His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 187: Nice Assets

** Harper **

By the time Eli was done with his lemonade, Harper’s lungs were out of air, and her lips were getting a bit too puffy.

It was an acceptable price to pay for some superbly delicious "lemonade" though, so she didn’t really mind ... And she would have indulged in the moment some more if she wasn’t keeping a constant eye on the colorful crowd of bikinis hovering over the other side of the field, still a little too close to her liking.

"What are you looking at?" Eli finally noticed her searching eyes when he paused his onslaught long enough to replace the empty lemonade bottle. Following her gaze, he looked toward the other team across the net, then looked back at her in puzzlement.

Harper chewed her bottom lip. Well, she didn’t want to put on another jealous show already, but ...

"Who’s that girl in the red bikini?" she decided on asking, trying to sound nonchalant with the most casual tone she could manage.

"... Who?"

"The one who gave you the towel." She nodded at the thing flung over his shoulder. "You didn’t just take a towel from a completely random stranger, did you? Or is that another cousin?"

Ugh, geez that sounded sour. Why did she always have trouble behaving reasonably in situations like this?

She wondered if Eli was thinking the exact same thing, as he raised a handsome eyebrow at the unreasonable prompt. "Not another cousin ... and I didn’t kiss anyone this time," he said innocently. "In fact, I made very sure to not even dry my face with that towel, so that you wouldn’t think I’m kissing a towel someone else handed to me."

"..."

Alright, her jealous image must’ve really gotten out of hand now, if he was seriously considering that type of reaction from her ...

"Anyway," Eli continued, "that girl was running the freshen-up booth just before we started the game, so she’s basically in charge of the towels. I guess she works for the beach. Though I didn’t notice— Was she really wearing a bikini? I thought it was a tank top."

With genuine-looking doubt, he turned his eyes back to the group on the other side of the field, trying to locate the supposedly tank-top girl to confirm.

"... Are you serious?" Harper could barely believe such a pro playboy like him capable of making such a mistake. "That was like ... the smallest triangle bikini I’ve ever seen! And she’s got— nice assets. It was so obvious!"

Now, Eli looked amused. "Nice assets?" His eyebrow lifted even higher, and his gaze swept back to Harper in a meaningful, slow fashion. "I don’t see any nice assets around this beach except yours. No matter what you’re covering it up with, bikini or tank top or even a sundress."

Oh.

Oh ... Well ... Delightful and reassuring as that comment was ... Maybe it was a mistake to have gotten their conversation going in that direction? Because Harper suddenly felt as if he was undressing her with his eyes, and that quickly reminded her of ... the unspeakable conversation they had the night before ...

"D-Don’t think what you’re thinking right now," she blurted, and she wondered if she was starting to develop a case of PTSD about any discussions involving boobs.

"... What am I thinking?" Eli queried.

"The ... thing that I said last night when I was drunk."

"I wasn’t thinking it."

"You are!"

"I am now because you reminded me." Eli smirked when Harper replied to that with a groan. "You remembered what you said last night when you were drunk?" he added. freewēbnoveℓ.com

"... Yes! As much as I wish otherwise!" Harper wanted to facepalm. "I couldn’t even put my clothes on this morning without thinking about it, and I felt so awkward wearing a bikini that I had to cover it up with a dress! And I have no idea why I just started talking about assets to remind myself of all this again ... If only I could just—"

She paused when Eli started laughing.

It wasn’t the type of loud, ringing laugh that he usually did when he heard a nice joke. It was the type of laugh that cool guys did — with his hand over his chin, his lips pressed together into a curved line, his face slightly turned away to hide the faint dimple showing on one side of his cheeks. His shoulders shook lightly with mirth, and his eyes gleamed as he stared at her with genuine amusement, and it just looked so cute and sweet and ... nice.

Harper was expecting herself to feel even more embarrassed by the laugh. But she wasn’t. Instead, she couldn’t help but finish her whine with a laugh of her own, and all the awkwardness of the day was gone just like that.

"Remind me never to get drunk in front of anyone else," she commented in the end. "I can’t afford that kind of exotic remark to anyone but you."

"You’d better not." Eli’s voice was still full of smiles. "Though for my part, I like how honest you were."

That elicited another groan from her. "What other honest things have I said?" she asked. "Any more embarrassing ridiculousness that I’ve fortunately chosen to not remember?"

The look in his eyes grew tender at the question. "No, nothing embarrassing or ridiculous." He looked down between them, and his hand reached for hers. "You did tell me a few items on your daydream checklist that you wanted to tick off though. And I liked them."

"Oh." Thank God there was nothing along the lines of boob-sucking on that list. "I see, which ones?"

He laced his fingers through hers. "How about we start working on them one by one, and I’ll let you know when something gets checked off?" His voice was soft and indulging. "Come to my room tonight when we get back ... Or tomorrow, after you catch up on some rest. We can get started on the easiest one first."

It sounded like a romantic promise, and Harper liked it.