Beautiful Noise

Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

E zren.

The muffled sound of my phone vibrating slowly eased me from a sated state of sleep. I groaned, trying to recall where I’d left the device.

Pants pocket.

I sluggishly lifted a hand with the intent of patting my pockets only for my open palm to make contact with skin. I wasn’t wearing pants.

Fuck! Pants!

Why wasn’t I wearing pants?

Clarity began to awaken in my mind at the same time my dick began to rise.

Kori.

I groaned as a sudden urge to feel her, be inside her and hear my name whispered from her lips, heightened.

Kori…

Damn, she dipped on me. I chuckled, realizing I was the one who usually did a disappearing act.

Everything I was experiencing with this woman was new and also made me uncomfortable. The low vibration of my phone sounding again gave me a much needed distraction from the minx who had me breaking all my rules.

I glanced around my studio, giving my body time to embrace the reality that I needed to move. When I had my shit together, I located my pants, stepping into my briefs and jeans before digging my phone from my pocket.

There were several notifications, mostly from social media, but also a text from my mother who was just checking in.

I hope you’re settling in well.

I’ll call you in a few days.

Just checking in. Love you.

Gwendolyn wasn’t checking shit. She was delivering a warning that I had better be on my best behavior with the houseguest she’d paired me with. Settling in… translation, adjusting to my unwanted houseguest.

But Kori was no longer unwanted. I wanted her, a lot. Every glorious inch of her luscious brown skin, pert tits, and soft ass. I wanted to do another deep dive and render her spineless the way I had last night, watching as she unraveled from the way I was fucking her senseless.

There was no way in hell I would admit that to my mother so I fired off a compromise to put her mind at ease.

I’m being the son you raised me to be.

Locking my phone, I located my shirt and skipped putting it on. I needed to shower and figure out where Kori was. We had some things to discuss because I didn’t want her assuming last night was anything more than a moment .

The hard part was I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell that lie because it was a lie. A big ass fucking falsity that had me feeling awkward and drowning in uncertainty… all attached to a woman. Aside from my music, women were the one thing I never had any doubts about. They served a purpose and I handled them accordingly but somehow a beautiful disaster had ripped the ground from beneath me and left me unsteady. I wasn’t prepared to deal with how that made me feel.

But I had to.

I stumbled my way up the steps and into the hallway only to come to a screeching halt at the painfully loud rendition of “I Have Nothing” coming from the room directly across from me. Immediately, I knew it was Kori.

To say that her vocals were challenged was putting it lightly but even as unpleasant as her singing was to my ears, the awareness of her voice placed a smile on my face. I was also confused about why she was in this particular room. It was unfurnished and the one she claimed was at the other end of the hall closer to mine.

The minute I pushed the door open, I was more confused. Kori was gripping a mop, dancing with it while actually mopping.

What the hell?

Maybe she got bored.

Nah, that’s not it.

Fuck, I hope she doesn’t feel she has to clean in order to stay.

I took a step forward cautiously, realizing she was not aware of my presence. The horrible loud singing and erratic dancing was a clear sign but before I could announce my presence, she spun, screamed, and thrust the mop in my direction.

Her open palm slapped hard against her chest and it took a minute for her eyes to return to their normal size.

“You scared me,” she mumbled, scowling in my direction like I had somehow invaded her privacy.

“You might want to lower the volume on those.” I motioned to the AirPods lodged in her ears which she quickly removed.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

“I wasn’t sneaking. You just didn’t hear me.”

“Right. Was I too loud?”

“Loud? No. Too painful is more like it. I think you killed Lauryn much worse than Whitney.”

“Shut up.” She smiled widely. “I’m not that bad, you’re just super critical because, well… you’re good.”

“Nah…” I shook my head. “It’s not about me, you just can’t fucking sing. At all.”

“Ouch.”

“Exactly, ouch. Them damn high-pitched screams hurt.”

“You’re mean.”

“I’m honest but what’s all this?” My eyes moved around the room where I found a small cleaning cart loaded with supplies, a bucket, and the mop she used as a weapon.

She was silent for a minute then pulled herself together. She rolled her shoulders back and squared them. “My job.”

My gaze dropped to the mop, then found hers. She folded her arms over her chest which pushed her breasts higher, making them more visible, but I tried really hard not to get sidetracked by what she wore. Tank top, no bra, and stretchy spandex shorts hugged her frame so I stuck to focusing on her lips which had a slight gloss to them and appeared soft and plump. I knew for a fact they were.

Focus, damn it.

“Your job?”

“Yes, I work for Elite Cleaners. Your mother hired them, and by default me , to get your house ready for you.”

I frowned, processing what she was telling me.

“You work for the cleaning service my mother hired. That’s how you know her?”

