His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 134: Boon and Bane

Chapter 134: Boon and Bane

** Eli **

"I still can’t believe he’d remember a thing about me." When they were done with lunch, which was a surprisingly friendly affair filled with lively discussions and conversations, Harper couldn’t stop marveling as the two of them took the long way around the lobby to get back to the conference rooms. "Did you make that up? Because from all I can recall, your father said at most two sentences to me when we met. He shouldn’t even remember my name!"

"Trust me, he hears your name from me plenty. You and Tyler were one of the few topics I could bear to talk to him about." Eli didn’t typically like to discuss his father, but at this particular moment, he smiled thinking back on those conversations about their special neighbors all those years ago. "Whenever things got bad between us — which was probably about every time he came over on the weekends to visit me — I would tell him to just send me to the McKenzies and let your parents adopt me."

"... Seriously?" Harper asked incredulously, darting him a glance of curious amazement. Though that look lasted for only a fleeting moment before it was replaced by something softer, something ... a little sad.

"Hey, no need to feel bad for me, I’m not complaining either way." Eli reached for her hand and squeezed gently, not wanting the casual mention of past drama to get to her otherwise bright mood. "Now that I think about it, I’m lucky that it didn’t actually happen. I much prefer being your boyfriend than your adopted brother."

That earned him a chuckle, and the smile he loved was back on Harper’s face. "I see you’re getting used to the new title fast," she said teasingly.

"Of course I am. I’m still not a hundred percent convinced that this isn’t a dream yet, so I have to start using the title as much as I can before I wake up." Glancing around them, he abruptly pulled her into a side hallway that led to a quiet dead end. "And by using the title, I meant executing the privileges it comes with—"

The next moment, he pressed her against the wall and sealed his lips over hers.

He had half expected her to gasp in shock. But oh, he did not expect her to reciprocate the kiss just as eagerly as he did, like this was precisely the same thing she wanted to do to him all along. Her arms immediately looped behind him, tightening around his shoulders, and the sigh leaping out of her when he parted her lips was so happy and content that it electrified his whole body, drawing a low groan from his own throat.

Damn. He wished he could simply trap her in this little hallway all day, claiming all the boyfriend privileges that he desperately wanted to cash out.

The thought made him giddy. "I missed you," he whispered against her mouth, admitting the first thought on the forefront of his mind. It felt silly to say that, considering it had only been fourteen hours and a half since she was last in his room, but he had missed her since the minute she left. "I couldn’t stop thinking about you all morning ... and I’ve wanted to drag you aside and kiss you like this the moment you came to join our table."

He was telling the truth. The urge had only grown stronger over the course of lunch, when she enthralled the entire table with those beautiful smiles and confident laughters and sharp conversations. Eli could swear that for half of the time in the dining hall, she was all he could see, dazzling him with her bewitching charm. It was almost torture that he had to wait so long to be able to hold her in his arms like this and tell her — show her — how much he admired this amazing girlfriend.

Harper’s eyes lit up. Then she added another light peck to his lips. "Only since I joined your table though?" she asked, a slight wryness edging her voice. "I thought the way you looked at me was screaming ’I want to declare my new title to everyone in my line of sight’ as soon as I walked in with a certain coworker of mine."

... Ugh. Why did she have to mention such an unappetizing scene while they were having such a great stolen moment in the hidden hallway?

The look on his face must’ve shown exactly that unappetizing thought, because the next second, Harper burst into laughter. "Sorry ... I didn’t mean to ruin your mood like that." She kissed him again, this time slow and gentle as if to apologize. "But I talked to Wallace like I promised ... so I thought I should tell you. And you’ll never guess what I’ve learned."

"...Not sure if I want to," Eli said crabbily.

"Oh trust me, it’s a good one." Harper chuckled again. "I told you he found my web novel through my phone notifications, right? Well, turns out that I got the cause and effect backwards. Wallace had been reading my book long before that. He’s actually one of my oldest fans in the app, and the phone accident just surprised him with who I am in real life. So in his own words, he got too excited being a hotheaded fanboy—"

"He is what?" That was indeed nothing like what Eli expected to hear. "One of your oldest fans?"

"Yes! I have this reader named HappyRoastedBeans, and I would never guess that it’s someone I know from the same office I work in ..."

Harper’s enthusiastic explanation halted when Eli stared at her with eyes round as saucers. "What’s wrong?" she asked. "I mean, I know it’s unbelievable, but he even showed me his profile and everything. It really is true!"

Well, being true was the worst part. Eli gritted his teeth — that suitcase guy who was quickly becoming the bane of his existence these days ... was HappyRoastedBeans??