Secretly Mine-Chapter 176: The Covered Canvas

The excitement from Lucas’s surprise continued to grow inside of me. I glanced over at his finished painting and was taken aback.

His scene was of a golden wheat field with a beautiful sunset behind it. Just looking at the painting brought me a sense of peace. If I were to judge the painting the same way Lucas judged mine, I would say that all of his scenes held feelings of peace and calmness.

It was difficult to achieve such an effect without making the scene feel boring.

"Your painting is magnificent, Lucas. It’s crazy how much it transformed today alone. I couldn’t even tell that this was supposed to be a wheat field when we first started today!" I said with awe.

"Thank you. It was a scene I saw when I traveled last year. I felt very at peace when I looked at it, and I hope I was able to bring that feeling to life," he explained with a soft smile.

"You did!" I nodded, "Being around you, I feel very at peace."

I didn’t even realize I said those words until after I said them. I blushed slightly, but my words were true.

Lucas looked at me with a slightly surprised expression, but the joy in his eyes overpowered everything else.

"I’m glad you feel that way," he said softly.

It seemed like there was something else he wanted to say, but instead, he turned his attention back to our paintings.

"I’ll let these dry for now and send them over to the venue in the morning. I’ll pick you up same time tomorrow. But before you leave, I was wondering if you’d like to stay for dinner?" he asked.

There was still time before I was expected to be home, so I smiled, "Yes! I’d love to!"

Lucas smiled back, "Perfect, then I’ll get changed and head down to the kitchen. Feel free to relax in the meantime. My cook is out today, so you’ll have to put up with my cooking. Though I’m not skilled in many dishes, I can cook a decent pasta."

I laughed, "Well, aren’t I lucky! I can’t wait to taste it and discover you’re also actually a Michelin-star chef!"

Lucas quickly shook his arms, "No, no. I promise you I’m not, so please don’t have high expectations!"

I looked up at him with amusement, "I’m sure it will be delicious, Lucas. I’ll clean up here and make my way downstairs."

Lucas smiled and left the room.

I was surprised that Lucas didn’t have more staff at the house, but he explained earlier that he really enjoyed his privacy, so all of his staff only worked when he was away at work. At first, I didn’t understand why he would do something like that, since my entire life our house had always kept dozens of staff.

However, after spending a few days at Lucas’s house, I came to enjoy the feeling. His house truly felt like his home, and he could do whatever he wanted without prying eyes. Everything felt more intimate and homey.

My mind wandered over to Christian’s house. Though he had live-in staff, his house was so large that it did keep a sense of privacy...except for that one morning when Jonathan walked in on us.

A light warmth spread throughout my body as I remembered how Christian had his way with me. I could feel a tinge of desire wash over me.

No!

I shook my head, forcing myself to snap out of my thoughts. This was certainly not the time and place to have such thoughts. I quickly bent over and began to tidy up my brushes and paints before making my way to the guest room to change back into my office clothing.

As I walked back out, I could smell a pleasant scent coming from the kitchen downstairs.

And Lucas said he wasn’t good at cooking... It already smells better than anything I could ever cook.

Instead of walking downstairs to the kitchen, I wanted to take one last look at my painting. Since it would be hanging up for the world to see tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that it was as perfect as it could possibly be.

I made my way back to the painting room and closely inspected my canvas. A warm smile appeared on my face; I was very proud of this painting.

Thanks to Lucas, this was my best work yet.

My eyes wandered to Lucas’s painting, then to the others that were spread around the room. I’ve been here for many days, but I realized that I never had a good look at his other paintings.

I slowly traveled around the room, closely looking at his past works. Each scene was as breathtaking as the previous.

I really envy his skill...

Some scenes were happier while others felt more somber, but they all shared the same peaceful quality.

I finally made it to the back of the room, where the massive canvases were stacked. If these were to be put for sale, Lucas could probably buy another house from the painting alone. They were massive, taller than me, and still very intricately detailed.

However, there was one canvas that stood above them all. It was easily the largest one in the room, and it was covered by a heavy white cloth.

I looked at it closely, feeling the curiosity rise inside of me. It was the only painting in the room that was covered, making me want to see it even more.

Surely he won’t mind if I take a small peek, right?

As if I were a thief, I looked around the room before taking a step forward and lifting the cloth. But the moment I saw what was underneath, I froze.

What? Why would he....

"It...It’s not finished."

I dropped the cloth and turned around, meeting Lucas’s gaze. His eyes were locked onto me, looking at me with a very intense gaze.

He finally walked forward, walking in front of the covered canvas.

"This has been my most recent project. In fact, it’s even kept me up at night," he said with a nervous laugh. "As you may know, portraits aren’t my specialty. But when I saw you that night, walking down the runway in that black dress...something shifted inside of me. You were ethereal, like something that doesn’t belong on this planet. I wanted to capture that essence in a painting, but as you can see, it hasn’t really worked out."