew into a frown a moment before she dismissed him with a look and

turned to Jake.

“Shower?” she said as if reminding a forgetful child.

“Oh, sure,” Jake said uncertainly.

Kieran watched the pair leave the room. His alter ego demanded

that he go after her, growled at him to claim her, urged him to bind

her to him, but a small kernel of sanity held him back. He knew the

claiming would irrevocably bind her to him and his brothers, but it wouldn’t make her love them. If anything it would probably make

them all unhappy. They needed her to come to them willingly, or they

all risked being completely miserable.

Edwina and the Seven Snowed-in Scientists

69

Chapter Six

“Any news on your brothers, Cal?”

Edwina’s boss, Peterson, was conveniently off-base, so Calvin

couldn’t even try and track the one clue they had as to why someone

would want Edwina dead. To top it off Calvin was having a hard time

accepting all the condolences. Even if they’d planned to tell everyone Kieran and Jake had survived, Calvin would’ve had to wait sufficient

time for Jake and Kieran to make the trek in human time to the

research shack before he could announce the miracle. But since they’d decided against telling anyone, Calvin got to sit here on his ass

listening to the empty condolences from people who barely knew him

or his brothers.

“No. No news yet. They found the crashed helicopter but no sign

of my brothers or the pilot.” The woman who’d asked nodded once

and turned away. That was the other annoying thing. Nobody seemed

concerned that Edwina was missing also. Granted, she hadn’t been the

friendliest of people, but surely compassion for another human being

should’ve been automatic. He glanced around the dining room and

realized that he was probably being too harsh. He barely knew most

of the scientists here, and if one of them had gone missing, he

would’ve been saddened, maybe even shocked, but that wouldn’t

necessarily leave him grieving.

No, it was his feelings for Edwina that were skewing his

perspective and making his balls ache. After carrying her part way

back to the Kendall research shack, he hadn’t been able to forget her sweet scent or her absolute trust. She’d recognized him, even in his

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yeti form, and he could barely wait to get back to the shack to claim her.

Yet at the moment, he had no choice but to sit here and play the

worried brother, even though he knew the three of them were safe.

“Cal,” Leonard said as he approached him. “I have Edwina’s

father on the telephone. Could you talk to him, maybe explain to him

how unlikely it is that she could survive this long without equipment or provisions. You’ve been here longer than most of us, and well,

maybe he’ll listen because your brothers are missing, too.”

“Fine,” he said, feeling resigned. Leonard’s points were all valid

ones, but Calvin didn’t miss the relief that flitted over the man’s

features. Calvin didn’t really want to talk to Edwina’s father. They still didn’t know who had tried to kill her, and until they knew

something, it wasn’t wise to let anyone know she’d survived. Calvin

followed Leonard back to the main telephone line and frowned when

the man stood beside him, waiting to hear Calvin’s side of the

conversation. “Hello,” he said into the surprisingly clear line.

“Who’s this?” a gruff voice demanded.

“Sir, my name is Calvin Kodi. My brothers Kieran and Jake were

in the helicopter with Edwina when it went down.”

“The last fellow told me they survived the landing. That they’d

walked away from the wreck. My daughter knows never to walk away

from the wreck. She knows that like she knows her own name. Why

the hell would she wander away?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t know,” Calvin said quietly, wishing he

could tell this man what he actually knew. Edwina’s father sounded

desperate for news of his daughter, and he was either a damn good

actor or exactly as he seemed—a father worried for his child. “Are

your brothers experienced? Do they know the Antarctic well? Is there

a chance they could get her to safety?”

“Mr. Callahan,” Calvin said slowly, wondering how to phrase it so

that Edwina’s father would hold on to hope but without accidentally

giving away what he knew to Leonard listening beside him. They had

Edwina and the Seven Snowed-in Scientists

71

no idea who to trust in this situation, and until they did, he had to be very careful. “My brothers are very experienced working in extreme

cold. If anyone could get her to safety, it would be them. But, sir, the longer it takes to hear something the less likely it is that they made it to shelter.”

“But there is a chance.”

“Yes, sir, a slim chance.”

Calvin exchanged a few more words with Edwina’s father and

then finally replaced the telephone on its receiver.

“Do you believe that?” Leonard asked. “Or did you just give the

guy false hope?”

“Probably false hope,” Calvin conceded. It they’d been ordinary

humans, their chances of survival at this point would’ve been very

slim at best. He rubbed his hand against his forehead and wondered

what the hell to do now. How long was it appropriate for him to sit

around the Mawson base waiting for news he knew wasn’t coming?

“I’m going to head out to the Kendall shack,” he said to Leonard. “I

feel like I need to be with the rest of my brothers.”

Leonard nodded sagely, but then a look of panic crossed his

features. “What if Mr. Callahan calls again? What do I tell him?”

“Give me his number,” Calvin said. “I’ll try to call him from the

research shack when I get there.” Leonard nodded enthusiastically, grabbed a piece of paper, and scribbled Edwina’s father’s number.

