Page 54 of Beautiful Noise
“Fuck, maybe I need to find someone else.”
I smirked. “That’s on you.”
He groaned. “We have New York tomorrow. Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas follow. Do I need to pay for your flight and hotel?”
“No, I can handle that. Send me the details.”
“Emailing now. Even though you're currently fucking me with this, I appreciate you agreeing.”
“That’s what friends are for, right?”
“More like family because family screws you over worse than anyone else.”
I laughed and ended the call, glancing over my shoulder to find that Kori had tucked her head under the covers again.
“You should pack.”
“Oh, sure. I can find somewhere to go. It’s probably time for me to figure out my life anyway.” She peeked from under the comforter.
“You don’t need to find anywhere to go.We’regoing to Houston. Apparently I’m the opening act for an artist who had never even charted before.”
She frowned, as if not understanding. “You want me to go with you?”
“Not want,need. If I’m doing this, there has to be a reward. And since I’m not getting paid, fucking you the minute I walk off stage will be enough to placate my ego.”
Kori laughed, then flashed a broad smile. “You only want me to go to stroke your ego?”
“Placatemy ego, you’ll be stroking something else.”
“Ezren.” She shot me a hard look and I smiled.
“You want me to lie?”
“No, I want you to not be so insecure that you need sex to make you feel better about helping a struggling artist.”
I chuckled. “I’m only joking about that part. She’s good enough to hold her own but the world doesn’t know yet. I’m more than glad to help out but the timing isn’t the best.”
She frowned again. “Maybe I shouldn’t.”
“We’re not hiding, Ri. Pack and we’ll leave in the morning. That will give us a day to just chill and you can show me the spot where you fell in love with spoken word.”
“Why?”
“I told you I want it all. Even the things you’re not comfortable sharing.”
“But don’t you need to practice or something?”
I arched my brow and she rolled her eyes. “Oh right.TheEccentric is more than capable of an impromptu performance. What was I thinking?”
“You were thinking you could use inadequacies that I don’t have to deflect from sharing your world.” I turned toward her, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Pack. I need to make a few calls to put some things in place.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kori.
The next morning I was on a private plane to Houston. I hadn’t expected to hate the flight as much as I did, but two seconds into a bumpy take off, I realized I wasn’t a catching flights type of girl. My stomach was a combination of tense and queasy while every muscle I possessed locked tightly.
Ezren, on the other hand, appeared completely at ease. But why wouldn’t he be? This was his life. He did world and stateside tours multiple times a year. At the very least, I was grateful that the flight was short. We were in the air for less than two hours then whisked away in an oversized shiny, new SUV to the Four Seasons Comcast Center where the Skyline Corner suite was prepared and waiting.