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“Speaking of which…,” Nicolas said suddenly. “Alaina and Tara haven’t arrived yet.” There was a note of concern in his voice that the brothers couldn’t miss.
“Probably enjoying their time in town,” Logan said. “Not that there’s much in town here.”
“Should probably shoot them a text or something.” Sebastian suggested.
“Yeah,” Nicolas said and pulled out his phone.
Logan came up and hooked his arm around Tristan’s neck. “So what happened to your girlfriend?”
Tristan frowned at his brother and naturally told him to bugger off.
“Come on,” Logan egged his brother on. “I’m your brother and best friend.”
Tristan couldn’t deny that Logan was his brother as well as his best friend and therefore felt it only right he tell him what had happened. “We broke up.”
“Is that why you chose to crash at my apartment and drink yourself stupid? To celebrate your single life again?” Sebastian asked none too gently.
Tristan managed to look rather sorry for what he’d done. “Yeah. Really sorry about those paintings, bro.”
Sebastian just shook his head since he didn’t have anything else to say.
“She was hot,” Logan said.
“She was too clingy,” Tristan muttered.
“So… about that girl today,” Conrad blurted out.
The brothers knew instantly whom he was talking about. It was hard to get the image of the young woman out of their minds, for God’s sake. Especially for Sebastian and Darcy since they’d been the ones who had the most interaction with her.
“Hey, did you hear that?” Sebastian asked.
“What?” Nicolas queried.
&
nbsp; “Listen.”
The brothers went quiet, and then they heard it. It was a dog barking, and it was getting closer. They searched around them, and then out of the blue a little West Highland white terrier appeared.
The dog ran up to the men’s feet and stopped. He dropped something onto the ground, stood on his hind legs, and stuck his tongue out at Logan.
Logan crouched down and stroked the dog’s head. “Isn’t that…”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence because they all knew what he meant, and instantly they circled around Toby, who seemed to be enjoying being the center of attention.
Nicolas picked him up and chuckled. “What are you doing here at this time of the night?”
“If he’s here…,” Conrad said.
“Then his owner…” Tristan continued the sentence. On cue, the musical voice they expected to hear came.
“Toby? Toby? Where are you? Come out now. You’re grounded, mister!”
They waited expectedly for the owner of the dog to appear, but they didn’t expect her to appear like that.
She was dressed in a lacy pink nightdress—flimsy and short—showing off her very fine figure. With her tresses down and wet and her feet bare, she looked like some sort of wood nymph that they happened upon in the night.
The brothers couldn’t stop staring at her.
Sakura didn’t expect her dog to be surrounded by seven men in the middle of the night and in the woods near the house too. She was too shocked to say anything. In fact, she was too shocked to do anything. Then, when she was aware they were staring at her and she was in a near-naked state, she hastily turned on her heel, intending to rush back. But because she was confused, shocked, nervous, and totally out of her wits, she stumbled and fell flat on her face.
The brothers—except for Darcy—acted in accordance to their manly behavior. They rushed to save the damsel in distress. Since Sebastian was the closest to her, he got there first. He pulled her into his arms and asked her if she was all right. Sakura, however, was too shocked to reply. Logan helped her legs out of the vines, finally allowing Sebastian to lift her up.
Sakura wanted to die rather than live through the humiliation of all seven brothers seeing her in such a state. Sebastian laid her down and Toby rushed to her, barking loudly.
“I’m fine, Toby. I’m fine,” she said. Then she glanced up at Sebastian, who looked rather concerned about her well-being. She turned to Nicolas.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“How did you get here?” Logan queried.
Darcy stood rigid, watching the scene before him, his heart thumping too hard for his liking. He bloody well didn’t like the fact that his brothers were showing too much concern and interest in the girl before them. He had the urge to barge in, scoop her up in his arms, and take her far away. It was a stupid notion, of course, and Darcy had never been stupid.
Sakura, on the other side, felt her heart beating way too fast for her liking to be surrounded by the brothers again. She hugged Toby even tighter against her chest and bit her lip. Oh God! She needed to get out of here. Now!
She hastily got up and said, “Thanks for finding my dog,” and ran back the way she came.
They watched her go, unable to hide their disappointment.
“We didn’t ask for her name,” Conrad said.
“How did she get here wearing that?” Hayden asked no one in particular.
“She lives in the cottage just down the road, remember?” Nicolas reasoned. “Otherwise, she wouldn’t be wearing…” He left the sentence unfinished because, to be honest, he couldn’t come up with an explanation himself.
The brothers decided they’d had enough for the day and started to wander back to the house. Conrad picked up the thing Toby had dropped and found it was a memory stick.
“I think this belongs to her,” he said to his brothers.
“We’ll have to give it back,” Sebastian suggested.
“Yeah.” Conrad nodded, smiling broadly.
