Unburdened (Beautiful Deceit #4)

Chapter 1

Sloan

“What the fuck, Sloan?”

Noah’s voice echoes off the cinderblock walls of the backstage hallway and somehow manages to register through the fog in my brain. Staring down at the unconscious heap in front of me, a memory comes flashing back so quickly, my knees hit the concrete floor before I have a chance to catch myself.

“What the fuck, Sloan?” The voice startles us but there’s no time to move. No time to hide. No time to make it look like something it isn’t. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he shouts.

There’s no need to shout.

We’re all within ten feet of each other thanks to how small living quarters are on the Army base.

“You ever heard of knocking, Blackwell?”

I move to cover Hailey up with a blanket as I slide my dick out of my commanding officer’s wife.

Why didn’t I lock the fucking door?

Luke still would have gotten in because he has a key, but at least Hailey and I would’ve had a heads up.

“Christ, man, put some fucking clothes on.” Luke holds a hand up to shield his eyes like he’s never seen a dick before. He can be such a prude.

“First, you barge into my apartment without knocking, now you’re going to tell me what I can and can’t wear in it? Fuck you.” Anger seeps through every pore because I’m scared and I hate this feeling.

“Sloan,” Hailey whispers in warning, placing a calming hand on my forearm.

“Seems like someone should also tell you what you can and can’t do in it because you obviously missed the memo about not fucking your C.O.’s wife.”

“Yeah, well, it looks like you missed the memo on minding your own goddamn business,” I snap back.

“What is so urgent that you had to burst in here like this?” I slowly get off the couch to face him, still not bothering to cover myself.

If my dick makes Luke Blackwell uncomfortable, all the better.

We used to be best friends but ever since I started getting noticed by the higher ranks, he’s become a complete tool.

“Formation in ten. Someone’s getting promoted.” Luke glances in disgust at my swollen cock before ripping my front door open and leaving the same way he came in.

“He’s going to run his mouth, isn’t he?” Hailey asks, her voice eerily calm.

“Probably.” I lock the door before walking back to her and pulling her on top of me on the couch, letting her ride me to her heart’s content. It’ll only take me three minutes to get dressed and two to get down to formation, so I’ve got five whole minutes to make her come.

“But thankfully he’s gonna run straight to Grant,” I tell her.

Lieutenant Colonel Grant Tomlin. My C.O.

“Sloan!” Noah barks again.

I snap my eyes to our lead singer, trying to erase the emotion on my face. Here and now is not the time to get into this. Climbing to my feet, I fight to get my breathing under control.

“Cool your jets, Kink. He knew it was coming.” I look back at Luke who’s starting to stir on the floor. “Right, Major?” This asshole has a light jacket on over his blue button-down and it has the gold oak leaf embroidered on the shoulders, denoting his rank.

Before anyone else can question me, I turn my back on the man on the floor, ignoring the suffocating pressure bearing down on me, and rush along the hallway to the dressing room for a minute to myself. Nine of my fifteen precious minutes of intermission were taken up by this douchebag.

What the fuck is he doing here?

I drain a gallon of water in an effort to alleviate the dryness in my throat and make my way toward our stage, hoping the roar of the crowd will help me get my mind right.

No luck. All I see is Luke’s face staring back at me.

I swore I’d kill him if I ever saw him again and it looks like I might just keep that promise.

Noah passes me on stage as he walks to his mic in the dark.

Leaning in close, he yells in my ear over the roar of the crowd, whose volume has tripled, as they see our silhouettes moving on stage, indicating it’s almost time to begin again.

“We’re gonna talk about this, Sloan. If I’m going to be cleaning up a mess like that with security and medical, then you’re going to tell me why it happened. ”

“He’s fine. There’s nothing to talk about,” I grit out. I know what it takes to kill a man and that blow wasn’t enough. At worst, he has a mild concussion. “Let’s just finish this.”

Noah doesn’t say anything else as he walks to the front of the stage and addresses thousands of screaming fans as I will my mind to focus on playing the remainder this show.

It’s the kickoff for our next tour and we only have a few days before we hit the road again.

We’ll spend most of that time cleaning things up from whatever feedback we’re given tonight and then it’ll be a whirlwind of hotel rooms, clubs, fans, and photoshoots again.

