<b>Chapter </b><b>53 </b>
Harper
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Before Maddox could even tell me the rest of it, I already knew why I’d called him that. It had been on my mind for weeks and it made me chuckle.
“Because you stopped me at the bar that night so I wouldn’t regret it but jumped at the opportunity once it was offered to you?”
He nodded firmly, taking a sip of water from his ss while looking down at my thighs.
Even after setting down the ss, his eyes were glued to my thighs.
“Your biggest mistake was teasing me by kissing me during Grayson’s party. You left me wanting more and that night, I wanted you so badly that I chose to be selfish.”
His gaze lingered right in the middle of my thighs, like he’d tell me to open wide or he’d do it with his bare hands. The thought of it actually made me wait.
“Wanna know thest thing you said to me during thosete night video chats?” He teased me, meeting my gaze again.
“There’s more?” I smacked my lips.
“Yup…you asked if you could sit on my face.”
He said it so loudly that my jaw dropped with embarrassment.
“Wha- that never happened.” I covered my face with my hands while shaking my head.
“It definitely did.” He chuckled. “I wish I’d recorded it. I meant what I said when I told you it was only going to happen after you said it to my face while sober. So let’s hear it.”
He daringly sat back and I swallowed hard.
I’d definitely thought about it. That was something I’d always wanted to try out and Maddox always made me feelfortable enough to explore, but I just couldn’t say it even when the silence carried on for a while. I couldn’t get the words out.
“I guess you don’t want it. Fine.” He sighed.
I quickly dropped my hands a little too hard in protest and only realized how obvious I made it when he smirked at me while shaking his head.
“Everytime, I keep seeing something new that I like about you.” He teasingly leaned forward.
16:09 Tue<b>, </b>Sep 16
“Yeah? And what is it this time?” I didn’t lean back or toward him.
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I suddenly gasped when his handtched onto my thigh and just as I closed my eyes, my phone buzzed while in his other hand and he chuckled loudly.
“What?” I asked, opening my eyes.
“I see E and Zoey simultaneously text you.”
I gasped as I snatched my phone from him.
“Whoa!” He raised his eyebrows. “Scared I’ll see something I shouldn’t? Rx, the screen timeout was a few minutes ago.”
I hadn’t been paying attention to how long the screen had been on and just panicked at the thought of him seeing whatever E and Zoey had sent to me. They liked to give me sexy suggestions at times when they knew I was going to be with him.
As soon as I unlocked my phone and yed E’s video first, I chuckled softly and immediately held up the screen to Maddox’s face so he could see what was going on.
“Partying at 1 AM with the Bary twins. This must be their nightclub in France. I see your friends are still having a st, but don’t let them catch feelings.”
“Why not?” I pouted a little, swiping left to watch Zoey’s clip.
“The twins aren’t themitment type.”
“Like you.”
I only meant it teasingly and expected a yboy reply with a smug expression, but all it did was turn him serious.
“Exactly.” He faced the counter. “No time for that shit.”
“Ever had a girlfriend?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“We finally got to that question.” He raised the corner of his mouth. “Yeah and twice in the same year but I quickly realized it wasn’t for me. That was seven years ago.”
“You make it sound like both times were awful.”
“They were, but only because of me. Not that it matters anyway.”
“Actually, it does.” I just wanted to hear more.
“Some other time.” He shook his head dismissively and rose to his feet. “I’ll show you around.”
16:09 Tue<b>, </b>Sep 16
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It was the second time he was doing that, not wanting to talk about something personal in detail and I didn’t want to push him.
It took me a few seconds to get up from my scat as I wondered what it would take.
“What?” His expression turned nk as he held out his hand.
“It’s nothing,” I said, giving him my hand.
The moment he grabbed it, he pulled me towards him until I was right against his chest. I expected the usual sexy teasing when I caught him biting his lip, but he suddenly nced to the side and when he was looking at me again, his expression was just nk and he took a step back.
“This way.”
He walked ahead of me to the stairs and I wasn’t going to say it, but I knew what was going on with him. He thought he could avoid the topic about his ex–girlfriends by turning things a little sexy, but he knew he didn’t have to do that anymore.
“So… is this it?” I said, finally breaking the silence as I gestured with my hand across the walls of the hallway on the first floor.
“What do you mean?” He didn’t even nce at me.
“The walls are a bit too…in. I’m used to seeing paintings and all.”
“I have a few ideas in mind. Just follow me.”
With no further information, I followed him around for the house tour until we got to thest door on the top floor.
“This is what I was talking about,” he said, then opened the door for me.
It was a spacious art studio, filled with some of his paintings from San Francisco and my lips curved into a smile, especially when I saw one of my favorites and rushed to it on one of the tables.
“Don’t tell me you actually thought I was leaving all these behind.” He teased me.
“I wasn’t even thinking of this,” I admitted. “I thought that…never mind.”
“No, tell me<i>.</i>” He came closer, standing right behind me.
I could feel his warm breath caress the nape of my neck.
“I thought you wanted to have the walls in this ce like a nk canvas so you could start
16:10 Tue<b>, </b>Sep 16
…
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painting from scratch and fill up the hallways as time goes by.”
He chuckled softly, making me look back.
“What?” I asked.
“Again, another thing I like about you.”
His voice was quiet as he smiled at me, like he was impressed.
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I smiled back, d I was right, but his expression soon turned nk and his jaw clenched as he moved to the left, approaching another table with arge box.
cing his hand inside, he said, “You’re not far from the truth. I’ll hang up some of the paintings from San Francisco, then maybe…” He trailed off when he found what he was looking for. “I’ll get back into painting again.”
I gasped in pleasant surprise at the sight of the small box I’d gifted him for his birthday. “You brought this, too?”
“Yup, why would I leave this behind when it’s possibly a sign from the universe? With each passing day, I feel like I can get back into this. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Just give it time and you’ll figure it all out.”
“Careful, or you’ll be the one I paint next.”
I wanted tough hard, but it didn’t sound like it was aplete joke, especially when his gazended on the lone child painting in the corner.
Snapping out of it, he said, “Now, get your bare ass over here and help me organize these paintings.”
He said it so casually that I scoffed. I’d just realized that was an urate description for someone who’d been walking around in only a long shirt.
He couldn’t decide on how many paintings to hang on each floor and which ones. He needed my help and I actually enjoyed the experience.
We spent hours in the art studio until we went to bed around 4 AM.
The morning sun filtered through the curtains and when I felt it against my eyelids, I had to wake up.
I reached for my phone and realized it was already 10 AM and Maddox had also sent me a message an hour earlier.
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“Went for a run. Tell Tim what you want for breakfast, though you already had the best meal in bedst night.”
I could hear the smug tone in his voice. Of course he wouldn’t just leave it at telling Tim what I wanted for breakfast. He had to remind me, like I could forget.
After a fun and quick reply to let him know I was awake, the brightness drained from my face when my eyesnded on Grayson’s message thread. I was so curious that I checked again and just as I thought, I was still blocked. Thest thing I wanted was to constantly see his name each time I was checking my messages. It was for this reason that I decided to delete my entire chat with him. I wasn’t going to keep doing that to myself.
I got out of bed to freshen up and while still in a long robe, I made my way to the minibar and took a seat as I waited for my
breakfast.
I was making fun of E and Zoey in our group chat when the sound of heels clicking against the marble floor caught my attention. I turned my head in that direction and poked my cheek, the oneing my way pissing me off.