Loving Lucian ✅

Chapter Seven

I sighed. "Will you show at least a tinge of emotion?"

He looked up again, leaning back in his chair, which meant he was ready for a serious debate-like conversation with me. "Why?"

"Because. I don't know if you're doing this on purpose, but it's starting to get to me. You never say anything nice 'oh Ms. James, you look nice today' or some other statement such as. You just look, stare, then pretend you never saw anything. I mean, it's flustering enough that you never smile." I walked over to sit on my special spot on his desk.

"What do you expect from me? I'm just not one for smiles and complements, and you know that. Like you said yesterday, we are polar opposites. I'm not as happy and bubbly as you constantly are." He referenced.

"I just want to know how I look in your eyes. I mean--you're my boss, but if I'm dressed too over the top or too exposed and you don't say anything, I won't know and that'll made me look stupid working at the Monte L. You don't say anything, so that must mean there's something wrong." I tucked locks of hair behind my slightly pointed ears. I was talking some bullshit, because there was a real reason I wanted him to react to me.

He stayed silent for a moment. "Wait. The 'boss' thing has nothing to do with it." Dang it, I keep forgetting he's not as dumb as a bag of hair. "Do you think by my not saying anything, I don't find you attractive?"

"It does seem like that." I shrugged, making a frown form on his emotionless face. "Do you find me attractive, Mr. Montenegro?" I started to smile and his ears burned red.

"Peyton, it takes a simple eye to see beauty. Your beauty to me is insignificant. Actually, anyone's beauty to one specific person is insignificant because we all have different feelings about everyone else." He said. I understood what he was saying, I just didn't know what he meant.

"That doesn't answer my question. I don't care about anyone's opinion but yours right now."  I shook my head.

"Well in that case, Peyton," he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He looked me in the eyes and I blushed before he even spoke. "You are beautiful. And you always are. I mean it." His ears were redder, and the red was starting to spread over his cheeks. His voice was incredibly sincere, or at least way more sincere than he's been.

I just stared at him. This was so odd, because he's never said anything to me like that before. And by his blushing reaction to himself, he'd never said anything like that to anyone ever in his life. And I didn't know how I felt about it.

He looked away and cleared his throat before changing the subject. "Uh, this summer, when we start the apartment project--do you want to do interior design?"

I didn't respond, but I tilted my head to the side, still staring. One might say this was creepy as hell, but I was dazed. His words kept ringing in my head, and I didn't know why. Why he got so bashful and blushed was a weird mystery. It was just a seven word compliment. The big question this week so far: Why? Well no, it's more like: what the fuck is going on?

He analyzed me before calling my name. "Peyton?"

My brain screamed at me, 'Answer the man, would you, dumbass!'. I shook myself out of my thoughts. "What?"

He pursed his lips, still not looking me in the eye as he usually does. "I asked if you wanted to do the interior design for the apartment projects this summer, Ms. James." He said 'Ms. James' in kind a cold and flat manner, as if he were annoyed at me. He acted as if this whole 'beautiful' thing didn't just happen, which made me kind of mad.