His Naughty Lessons
Chapter 158: Simple and Honest

Chapter 158: Simple and Honest

** Harper **

Eli was right about the bath being fantastic after a night of cardio activities. The warm water was soothing to the touch, swaying in slow waves made by the whirlpool jets, and when he settled in behind her, cuddling her close with her back pressed to his chest, Harper couldn’t help a satisfied sigh. Her head lolled back, resting comfortably on his shoulder as she clasped her hands over his.

And then she noticed the familiar hardness prodding just below her waist.

"... Don’t mind that." Eli apparently noticed her noticing. Folding his legs further and raising his knees, he repositioned them so that the glaring presence between their torsos was tucked away beside her hip.

... He was obviously more than ready for another round though ... Harper shot him a glance from over his shoulder, pondering why he was holding it back again. Was he still treating her like a glass doll and worried about making her sore? Did she really come across as someone that delicate and fragile?

Eli brushed his lips over the shell of her ear, in a manner halfway between teasing and adoring. "Before you start reminding me that you aren’t fragile," he whispered, "I know you aren’t. But the next time when I’m inside you, I don’t plan on being nearly as gentle ... So it’s best that you take some time to get ready for it."

Ohh. She liked the sound of that. Maybe the reward would be worth the challenge of her patience.

"You’d better keep your word then." Harper chuckled and let herself feel content over this closing scene of the night, even though it was turning out a bit more platonic than she preferred. Leaning back into the new position that was off-center from his crotch, she turned her eyes back to the night sky, sharing the view quietly with the man behind her.

Stars twinkled lazily above them, like the light from mysterious little eyes blinking curiously as they watched the world below. Harper thought of a few romantic comments she could make about those stars, about what those heavenly beings would think of the pair cuddling so intimately in a hot tub under their eternal gaze ... But she didn’t want to interrupt the serene silence, or the comfortable way that Eli’s thumb was brushing idly over her wrist, so she didn’t put anything into words. A cool breeze stirred, carrying those thoughts soundlessly into the depth of the night.

But then the quiet was broken anyway, when something bright suddenly flashed and drew a white arc across the sky, from the zenith all the way to the end of the horizon far away.

"Wow! A shooting star!" Harper exclaimed at the sight, her hand instinctively clutching Eli’s palm beneath hers. "Oh no, but it went too fast. I didn’t get a chance to make a wish!"

Eli chuckled, the soft puff of air tickling her ear. "There will be another one soon," he promised. "Looks like this is a new moon night perfect for wishing upon a star ... Remember that time when we saw the meteor shower at the top of the mountain? The view was just like this, and you made so many wishes on a single evening that I bet you lost count of them all."

It took Harper a little while to remember it. "You mean the first time when we went camping?" She blinked, trying to recall that summer day when she was still ... nine? Ten? "I think most of my wishes back then were about ... um, let there be no more mosquitoes in the mountains, or let my legs grow longer so I wouldn’t always be the slowest hiker in the family, or ..."

She trailed off when Eli burst into a snort of laughter. "Your wishes were ... so simple," he commented, voice filled with mirth, "and honest."

"... Well, at least it was better than making a wish for my mom to let me share a tent with you and Tyler. Which I don’t think I actually made, but I do remember badgering her constantly about how unfair it was that you guys get to chat in your sleeping bags all night, whereas I was stuck in her tent like a little kid." Harper smiled sheepishly. "Gosh. Now that I think back on it, I really was so naive and silly."

And she really was just a little kid. Who would’ve ever thought that the day when she finally got to share a sleeping surface with Eli and watch another shooting star together with him ... It’d be after so many years, and under such circumstances?

"What did you wish for?" she asked when he didn’t comment, probably absorbed in his own memories. "Was it something more grand and ambitious?"

Eli snorted again, self-deprecatingly. "Nah. I’m pretty sure it was something along the lines of not having to go to school ever again."

Harper gaped. Eli, the epitome of elite perfection in her eyes, had those days of being such a bad kid and not wanting to go to school? "Sadly, I can see that the wish didn’t come true," she teased, entertained by yet another new side of him she just learned.

A soft laugh drifted into her ears. In the brief silence that followed, a kiss landed on the top of her head. She couldn’t see Eli’s expression from her angle, but she could feel his warm gaze on her as he tousled the back of her hair. "I think it’ll come true this time though," he said, "or at least I hope it will."

Harper wondered what he was trying to imply with that. Yet her thoughts only went halfway when another flash shot through the sky, so bright that it dazzled her eyes.

"There! Another one!" she gasped. Immediately, she closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her heart.

This time, she made her wish. Still simple and honest, but just like what Eli said, she hoped wholeheartedly that it would come true.