Spark (Steel Brothers Saga 19)

I thrust.

I thrust.

I thrust and thrust and thrust.

Four more times.

Five.

Six.

And then—

“Damn, Callie,” I grit out as I burst. “You’re fucking amazing.”

I lie there a moment, resting my weight on my arms so I don’t crush her. I stay embedded in her body, my cock so sensitive I can’t bear to move it.

Her eyes are closed.

“Look at me,” I say.

They flutter open. Her expression is dreamy.

“You’re amazing.” I kiss her lips lightly.

“Mmm. You too.”

“I wanted to do more. Give you more.”

“Mmm. Told you. One and I’m done. It was wonderful.”

I smile. “I can give you more than one. The problem is I have to keep from fucking you to do that. Clearly, I’m not capable of restraint when it comes to you.”

“I haven’t been complaining.”

I kiss her again and then roll onto my side, pulling her into my arms. “In the morning. In the morning, you’ll have more than one. I promise.”

She sighs into my shoulder and closes her eyes again. “I’m just happy to be here.”

“Me too, baby.”

Then I add to myself, God, you have no idea.

Freaking phone.

I open my eyes to the morning sunlight streaming in through the skylight in the ceiling.

Right. I’m in Aspen. At the cabin.

Callie…

Where’s Callie?

The door to the bathroom is closed. She’s in there. And my phone is ringing. Where the hell is my phone?

Screw it. I’ll ignore it. It’s Sunday morning. Nothing can be that important.

Finally it stops.

And then starts again.

Damn. Where is it?

I sigh as I sit up in bed. Is it in my pants? And my pants are…downstairs. But I wouldn’t hear the phone so clearly if it were downstairs.

Or maybe I would. I have the ringer on the loudest setting.

I walk out of the master suite to the staircase. From the loft above, I see my pants on the floor. The phone stops again.

Then starts again.

For God’s sake! Who the hell is bent on bothering me on a Sunday morning? I walk down the stairs, and the ringing gets fainter.

Okay, not in the pants.

Back into the room. Callie’s back in bed, holding my phone. “It was in the bathroom,” she says. “Looks like it’s your brother.”

“No. The brother I know and love would never interrupt me when he knows I’m on a special weekend with you. He knows I’ll make mincemeat of his face if he does that.”

“See for yourself.” She tosses me the phone.

Yup. It’s Dale. I decline the call, and then I see that he’s also texted me about a hundred times.

Okay, three times.

Call me. Urgent.

Shit. Dale wouldn’t say urgent if it wasn’t urgent. “Sorry,” I tell Callie as I walk out to the hallway to return Dale’s call.

“Where the hell have you been?” Dale says.

“Good morning to you too. Is everything all right?”

“I’m sorry. My head’s not on straight right now. I know you’re with Callie, and I’m sorry, but… Fuck, I don’t want to lay this on you.”

“What is it, Dale? You’re scaring me.”

“It’s Dad,” he says. “He’s been shot.”

I drop the phone, and it clatters onto the hardwood floor.

Callie sprints out into the hallway. “Donny?”

I can’t speak to her. Can’t even acknowledge her presence as she picks up my phone and hands it to me.

“Donny, what’s wrong?”

I shake my head as I tighten my fingers around the phone and place it to my ear.

“Don! Are you there?”

Dale’s voice. Dale. My brother.

My father.

“He’s in surgery,” Dale says. “I’m in the city with Ashley. We’re at the hospital. Bree and Mom are with us.”

“Is he…” I can’t do it. Can’t even say the words.

“His prognosis is good. The bullet went through, but it grazed his liver.”

“But what? Who? How?”

“We don’t know. He was in the north quadrant early this morning, probably on a morning run. It’s Sunday, so only a skeleton staff was on duty. Dad was alone.”

My mouth drops open. No words. No words at all.

“Whoever it was got away. He was on our property and got away. I swear to God, Don… I’ll fucking kill him.”

My father. My good, strong father. Who would want to hurt him? On his own property?

“We’ve talked to the cops,” Dale continues. “They’re on a manhunt, but Dad hasn’t been able to talk to them. We don’t know anything else.”

“How… How did you find him?”

“It was just chance. One of the hands was out on a jog as well and found him.”

“Donny?” Callie says hesitantly.

“Don,” Dale says into my ear. “Things look pretty good here, but this is serious. Someone was on our property and tried to kill our father.”

“Mom?” I say.

“She’s holding it together. She’s better now that she knows the prognosis is good.”

“Bree?”

“A mess. We’re all a mess, Don. You need to get here as soon as you can.”

I gulp. “Yeah. We’re on our way.” Then the phone falls from my hand again.

Callie bends down and retrieves it for me once more. “What’s wrong?” Her pretty face has turned white.