Matthew pinned Clarissa against the mirror inside their walk-in closet.
“Me? An old man?” he questioned.
Clarissa chuckled nervously. He had pinned her arms onto the mirror and held her captive. Despite this, Clarissa mentally fawned over how cool he looked as he pinned her down.
She enjoyed being pinned to the wall so much that she didn’t care about the “old man” topic that Matthew raised. Instead, her cheeks reddened as if two brilliantly red roses had bloomed on them.
“That’s just a joke to loosen Jonathan’s nerves. Come on, don’t get upset. Also, what’s up with you today? Let me go…” Clarissa murmured.
However, she secretly wanted him to continue pinning her down. Her erratically beating heart screamed in her chest. Please don’t let go!
It was like she had utterly fallen under Matthew’s charms.
Matthew was going to let Clarissa go. However, he suddenly noticed that Clarissa’s lovestruck eyes were ogling him. She also blushed furiously as if she were some bashful schoolgirl.
This amused Matthew, who leaned in closer to her.
Her reaction was just as he had expected; her face burned redder than a tomato as her eyes gleamed eagerly at him.
Matthew’s lips curled slightly. At that moment, their noses were only inches away from each other. A mischievous desire was laced in his low, taunting hum.
Then Matthew suddenly pinched Clarissa’s waist. Wanting to tease her more, his hands roamed down to her hips and gave them a hard pinch as well.
At this, Clarissa mewled in shock.
Matthew’s wicked grin curved deeper. Meanwhile, Clarissa’s blushed harder as Matthew seemed to have read her mind.
“What are you doing?” Clarissa pouted and batted her eyelashes at him.
Matthew tensed at this. He inched closer, pressing her tautly between his body and the mirror.
He only replied with one word, “You.”
Clarissa stilled in confusion. Before she could respond, Matthew chuckled in her ear. His warm breath tingled her ear lobes.
He continued, “Didn’t you ask what I was doing?”
It finally registered in Clarissa’s mind. “Matthew Tyson, you old pervert!”
Deep laughter rumbled from Matthew’s chest as he smirked delightedly.
He pulled Clarissa in for a big wet kiss. Smack! Then he grinned at her shy and helpless face.
“You love it. Don’t you, Clare?”
“That’s not true! Get away, you old pervert! Get off me. Let me go…”
Women, Matthew sighed inwardly. They’ll never admit what they truly feel.
They deny that their feelings, saying they don’t like certain things, even though they do. Then they tell you to let go, even though they want you to hold them tighter.
However, Matthew hadn’t pried too much into Clarissa’s true feelings because it would only upset her.
Might as well give the woman what she wants!
“Mommy, Daddy, I’m hungry! Let’s eat now. Mommy…” Damian suddenly called out.
At this, the tomato-faced Clarissa darted out of the closet and stopped her son from entering.
“Come on, Damian. Let’s head downstairs to eat.”
Matthew then casually trailed after them. At that moment, Damian was staring wide-eyed at Matthew before looking back at Clarissa. Clarissa couldn’t help but panic at the boy’s innocent gaze. She was worried that the boy had figured out what happened inside the closet.
“Ah!” the boy suddenly cried out. “Mommy, did you put on lipstick again? Your lips are so red! Why didn’t you ask me to do it for you?”
Clarissa had the habit of putting on lipstick each time she left the house. Ever since Damian noticed this, he became adamant about putting on her lipstick for her.
Hence, the boy was upset that his mother’s lips were currently a bright shade of red.
She secretly put on her lipstick even though she’s not going out! The boy stomped his foot in betrayal. He whined, insisting that Clarissa remove her lipstick so that he could reapply it for her.
To this, Clarissa felt utterly embarrassed.
She soothed, “I’m not wearing any. Here, see for yourself.”
“Really? But your lips are red! You must be lying to me.”
“I’m not. Take a look. You can try and smudge it too…” Clarissa explained as she leaned towards the boy.
Damian raised his little hand and rubbed gently on her lips. After realizing that there wasn’t any pigment, he tilted his head in confusion.
“So why are your lips red, Mommy? Did you snack on something red?”
“No, I…”
Before Clarissa could come up with an explanation, Matthew picked up the little boy in one swift motion.
Then Matthew whispered as if he were sharing some juicy gossip, “Don’t go poking your nose into things, Damian. This secret is between your Mommy and me. It’s about having a little sister, but it won’t come true if we tell you about it.”
“Really? Then I won’t ask anymore,” Damian promised.
The boy covered his mouth immediately whilst casting a sparkly, rounded-eyed look at Matthew, then at Clarissa.
Still, he couldn’t help but wonder why his mother’s face had turned as red as her lipstick.
Then again, he wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask. Does this have to do with my little sister? Damian gasped excitedly at the thought.
In an instant, he dropped the topic and decided to patiently wait for his little sister to arrive in their family.
Matthew’s head whipped around as he smirked at Clarissa, whose ears had also turned pink from embarrassment. She glared at him before ushering everyone downstairs.
Laughter erupted from Matthew since he enjoyed seeing her so flustered. Damian, however, was unaware of what happened and stared cluelessly at his parents.
After their meal, they had their chauffeur send Jonathan home.
Back home, Hilary and Zach had long-awaited Jonathan’s return. Thus, they welcomed him warmly when he arrived at the door.
