Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About the Author
Also by Michelle Smith
Dedication
About the Book
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Thank you for reading!
Sloan
A Wesley Brothers Novel
By Michelle Smith
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems – except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews – without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intentional.
Copyright ©2017 Michelle Smith
ISBN-13: 978-1977511379
ISBN-10: 1977511376
Cover Design: Shanoff Designs
Editor: Edits by AEI
Proofing: iScream Proofreading Services
About the Author
For as long as she can remember, Michelle Smith has been making up romantic stories in her head. But it wasn't until this year that she finally became brave enough to publish them.
If she's not reading or writing, you can be sure she's watching her beloved Dallas Stars somewhere, or any of the numerous other sports she likes to watch. She currently lives in Dallas with her wonderful husband and children.
Website: www.authormichellesmith.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMSWrites/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorMS_Writes
Instagram: www.instagram.com/authormichellesmith
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2wxPsBm
Reader's Group: http://bit.ly/2pwauZs
Bookbub: http://bit.ly/2qOBDuI
Also by Michelle Smith
The Wesley Brothers Series
Cade
Dedication
To my amazing husband.
Another one done, and I couldn’t have accomplished that without your support. You truly are one of a kind.
About the Book
Sloan Wesley is single again.
Coming out of a long-term relationship, he’s not looking for anything serious. So, when a sexy woman with long legs and lavender-tinted hair strolls into his law office, his only thought is how fast he can get her under him.
Being the personal assistant to a professional baseball player has its rewards. Aside from being around gorgeous men in tight pants, Elizabeth Vaughn's job is to keep her client's life running smoothly. But a routine errand to drop off papers for her boss's new attorney turns out to be anything but routine.
Getting involved with each other has ‘bad idea’ written all over it, but they won’t let a little thing like that dissuade them. After all, two grown adults can have a no-strings attached relationship. Right?
Of course, things are never quite that easy…
Prologue
Sloan
Fuck.
I’m tired.
Traveling around the States to work with clients is fucking exhausting. I’ve been away from home on business for almost two weeks now, and I want nothing more than to take a hot shower and curl up in my own bed for a nap before Bridgett gets home. I’ve been working non-stop and I need a vacation. I’m long overdue for one. In fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ll square away all my shit and take a much-needed break. Bridgett’s been begging me for months to go away on a trip together and I never have the time.
Things got even more hectic when I took over the day to day legal needs of the Florida Thrillers baseball organization. They wanted to cut costs and free up money for other departments within the organization, so their executives retained Wesley & Associates to handle the legalities—including the business and personal legal needs—for their team. It’s a huge contract, and my grandfather and father—who are the only two partners in the firm—asked me to handle it personally. Of course, I was up for the challenge.
But that meant taking over these new responsibilities while finishing my old ones, which effectively doubled my workload for the past few months. The increased caseload is only temporary though. The sooner I wrap up my existing cases, the sooner I can focus solely on Thrillers business. Now that I have most of my prior clients taken care of—thanks in part to this hellacious business trip—I should be able to swing a few days off, maybe even a week if I’m lucky. I’ll call Nora, my legal assistant, tomorrow and have her set something up.
Fortunately for me, it doesn’t take long to get from the plane to baggage claim, then to a waiting cab out in front of the bustling airport. The warm, humid air and bright sunshine are right where I left them, and I must admit, it feels good to be back on familiar ground. I know travel is unavoidable with this job, but I’m looking forward to doing it less once I take over the Thrillers. I’m sure I’ll have to accompany the team on some of their road trips throughout the season, but it’ll be a much lighter travel schedule than the one I’ve currently been undertaking.
I would have called Bridgett to come and get me from the airport, but I wasn’t supposed to be home until tomorrow afternoon, and last time I talked to her she mentioned having meetings with new clients at her advertising firm today. I’ll call her after my nap and let her know I took an earlier flight so she doesn’t freak out when she gets home.
I can already picture our night in together. If she’s up for it, we can order in our favorite takeout and spend the evening in the bedroom. That’s assuming I can manage not to jump her the minute she walks in the front door. Hell, I might even use the restraints tonight. I could break out the toys and have a little fun with her, after I fuck her hard and fast the first time. I haven’t been laid in almost two weeks and my hand isn’t hacking it anymore. The simple act of thinking about sinking into her warm body has me getting hard. Suit pants leave little to the imagination and unless I want to broadcast my situation, I need to calm myself down before I scare my cabbie.