Her eyes shifted briefly before she nodded. “Yes.”

“Oh, well, you can stop. I’ll tell them to send someone else…”

“No, you absolutely will not. I need this job so I’m going to finish it.”

“Kori…”

“No, whatever you’re about to say, just don’t. This is my job. I clean houses, your house, and you’re interrupting me. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to what I was doing…” She lifted her chin defiantly before delivering her final plea, “Please.”

I was determined to say something but she’d already shut me out and I had no intention of begging for attention she wouldn’t freely offer so I did the only thing that made sense and left the room. A room in the house I owned which at the moment I didn’t feel welcomed in.

I headed down the hallway to my room, making the first stop the bathroom where I turned on the water to let it run long enough to reach the scorching temperature I preferred. For a brief moment I tensed at the thought of washing away last night, the reminders of her.

This woman had me shifting between confusion and unadulterated need, neither of which I welcomed. But the one thing I could not deny was the effect she had on me and my dick.

I stepped into the shower painfully aware of my semi-hard status which I avoided and instead reached for my washcloth and body wash. I thoroughly cleaned myself from head to toe.

I stepped out of the shower and bypassed the towel rack, moving toward the sink where I brushed my teeth before moving through the process of properly washing my face. I handled the entire process mindlessly because a pretty little thing had my mind in a chokehold.

Unfortunately I refused to do anything about it for now. Instead, I grabbed a towel to dry off with and secured it around my waist before heading out of the bathroom to my closet. My plan for now was to get dressed, find food, then head back to the studio. Prayerfully, I could focus on something other than her …

I spent my day in the studio moving between scribbling out song lyrics and strumming tunes with my guitar. An easy escape for me, one I repeated more times than I could recall. Nothing outside of my music existed when I chose to lose myself in it.

The proof existed when I finally checked my phone to get a grasp on time. I realized morning had shifted to evening and it was after ten that night. I blinked through the exhaustion that had settled into every inch of my body but only after I made the conscious decision to end my session.

While I wrote, I was fueled by the pure adrenaline of creating something amazing. It was the type of drive and high similar to what I’d been told cocaine delivered. I wouldn’t know. I never tried the shit. It wasn’t my thing. I occasionally smoked and enjoyed a nice brown liquor from time to time but I mostly kept my body pure so my music was pure. A lot of the artists I knew were the opposite and used substances to tap into their creative sides or extend beyond what their conscious minds could process. But I needed my mind clear and free of distractions.

Another reason I was ending my session. She had crept into my thoughts more often than I was comfortable with. I didn’t think about women I slept with beyond the inspiration they evoked. I rarely ever thought about sleeping with them more than once, and if I did, it still never happened. What I was coming to realize was, where Kori was concerned, I wanted not just a second round between her legs but I wouldn’t deny a third, or fourth, or tenth either.

Extending my arms over my head for a good stretch to my stiff back and limbs, I then dragged my hands over my face and exhaled the frustration I was experiencing. Regardless of the avoidance I managed for most of the day, I knew exactly what I was about to do.

When I made it upstairs and landed outside her door, I stilled, listening for any signs that I needed to mind my damn business but the silence on the other side of the door had me frowning and my knuckles rapping against the wood.

What if she left?

She wouldn’t without telling me.

Who the fuck am I kidding? She would definitely leave and not say shit to me.

When I didn’t get a response or hear even the slightest movement, I knocked again but this time I called her name. After the third time I pulled down on the handle and peeked inside just in time to see Kori with a towel wrapped around her body as she entered the bedroom from the adjoining bathroom.

Upon seeing me, her face set into a scowl and she clenched the towel tighter like I didn’t know what was beneath it.

“I knocked,” I muttered, trying extremely hard to keep my eyes focused on her face.

“I was in the shower.”

“Clearly.”

“What do you want, Ezren ?”

I cringed at the clipped way she used my name and the fact that she continued to use the one only my mother called me. After all the things I had done with and to Kori’s body, I didn’t want her addressing me the way my mother did.

“Dinner and will you please stop calling me Ezren? The only person who uses that name is my mother and mostly because I think it reminds her of my father.”

Low blow, but shit, I needed something to make her stop using the name. What I shared wasn’t exactly a lie. I had my father’s name and it did remind my mother of him…

But it reminded me too.

“Fine, Eccentric, and I cooked so…”

“E is fine and I know. I was just coming to ask if you’d eat with me.”

That was a lie. I hadn’t been anywhere near the kitchen to know she’d cooked.

“I already ate.”

“Okay then, come talk to me. Get dressed and I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” I rattled off then slipped into the hallway before she had a chance to say no. She still could or just flat out ignore my request, but I was hopeful.