Edwina and the Seven Snowed-in Scientists (8 page)

mortified.

Embarrassed by her sudden arousal, she tried to lever herself out

of Kieran’s arms, but he refused to let go. The more she wriggled, the tighter he held her. Panic was starting to blur her thought processes when she realized just how vulnerable she really was in this situation.

Hell, she was at the ass-end of the world, in the middle of freaking nowhere, dependent on them for her very survival, and nobody knew

she was even alive.

It didn’t matter that she was actually attracted to the brothers.

“Please don’t,” she said quietly.

Both men reacted like they’d been punched. Kieran’s hold on her

released immediately, and Gary backed away a few steps.

“What the hell?” Jake asked as he came through the door. She

looked at him, feeling guilty for her overreaction but unable to hide her growing fears. Jake looked like he wanted to pull her into his

embrace, but instead he stepped away also.

Kieran’s voice had the chill of an Antarctic wind. “Edwina

believes we saved her, so we could use her as a sex slave. Isn’t that right, princess?”

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“N–No,” she managed to stutter unconvincingly. It didn’t help

that thoughts of being their sex slave for the next seven or eight

months were kind of enticing. She’d read books about women who’d

willingly become sex slaves and had often wondered if it was as

freeing as it seemed. Three men breathed deeply almost as if they

could smell her arousal. Oh crap. That would be really embarrassing.

She closed her eyes and concentrated until she finally located the

biting sarcasm she was well known for. She managed to firm up her

voice and turn to the man behind her. Not exactly an easy task

considering she was still tangled in a blanket.

“Bite me, asshole,” she managed to say with a good dose of

disdain. “My father would pay a much higher ransom if I was

completely undamaged, and you know it.”

“Ransom?” Gary asked, sounding like he had no idea what she

was talking about.
Yeah right…

“Oh, yes. We forgot to tell you that part,” Kieran said with a snarl

in his voice. “Edwina believes we are the ones responsible for the

helicopter crash and are just waiting for a big reward from her daddy.

He’s rich you know.”

Gary laughed, gave his brother a questioning look, and stepped

forward to help her into a sitting position. “Edwina, do you remember how you got back here?” She nodded warily. She knew what she

remembered. She just wasn’t sure what was delusion and what

wasn’t. “Do you remember how you felt? Did you feel safe?”

* * * *

Kieran’s heart was in his throat. He wanted to tell Edwina about

them, everything about him and his brothers, but a small part doubted that she would react the way they all hoped. It seemed almost beyond

imagination that four of the seven brothers had fallen so hard for this prickly, annoying woman already, but it was exactly what they’d

done.

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55

When their fathers had explained the way they would all feel a

connection to one woman, Kieran had literally laughed it off as

legend. Surely it was impossible for all seven brothers, so different in personalities and likes and dislikes, to all fall for the same woman.

Yet here they were. Kieran had absolutely no doubt that Simon, Evan,

and Brian would feel the same for Edwina as he, Jake, Calvin, and

Gary did as soon as they got a chance to know her.

When Edwina finally nodded that she’d felt safe when they’d

carried her back here, the tight grip around Kieran’s chest loosened just a bit.

“Do you remember why you felt safe?” Gary asked.

She looked like she was about to say something really sarcastic,

but at the last moment changed her mind and admitted, “I was

delusional, seeing things that weren’t actually there. I was just glad to feel warm again.”

“Is that all you remember?” Gary asked in a voice that had Kieran

wanting to answer. Jesus, when did his youngest brother get so

dominating?

“No,” she said honestly. She dropped her gaze to the ground and

looked really embarrassed for a moment. But then, of course, the

sassy, outspoken, pain-in-the-ass woman that he was more attracted to each moment finally lost her temper. “What the fuck do you want me

to say? That I wasn’t scared because I figured I was probably already dead? That I dreamed I was carried here by a bunch of abominable

snowmen?”

“We prefer yeti,” Jake chimed in. “Abominable snowman is kind

of insulting.”

She pushed herself onto her feet and began pacing back and forth.

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you prefer. I was delusional and not thinking clearly, and there is no such thing as abominable snowmen,

so I can’t insult something that doesn’t exist. It must’ve been you and your brothers carrying me back here because everyone else I know

probably thinks I’m dead.”

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It was quite an impressive speech for a woman who was

completely and utterly naked. She’d obviously forgotten her sans-

clothing status under the blanket as she poured out her frustrations. It was kind of easy to forget that this woman actually hated the cold. If she hadn’t crashed her helicopter, she’d likely be flying back to a

warmer climate at this very moment, and they probably would’ve

never met her.

As her words finally ran out, she shivered and glanced down at

her unclothed body. With a squawk of complete embarrassment, she

tried to pull the material more firmly into place, managing only to

drop it even further. Kieran felt his cock leap at the sight of her tightly beaded nipples. His yeti side definitely chose for her to be their mate.

Convincing her, however, was liable to be another matter entirely.

Jake helped her to lift the blanket higher, wrapped her tightly and

pulled her into his embrace. He sat on the edge of his bed and nodded to Kieran to show her their true form. “Show her,” Gary said by way

of agreement. Kieran nodded, but he couldn’t help hoping that Jake

had a tight enough hold on the woman to prevent her from kicking

him in the balls as he revealed their secret.

* * * *

Edwina felt safe here. Despite her little tantrum of a minute ago,

she truly felt no fear of these men. But she was stubborn enough not

to let them know. Trust once given was easily abused.

