Invisible to My First Love (Harper and Maddox) novel Chapter 102

Harper

As I waited for Maddox to answer, he just stared at his uncle for a few seconds, then back at me. I was certain that I’d spotted something vulnerable in his eyes, but he quickly masked it with that familiar teasing smirk right before he spoke.

“My uncle just means that I paid attention to all the other girls more than I did to you. I kinda felt awful after I spoke to him about it. Please, Uncle, can we not talk about what I did? I’ve been trying to forget about that.

“Huh, of course.” I caught Uncle Sebastian’s forehead crease before it smoothed out.

Just for a moment, I wondered what they were actually trying to say to each other, but he laughed loudly before speaking again.

“My nephew’s quite embarrassed.”

Playfully narrowing my eyes at Maddox, I said, “He should be. I’ll never forget that night. You’re just lucky I’m forgiving and I understood you.”

“Yup. Anyway,” Maddox cleared his throat like he was about to change the subject. “I told the chef to surprise us with the dessert. That means I have no idea what it is.”

Uncle Sebastian rubbed his hands together with a grin. “To me, it doesn’t matter what it is. I already know that it’ll be just as delicious as everything that I’ve had so far.”

As he mentioned his best guesses of what the dessert might be, I constantly glanced at him while sipping my wine. He was refreshing, loud, funny and impossible not to like. He was really the type of man who could fill an entire room with his presence and have everyone laughing by the end of it. I’d seen it before.

When it was time for dessert,which turned out to be eclairs, Uncle Sebastian still had so many stories to tell that I listened to each one. That was until his phone rang and he excused himself, stepping into the other room to answer the call.

I was left alone with my pretend boyfriend and the silence that followed wasn’t awkward at all. But in my peripheral vision, I could feel him watching me, so I turned to face him and there he was, his eyes intensely taking in everything he could see. While I wanted to make myself believe that it was just him stripping me naked with his eyes, there was something more to it.

“What’s on your mind?” I finally asked.

He didn’t answer right away, slowly picking up his glass for a sip and putting it back down on the table.

“I’ve decided to paint again,” he suddenly said while staring down at his glass.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “You’re kidding.”

He firmly shook his head. “I mean it.”

My lips curved into a wild smile. “OMG… this is….this is huge. You’ve been talking about it for a while now and it’s finally happening.”

He raised his head to look at me for a few seconds, his gaze filled with so much desire as he studied. features and said, “Yeah and I want to paint you first.”

I froze as my eyes grew wide. “Me?” I asked with a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, you.” His tone teasingly dropped a little lower. “You’re all I can think about.”

My jaw dropped at how that sounded. “Wha-”

my facial

“You’re all I can think about when it comes to who I want to start with,” he quickly clarified. “Your face is just perfect.”

I exhaled, unable to wipe the smile off my face. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes.” He sighed, his expression a little softer. “Actually, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want-”

“Yes!” I said quickly. “I’d be honored. No one has ever wanted to paint me before.”

He smirked, leaning towards me. “I’m glad I get to be the first. Don’t worry, I won’t make you ugly.”

I chuckled, gently hitting his shoulder. “You better not.”

“I already know exactly what I’m going to do with you,” he whispered, biting his bottom lip.

“Wha-”

“I meant the type of painting,” he quickly clarified with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

I smacked my lips with a sigh. He knew exactly what his words were doing to me.

“I know every detail of your face,” he said, still observing me. “I can’t wait to see your reaction when I’m done.”

“So… how long will it take to complete?” I curiously leaned forward.

He inched closer, his lips now so close to mine. “I’m not telling you that. You know how much I love to make you wait.”

That confirmed it even further. He knew exactly what he was doing to me…and I didn’t hate it.

“You’re in for quite the surprise once I’m done,” he said, leaning back to widen the distance.

I wasn’t even able to smile back as I just stood there for a moment, his words replaying over and over in my mind… that Maddox was in love with me. That couldn’t be right. I told myself everything was fake and temporary. It was something we’d agreed on, but as I thought about all the changes in him that his uncle had just pointed out, it all suddenly felt… different.

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked back and spotted Maddox, walking towards his uncle and I with confidence.

“It turns out my dad needs me at the office as soon as I can get there,” he said casually.

I stared at him a bit too long as I thought about everything and he noticed it, making him suspiciously narrow his eyes at me.

It was Uncle Sebastian’s question about the office that made him pay attention to that instead and I was so relieved that I asked myself why. It wasn’t like I’d done anything wrong.

I followed behind the two of them and quietly observed Maddox. He opened the car door for his uncle as the two exchanged a few last words. My mind wasn’t even on their conversation as I kept wondering if his uncle might actually be right.

As soon as his uncle left, he grabbed me by the wrist, leading away back inside.

“Now I can finally show you,” he said with a hint of excitement.

Judging by his body language, I began to rule out the possibility that he wanted to show me what was in his pants. But that didn’t lessen my curiosity at all. I still wanted to see what he wanted to show me.

As he led me up the stairs, he showed me texts on his phone from his uncle, talking about how he liked me so much that he wanted the three of us to grab some food in the future.

He was so proud as he spoke about him that it warmed my heart and I found myself wondering that even though his uncle was that dear to him, he wasn’t able to convince him to get back to painting again, but I did?

For a few minutes, I thought he was just taking me to one of the regular rooms until we got to the top floor, made it past all the other doors and stopped in our tracks when we got to the last one. It was the one that had three layers of grill doors like they were meant to keep people out.

I remembered the first time I’d asked him about it. That was the morning after our wild first fuck. He didn’t want to talk about it at all. He even changed the subject. And now, there he was, letting me stand in front of it like it was nothing.

He was still holding onto my wrist when he pulled out a bunch of keys from his back pocket and I felt I had to say something at that moment.

“What are we doing here?”

He didn’t answer right away as he slid the key into the lock of the first grill door.

After unlocking all three grill doors and the actual door, he turned to me like he was just doing something regular as he pushed the door open.

“Come in,” he said, stepping aside.

I hesitated for a second, then finally went for it because he’d allowed me to go in. And the second I stepped inside, I gasped, my hand covering my mouth as my eyes widened at what I saw inside.