Snow White and the Seven Hunks editedbymegan .wps (2 page)

breasts and I was sure that was a big part of it, but the plain fact was that Brandy was a man magnet—or maybe like an incubus? She seemed to suck their intelligence when she walked by. They tended to forget what they were doing and where they were going. I’d lost count of the number of men I’d seen walk into walls or fall over something when she strolled past them.

The young man downstairs fell off the ladder.

I knew when I heard the crash that Brandy had struck again.

The other two had been equally mesmerized. The mishap wasn’t followed by

exclamations or male laughter and ribbing—because the other two were too enthralled to realize the third member had fallen.

Glenda dashed back to the railing. “Did you break anything?”

“I’m fine. I just slipped off the ladder.”

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“I meant equipment!” Glenda snapped. “That stuff’s expensive.”

“We’re just putting up the cables,” the young man responded, his voice equally

taut with annoyance.

Brandy preened, knowing the mishap was because they were watching her. I

struggled with the embarrassment I felt for the men, who were probably too shaken to feel it for themselves.

Apparently satisfied but still annoyed, Glenda turned and stalked down the upper hallway to the end and tapped on the door.

“What is it now?” a deep male voice growled from inside the room. We heard a

light, brisk tread and the door was snatched open. A grizzly bear filled the portal, his shaggy black hair a wild tangle, his dark brows almost meeting above the bridge of his aquiline nose, and his hard mouth a thin line of displeasure.

Surprise flickered across his face when he met Glenda in the doorway, but he

didn’t look a lot more pleased to discover it was Glenda.

I liked him better already if he disliked Glenda as much as I did.

“I brought the … women over for a wardrobe fitting.”

Interest flickered in his eyes. He pushed past Glenda and looked me and Brandy over. A faint frown creased his brows. “I thought you were getting a couple of college girls? These two look a little old.”

I felt my jaw go slack with surprise and dawning outrage. Brandy didn’t take

nearly as long to warm up as I did.

“Excuse you?” she demanded indignantly.

Glenda and the man I assumed was Gabe both glared at her.

“You two go in that room behind you and try on something from the wardrobe

while I talk to the director.”

Wondering who was going to win the battle of wills, I shrugged and opened the

door. My money was on Gabe and I was feeling better by the moment—until it occurred to me to wonder if Brandy and I were going to end up in jail.

Brandy stalked into the room behind me and slammed the door. “Can you believe

that bastard!” she snarled.

I shrugged. “He was surprised,” I said pointedly. “He was expecting college

girls.”

“I don’t look a day over twenty-five!” Brandy informed me in a challenging

voice.

She looked thirty-six to me, but then I knew she was and she had the maturity of a twenty-year-old. I supposed in that sense, she averaged to about twenty five and if I figured in her IQ …. I wasn’t about to point any of that out, however, when she was clearly spoiling for a fight. “Look at the good side—if he wins the argument, we don’t have to do this.”

The comment sucked some of the wind from Brandy’s sails. She settled to

thinking that over while I crossed the room to the rack of clothing and pulled a ‘costume’

out to examine it. Discovering it was nothing but a black thong, a pair of thigh high stockings, and a bra with most of the cup missing, I looked around for the rest of the outfit.

“Brandy?” I said uneasily when I’d searched half the rack and didn’t find

anything but lingerie.

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“Yes, but what happens to our deal with the bitch if he decides he doesn’t want us?” Brandy demanded, unwilling to be completely distracted from the fight she’d been building up to.

“Uh … I guess we’ll have to try to throw ourselves on her mercy and work it out some other way,” I said distractedly. “There’s nothing here but lingerie—and even half of that’s missing.”

“It’s a porn, stupid!” Brandy snapped. “Could you just focus?”

Resentment flickered through me, but I was too horrified by the wardrobe to feel it as I might have otherwise. “Yes, but ….
My god!
This stuff is indecent!”

“Really?”

