His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 137: Elephant in the Room

Chapter 137: Elephant in the Room

** Eli **

The look on Harper’s face was enough evidence that she knew exactly who the call was from.

Damn. Eli had hoped optimistically that they could avoid talking about the elephant in the room until this semi-vacation was over ... But nope, the bomb just had to drop at the worst time possible. He let out a groan and tossed his phone ungracefully onto the sofa. "Tyler said he already talked to you last night?"

"He did ... But I missed his call at first and apparently called him back while he was asleep, so all I know is he’ll be in town for an interview in a couple of weeks." Harper paused. "I did mention I’m in Hawaii right now."

"Yep, now he knows that makes two of us." Eli ran a hand down his face. "I told him it’s a work trip, though he sounded ... suspicious. When he comes to stay at my apartment in two weeks, I’m sure he’ll make it a mission to find out what kind of fishy ’work’ is going on between us."

Harper considered this seriously. "Well, I haven’t thought much about how to talk to him yet, about ... us. But shouldn’t it be a good thing that he’ll be staying with you? You’ll have plenty of time to explain everything to him, with all the details."

"..." Eli gawked at her. Did she have any idea what she was suggesting? "By explaining, you mean come clean about everything that happened in the past month?" He plopped himself into the sofa, equally unceremoniously as his phone. "I won’t need much time to do that at all. Because as soon as I start, he’s going to shut me up with a good punch to the gut. Or probably break my legs."

Starting with the middle leg, he thought darkly. Though he kept that part of the comment to himself.

Harper’s brow knitted at his speculation. "But why?" she asked. "I’ve actually wanted to ask you about this since weeks ago ... I can see how Tyler might not like the previous practice arrangements we made, but now that we’re just going to be dating like any regular couple, why do you still think he’ll make such a big deal out of it? It’s not like he’s some kind of unreasonable or dense-headed brute."

Ugh ... This girl must’ve never heard of the Bro Code, if she was still missing the crux of the problem here. "It’s not about him being unreasonable, Harper." Eli drew in a deep inhale. "Quite the contrary, actually."

When the girl’s blank stare confirmed his suspicion, Eli sighed. "Tyler is a responsible brother," he explained. "He’s always been protective of you, and unfortunately for me, there is only one way that a responsible and protective brother would react in a situation like this. Heck, if I have a sister — a real sister from the same parents who I grew up with and care about — and if I find out someday that she got in bed with a guy like me, I would’ve torn him to pieces just as gladly."

Harper’s frown only deepened at that. "What’s ’a guy like you’ supposed to mean? You are one of Tyler’s closest friends. I doubt his opinion of you could be that low no matter what."

... Well, that was part of the issue, too. Precisely because they were close, Eli had never bothered hiding his true self in front of Tyler, which meant that the latter knew just about everything when it came to certain debaucheries that would otherwise be kept private. "He ... knows who I am better than you." Eli fought back a grimace as he grudgingly admitted the truth. "If he were at the baseball stadium with us last weekend, he wouldn’t have been surprised at all by what happened. He remembers how I earned my reputation in that regard ... and what else would he think when he sees that his innocent little sister is now my latest target?"

Eli wasn’t entirely sure how Harper would react to what he said. Was it too much, to remind her yet again that he truly wasn’t the type of relationship guy she wanted?

She surprised him as always though, when she crossed her arms and glared down at him disapprovingly. "His innocent little sister is not that stupid to be so easily seduced by a guy with questionable motives," she declared. "She can take care of her own relationships without her brother’s meddling. Do you want me to say that to his face? Or should I just invite him to stay at my place so I can be the one to break the news to him?"

... It was such a humbling change of perspective, every time when she let out that determined and almost bossy side of her. Every time when—

"Or better yet, I can just come stay with you at your place too. Saves us both the effort of explaining, and when he sees how hopelessly clingy we are to each other, it’ll convince him to give up the fight soon enough."

—yes, and every time when her eyes sparkled with that sly gleam, instantly undoing all his grumpy, fidgety thoughts and turning this messy situation into just another fun game to play.

The suggestion successfully made Eli chuckle. "You know I would’ve asked you to move in with me in a heartbeat," he said, pulling her into the couch and cradling her next to him. Having her this close every day would be worth all the broken legs. "Don’t worry, I’ll settle this with your brother. Just give me some time to defuse the situation, and soon we’ll have the whole apartment to ourselves without a constant bomb ticking over our heads."

Harper looked up at him, eyes still gleaming. "Oh, but I’m definitely not going to just ’give you some time’ and let you settle this on your own." That bossy edge was sounding even stronger in her voice now. "I bet as soon as my brother starts telling you no, you’ll spiral right back into the exact same place you were at yesterday when we were in the pool. So I’m going to stay right here until we figure out a plan together." — she tucked herself more comfortably into his arm — "No rush, we have all night."

Tip: You can use left, right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.Tap the middle of the screen to reveal Reading Options.

If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report