Harper's Little Spitfire (Harper's Series) (28 page)

She curled into Logan’s side and watched Caleb’s naked ass heading into the bathroom. She heard the shower turn on. Her eyes started to close; her body completely relaxed as Zeb moved behind her on the bed.

Lifting her leg as Zeb pushed his between hers, his arm lying over her hip, she lay in Logan’s embrace. This was heaven; this was what she had waited for, and now that she was here in this moment, she didn’t want to let it or the feeling go.

Sage didn’t want the night to end. She would happily relive it over and over again. Closing her eyes, she curled further into Logan’s warmth. Zeb slid closer to her, encasing her in their strength and heat.

This was the best night of her life, and she refused to dwell on the possibility of it being a one-night thing. Of course, she would be upset if it never happened again, but she refused to think about it. She would remember this night for the rest of her life; the way they all caressed her body; the pleasure they gave her; everything was treasured. Taking a deep breath, trying to conceal her threatening tears, she finally drifted off to sleep with dreams of the three of them pleasing her body for many more hours into the night.

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C
aleb walked back out of the bathroom after having his shower. As he stood drying himself, all he wanted was to stay buried in Sage and never leave. He never thought it would be this way with her. Yes, they had all done their fair share of sharing women, but it was different with her. His dick controlled every other time, and his heart was never involved, till now.

Wrapping the towel around his body, Caleb’s eyes went straight to the bed. Sage lay curled up facing Logan, while Zeb curled his body from behind her. His heart clenched at the image in front of him. It wasn’t someone he didn’t know on that bed with her; they were his brothers. They had done this several times, but not with Sage.

He wanted her to himself; he was greedy with the fact he wanted her for him alone. Sharing Sage with his brothers did not sit comfortably. Pushing the anger aside, he walked over to the dresser, removed a pair of sweat pants and pulled them on. He was possessive of her. They all were. Yet he was sure his possessiveness and feelings were stronger. However, it felt more with him than the rest of them; well, he assumed it was for him.

He didn’t mind sharing women with his brothers, and to be honest, they had all known it was going to happen eventually between them all with Sage. Damn, he’d agreed to it, but something deep inside of him wanted her alone, with no one else added to the mix. The feeling was alien to him.

Shaking his head, he walked out of the room and into the kitchen, needing to remove himself from the room while two of his brothers lay with Sage snuggled between them. Opening the fridge, he pulled out a beer, unscrewed the top and took a swig. The liquid slid down his throat, cooling him and temporarily soothing his anger. Moving towards the front door, he opened it and slipped outside. Reaching for the handle before it slammed shut, Caleb quietly pulled it closed behind him and shifted towards the rail.

The rain had continued to fall and lightning flashed across the paddock, lighting everything up, before a boom of thunder shook the cabin. He loved storms, but this was one of the worst ones they’d had. Minutes went by before another flash of lightning illuminated the night sky. In the bright flash, Caleb noticed several of the trees had come down from the force of the wind. He hoped the fence line was sturdy enough to withhold the force of the storm as it continued to rip through.

The creaking of the wood on the outer part of the cabin groaned as the wind pushed against it. The rail began to sway; leaves and branches fell upon the veranda as the rain came closer to the door.

A loud thud echoed above him. Looking up, he hoped it was only a branch that had fallen onto the roof and not through it. Opening the door again, he barely pulled it closed from the howling wind trying to keep it open. Walking towards the laundry hamper, he removed his sweats and replaced them with his jeans. Tugging a shirt on, he reached for his Driza-Bone coat. Moving towards the door again and zipping up his coat, someone spoke behind him.

“Where are you going?”

Turning around, Zeb stood in a pair of boxer shorts.

“Something hit the roof. I was going to check it out and then around the cabin. Several of the trees are down from what I could see. Plus I wanted to make sure the cattle were still in the holding yards,” he mumbled, edging towards the door.

“I thought I heard something. Let me get changed real quick and I’ll come with you.”

