Snow and the Seven Men: A Reverse Harem Fairy Tale Romance

by Casey, Nicole

  The couple exchanged a long look and I was instantly wary. What was that about?

  “Well hurry up,” Hunter muttered. “We’ve been looking for you for hours. You should have called.”

  “Like she said,” I snapped. “The phones were down.”

  “The phones are fine,” Hunter retorted and we glared at one another. I didn’t want to be left alone in the entrance with these two so I hurried back to find Sasha who was dressing into the only clothes she’d had with her—the ones she’d worn into the cabin. I could see the resignation on her face as she dressed, her lower lip quivering slightly.

  “Sasha,” Dan was saying. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

  She raised her head and stared at him and then around the room at all of us. I could see she was seriously considering his words and my heart leapt with hope. We could work something out if she decided to stay. We could—

  “You know there’s nothing I’d like more,” she told us in a hushed voice. Her eyes darted nervously toward the doorway as if she expected her team to be listening. Was she embarrassed? Did she regret what she’d done with us?

  She looked conflicted more than anything and I willed her to look at me but she seemed to be avoiding my eyes more than anyone else’s.

  We knew this was coming. We all knew. We couldn’t make a big production out of it now.

  But that was so much easier said than done. We loved her. She belonged with us. How could we let her go?

  “Hello?” Hunter yelled. “Can we get going?”

  “Is he always that obnoxious?” I snapped and Sasha smiled wryly.

  “Always,” she conceded. Slowly, she lifted her head and walked around the room, pausing to hug us one by one.

  “I’ll miss you,” she murmured. “I’ll send you an email.”

  The words were empty, stupid. There was nothing an email could say that would recapture what we had.

  “I’ll come and visit,” she promised when she got to me. “You’ll have to send me your itinerary and—”

  “Please don’t,” I mumbled, feeling a lump forming in my throat. “I know you’re trying to make this easier but…just please.”

  She nodded and sighed, drawing me toward her. Her lips brushed against the base of my ear and I exhaled in a tremor.

  “I love you,” she whispered and I knew she meant it. But what good did that do really?

  With a sickening feeling in my gut, I watched as Sasha picked up her knapsack and ambled toward the doorway, pausing to cast us one last look.

  “Thank you for everything,” she breathed before disappearing into the hallway. As if her departure had sucked the air completely out of the room, we all sank back, falling to our respective beds in shock.

  The front door closed with a bang and I heard the sound that had initially caught my attention: the snowmobile starting.

  And just as quickly as she’d come into our lives, Sasha had gone, taking a piece of us with her just as Collette had before.

  The dream had died and as I looked at my friends, I could tell they were thinking the same thing as me.

  There would not be any recovering from this.

  At least I knew there wouldn’t be for me.

  18

  Sasha

  Everything about the research unit made my skin crawl. There didn’t seem to be a single place I could feast my eyes which didn’t make my stomach flip with contempt. Hunter, Queenie, the bed, the mere air I was breathing. I’d been back an hour and I wanted to run screaming from the place and back into the arms of my saviors but somehow, I managed to keep my composure.

  I deserved a damned medal for it, in my opinion.

  “You better call your mother,” Queenie barked at me. “She was going to call the police even though I told her you were probably—”

  “Fine,” I replied in a clipped tone. I didn’t want to hear her take on how I’d run off to give her a hard time. “Thanks.”

  I grabbed my laptop and set up a Skype call to my mom who answered on the first ring. Her eyes were red rimmed and she burst into tears the second she saw me.

  “Oh thank Jesus!” she screamed. “ALEX! Alex, it’s Sasha!”

  Instantly, my bestie appeared at her side and I could see that she looked as distraught as my mom.

  Oh Jesus. It was worse than I thought.

  “I’m fine,” I assured them. “I’m sorry you were so worried—”

  “WORRIED?” Mom howled. I winced at the feedback and shook my head. I had a headache and her screeching wasn’t making things any better.

  “Worried is an understatement,” Alex offered, resting a hand on my mother’s shoulder. Even through the grainy feed, I could see Mom was shaking with relief.

  “Look, I’m alive, see?” I tried to joke. “It was a freak turn of weather. I got stranded and—”

  “Where? Were you in a cave? Did you go to the hospital? How did you survive?” The questions were live a spray of gunfire on my already assaulted body and I held up a hand.

  “If you’d let me finish, I’ll tell you,” I said, trying to keep my patience. Mom glared at me balefully.

  “Tell me what happened,” she insisted. Through the webcam, I caught Alex’s eye and I could read the deep concern in her face.

  How much could I really tell them?

  “I went out to collect samples,” I explained. “And I—"

  “Alone?” Alex and my mom demanded in unison and I paused, thinking about how easily Hunter and Queenie had let me go.

  “Yes,” I answered, reluctant to get into the details.

  “Are you supposed to do that?” Alex asked.

  “That was foolish!” Mom snapped at the same time and I rolled my eyes. I doubted I was going to make it through the conversation with my sanity intact.

  “Do you two want to know what happened or are you just going to pepper me with questions?”

  They clamped their mouths shut and waited for me to continue.