She sounded intrigued. Joining me at the rack, she pulled first one and then

another out to study it, giggling and blushing with rising excitement. “My god! We can’t run around in this!”

She sounded a lot more enthusiastic about it than I was. I looked around for

another rack, certain this was just part of the wardrobe. I didn’t want my
sister
to see me in this stuff! I sure as hell couldn’t picture myself strolling around a house full of men in it.

Especially college jocks!

They’d laugh!

“Ohh! I like this one, Nicole. I’m going to try this on!”

I gaped at Brandy.

“You aren’t serious?” I asked, appalled.

She gave me a look and then preened. “She said try something on. I’ll bet when he sees me in this he’ll change his tune!”

God! I wished I had her conceit … uh … self-confidence! Then again, I

supposed if I looked like her I would have. “I think I’d rather do time.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Brandy snapped. “God! It’s just sex, Nicole! And if the guys I’ve already seen are anything to go by, it won’t be a hardship! When was the last time you got laid by anybody that looked that good?”

Never?

Actually, that wasn’t true. I had a penchant for ‘pretty’. If I couldn’t get pretty, I just did without. I’d done without
a lot
! “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “A year, maybe?”

“Right!”

I glared at her. Ok, so maybe I hadn’t been with anyone in quite a while that

looked that good, but as good looking as that guy Gabe was, he was also scary big and I doubted he was going to be one of the ‘hunks’. I hadn’t actually gotten much of a look at the three men downstairs. I had the impression that they were easy on the eyes, and well built, but I thought they probably weren’t on the menu either.

Brandy was busy shucking her clothes, I discovered. Turning my back on her, I

picked the outfit that seemed to have the most fabric and reluctantly shed my own clothes, glad I hadn’t listened to Brandy and gotten a hair cut. It might not look that great for someone my age to have hair as long as mine was, but I decided it was about to come in handy. I always wore it back so that it wasn’t in my way, but it fell nearly halfway down my buttocks and I was about to play Lady Godiva! Fuck Snow White!

Brandy squealed when the door abruptly opened. “We’re not ready yet!”

Gabe and Glenda came in anyway.

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I was in the process of pulling on the black thong that went with the corset I’d selected. I jackknifed upright and threw a wide-eyed, wary look toward the door, feeling my face begin to flash like a neon sign when I met Gabe’s gaze.

“Here, Nicole! Lace me up!” Brandy commanded, nudging me and thankfully

distracting me.

Trying to ignore the two standing at the door studying us, feeling a lot more

inclined to strangle Brandy than help her, I focused on tightening her laces. “That’s too loose,” she complained when I got to the bottom.

“That’s as tight as it goes!” I snapped.

“Oh! Well, they’ll have to get me a smaller one! This is downright baggy at the waist!”

Leaving her to preen, I turned my back to the two at the door, grabbed my own

corset and slipped the straps over my arms. When I wrapped it around my waist, I discovered the damned thing didn’t actually have a bra cup!

“Let me give you a hand with that.”

The deep male voice directly at my shoulder sent a jolt through me. I flicked a startled look up and behind my shoulder and discovered him looming over me. “I can get it!”

He hadn’t waited for an invitation, however. By the time I found my tongue, he’d grabbed the sides of the back and was working the hooks through the eyes. His touch almost seemed impersonal and I relaxed fractionally, telling myself it was no different than when I’d helped Brandy.

It was of course—to me—but I couldn’t tell he was getting worked up about it.

He turned me around by my shoulders to have a look when he’d finished, nudging

my chin with his index finger. “How old are you?”

My heart did a little two-step. “Thirty-six,” I lied after flicking a quick look at Brandy.

“She’s thirty-two,” the wicked witch immediately disputed. “Her sister’s thirty-six. I think we could tack ten on that, though, and people would go for it. You see what I mean, though? This could really broaden our viewers. We could pull in the cougars by billing them as forty something, the BDSM crowd with the playroom, and everybody else with the straight stuff. They look good enough, I think, to appeal to a wide age group—

and they’re both ordinary enough to get the realism you wanted—girl next door and that sort of thing. Nicole, here, will be perfect for the bondage. She’s a total submissive.”