However, she still managed to deny any attraction for them even

as she snuggled into Jake’s embrace and waited for Kieran to show

her whatever they were waiting for him to show her. When he stood

and started peeling off his clothes, she watched his superb body

slowly revealed inch by glorious inch for probably a whole minute

before it occurred to her that maybe she should be a little worried.

What the hell could he show her that required him to be naked?

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57

When he finally lowered his thermal underwear and stood

magnificently nude, she tried really, really hard—and failed really, really badly—to keep her eyes away from his erection. She

unconsciously licked her lips, and Kieran groaned even as his eyes

took on a pleading look.

“Princess, please don’t look at me like that. I need to stay in

control.”

She bit her lip, wondering how her reaction would threaten his

control. He didn’t actually like her, but she supposed she was the only woman in several miles at the very least. Maybe she should rethink

the whole feeling safe thing.

But then every thought process stalled in her brain as the man in

front of her somehow grew white fur all over his body. His jaw

changed, his teeth became more pronounced, his forehead grew

broader, but his eyes…his eyes stayed the same, and she looked in

wonder at the abominable snowman who’d placed her in bed several

hours ago.

“It was real?” she asked, feeling way off balance. “Everything?

Six of you? You–you saved me from my–my boss when he tried to

sh–sh–shoot me?” Oh, crap, so much for independent female. She was

about to bawl like a five-year-old.

Kieran lowered to his knee in front of her and pressed a fur-

covered finger to her cheek to catch the first tear. She grabbed his

hand and held it to her face, overwhelmed with the emotions swirling

through her. Somebody really had tried to kill her, and if it weren’t for Kieran and Jake, exposure would’ve killed her long before her boss

arrived with a rifle to finish the job.

“I’m sorry,” she said on a quiet sob.

“It’s okay,” Jake said soothingly. He rubbed his hands up and

down her shoulders, and she continued to stare into Kieran’s familiar eyes. It had been so much easier to believe they were behind it all,

and it was only a ransom attempt, not someone trying to kill her.

She’d actually spent several minutes reasoning in her mind that the

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abominable snowmen had been created from a childhood memory of

a movie about yetis being decent folk. She’d convinced herself that it was only her mind creating protectors so that she could relax and not fight whatever fate had planned.

She hadn’t even considered the notion that what she’d seen was

actually real.

“Can you talk?” she asked the yeti kneeling before her.

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Chapter Five

Kieran shook his head, still amazed at how easily his woman

seemed to be accepting their unusual form. He’d deliberately stripped off here—despite the uncontrollable erection—just so she couldn’t

claim it was some kind of setup. But to see her accept him so readily did something to his primitive heart.

Even though instinct clawed at him to claim her, he retained

enough sense to understand that acceptance on her part was far from

love. If they were going to claim her as their mate, he wanted love to be part of their lives. Having grown up with five fathers, Kieran

understood how much work it took to keep everyone happy in their

type of matings. Communication was the key, and in this form, his

yeti form, words did not come easily.

He let the change happen but stayed on his knee as he watched

Edwina’s expression closely. She smiled and wriggled out of Jake’s

hold to fall into Kieran’s arms and press a soft kiss to the underside of his jaw. “I’m sorry,” she said again quietly.

He wrapped his arms around her gratefully, moving to a sitting

position and pulling her onto his lap. He’d never shown his true form to anyone other than his family and somehow had always believed it

would lead to rejection. Being accepted was a gift he’d never thought he’d receive.

He held her close for a while, but eventually the cold seeped into

his no longer furry butt, and he needed to move. She mewled quietly

when she thought he was going to put her down, but he climbed onto

the bed, sat up against the headboard, and pulled her in between his thighs, careful to keep her warm inside the blanket.

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Jake stepped forward, sat on the edge of the bed, and touched her

face reverently.

“What’s it like?” she asked them as she snuggled further into

Kieran’s embrace. “I mean, are you still you inside all that fur?”

Jake grinned that megawatt grin that usually had women dropping

at his feet. “For the most part, yes we are the same person. We

remember everything, retain our higher brain functions and can

usually function as a yeti as effectively as we do as a human.” He

leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Edwina’s lips. She opened her

mouth, moaning when he deepened the kiss. Kieran could feel his

cock pressing, hard and insistent, against Edwina’s blanket-covered ass.

She sighed as Jake pulled away. “The one small difference,” Jake

said as he seemed to assess Edwina’s expression for a moment, “is

that in yeti form our more primitive instincts are stronger.”

“Stronger how?” Edwina asked. She didn’t seem suspicious, just

curious. Kieran pulled her closer as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening here. Was this prickly, obnoxious, deliberately

offensive woman really accepting them?

“Stronger as in…” Jake said but trailed off.

Gary, who’d been watching the entire exchange with a look of

deep satisfaction on his face, stepped in to fill the conversational void.

“Stronger as in protect, claim, own.”

Edwina seemed shocked by his words, and she sat a little

straighter and glared at Gary. “Explain,” she said in a voice that

demanded an immediate answer.

Gary’s smile quirked slightly, and Kieran held their woman

tighter to prevent her from leaping up and kicking his brother in the balls. Then again, maybe Gary deserved it. He was being an ass by

describing it that way.

Jake went to say something, but Gary took a step closer,

essentially shoving him out of the way. “Simple, baby, you’re ours.

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We will protect you. We will claim you, and you will belong to us.

Only us.”

Edwina lay still in Kieran’s arms. He could smell her arousal even

as he wondered at it. She certainly didn’t seem to be the type to