Chapter 7
Sloan
While my bandmates finish whatever it is they’re doing, I can’t pull my eyes off Jen and Luke through the window. I know that look in her eyes. She’s attracted to him and he’d have to be blind, limp-dicked, and clinically insane not to be attracted to her.
Damn it.
“Damn it,” Ryan echoes the thought beside me.
He just popped a bass string and I swear he does this shit on purpose.
Every time he rethreads a new string, he’s sure to pulse it back and forth through the tuner an unnecessary number of times while staring at Emma.
His antics pull a laugh out of me. He’s always so serious, it’s nice to see him loosen up a little.
“Are you going to change the fucking string or mime innuendos to my sister all afternoon?” Brett asks, throwing a drumstick at Ryan’s back.
“I’m kind of liking the innuendos.” Ryan smiles, finally getting his string situated.
“Honestly, you two are the worst,” Brett grumbles.
“At least they haven’t acquired any fines for breaking multiple headboards in hotel suites, Brett,” Noah says in defense of our bassist.
“Twice. That only happened twice. Besides, it isn’t like Bri and I came all over anyone’s sheets, Sloan.”
“Whoa, how’d I get dragged into this?” I complain.
“Because Noah’s a saint and hasn’t done anything worth ridiculing and I needed to shift the blame,” Brett answers, shrugging a shoulder.
My brows pinch together in confusion. “Uh, you mean except that time he started banging our backup dancer and almost cost us our first major U.S. tour?” I ask incredulously.
“That was almost two years ago,” Brett says like it no longer counts.
“I jizzed in Noah’s sheets four years ago! How does that still count?” I yell.
“Because it was your cum, man.”
“Need I remind you, Bri’s mouth has—”
“Sloan.” Ryan barks my name before I say something I’ll regret. Ever since Ireland, there’s been an unspoken rule that we never bring up the time it was Bri that Brett and I tag-teamed.
Fucking Luke. I blame my irritability on Luke’s sudden reappearance in my life. The guys always give me hell about the time Noah walked in on me jerking off in his bed. I was shitfaced and picked the wrong room. It’s funny, and it usually never bothers me.
“Hey, Sloan, give me the first line of Self-Destruct and let me make sure I’ve got this amp set how you like it.” Our new sound engineer, Tanner, calls me back to the task at hand, and I’m thankful for the distraction.
Needing to focus on work, I turn my back to the clear wall and begin to play, fulfilling Tanner’s request. He closes his eyes and reaches a tattooed arm forward to tweak something on the sound board he has plugged into my amp.
When I play what he wants and he’s satisfied, he opens his eyes and flashes me a smile.
“Everything sound good to you?”
I nod and he moves on to the microphone on Brett’s drums right as Ryan stands and informs us that he’s ready.
Before we start playing, Brett and I both pull our shirts off.
Between the temperature outside and the heat we bring while we’re all banging around, it gets unbearably warm.
Our drummer and I are usually always shirtless so no one bats an eye, except Jen.
When I risk a glance to the sound room, she’s fanning herself as she laughs with Emma and Bri.
Off to the side, Luke’s jaw is clenched and he rolls his eyes, pulling a smile from me.
Tanner gets every knob, dial, mic, and cord positioned how he wants it then slips through the door to the room Luke and the girls are in, where the electronics motherboard is set up.
I watch as he and Luke shake hands and then Tanner turns back to us and grabs a microphone that connects the two rooms. He’s playing the role of producer at the moment because it was too much for Kinky to try and perform in the studio while also managing the sound quality.
“Okay, guys, in preparation for your tour, I want you to play this song like you would for an audience. Give me all the extras. Extra verses, extra feelings, extra improv, extra energy. Let me have it all, and give it to me hard.” He flips a couple switches and holds his fingers up in a three… two…one countdown.
I’m late coming in because I’m thinking about Tanner’s words. My cock twitches slightly but as I let myself dive down that rabbit hole, thinking about his hands on me makes my stomach curdle.
Just like there are things only a woman can provide, there are also a handful of things only a man can provide.
I miss those things desperately, but it seems I’ll never know them again.
I thought I’d reached a point where that reality didn’t bother me.
My desire for men seemed to have been buried along with Grant.
But ever so slowly, I feel that part of me waking up again.
Fucking Luke.
Right as we hit the chorus, I have an idea for Ryan’s bassline, so watching my step, I make my way around the cords on the floor to stand in front of him.
