Brandy narrowed her eyes at me. “If you think you’re going to wiggle out of this and leave me to take the heat alone …!”
SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN HUNKS Kimberly Zant 12
“Why not? You’re the one that got us in trouble to start with!”
“You always blame me! You always have!”
“Because you’re always guilty, damn it! And you’re always getting me in to
something!”
“Now you sound like mom! You always were her favorite!”
“Give me a break! She called me Brandy more than she called me Nicole!”
“She was always throwing it up to me that you were the responsible one!”
“And look where that got me,” I muttered.
“You’re the one that put it in my head to start with!” Brandy said accusingly.
I gasped in outrage. “I did no such thing!”
“You said it sure would be nice to have money so we could start our own
company.”
I gave her a look. “Don’t even go there! I didn’t say it would be nice to
steal
money and take off to Vegas! I didn’t say, let’s take it! And I didn’t
go
to Vegas! If you were so damned sure I was OK with it, why didn’t you tell me you’d ‘borrowed’ it from the boss instead of lying and telling me you’d won the damned money on Lotto?”
“Because I knew you’d shit a brick! I thought I could win enough to pay it back and she’d never know the damned difference and we’d still have the money to start our own business!”
Not for one moment did I believe there would’ve been a ‘we’ in there anywhere if she’d actually managed to win at Vegas instead of losing every dime of the money that wasn’t spent to pay for her glorious vacation!
* * * *
Watching them on the hall cameras, Gabe grunted. “I’m not sure we’re going to
want this much fireworks on the show. That pair is like oil and water.”
Glenda shrugged. “They’re sisters. What do you expect?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have a sister.”
“They’re attractive enough, though, right?”
They sure as hell looked good enough to be porn stars to him—of course, the
‘stars’ part remained to be seen. They had the bodies for it, that was for sure. He had to admit he was intrigued by Nicole’s prudishness and her tendency—as Glenda had
pointed out—to be a submissive. That could be a definite asset with the age gap between her and some of the hunks. They wouldn’t be intimated by her appearance—maybe. Her sister, Brandy, was as different from her as night from day. Oil and water. It could be explosive but it definitely had potential. “Yes. They look good enough,” he agreed finally, “and still completely natural. I like that.”
“We could always give Nicole a hair cut and bleach her hair to the same shade of blond as her sister—call them twins.”
Gabe immediately felt his gut clench with reluctance. “Cut off all that beautiful hair? I don’t think so.”
He wasn’t particularly happy about the reaction of the guys working in the hall downstairs. All three of them froze like pointers the moment they saw the sisters. Not that he could blame them, he thought wryly. He’d felt pretty much the same way, but they were supposed to be fucking studs, not act like adolescences who’d never seen a woman before.
SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN HUNKS Kimberly Zant 13
He felt heat creep into his face when Daniel fell off the ladder.
“It doesn’t look like those three will have any problem getting it up for them,”
Glenda retorted dryly.
He wasn’t worried about them getting it up! They were going to
stay
hard with that pair prancing around the house next door to naked!
Basil missed the doorway and slammed into the doorframe when they passed him
on the way to the kitchen.
“Jesus!” he growled irritably.
“You know, this is some really good stuff,” Glenda said musingly.
“Really?” Gabe asked tightly. “I hadn’t planned it as a comedy. Our main
audience is going to be men and I doubt that’ll make them comfortable. They’ll be laughing their asses off at those goofballs!”
Glenda shrugged. “We can offer it as outtakes later—when we get ready to
market the series through the adult stores.”
Not until he’d had time to see what
he
looked like the first time he looked at them, Gabe thought grimly! He wasn’t selling any footage of him looking like a total jackass!
* * * *
“I don’t know where they rounded those guys up from, but they really are hunks.
Do you think they’re the ‘hunks’ from the movie?”
“They’re probably just the set-up crew.”
“Gabe said we were to make lunch for the cast. They’re the only guys I saw,”
Brandy said, sounding disappointed.
“Well, I don’t think they’d object if you offered them a piece of ass,” I said dryly.
“Are you insinuating something?” Brandy snapped. “Did you forget that
I
was blackmailed into doing this?”
Oh the urge to kill! If it wasn’t just like Brandy to conveniently forget that
I
was blackmailed into doing this because of her! I released an irritated huff. “You said you thought they were hunks.”
“That doesn’t mean I’d sleep with them!”
“I don’t think they had sleeping in mind,” I said, more than a little irritated at her hypocrisy. Brandy always talked like she was a lady, even though she didn’t think or act like one.
She preened. “That one that fell off the ladder is really cute—a little clumsy.”
“He was distracted,” I said pointedly, reminding her that he’d spied her boobs just before he missed that first step. “Poor guy. I hope he didn’t break anything.”
I set up a sandwich assembly line while Brandy explored the kitchen—
supposedly looking for something to go with the sandwiches although I knew better. It was Brandy’s MO—she was better at looking busy and doing nothing than anyone I
knew. While I dragged deli meat, condiments, and veggies out of the fridge, she searched. Finding a sharp knife and a cutting board, I sliced tomatoes and onions, and SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN HUNKS Kimberly Zant 14
then peeled leaves from the head of lettuce and washed them. By the time I’d lined up a row of bread slices and spread mayonnaise and mustard on them, she’d found a platter to stack the sandwiches on.
Smiling at me to make sure I’d noticed that she’d produced the most important
thing—something to display the sandwiches on—she returned to her search while I piled beef on a half a dozen slices of bread, topped them with lettuce, tomato, onion, and a second slice of bread. After a little thought, I sliced them in half, arranging them on the platter.
Brandy returned just as I’d finished and plopped a jar of pickles on the counter triumphantly.
“I don’t like pickles,” I said pointedly.