  “Anyway, I was out longer than I expected and then I got lost,” I rushed on, wondering how much I should tell them. Obviously the orgy with the seven men who had rescued me was out of the question but what else should I leave out?

  “Spill it, Sash,” Alex growled at me and I realized I’d fallen silent for too long.

  “Spill what?” I asked innocently but they continued to glare at me. They could tell I was hiding something. I knew I’d better fess up to something before their minds started making up their own stories.

  “I fell into a bear trap,” I sighed. “And I found a cabin where I was lucky enough to wait out the storm with some contract drillers.”

  “Wait what?” Alex cried.

  “A bear trap!” Mom choked. “Are you hurt? Do you have an infection?”

  “No, no. These men were amazing.” I felt my heart catch in my throat as I thought about them. “I was really, really lucky.”

  Don’t you dare get all emotional in front of these two, I warned myself.

  “There was a medic and he took care of me,” I offered weakly, realizing their eyes were pinned on me.

  “They were ALL men?” Alex asked, her eyes widening and I groaned inwardly. It didn’t matter how I spun this, they were going to be freaked out. Not that I could really blame them.

  “I was lucky,” I insisted again. “If I hadn’t found their cabin…”

  I shuddered to think about what could have happened. I surely wouldn’t be sitting there talking to them, that much was a certainty.

  “There’s no serious damage to my leg.”

  “How can you be sure?” Mom wanted to know. “You need to go to a hospital. Is there a hospital there? Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have let you go!”

  She was moaning as if she’d had a say in my decision to go and I stifled a sigh.

  “Who the hell puts out bear traps in Iceland?” Alex mused aloud. Before I could stop myself, I muttered, “Jimmy does.”

  A pang of melancholic affection sliced through me b
ut somehow I managed to keep it together.

  “Who’s Jimmy?” Something in my voice had piqued her attention and I blushed, knowing that I was saying too much.

  “One of the drillers. Listen, I’m exhausted,” I said. “I don’t mean to blow you off but I’m really behind at work now and I—”

  “Hang on there, Sash,” Alex interrupted, leaning into the camera. “Are you staying there?”

  The disbelief in her voice was almost palpable.

  “No! You’re coming home!” Mom screamed so loudly, I was shocked Queenie and Hunter didn’t come running inside to see who was being murdered.

  “I’m not coming home. I have less than three weeks here and I have a job to do.” I was trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. “Of course I’m staying!”

  Not to mention that my men are here and I’m not ready to leave them…not yet.

  I had no idea if I’d see them again before I left but I also relished in the idea that they were so near. I mean, I could easily go to them—if I wanted to reopen Pandora’s box. I moved the idea out of my mind temporarily.

  “Sasha, you’re hurt. You need medical attention!”

  “No I am fine, really…” So much for keeping my cool. I inhaled and closed my eyes, counting to ten.

  “I need you two to stop worrying now,” I pleaded. Knowing that they were on edge wasn’t making me feel any better and I couldn’t afford any more ill feelings. I already felt like I was bursting at the seams.

  “Sash, I’m going to dig into Mirror, Mirror. This is unsafe work condition. Maybe there’s a story—” Alex started to say, her journalistic intuition clinging for something to do to feel helpful while I was so far away.

  “Please,” I begged, my will to fight evaporating all together. “Please, don’t. This is the company I work for. We’re trying to save the environment, Alex. Doing a story like this only sets our progress back.”

  Alex’s mouth tightened but to my relief, she nodded.

  “Okay.”

  “Seriously, I’ll chat with you both tomorrow, okay? I just need to get organized here.”

  Begrudgingly, they let me off the call but as soon as I disconnected, I missed them. Even if I’d decided to stay with my boys, I would have never been able to stay away from Mom and Alex.

  What emotional mess had I gotten myself into?

  I took a second to collect myself before bringing my laptop back out to the lab area and when I stepped out of the bedroom, I grimaced in disgust. Queenie and Hunter had their heads together and were whispering stupidly at each other. There was a twisted sexual tension in the air, which I hadn’t noticed until that moment.

  I guess I know what they were doing while I was gone—having the worst sex imaginable.

  A shiver of humiliation slid down my spine as I thought about the time I’d wasted pining after Hunter and the awful five minutes we’d had together. Looking at him now, I was disgusted that I’d ever let him touch me. He wasn’t a man—he was a silly little boy with self-esteem issues. I could see that now with blinding clarity. Him and Queenie deserved one another. On some level I was happy that he wouldn’t be acting like a kicked puppy now that I was back but it didn’t dampen my repulsion for the situation between them.

  “Are you ready to get back to work?” My supervisor asked, barely pulling away from Hunter as she stared at me. She wasn’t quite barking but it was close enough.

  “I’m doing fine, thanks,” I retorted, flopping down at my desk. “And thanks for coming with me to collect the samples.”

  There was an almost ominous silence that followed my jibe and I had to look over my shoulder to see if they were still there because it had gotten so quiet.

  “Well I don’t suppose it would have done any good to have two of us lost in the snow, would it?” Queenie retorted sharply and I raised my eyebrow dubiously.

  “Really?” I snapped. “That’s your excuse?”

