Page 25 of Allure

I couldn’t help but smile because this space felt the most like her and it made a sense of pride beam in me. This was something she created on her own and it was the thing that made her who she was.

“I see you found the studio. It’s like peace settles over you the moment you step in here, right?” she asked behind me.

I looked over my shoulder with a nod. “Definitely. I see you all throughout this room. This is dope, baby.”

She beamed at my compliment and walked over to the canvas that she had been working on. I could tell she wasn’t finished with it yet. The way her finger dragged along the side of it let me know she hadn’t spent this much time away from her art. I knew without needing to be told that this was where she needed to be. At least for the night.

I reached into my pocket and pulled my phone out.

“Hey, we’re going to add another stop or two,” I told my driver.

Lore turned around to face me with a smile and a lift of her brow.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m compromising and it’s not a big compromise. I can tell you want to be here, that you want to paint. I just want to be where you are, so it doesn’t bother me to make myself at home here while you work. I have a meeting tomorrow with my agent but that’s it. I’ll grab my car and come back here after I grab a few things to wear. Long as the change of the plans is cool with you?” I asked.

Lore rushed over, jumping into my arms, almost knocking me off balance, but I caught her and steadied myself. She leaned back and kissed me a few times quickly before sliding down my body, then back onto her feet.

“I’m going to take that as a yes. I’ll bring your bags in here and you can make yourself comfortable. Also, send me a text with what you want to eat for dinner. I’m sure neither of us feels like cooking after all this traveling.”

Lore nodded and then walked back over to her canvas. I stood for a moment, admiring the woman in front of me, then walked out of the room to make sure everything was brought inside before having the driver take me back to my place. The moment I pulled up, reporters were guarding the gate with cameras.

I groaned because this was the shit I was talking about. They hadn’t been worried about my ass until I decided not to sign that contract. Then I had the nerve to get married, so right now, I was high on their priority list. The moment we got through the gates, I noticed Kole’s car was parked outside.

I silently thanked God that I had a mind to stay at my wife’s place because I would have been pissed had I come in here with her and he was here. The driver parked in front of the door, then opened mine and grabbed my bags from the back.

“I got it from here. Thank you, man, and here is a tip,” I said to the driver, reaching into my pocket for a couple hundred.

He nodded and then got back into his car, going back out the way he came in. I turned to face my front door and released a sigh as I pulled my key out to unlock the door. The moment I walked in, I heard music blasting throughout the house and moaning.

I was about to whup this man’s ass. If he was going to be fucking random bitches, it definitely shouldn’t be at my spot. Especially after I just got married. These folks wouldn’t care that they saw Kole go in with her. The bottom line was, she was leaving my spot and I was a married man.

I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer. I massaged my temples before jogging up the steps and banging on my guest door, then I snatched it open because this was my fucking house. Kole had this girl face down, ass up, fucking the shit out of her.

His eyes widened at the sight of me.

“Get her and yourself the fuck out of my house! Now!” I yelled.

The girl turned with a look of lust in her eyes as if she would be down if I joined in on the fun. In my earlier days, I might have joined, but these days, I wasn’t down with that shit and Lore had pussy that made a grown man beg. I wasn’t going to do a damn thing to mess that up.

I slammed the door closed behind me and marched up to my room to start packing a bag to help work through my anger. It always amazed me how Kole was older than me, but at every turn, proceeded to act as if I was the older brother. The one thing that pissed me off even more was he had his own fucking house.

I made a mental note to take the key I had given him for emergencies back. If he ever pulled some shit like this while my wife was here, I was going to fuck him up. It would be yet another thing Big Reg would be mad about but I didn’t give a fuck anymore.

I walked into my bathroom, grabbing my soap and shit to add to my bag. More than thirty minutes had passed before everything was packed up. I made my way back down the hall looking in the room my brother had been in with disgust. He was paying for the fee I would have to pay to get a maid in here to clean this shit. I jogged down the steps to see him sitting on the couch with a sad expression.

The moment he noticed I was in the room, he hopped up and dressed in the clothes he had on the night before.

“Man, my bad. I didn’t expect you to be back so soon. Don’t most honeymoons take a week or two?” he asked.

I cocked my head to the side not believing what I was hearing. It almost sounded like he was making an excuse for fucking bitches in my spot while I wasn’t home. Which let me know this wasn’t his first time doing this.

“Why the fuck does that matter? You shouldn’t be in my spot doing no shit like that. You do realize now these folks going to think I fucked that girl right after I got married. So now I have to go explain the shit to my wife with the hopes she will believe me. Especially since we’re so early in our relationship. Sometimes I wonder who was supposed to be the big brother.”

Kole dropped back onto the couch and dropped his face into his hands.

“I know I’m fucking up, man. I didn’t think about all of that?—”

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