Since it’s the middle of the afternoon, traffic is uncharacteristically light and it doesn’t take long before the cab is pulling up in front of the high-rise apartment building Bridgett and I l
ive in. It wasn’t my first choice for where we should live, but Bridgett fell in love with it the minute the realtor brought us here. Now that the lease is about to run out, I’ve been looking around for a house to move us into. My younger brother Cade and his girlfriend, my legal assistant Nora, live in a small house down on the beach and there’s a vacant one a few doors down from them that is about to hit the market. I’ve already put in my offer, and as soon as they accept—and I’m positive they will—I’ll surprise Bridgett with the news.
I hand over my cab fare and climb out of the car, retrieving my suitcase from the trunk. The doorman greets me, pulling open the door and letting me inside. The cool air of the lobby instantly washes away the humidity. God, it feels damned good to be home. I drag my suitcase into the elevator and punch the numbered button for my floor, loosening my tie and enjoying the slow climb as it makes its way upward. When the metal doors open, I head to the left. Our apartment is at the end of the hall, and I already have my keys out of my pocket and in my hand before I reach the door.
I turn the key in the lock and it clicks open, the familiar sounds and smells of home greeting me as I open the door. Music greets me too. Bridgett must have forgotten to turn the sound system off this morning before she left. It’s typical behavior for her. I swear I need to buy a system with a timer to offset her forgetfulness. I toss my keys onto the entry table and pull the suitcase in behind me as I walk down the hall to our room. I’ll worry about unpacking it later. Right now, all I care about is a shower, sweatpants, and a nap.
The music seems to get louder as I make my way closer to the bedroom. That must be where it’s coming from. The volume is loud, but not so loud that I don’t hear Bridgett’s voice over the lyrics. I’m surprised she’s already home. She told me when we spoke last night that she had meetings planned for the day, and wouldn’t be home until late in the evening. But the smile that formed with the prospect of surprising her vanishes from my face when I distinctly hear another voice along with hers.
A male one.
What the fuck?
I take the last steps to the closed door and stop with my hand hovering over the handle. My pulse kicks up a notch and anger takes over. I can hear the voices more clearly now, and they most certainly aren’t the sounds of friends engaging in conversation. They’re the sounds of moaning, sex, and bodies slapping together, and I sure as fuck shouldn’t be hearing them coming from my bedroom when I’m on the wrong fucking side of the door.
I know what I’m about to walk in on before I even open it, but I can’t bring myself to walk away. I push down on the handle slowly, the soft click drowned out by the sounds of the music. The door makes no sound as I push it open enough to reveal what I already knew I would see.
Some guy I don’t recognize is sprawled out across my bed—my fucking bed—his head thrown back, his eyes closed in bliss. Straddled across his waist facing away from me, red hair swaying against her back, is Bridgett—my Bridgett—grinding down on him. The anger and hurt build in me as I watch her ride him for way longer than I should have, but my feet won’t move.
This is not how I envisioned this night playing out. With as much calmness in my voice as I can muster, I shout over the music to be heard.
“Hi, honey. I’m home.”
Chapter One
Sloan
Three Months Later
“Finally!” Nikolas, my youngest brother, drops the last box onto the floor over by the sofa and flops back onto the plush couch, trying to be all dramatic and shit like he’s done a lot of work.
“What do you mean ‘finally?’” I ask him. “I barely had anything to move out of the apartment. It only took two hours total to pack everything I own in the truck, drive here, and unpack it again.”
“I know, man. And, why is that, exactly?” Asher, my other brother, asks me around the slice of pizza he bites into, struggling with the cheese. Cade, my third and final brother, walks in from the kitchen, passing out cold beers to the rest of us and sitting on the floor next to the rapidly emptying pizza boxes with one of his own. Looking around at them, I’m grateful my brothers all agreed to help me move today. What I’m not enjoying is the game of twenty questions I now find us playing.
“I told you, I didn’t want any of the things I shared with Bridgett. I only wanted my personal stuff. I needed a clean start after what I walked in on. I don’t want a bunch of furniture she may or may not have fucked around on with this guy. It’s bad enough I lived with it for months without knowing.” I take a swig of my beer, trying to tamp down my growing anger at this whole fucked up situation.
“So, what, you let her have everything?” Cade asks, reaching for his own slice.