Obviously, Leonard was keen to let someone else deal with awkward

phone calls.

Calvin should probably hang around a little longer and see if he

could identify who had tried to hurt Edwina and his brothers, but he couldn’t shake the need to be close to the woman. He headed back to

his accommodations, packed his supplies, and filed the necessary

paperwork before leaving the base. In human form, with skis, snow

poles and dragging a sled, Calvin left the Mawson base and began the

long, lonely trek toward Kendall shack.

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* * * *

Jake tried not to snicker when his brothers Brian, Simon, and

Evan entered the room. Almost as one they breathed deeply,

obviously noticing his and Kieran’s scent clung to Edwina. Even after a shower Edwina wouldn’t be able to hide from any of them. They

would always be able to tell who she’d had sex with.

Gary looked very satisfied, and Kieran spent a brief moment

wondering why Gary would be so happy when the last words he’d

heard from Edwina had been said in anger. It didn’t stop Gary from

pulling a grumpy Edwina into his embrace, pressing a kiss to the top

of her head, and maneuvering her so that she sat on his lap as they ate.

Surprisingly, she cuddled into his warmth.

“Calvin’s on his way here,” Brian told Jake between mouthfuls.

“With the rescue helicopters still out, he’s decided to stay in human form, so it’s going to take a few days for him to get here.”

“Will he be okay by himself?” Edwina said out loud, but then

looked around in embarrassment. She rolled her eyes at their

incredulous looks. “Fine, okay, got it. Big, hairy yetis don’t get lost in the snow.” Gary chuckled and pulled her closer, but she resisted his move and elbowed him in the stomach instead. Jake watched in

amazement as Gary pressed a kiss to Edwina’s mouth, to stop

whatever words she was about to hurl at him, and then moved her

onto the chair beside him. He continued talking to his brothers as if nothing had happened.

Evan seemed quite pleased to have Edwina beside him and

immediately started a conversation. Meals with his brothers were

usually filled with science talk, so he wasn’t surprised when Evan and Edwina’s discussion turned to the three-year experiment they planned

to start this winter.

“What will studying the layers of ice tell you?”

“Basically,” Evan said, obviously pleased that Edwina seemed

interested in their scientific studies, “we’re trying to determine how
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73

much climate change is due to the human presence on this planet and

how much is natural progression in the Earth’s evolution.”

“So you’re trying to prove global warming is true?”

“Not necessarily,” Simon added to the conversation. “We’re

trying to determine how much of the changes to the climate are man-

made. It may be a very small amount, or it may be more significant,

but until we understand the impact humans have, we can’t really

know how to reverse it.”

“If we can reverse it at all. Humans may be having very little

impact,” Evan added. “After all, humans didn’t have anything to do

with the ice age that killed off the dinosaurs.”

Edwina smiled and agreed with that, and Jake felt his cock press

hard against his jeans yet again. He’d been in a nearly constant state of arousal around Edwina from the moment they’d met, and it seemed

with his brothers getting along so well with their chosen mate, he

wouldn’t be getting over his attraction to Edwina any time soon.

“So…um…where do you guys come from? I mean, are you native

to Antarctica?”

Jake’s younger brothers laughed, but it was Kieran who answered

her question. “No, princess, our family lives in North Slope, Alaska.”

“Sounds cold,” she said with a grimace.

“Cold enough,” Kieran said through a tight jaw. It seemed

Edwina’s aversion to the cold really bothered him.

“You’ll like our home, Edwina,” Brian said, obviously missing

the tension coming off Kieran. “Our family is going to love you.”

“Family?” she said, looking completely bewildered. “Sorry, sugar,

when I get through winter in this ice box, I intend to never, ever see snow again. I’m not even going to visit my father’s cattle ranch unless it’s summer and blazing hot.”

Brian, Evan and Simon gave Kieran startled looks and seemed to

be waiting for an explanation. Jake knew what they were thinking.

Why would Edwina have sex with two of their brothers if she wasn’t

planning to mate with them all? Apart from the fact that neither Jake
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nor Kieran had explained yeti mating to her in any great detail,

Edwina’s emotional withdrawal after their sexual encounter had left them both confused and reeling. Jake wasn’t even certain where to go

from here.

And Kieran looked upset enough to want to take the woman over

his knee.

“When are you planning to head out to collect the next sample?”

Gary asked, changing the subject with the subtlety of a

sledgehammer.

Evan seemed confused by the unexpected question but managed

to check his watch. “With all the rescue helicopters still in the air we’re going to have to go in human form, so it’ll take longer than

we’d hoped.” He looked at Simon and nodded in agreement to some

unspoken plan. “We’ll get some sleep and head out in about six

hours.”

“Okay,” Gary said, clearly taking charge of ending the

uncomfortable dinner, “we’ll see you in a week or so.” Evan and

Simon almost looked relieved as they nodded their agreement and left

the cabin quickly. Kieran was fairly certain neither of them had

bothered to do more than drag on their thick coats before stepping