“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 snuggle 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.