“No, you stay here with Sage. It won’t take me long to check things out,” Caleb rushed out quickly. He just wanted to be alone. Turning away from his brother, Caleb began to open the front door.

“Are you insane? No one goes out in weather like this alone. You have no idea what will happen once you are out there. And Sage is fine here while we check it out,” he growled, shaking his head.

“Fine. Hurry up, though.” Caleb wasn’t going to argue with his brother over this. He knew he shouldn’t be going out there alone in weather like this. It was better to have backup.

Zeb turned around and headed back towards the bedroom. Caleb stepped outside and waited for him to return so they could leave.

Moments later, the door opened and out walked not only Zeb but Logan as well, both fully dressed.

He was about to say something to Zeb, when Logan spoke, “He didn’t wake me. I saw you leave and was going to come out here anyway. Whatever fell on the roof didn’t penetrate it. We’d know by now if it did.” Logan pulled on his coat.

“We need to check around the cabin first, then move outwards. The cabin and cattle are the main areas to worry about first.” Both nodding towards him, Caleb stepped down the several steps and began heading around the left side of the cabin with his brothers following closely behind.

Once they rounded the side, thunder cracked through the sky, shaking the ground they walked on. Turning to face his brothers, Caleb yelled out over the wind, “I think one of you need to go back inside and be there in case spitfire wakes up.”

“She’ll be fine. We aren’t going to be out here that long, plus she sleeps like the dead. I doubt this storm would even wake her up,” Zeb yelled back.

Holding onto the side of the cabin as he made his way around, nothing seemed amiss with the cabin. Nothing was damaged or protruding. Wood panels were still in place, the windows intact too. As Caleb lifted his right foot to step, his left slipped out from under him and he began to fall, but he was swiftly caught from behind. Gripping the side of the cabin, he turned his head and nodded toward Logan who had caught him and righted himself.

Fuck!
The ground was like a mud-wrestling ring, slippery as shit, and the water was up to their ankles as they worked their way through it.

He stilled when he heard a crack to the side of him. Glancing over to where the noise possibly came from, his eyes adjusted the best they could until lightning flashed through the sky. He found the source of the noise and saw a large gum tree branch dangling from its trunk, barely attached.

Leaning against the cabin, he signalled Logan and Zeb and pointed towards the tree. It covered the cabin but the branch that hung was to the right of the tree and away from doing any possible damage to the dwelling.

It detached from the frame of the tree with the force of the wind, and they watched on as it hit the branch below it. They stood waiting as rain pelted them from all angles, waiting to see where exactly the branch was going to fall. They didn’t have to wait too long. It took several of the other branches in its path to the ground with a loud thud.

Tapping Logan on the shoulder, Caleb pointed ahead and began to walk. The small barn that was built with the cabin still stood. Once around the corner, he looked out and found the holding yard. Cattle bunched in the left hand corner, huddled up as some of them stood out in the rain. He looked back, pointed to the tree closest to them and back to them, and took off running.

Once he reached the tree, Caleb spun around and didn’t have to wait too long as his brothers were close behind him. Grabbing them both on the arm, he pulled them in to talk to them.

“We have to get in there quick to make sure no damage has been done to the fence. Do a quick head count and get out. Don’t want to spook them too much or they’ll rush us, wanting out. Got it?”

They knew the drill; they had done this plenty of times here and back at the main house. He pointed left for Logan and right for Zeb while he moved straight forward. Racing to the main gate, he jumped the fence, crouched to the ground and looked over as much of the fence as he could.

Several cattle noticed him but stayed where they were. He saw Logan moving around the inside, watching the cattle as well as he did.

Sliding to the next section, he tripped and fell face-first into the ground. Cursing, he lifted himself up and came face-to-face with the big bull of the herd. Holding his breath, he pushed back. Shit! He had forgotten all about the mean son-of-a-bitch. The damn bull hated anyone or anything near the damn bloody herd. He had told his father repeatedly to send him to the slaughter house so none of them had to deal with him.