“Yep, everything we shared. When I told her she needed to move, she only took her stuff and some of the furniture with her. Since she was moving in with him, she didn’t have room for all of it. She told me to keep what she left, or sell whatever I didn’t want.” I take another sip of my beer.
“When I came back from mom and dad’s after she moved out, I called a donation service to come and remove all the stuff she left behind. And for clarification, it fucking sucks sleeping on an air mattress every night.” I mean it when I say I got rid of all the things we’d shared, and the beds were the first to go. I caught her fucking him in one, and even though I didn’t know about the other one in the spare room, I wasn’t about to ask. Nope, I wasn’t about to continue sleeping in the same bed, or beds, she cheated on me in. Instead, I opted to get all new furniture—sofas, beds, even a new dining table because fuck if I was taking any chances—but I decided to wait until I moved in here to get it. It’s been a miserable three months.
“Well, I for one can’t believe she traded you for that douche. Believe me. She’ll come crawling back to you as soon as she realizes her mistake.” Nikolas polishes off the rest of his beer and heads back to the kitchen, grabbing another round from the fridge.
“Fuck that. She can try to crawl back, but I won’t take her. I’m done with all this shit. She was fucking this guy for months. Months! If I hadn’t come back early, I would never have found out. She was damned good at hiding it. I feel like a fucking idiot. I never even suspected she was cheating.” To say I was blindsided by her betrayal is an understatement. I won’t be made a fool of again, though. “Let her try to crawl her ass back. I’m fucking done with her and her lies.” I finish my rant, taking a deep breath, and letting it out in an exhausted sigh. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. You have every right to be pissed. We’d all be feeling the same way right now if it was us, right?” Cade looks around to my other brothers and they both nod their heads in agreement.
“Thanks. At least I know I’m not being irrational. Hey,” looking back over at Cade, I say “changing the subject to a happier one, how is it going with you and Nora? Have you picked out the ring yet?”
My brother grins, the smile extended across his face. “I picked it out a few days ago. They’re putting the final touches on it this weekend and I pick it up on Monday.”
“Have you decided when you’re gonna pop the question?” Asher asks him.
“Not really. I want to wait until the moment seems right. I do know the where though. I want to do it over on those rocks down the beach, the ones where she and I like to go to watch sunsets. The first time we went there together was the first time I realized I had it bad for this girl.” Cade laughs, shaking his head while he looks down at the floor. “Listen to me, being all sappy and shit.”
The rest of us join in his laughter because yes, it does sound funny to hear him talk like this. Of all of us, I think Cade was the last one we expected to fall first. Or even at all. The bar he owns down on the beach has always been a constant source of pussy for him. With so many female tourists and locals—in some of the skimpiest bikinis you can imagine—crossing his path, his biggest dilemma was always blonde or brunette.
“Yeah, but knowing how impatient you are little brother it wouldn’t surprise me if you ask
ed her the same night you get the ring.” I can’t help but tease him. I’ve never seen my brother this far gone over a girl, and despite my less than stellar current outlook on love, I couldn’t be happier for him. Nora is an amazing girl and they both deserve a lifetime of happiness together.
“You’re probably right,” Cade says. “Shit, I’ve had to stop myself a few times already from blurting it out and proposing without the ring.”
His cell phone rings, halting our chat, and we all sit around listening to his one-sided conversation after he answers. When he hangs up, his smile is one of the biggest I’ve seen. “That was the jeweler. They finished the ring early. Said I could pick it up whenever I want.” His demeanor shifts, and you can see the nerves taking over the longer he sits there, the smile slowly slipping from his face. My brothers and I remain quiet, glancing at each other, none of us making a move to say anything.
Leave it to my hockey playing brother Nikolas to be the one to offer encouragement like a well-versed sports pep talk. “Well, what are you waiting for, Wesley?” Cade looks up at him. “Get your ass up, go get your ring, and go get engaged.” Nik laughs and it’s enough to put another smile on Cade’s face.
“What about you guys? I’m supposed to be here, helping with all this stuff?” He gestures around the room to the random boxes scattered about.
“Don’t worry about it. The hard part’s already done. Besides, the furniture delivery will be here soon and they’ll set it all up for me. The rest is easy. Go! Find my legal assistant and ask her to marry you.” He doesn’t need any more encouragement.
Blowing out a deep breath, he stands and heads for the front door. “Wish me luck,” he says, reaching for the handle but stopping when he hears Asher’s voice.
Sloan (A Wesley Brothers Novel Book 2) Page 1
