His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 116: When You’re Jealous

Chapter 116: When You’re Jealous

** Harper **

With a soft stroke, Harper floated closer to the rim of the pool. "Come sit," she patted on the sleek tiles in front of her, "it’s a long story."

Eli hesitated, though only for a second before he obliged, perching over the spot she indicated and letting his legs dangle over the edge into the water. Harper resisted the urge to grin, feeling like a hunter watching her prey walk closer and closer into her trap.

"Wallace was assigned to my project the week before your venture investment visit," she began. "He’s actually a nice person to work with, pretty capable and friendly," — she paused when she felt a sudden cold glare icy enough to freeze the whole pool — "well, I mean, he was friendly, to the right extent ... until he stumbled upon my web novel."

Eli’s head snapped toward her. "He what?" The words came out almost a growl.

Harper winced sheepishly. This part of the story wasn’t her proudest to tell. "Well ... He accidentally saw the web novel notifications on my phone one day ... And I think he somehow figured out everything about my hidden side gig from there. Since then, his friendliness started to feel ... a little much. The coffee thing Naomi mentioned started a few days after that, for example, and I think I might’ve been the first person he asked to schedule flights together with."

The coldness in Eli’s eyes was deadly now. Harper paused, waiting for him to probably curse or demand why she hadn’t reported the guy to HR yet. But what he did next took her by surprise — he got up without a word and turned, obviously heading toward the door.

"W-Wait!" Harper splashed in the water and, in a thoughtless moment of haste, reached up and grabbed his ankle. "Where are you going? I haven’t finished expla—"

Her next syllable turned into a sharp gasp as Eli slipped on the wet tiles from her pull and fell unceremoniously, straight into the water with an enormous splash.

Harper: "..."

Eli: "..."

It took a couple of flails for him to right himself. As he propped an arm up at the rim of the pool, coughing while running a hand down his face to regain his vision, Harper cleared her throat awkwardly with an apologetic smile. "S-Sorry ... I didn’t expect you to ... react so dramatically."

"Dramatically?" Eli threw her an incredulous stare in between coughs. "This is not something trivial, Harper. Have you not brought it up to anyone? How long has it been going on?"

"Not that long," she assured him. "Started about ... a week ago? And it’s not like Wallace did anything that crossed the line. Lindsey and Naomi wouldn’t have just watched it without saying a thing otherwise—"

"He’s clearly making you uncomfortable," Eli snapped with viciousness. His cheeks seemed to have turned a bit red, possibly from the falling and coughing or possibly from the flare of anger. "I didn’t help you work on your web novel just so that some random creep can harass you about it."

Oh.

Harper knew that "helping her work on her web novel" wasn’t the point he was trying to make, and this was a bad time for her to be distracted by a tangent, but there were quite a few comments she could’ve made on that topic ... half of which were the real issues she wanted to talk about right now. And given the way Eli was currently staring at her, cheeks flushed with water droplets still dripping down his hair and glistening all over his bare chest ... It was kind of hard to not imagine a few scenarios where he could’ve "helped" her some more.

Reminding herself that his attention was currently in a different place and borderline explosive, Harper saved those scenarios for later thought. "Well ... I mean, the web novel is precisely what made it complicated," she tried to explain. "Think about it, even if someone simply stands there without saying a word to me, wouldn’t it still feel embarrassing just knowing that he’s read those stories I wrote?" She chose to ignore the glaring fault in her logic that made it not apply to Eli, who was in the exact same boat, and she was glad when he didn’t seem to think of it either. "Besides, I did mean to talk to him ... The timing just hasn’t been convenient, since I don’t want to make things weird when so many of us are stuck in close quarters here for two weeks. But I swear I wasn’t going to let this pass without a serious conversation."

That last promise seemed to have finally pacified the man in front of her. He still looked pissed, but at least no longer murderous. His jaw clenched and loosened a few times before he finally said, "Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could’ve helped."

"... You almost went straight out of here to try to crush his skull with your bare hands," Harper reminded him. "That’s not really helping."

Eli had the sense to look remorseful, running a hand down his face again a bit awkwardly. The gesture made his cheeks redden even more.

Harper couldn’t hold back a smile this time. This was a version of Eli she hadn’t seen before — grumpy, impulsive, a little possessive and almost a little childish in the way that he wanted to "help". It was utterly different from the calm, gentle boy next door that she always associated him with, but she liked it just as much. Maybe this was the other side of himself he warned her about at the stadium ... and she loved how he’d finally let it out in front of her. Because of her.

She turned slightly in the water, placing a hand on his shoulder, and she chuckled when he blinked at her in surprise. "You are right about one thing though," she conceded. "I should have told you sooner. Not because I needed your help ... But because you look so adorable when you’re jealous."