It was his father’s pride and joy. He hand-raised it from birth; its mother rejected it the day she gave birth to him, so their father took the responsibility on. Plus he was breeding him with not only his own cattle, but with the Anderson’s as well. They all had come up with the name Spawn, as in son of the devil; it was that evil towards humans, besides his father of course. He stood there, all 1200kgs of meat and muscle, only feet away, stomping its foot, hot air snorting out of its nose and staring directly at him.

There was no way he could get either Logan’s or Zeb’s attention to distract the bull. Sitting up slowly, he backed away. The bull followed. Holding onto the rail, he pulled himself up, lifted himself and leaned against it.

He knew the moment the bull was going to charge. Gripping the rail for support, he readied himself as the bull charged forward. He jumped up the rail, but his foot slipped and the bull connected to his side, practically throwing him over the fence. He landed hard on his side, knocking the air out of his lungs. He couldn’t move.

The bull charged the fence closest to him, shaking it with the force of his weight behind it. He pulled himself away in case the fence gave, not wanting any part of it to fall on him.

Logan and Zeb slid to his side as he lay there.

“Jesus Christ, Caleb. What the fuck happened?” Logan asked as he checked him over.

“Forgot about Spawn being in there. Tried to jump the fence and slipped. Spawn connected and threw me over.” He groaned at the pain through his body.

“Is anything broken? Shit! I knew it was a bad idea to come out here this late,” Zeb mumbled.

“Can you sit up?” Logan asked.

Caleb placed his hand down to lift himself up, moving extremely slowly; he grunted as pain shot to his side, but he managed to sit up right.

Grabbing his side where the majority of the pain rested, Logan lifted his arm, wrapped it around his shoulder and was hoisted up.

“Shit!” Caleb growled in pain.

“Sorry, but we need to get back inside and check you over,” Logan instructed.

Zeb shifted to the other side of him and both of them walked him back towards the cabin. Jesus, if he had only stayed inside the damn cabin and hadn’t thought about the whole situation between him, his brothers and Sage, he wouldn’t have ended up outside and in this predicament. He’d needed time to think things through, but with the storm still raging, it was the best thing to take his mind off everything and check over the property and cattle.

He was definitely telling his father now that Spawn was taking a trip to the slaughterhouse. He’d drive the damn beast himself if he had to.

Coming up to the front of the cabin, all of them were drenched in mud and rain. One of his boots was lost when he was thrown over the fence, so he’d have to find that come morning.

He groaned as they helped him up the steps. Zeb opened the door and helped him through it as Logan followed behind. There was no way that both of them with their size could possibly fit through together.

Zeb leaned him against the wall in the walkway and stripped his coat from him. Logan gripped onto him as he shifted him towards the sofa and sat him down.

“Give us a look at the damage.” 

He bent to the right and lifted his shirt away from his body.

“Shit! That don’t look too good, Caleb,” Zeb cursed.

He glanced down to his exposed side and spotted the fresh bruising that Spawn had created. Most of the left side of his ribs was covered in bruising, the centre now black and the outside bright red.

Dropping his shirt, he closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the sofa.

“Do we have any kind of pain meds here?” He heard Zeb ask Logan.

“Mum said she had the cabin stocked up with everything, so we should have some kind of pain relief here,” Logan answered before the sounds of their footsteps echoed away from him and headed towards the kitchen.

He waited till his brothers came back into the room. Opening his eyes, Logan stood in front of him, handing him something wrapped up.

Reaching for it, Caleb frowned up.

“It’s an ice pack. It will help with the swelling and numb the area for a little while.”

Nodding his head, Caleb placed the pack against his ribs and grunted at the pain at applying it. “Grab me a bottle of bourbon,” he muttered out.

Zeb shook his head but walked off to grab it for him. Walking back in, he handed over the bottle. Unscrewing the top, he took several swigs of the straight liquor and coughed as it burned down his throat.

Logan shifted in front of him and dropped three tablets into his spare hand. Looking down, then back up, he raised his left eyebrow at him.

“Ibuprofen, that’s all we have here for pain.”

Nodding, he placed the tablets into his mouth and washed them down with the bourbon.