Page 25 of Beautiful Noise
She’d made me extremely uncomfortable by exposing something I didn’t want to admit. Something no one really knew about me. Well, a select few did, but even they didn’t put things in perspective the way that Kori had. How the fuck could a stranger read me so throughly?
I didn’t like how she made me feel nor was I ready to acknowledge the truth hidden beneath her words. She’d misinterpreted a small part, but dissected things painfully well.
“Fuck.”
My body was coiled tightly with emotions I didn’t have a gotdamn clue how to deal with. Normally I’d bury them between a woman’s legs but that wasn’t what I was aching for.
Well… not just any woman.
My eyes shifted left toward the wall that separated me fromher.
“Fuck this shit,” I growled, stalking toward the French doors that closed me in. The minute I stepped into the hallway, I felt her. How that was possible only God knows, but her presence felt weighted and emotional. Instead of fixing what I’d messed up, I chose music.
By the time I reached my studio, my mind was reeling and I was raw, thoughts all over the place. I flipped on all the lights and powered up my sound board for continued recording and wrapped my hand around the neck of my acoustic guitar, stepping into the booth. I dropped into the loveseat against one of the walls, with a leg extended across the seat, the other resting on the floor, and positioned the sleek, custom, wooden instrument in my arms.
The minute my eyes closed, my fingers began to move and the lyrics began to flow. My voice paired with the melody my fingers created silenced my thoughts. I needed to get lost and music was the only way I knew how to lose myself.
Hours later, my voice was strained and my throat felt raw but my spirit was still heavy. Gently placing my guitar in the corner, I left the booth and stabbed at the button to stop the recording I’d made. I hesitated for a minute, contemplating whether or not I wanted to save the work I’d done but ended up leaving it in queue, when movement from the corner of the room caught my attention.
I tensed, peering into the dark past the glass panels that separated where I was from the lounge area, realizing Kori was curled up on one end of the L-shaped sectional. She had her knees drawn into her chest and both arms tucked beneath her head.
How long has she been down here?
The speakers in the recording booth were attached to the main sound system which meant she’d heard me while I was inside. I should have felt angry for the violation of privacy but oddly enough what I felt was anxious.
Anxious to know what she felt about my lyrics and melodies. The need to hear her thoughts was so intense that it left me unsettled. The desire was new. Some would call me arrogant or overly confident. I heard it all over the years but the raw, unbiased truth was that I knew who I was.
I never cared what others thought about my music because my gift was innate, something that only lived in a handful of people and I was one of them. The way things flowed through me was something no one could explain, not even myself. Sure, certain things inspired me, but I was solely responsible for what poured through me. Acknowledging my talent wasn’t arrogance, just unshackled belief that music was and would always be a part of me.
But now, at this moment, I was being driven by the need to seemethrough her eyes. There had been no intention, otherthan escaping, when I entered the booth hours ago, but for some unforeseen reason, her opinion mattered.
Mostly because she’d exposed me at dinner in ways that no one else had before, only she had one thing wrong…
Exhaling a sigh, I moved through the room until I was standing over her. The first sign of Kori’s presence was her scent. That damn smell I couldn’t seem to escape because it was all around me.
Kneeling down, I brushed the tip of my finger across her skin, tracing the outline of her jaw. She roused but didn’t wake, releasing a low moan that settled into a sigh once she found comfort again. I needed her eyes, her voice, so like the fool I was, I decided to be selfish.
“Ri, wake up.”
“Hmm?”
“Wake up.”
Her lids fluttered and slowly peeled open. It took a minute to realize where she was, but the moment it registered she untucked her arms, using one to lift to a seated position.
“How long you been down here?”
Her eyes bounced around before they met with mine again. This time, she appeared calm, yet cautious, which had my chest tight. “For a little while.”
“So you heard me in there?”
Awkwardly, she nodded. I sensed every move she made was done with caution, not knowing how I would react. I deserved every bit of apprehension she displayed.
Needing space, I stood, clearing my scratchy throat. “I’m gonna make some tea, you want some?”
“Yeah, sure.” There was a pause. Hesitation was visible in her eyes. “If you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t.”