“Somebody might.”
I was halfway through putting together a half dozen turkey sandwiches when she
returned with a couple of bags of chips. “I’ll put these in a bowl. I saw one somewhere.”
Her timing was sheer perfection. She found the bowl and returned to empty the
bags of chips into it while I was finishing up the turkey sandwiches and arranging them on the platter.
She studied my efforts critically. “You think that’ll be enough?” she wondered out loud.
I did a mental count and decided she was probably right even though I was tired of making sandwiches. “I guess we’ll need at least another half dozen. Some of the guys are bound to want two sandwiches.”
“That’s what I was thinking. You go ahead and get started on them. I’ll take this to the table.”
I glared at her back as she minced out of the kitchen with the fucking platter of sandwiches I’d made, knowing she was going to take all the credit for my efforts!
Releasing an irritated huff when she disappeared, I laid out another row of bread slices, threw the beef and turkey back into the fridge and dragged out the ham. While I worked, I could hear the voices of the men as they entered the dining room, chuckles—Brandy’s softer voice, more chuckles.
She reappeared after a few minutes, moving briskly now. “You’d better make at
least six more or we won’t get anything,” she tossed at me as she grabbed the bowl of chips and marched out with them. She was gone long enough the second time that I was almost done with another half dozen sandwiches before she returned. Heading to the fridge, she pulled out a box of canned drinks. “Do you think you could get glasses and ice while I carry these in?”
I stopped what I was doing and gaped at her in outrage. “They’re cold already!” I said pointedly. “They can drink them from the cans!”
She glared at me for being ‘unhelpful’. “Fine! Don’t help!” Grabbing a plastic sleeve of disposable plates, she stalked from the kitchen again.
She was lucky she was my sister. I only thought about burying my knife in her
back for a few minutes before I discarded it as something I was unlikely to get away with. Too many witnesses.
She hadn’t returned by the time I finished the last of the sandwiches. Shrugging, I found a plate to hold them and, after a little thought, decided to fix myself a sandwich and eat in the kitchen. It would’ve been hard enough just being around that many SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN HUNKS Kimberly Zant 15
strangers with my boobs hanging out. I couldn’t face the thought of waltzing out while they were all sitting around the table. It smacked too much of a walk on to a stage for my nerves of spaghetti.
I discovered Brandy had taken
all
the damned drinks! There were several boxes, hot, in the pantry, though and after fixing myself a sandwich, I found a glass, filled it with ice and settled at the counter to eat, trying to ignore the knots in my stomach.
Chips would’ve been nice, I thought resentfully.
Gabe came into the kitchen looking for the last plate of sandwiches just about the time I managed to take a damned bite of my sandwich and I nearly choked on it.
“There’s plenty of room at the table,” he said after eyeing me for a long moment.
“I’m good,” I said in a slightly strangled voice when I’d managed to swallow my bite of sandwich.
“Let me put it another way—we all eat together.”
I felt my face heat with a combination of embarrassment and resentment. “No
problem,” I said unenthusiastically, waiting for him to grab the plate and leave.
He didn’t budge, and I could see his irritation mounting the longer we had the
staring contest. Caving in, I wrapped my sandwich in the paper towel I’d been using instead of a plate, grabbed my glass and headed toward him. He grabbed the plate of sandwiches from the counter and followed me. Catching up with me at the door, he opened it with his free hand and then settled that hand at the small of my back—I suppose just in case I tried to make a break for it.
Everyone stopped eating and talking and stared at me when he shoved me through
the kitchen door and into the dining room—just as I’d feared. Refusing to make eye contact, I spied the two empty chairs at one end and made for the only one that didn’t have a plate in front of it, trying to outrun the hand on my back. I wasn’t successful. He managed to maintain contact until I’d reached the chair.
His hand brushed my bare buttocks as he moved away at last, and I bolted
upright, staring at him wide-eyed and trying to decide if the brush was accidental or not.
He didn’t look at me and I finally concluded that it was accidental.
The seat of the chair was like ice when I dropped my ass onto it weakly and I
almost came up off of it again.
“Cold, huh?” Brandy asked with a smirk.
Fortunately we were in company—lots of it—and she was too far down the table
for me to smack that smirk off of her face. I sent her a tight smile, mentally tallying another mark against her. One of these days I was going to go postal and I wanted to be sure my dear sister was the first target in sight!
“Now that we’re all here …,” Gabe said, a faint edge to his voice, “I’m Gabriel, but you can call me Gabe. That’s Basil to your right. Continuing to your right, Daniel, David, Scott—Glenda you know—Shaun, and finally Hunter.”
Pasting a polite smile on my lips, I nodded to each one as he introduced them. I didn’t actually tabulate much from the introduction beyond vague impressions of each one—young, nice looking, clean cut—except for Gabe—and all of them built like they worked out at the same gym. Hunter looked like the classic beach boy—golden tan and sun bleached hair. Shaun had hair as black as Gabe’s and eyes as beautiful as his—as green as emeralds and set off with thick, long, curling black lashes. I suspected they might be related. Basil’s hair was dark, but not black, and he seemed a little more on the SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN HUNKS Kimberly Zant 16
slender side than the others. I didn’t get much more than a glimpse of Scott, David, or Daniel since they were further down the table on my side, but I thought it was the three I’d seen in the hallway when we arrived and then when we went into the kitchen.
Not that I’d done more than glance at them then.
I realized Gabe was looking at me expectantly. After searching my mind briefly, I realized he was waiting for me to introduce myself. “I’m Nicole,” I said in a crusty voice and then cleared my throat.
He continued to study me. I realized he was waiting for me to say something else and finally cast a smile around the table. “Nice to meet you all. I guess … uh … you’re the cast?”