“Jonathan, you’re back. What took you so long?” Hillary asked.
Zach chimed in, “Why does it matter? He was only at Clarissa’s; it’s not like he went to some stranger’s home. Come sit, Jonathan!”
Jonathan knew why his parents were behaving like this; they wanted information from him. However, he wasn’t keen on telling them, so he kept silent.
“Jonathan. Why aren’t you talking? Were you visiting Clarissa? Did you meet her child? And what about Mr. Tyson?”
Jonathan simply nodded in response.
“Is the child really hers? How are they? Does Mr. Tyson love the child?”
Jonathan mentally rolled his eyes. Obviously.
However, he held back from telling his parents too much. He knew that they had ulterior motives from the way their eyes glinted maliciously.
So he dismissed himself, “Yeah. I wasn’t there for long, so I didn’t pick up anything interesting. I’m going back to my room now.”
“Hang on. Why the rush, Jonathan?” Hillary relentlessly latched onto his arm.
It was clear that she wanted to prompt more information from Jonathan.
Regardless, Jonathan grew annoyed with her antics. He flung her arm off and growled, “I don’t want to talk anymore! I’m tired. I’m going to bed now.”
Then, he quickly stormed off and locked himself in his room.
Hilary’s face scrunched into a deep frown at his disobedience. She whipped around and whined to her husband, “Zach, look at your son! Do you think he’s going through a rebellious phase?”
To her surprise, there was not a trace of anger on Zach’s face.
Instead, he shook his head amusedly at her. “It’s fine if he doesn’t want to talk. You don’t have to force him.”
“But—”
Before Hilary could continue, Zach shook his head and motioned her to sit down. “Jonathan probably has a good relationship with Clary, so he doesn’t want to speak ill of her. That’s fine. What matters is he’s on good terms with her. After all, it’s only natural for our family to get along well with one another.”
Hilary was initially dumbfounded at her husband’s relaxed manner. After pondering for some time, she quickly caught on to his true intentions.
She immediately nodded to herself. Either way, we’re doing all of this for Jonathan’s sake.
Meanwhile, Zach hoped that Jonathan and Clarissa could be on good terms as brother and sister. That was enough to make Zach happy. However, his intentions weren’t pure either; he saw Jonathan and Clarissa’s good relationship as a fallback plan should he ever need one in the future.
Jonathan must have said something to Hilary. Clarissa noticed that Hilary hadn’t pestered her at all these days. Not that Clarissa minded; in fact, she felt that it was for the best.
Jonathan was recently on school break, so he often dropped by Zen Highlands to spend time with Damian. Clarissa was more than happy with this as it gave her time to focus on work. She took advantage of this and quickly bustled off to the studio.
Clarissa had already submitted the manuscript for her children’s picture book, and Joshua had also completed the book’s illustrations as per her request. Flipping through his illustrations, she gaped in awe for Joshua’s top-notch artistic abilities. His illustrations vividly and accurately portrayed every conceptual detail that she described to him. They were perfect.
By the time she had gone through Joshua’s work and praised him several times, Joshua puffed his chest complacently.
He raised his chin and bragged, “See? It’s your loss for passing on a talented man like me, who’s good at depicting your words and is your best friend.”
To this, Clarissa let out a bubbly chuckle and nodded at him. “Yeah, yeah. My loss.”
“That’s right,” Joshua harrumphed in a joking tone.
He was satisfied that she had played along. An idea popped into his mind as he cracked a playful smile. “Why don’t you dump that snobby businessman, Tyson, and be mine instead? My family likes having you around, so you’ll have a fuss-free relationship with your mother-in-law. Plus, that Tyson guy is trash. If you marry me, you won’t…”
Joshua froze abruptly. However, Clarissa hadn’t given this too much thought.
She only asked, “Why’d you stop talking?”
Joshua flashed a tight-lipped smile as he looked behind Clarissa and said, “A-actually, Rissa, I think that Damian’s father is umm… he’s a decent man.”
Clarissa giggled after hearing this. She turned in the direction that Joshua was looking at, already knowing what awaited there—Matthew.
He stood behind her with his eyebrows twisted into a fearsomely deep frown.
Shuddering and lips twitching in fear, Joshua shot onto his feet. “I’ll be off now, Rissa. Don’t miss me too much!”
He then scurried out the door as if he were some bushy-tailed cat, running from a fight. At this, Clarissa couldn’t help but burst into hearty laughter.
Pfft! That rascal. Even as he flees for dear life, he just had to add that last line to taunt Matthew.
Matthew then walked over. He pinched her cheek and huffed, “You seem like you’re in good spirits.”
At that, Clarissa swatted his hand away and ushered, “Stop it. Not in my studio! Speaking of, why are you down here at this time of day?”
“Well, I wouldn’t have caught someone professing their love to you if I didn’t show up now, would I?”
“Pffft! What do you mean by professing their love? Joshua was only messing around. What, did you seriously believe what he said?”
Clarissa stood up. She tugged on Matthew’s fingers and murmured, “He’s just kidding. Besides, I’m your wife. No one would dare to profess their love to me.”
Matthew could tell that the employees around them were only pretending to work, that they were secretly eavesdropping as well as peeking at his and Clarissa’s conversation. Regardless, he leaned forward and boldly nibbled on her plump lips.
“Say that again. What are you to me?” he asked.