I sent her an indignant look. Sure, I resembled that remark. I’d been a doormat most of my life, but, put that way, she made it sound as if I actually
enjoyed
being picked on!

Gabe studied me thoughtfully and reached to grasp the hair I’d very carefully

covered myself with, tossing it behind my back. I winced, but I hesitated to slap his hands.

I thought about it, but I didn’t do it.

“Turn around—half turn. Stop! Turn. Stop. Turn.” He transferred his attention to Brandy after a few moments, to my relief. “And they’re both willing?”

Not! I glanced at Brandy, waiting for her to assert ourselves, but discovered she was still smarting from the wicked witch’s comments and pouting.

“She looks more like a model or a starlet,” Gabe murmured.

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Brandy preened, turning to give him a good view of all of her angles. I glared at my toes.

“Pretty girl next door,” Glenda agreed. “But she plays the helpless blond bimbo so well it’s almost believable—will be to male viewers, I’m sure. They’ll go for that doe-eyed shit.”

Gabe almost seemed to shrug. “We agreed to go with the title
Snow White and
the Seven Hunks
, though. That’s what we’ve been advertising. I think we should just settle on one.”

My stomach went weightless with hopefulness.
Pick Brandy! Pick Brandy!

“I think Nicole would fit better all the way around.”

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

“So we’ll re-title it Snow White, Rose Red, and the Seven Hunks! Or Snow White, the ugly ducking, and the Seven Hunks—or we could divide it into two shows.

They’re into me deep. I’m not in favor of letting either one of them off the hook! Of course, if you’re just dead set against it, I could call the cops and have their asses hauled to jail, but it seems a waste when you weren’t happy with any of the giggly school girls I brought in and none of the aspiring actresses.”

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Gabe rubbed his neck, grimacing. “I’ll go back over the script,” he said finally,

“and make some adjustments.”

Script?

Brandy frowned. “I thought this was supposed to be a reality thing?”

“Real reality is boring,” Gabe said wryly. “The trick is to bring together a cast that has a potential for sparks and put them in situations that will generate those sparks.”

He might get more bang than he bargained for with Brandy, I thought wryly,

wondering if Glenda had mentioned that Brandy had a lit-tle problem with her temper.

“Before I commit to this, I’d like to see how they interact with the rest of the crew.” He studied me and Brandy thoughtfully for several moments. “Why don’t you two head on down to the kitchen and put together a luncheon for the cast?”

Relieved that the first order of business wasn’t posing for the cast, I turned around to collect my clothes.

“Nope!” Gabe said. “As you are.”

I turned to gape at him, blinking rapidly while I tried to think of an objection.

“Like this?” Brandy gasped, glancing at me when he gave her an irritated look.

Sick ‘em, Brandy!
I thought hopefully.

She shrugged. “Fine! Whatever!”

Well! It wasn’t ‘fine, whatever’ with me, damn it!

“We’re supposed to cook? In this?” I managed.

“Sandwiches.”

“Oh,” I said instead of telling him I didn’t want to make sandwiches in the getup I was wearing either.

With the reflection that they probably wouldn’t notice me if I shadowed Brandy, I followed her out.

“What do you suppose they have in the playroom?” Brandy asked with interest as

soon as we’d left the room.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know. BDSM stuff and I am
so
allergic to pain! She didn’t say anything about kinky, did she?”

Brandy snorted. “Anything that isn’t missionary is kinky to you!”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “And there’s something
wrong
with regular sex?” I demanded. “I’ve given head, I’ll have you to know!”

“Did you swallow?”

“Don’t be gross! We’re supposed to fix lunch!”

Brandy snickered. “Mayonnaise.”

“I’m going to puke if you keep that up.”

“That’ll turn them on!”

“I don’t want to turn them on, damn it!”