  “It’s not an excuse!” she whiplashed at me. “You’re the only one I know who could get lost on such an easy path!”

  Her voice was screechy and I wondered why she was acting so strangely.

  Then I realized what she was worried about—she was afraid that her bosses would find out what happened.

  She didn’t call it in to Mirror, Mirror!

  The thought was appalling. Did she sincerely think I’d just run off to hide or did she care so little about me that she was just waiting to see if I was dead before calling in a missing teammate?

  A part of me wanted to savor the threat that I was telling by dangling it over her head but at the end of the day, I wasn’t as big an asshole as she was—even though I wished I could be.

  Still, I didn’t say anything to ease her conscience.

  I turned my attention back to work and sighed when I realized how damaged the samples I’d taken were. It was my own fault for having left them in the bag for so long but I hadn’t been thinking about work when I’d been gone, not for one minute.

  No, I’d been living in a fantasy with men who adored me and bent to my every whim and desire.

  And now I had nothing but shitty samples.

  “Where are you going?” Hunter demanded when I rose from my desk and headed toward my parka.

  I turned and smirked at him before slipping on my jacket.

  “I need more samples,” I replied. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  He grunted and rose to follow me as Queenie gave us both a scathing look but I only smiled sweetly.

  Screw both of you, I thought.

  19

  Graham

  I didn’t even try to sleep. How could I? My heart was thudding like a bass line in my ears as everyone else was off in dreamland.

  How could they do out so easily? How could they just fall asleep as if Sasha hadn’t been here last night, tantalizing us with her mere nearness?

  Bash had made dinner that night and I could still feel it rumbling around in my gut like a stone. How had we eaten like that before Sasha?

  I couldn’t get her out of my head. Was she okay with that wretched duo we’d let her leave with? Why hadn’t she called or at least emailed? Hadn’t she promised to do that?

  I knew I was overthinking everything, that she’d only been gone a few hours but if this is what it was going to be like, things weren’t apt to get better, were they? I loathed the endless questions, which seemed to snowball in my head but there was no easy way to stop them.

  I rose from my bed and looked around the dorm for any signs of life but everyone was done for the night. It felt empty in the room, like the oxygen had been sucked away.

  There was one empty bed—Dan’s, and I felt a smidgen of hope. Maybe I wasn’t alone in my desolation after all. Maybe he was off thinking about her too.

  I hurried out of the dorm, plotting my spiel to Dan but when I found him, he was hunched over his desk, his face twisted in a scowl.

  He’s not pining over Sasha. He’s working!

  That shouldn’t have surprised me. He was always working but it seemed to me that he should have been more affected by Sasha’s departure than he was.

  “Hey,” I said, sauntering into the room. “How’s it going?”

  He didn’t even bother to meet my eyes.

  “I’m a little busy right now, Graham. Can this wait?”

  I bristled defensively. No, it couldn’t wait.

  “Not really,” I muttered, flopping onto an oxblood chair, facing him but he didn’t look up from his paperwork. “Don’t you miss her?”

  I finally elicited a reaction from him but it wasn’t the only I’d wanted. If anything, he seemed more agitated by my question.

  “Can we not do this right now? I’m up to my ears in financials.” I could tell he was trying not to snap but I didn’t want to wait. I needed to get this out and unfortunately for him, he was the only one awake to hear it.

  “Dan, we let her in, we promised to protect her and we sent her away with those people—”

/>   “Those people are her team. She came to Iceland with ‘those people’. She left on her own accord. Stop asking like she was kidnapped by the evil queen.”

  I gaped at him but I realized that was exactly how I felt—like she’d been taken against her will.

  “But you could see she didn’t want to go!” I exploded. “It was plain as day!”

  Dan sighed heavily and tossed his pen onto the mound of documents before him, sinking back into his chair. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully before he spoke.

  “I like Sasha,” he told me reasonably. “A lot. Probably too much for the situation.”

  I felt a surge of excitement.

  “So you agree then? We need to get her back.”

  “No,” he countered. “I think she’s a grown woman who can make her own decisions and she decided to go back to work. The same way I did. She knew that the time we had together was amazing and a lot of fun but it’s time to get back to reality now.”

  He looked at me meaningfully but I didn’t move.

  “Dan…” I inhaled, determined not to lose my temper. “Didn’t she mean anything to you?”

  His eyes narrowed and he frowned at me.

  “Graham, she means a lot to all of us but we knew from the start that she wasn’t going to stay. You can’t fall into a pit of despair over this. Shit, I should have known you were going to do this!”

  I tensed, my jaw locking.

  “I’m not doing anything,” I mumbled, rising from the desk. “I was just thinking that maybe we were all on the same page.”

  He studied me pensively.

  “Graham…”

  “Never mind,” I snapped, whirling to leave. “Clearly she was just a pastime for you guys.”

  “Graham!”

  I paused in the doorway and turned to him, my eyes flashing.

  “What?”

  “Don’t do anything stupid. She’s not a damsel in distress who needs rescuing. We made it clear that she’s welcome here and she knows where to find us. You need to accept that she’s not coming back.”

  “You’ve accepted that without issue,” I spat.