Thankfully, due to the recent birth of Riddik, the son of Brett, our drummer, and his girlfriend, Bri, we were able to negotiate shorter stints out on the road with longer breaks at home in between.

That last tour damn near killed us all, and now that I’ve been seeing Emma’s best friend, Jennifer, for the last few months, I have far more desire to stay home than I once did.

The knock on my front door makes Jen groan beneath me.

She has her left leg draped over the arm of the couch and her right foot is resting on the coffee table at my side, so she’s spread nice and wide for me.

Jen’s only a year and a half older than Emma, our bassist’s fiancée, which means Jen’s probably still too young for me, but I’ve never been one to discriminate and my moral compass isn’t as straight or as narrow as Ryan’s.

“If you stop what you’re doing to answer that, I’ll actually die,” she moans.

Her hands fly to the curls at the back of my head in an effort to make sure I stay put, but she needn’t worry.

I’m not abandoning her pussy for whichever bandmate is at my door.

God knows I’ve had to wait for them to finish with their women plenty of times.

The knock sounds again, much louder and harder this time. The side of a fist, not the polite rap of knuckles, but I keep eating as Jen squirms beneath my hands.

“Fuck, you’re good at this,” she whines, ignoring the pounding at the door, her hips bucking into my face. She’s delicious. And she’s an enthusiastic meal, which I love.

After Ryan and Emma got together last fall, Jen was always hanging around.

With everyone paired off except she and I, we naturally fell into a rhythm.

As it turns out, I really like her. Jen doesn’t want the attention of the media so we haven’t gone public and, in some ways, it feels like we’re sneaking around, so it’s kind of a thrill.

Plus, I’m enjoying getting laid without having to make a big fucking production every couple of nights, trying to attract women who have an image to uphold like I do.

Models and celebrities are great, but the whole process is so goddamn tiring.

Jen is down to earth. She doesn’t take any shit, but she’s not boisterous or in your face about stuff either. She actually reminds me a lot of Hai—

Don’t go there, Sloan.

The knocking grows louder and is accompanied by a voice this time.

“Open the door, Alexander. I know you’re home.”

My head snaps up and I immediately ask Jen to wait for me upstairs. There’s no need for her to witness the bloodshed about to happen on my carpet.

It doesn’t matter how much time has passed, I’d recognize that voice even if I were in a coma. I forgo my shirt and slide my jeans back on before ripping the door open, feeling the eerie sensation of déjà vu wash over me from the day my whole world imploded.

“What the fuck are you doing here? In case you didn’t get the memo last night, let me spell it out for you, Luke. I don’t ever want to see your fucking face again.”

There’s no keeping the unadulterated hatred from my voice. If I never saw the dirty blonde hair of Lucas Blackwell again, it would be far too soon. I left the Army and never looked back. The tags I wear around my neck are all the reminder I want.

“We need to talk.”

Fuck.

I hate how deep his voice is. And how his eyes are so gray they appear silver when he’s in the sun. I hate that after all this time, I’m still affected by him.

“Whatever it is, I’m not interested.” I try to slam the door in the arrogant prick’s face and forget this encounter ever happened, but his large hand prevents it from closing.

“After cold cocking me yesterday, you can at least hear me out.” He angles his head down to exaggerate his height, even though he’s only an inch taller than me.

He couldn’t beat me in our PT workouts — except for running, he’s a fast fucker — nor could he outshoot me, so he always took his victories where he could …

our minuscule height difference being one of them.

Not yet ready to dive into whatever bullshit he’s about to dump on my doorstep, I change topics. “How do you even know where I live?”

“I’m stationed in D.C. and occasionally I work with Nina Cosgrove.” He shrugs a cocky shoulder that brings me dangerously close to knocking his teeth out on my front porch.

I study the man before me and grimace when I realize the military aged us both. Although he’s held on to his lean physique, his eyes hold a wariness that wasn’t there seven years ago when I last saw him. The wrinkles in their corners now match my own.

I’ve always been attracted to Luke, but fortunately he made it pretty damn clear how he felt about anything other than a “normal” relationship before I made too much of a fool of myself. Unfortunately, I’d already lost part of my heart to the bastard by then.

Realizing he isn’t leaving until he says what he came to say, I relent and move to the side for him to come in.

“You have five minutes before I shoot you.”