Having made music with Ry for over six years now, we can communicate easily without words.
He doesn’t even look at my face. Instead, his eyes zero in on my hands immediately, knowing whatever I need to tell him I’ll do so with my fingers.
When he sees me go back to an A flat, he knows I’m going back to the bridge and follows suit.
Noah continues on with the lyrics, but it sounds way more badass with Ryan’s bass pumping these three deep notes on repeat than it did with the rapid mid-scale notes we had him playing originally.
He looks up and flashes me a grin, his head bobbing to the beat.
Knowing he’s got it, I move back over to my corner of the room and feel eyes on me.
Looking up, I connect with Tanner first who’s giving me a thumbs up at the change.
Behind him, Luke’s jaw is tighter than the grip he has on the coffee mug in his hand and his nostrils are flared like my musical prowess personally offends him.
After an hour, we’re finally let out of the sweltering recording room. It smells like fifty shades of sweat in here and although I don’t mind a masculine scent, I’ve smelled enough of my bandmates’ sweaty balls to last me a lifetime.
My own sweat is busy running down my chest and in between my shoulder blades, not to mention my ass crack.
The back of my neck is also soaked from my hair.
Not quite long enough to pull it up, it adheres itself to my skin.
When I step out of the soundproof room, I notice all the girls are still here.
Sienna, obviously, because she lives here, and she’s rocking a sleeping Riddik while Bri, Emma, and Jen are chatting in the studio.
Jen wastes no time striding up to me and licking a line from my pecs to my neck, her fingers trailing back and forth at the waistband of my shorts.
The girl is insatiable.
“Fucking delicious.” She smirks. “You guys sounded incredible in there.” I know watching me play gets Jen hot.
Over her head, I see Luke’s eyes go wide with shock at her move before they turn glassy with lust, no doubt wishing it was his chest her tongue was tasting.
Somewhere to my right, Bri cackles. “Jen, you have the best ideas.” Because Brett is also shirtless, Bri follows suit with the maneuver on our drummer’s chest, although she should’ve known better than to think he wouldn’t retaliate.
Letting out an obscene groan, Brett cups Bri’s tits through her shirt and pushes them together, sucking noisily on her cleavage.
“Oh my god, Brett! We have six guest rooms, take it to one of those!” Sienna whispers so she doesn’t wake the baby, even though she’s vibrating with laughter.
“Well, if we’re going to turn this into one big orgy—” Noah starts before Emma jumps in between he and Sienna.
“There will be no orgy! I’ve seen all of my brother’s tongue maneuvers I can handle for one day, thank you!”
Brett flashes a look at Ryan. “This is all your fault. We could be having a huge orgy right now, but no. You had to go and fall for my sister, making it weird and shit.” There was a time when Brett was very not okay with Ryan and Emma’s relationship.
I’m glad to see he’s cooled off enough to tease them about it.
At least…I think he’s teasing.
Emma protests, not wanting to be the reason there’s no orgy.
“Yeah, right. Like you, Noah, or Ryan would let any of the others near your women. You guys are more territorial than a rabid house cat in heat.” Her eyes swing to me and she smiles sweetly before moving to me and kissing my cheek. “Except for Sloany. He’d share.”
The little minx laces her pinky with her best friend’s and proceeds to start at my waistband and run their hands up my slick, sweat-drenched torso.
My dick would be getting hard even if I were blind and the last thing I need is my 6’5” bassist, who has a love of martial arts, using me as his next punching bag because the love of his life is playing dirty.
Emma’s just as hot as Jen and I’m no saint.
I take a step back to break the contact and hold my hands up in innocence.
“That’s not me. I have nothing to do with that.”
“Emma Rose, it’ll be awfully hard to paint without your dominant hand,” Ryan growls.
We can all tell by the way Emma giggles that nothing brings her joy quite like watching her fiancé’s possessive side come out.
Choosing to kill two birds with one stone, getting out of Em’s reach and pushing Luke’s buttons, I grab Jen’s hand, tugging her with me, to stand next to Luke who’s moved to one of the chairs at the small table in the room, and trail my fingers along his forearm playfully.
“Just because they’re out doesn’t mean the orgy idea is dead…” I trail off.
I’m not surprised when Luke huffs and jumps up, out of our reach. But I am surprised to see the goosebumps on his arms.
“Knock it off, Alexander. I’ve waited long enough. The papers are in my car. Just sign them so I can leave.”