Page 64 of This Side of Beautiful

I assisted Janae out of the car and walked up the stairs. She stared at the house with her mouth gaped and wistfully remarked, “I already know I’ll love it. This neighborhood is how I always envisioned the elite and rich live.”

“You do know you’re considered the elite and rich too?” I smiled as I punched in the code for my door. “You also have fame that my neighbors don’t have.”

Janae scanned the community of brownstones and neatly manicured trees that lined both sides of the street. She looked back at me. “I’m always going to be that girl from the Third Ward of Houston.”

“That girl who probably has at least a million in her bank account,” I reminded her. She glanced around again with a furrowed brow, as if she didn’t belong in this neighborhood after being worth more than eight million when she was only twenty-four. Being stripped of her fame and most of her money had scarred her.

I asked as I opened my door, “You good?”

She nodded.

My phone chimed as we entered the cool air of my foyer and living area. I closed the door before I pulled my cell out of my pocket.

Charles had sent a text.

We’re headed tothe studio to work on the album if you wantto stop by later.

The gnawing started again. “They decided to practice without me.”

As she took my guitar out of my hand, Janae asked, “All these years and no one has ever missed practice?”

“They never practice without me.” I stared at my phone and then at her. “I’m the only one who’s never missed a session.”

She caressed my face. “It’s not too late to go, Landon. I’m not going anywhere. I can wait here for you or return to the hotel and wait for you. I can’t come between you and them. They’re your family.”

She had just entered my home, and I already knew I didn’t want her to leave.

I turned my head and kissed her palm. “What if I want you to be my family too?”

Her eyes softened as I swooped down to kiss her, capturing her tongue in my mouth as I lifted her enough for her to wrap her legs around me. I carried her up the stairs, wanting our first time in New York to be in my bed.

Chapter Twenty-Three

janae

Iheld on to oneof the eight showerheads as I was getting head. Landon confessed he’d always been picky about what he put in his mouth and had barely tolerated oral sex until me. Now, his desire to give and receive seemed insatiable. We’d already had sex in his bed twice, and now we were supposed to be washing each other’s bodies. The next thing I knew, he was telling me to hold on while he kneeled, with my leg over his shoulder, ravishing the most intimate part of me with pure delight.

After I came loudly in his mouth, he rose to kiss my lips with a huge grin and a resounding smack. “I can so get used to you here with me.”

I hugged his waist as my legs became strong again. “Are you sure now? I can always stay in the hotel and let you have all this space to yourself.”

He started lathering my breasts. “Ha… ha.”

I snatched the loofah from him. “Nope, we’ll never get out of the shower if you start this up again. You wash yourself, and I’ll wash me. I want to see the rest of this gorgeous house.”

Landon chuckled and grabbed another loofah off the copper caddy for himself.

After we showered, I toured his renovated four-story brownstone wearing one of his hoodies that barely covered my ass. He refused to allow me to walk around nude until he’d recovered from the three back-to-back sessions we’d had today on very little rest.

“I don’t have visitors,” Landon explained when I noted the two lonely, crushed-velvet armchairs in his living area.

“I don’t need a disclaimer. Your house is your house. If you want to be the grumpy old man who lived in a shoe, I wouldn’t stop you.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha,” he mocked, spreading the Chinese takeout we’d ordered on his kitchen table. He heaped shrimp lo mein and fried rice on one plate for me. For himself, he had ordered plain lo mein and a separate side of shrimp.

“Surprised you have a table when you can just eat on the floor,” I teased as he pulled out the chair so I could sit. “Your house is beautiful. But why spend all that money on an interior decorator and not include a budget for a sofa?”

He swallowed noodles before saying, “Why waste money when I know I won’t have company?”

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