Page 54 of I see you Beauty

I shuffle downstairs without glancing in the mirror, not wanting her to wait outside the door any longer. After letting her in, I can still freshen up while Kelly makes us coffee. If she invites herself over, she might as well be helpful. Normally, I pride myself on taking great care of my guests, but today, I just don't have the energy for it.

When I arrive downstairs, I can hear her talking, but Kelly is probably on the phone with one of her ex-husbands again, so I don’t bother and open the door. But when I see Kelly isn’t alone on the porch and two people are staring at me, my eyes widen, and shame floods my cheeks. Crap!

“Good morning, Mrs. Shepherd. I saw your lovely friend and wanted to say hello,” Ezra greets me with that ambiguous smile on his sinful lips.

His eyes wander over my appearance with an interested look. Since I didn’t want to risk Thomas seeing the traces of our lust yesterday, I put on a pair of short sleep shorts and a matching shirt instead of my silk shirt. My hair must look terrible, and I haven’t even brushed my teeth yet.

I suppress the impulse to run my tongue over my teeth, dirty from sleep, because that would probably be far more conspicuous than simply making this embarrassing situation as brief as possible.

“Ezra. What a surprise,” I squeak, and I would love for the ground to swallow me whole.

I’m mentally slapping myself for my stupidity. Outwardly, I smile, but without showing my teeth. Better safe than sorry.

Kelly gives me a skeptical look before turning back to Ezra with her trademark smile. She puts a hand on his arm, and I realize I hate her touching him at all. But I say nothing and let her put on her typical Kelly show so I can finally escape upstairs.

“Sorry about her strange behavior. She’s quite moody in the morning. I hope you didn’t go too hard on good ol’ Cora yesterday. Or maybe you did, which explains her bad mood,” Kelly jokes and gives me a meaningful look over her shoulder before turning back to him.

I curse and could strangle her for playing her little game with him. Above all, she seems to be amused by the way Ezra and I dance around each other.

Ezra gives her his most engaging smile before his gaze shifts to me.

“Don’t worry, I can handle claws. She did pretty well yesterday, and I hope I didn’t overwhelm you, Mrs. Shepherd.”

He fixes me with that familiar, gentle gaze and holds me completely captive with it for a moment before I clear my throat to find my voice again. I’ve heard the implication. You…

“No. In fact, I think you’ve been holding back a bit, and I’m asking you to give more at our next training session. I expect more from my trainer,” I counter, which makes Kelly snort in amusement.

“But, of course, Mrs. Shepherd. Anything you wish,” Ezra replies with a certain twinkle in his eye.

“Good. I’ll get back to you when I need my next lesson. Thank you very much, and have a nice day, Mr. King,” I say goodbye to him before grabbing Kelly by the hand and pulling her inside.

She says a quick goodbye before the front door slams shut behind us. I quickly peek outside through the frosted glass next to the door to see if he’s still there. But he turns away, shaking his head. I can literally see his arrogant grin in my mind’s eye.

“What… was that?” Kelly snaps me out of my stupor, and I quickly turn to her.

My heart is still pounding heavily, and when I realize what I’ve just done, I slap my hand over my mouth and look at her with wide eyes. Kelly grins ear to ear and gives me a knowing glare.

“Damn, Cora darling. I’ve never seen you flirt like that before and in that outfit. Respect,” Kelly praises me proudly and looks me up and down amusedly.

I quickly turn to the large wall mirror hanging in the corridor behind the front door and realize that I look absolutely awful. Dark circles under my eyes right up to the tip of my nose, and my hair standing on end like a shaggy lion’s mane. If my roots had been greasy, I would have shot myself. Don’t even get me started on my outfit. But since Ezra has already seen me naked, it’s probably tolerable. Still, I would have preferred it if I hadn’t bumped into him today.

“I wasn’t flirting with him,” I defend myself and turn back to her.

Kelly raises her thin eyebrow at me to clarify what nonsense I’m talking about. Grumbling, I walk past her toward the stairs, rolling my eyes.

“If you’re going to turn up here unannounced, you might as well make coffee for us. After all, I’m always in such a bad mood in the morning,” I snort over my shoulder as I climb the first few steps. “I’ll freshen up and get dressed,” I tell her, ignoring her teasing comments as I make my way upstairs to my bedroom.

Once in the bathroom, I lean against the closed door with a sigh and briefly close my eyes to take a deep breath. I have no idea what has just come over me. His flirty smile and ambiguous statements irritated me so much that it burst out of me. Something like that mustn’t happen to me again, at least not publicly. At least this time, it was just Kelly. Either way, she will force me to tell her everything that happened between Ezra and me yesterday. Still, we must be more careful if we don’t want to be found out.

I feel like a felon planning to commit a crime and showing no remorse. I’m talking about cheating on my husband before breakfast. How could I have ended up here?

Shaking my head, I undress, tie my hair up, and shower to freshen up and clear my mind.

Once I’ve finished, I sit fully clothed in front of my dressing table and put on my makeup before rising to my feet. At least now I look like a human being again and can show myself to the world. Maybe without bumping into my lover, but I don’t want to hope too much. After all, I know Ezra and his perfect timing. However, he looked like he was on his way to the boxing club. Maybe I’ll have some peace and quiet from him today and can get my thoughts in order.

“What took you so long? Thinking too much about your hot neighbor?” Kelly teases me as I join her outside under the pavilion.

She also loves sitting here and has set up a lovely breakfast outside, complete with pastries, plates, coffee, and everything we need for a relaxing breakfast.

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