His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 221: A True Story

** Harper **

Under her palm, his heart skipped a beat.

"He was her first crush." Harper didn’t pause to give him a break. "One that lasted years. She never told anyone about it, keeping it a precious secret that belonged only to herself, letting those delicate feelings in her heart grow with her as she aged. She called him on every major holiday, every birthday, and whenever she did, the sound of his voice would keep her happy for a whole week. By the time she was done with high school, she made it her goal to go to the same college he went to, so that they would have one more thing in common when they met again as adults. When he invited her to his graduation ceremony on the day she received her acceptance offer, she thought that all the stars had finally aligned."

Eli’s heartbeat was racing now. Harper hoped that she wasn’t starting to blush herself, and she tried to hide it by pressing her cheek to his chest.

It was just a little embarrassing, to talk about her teenage crush out in the open like this. But at the same time, it felt nice. Cathartic and freeing. She had never put those hidden feelings into words, and she was glad that the first time she did, it was in front of him.

"However ... The story didn’t end there in a Happily Ever After." She let out a soft sigh, getting to the real part of the tale that was the answer to his questions. "On the day of the boy’s graduation, the girl picked her dress so very carefully, wanting to give him a lovely impression the first time they saw each other again after so long. But what she didn’t expect ... was to be introduced to his girlfriend the moment she saw him.

"She was a gorgeous young woman. Tall, radiant, with glamorous blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She looked so perfect standing next to the boy — who was now a handsome man with an immaculately polished, charismatic air — and the girl looked at herself, thinking back about her plain face untouched by makeup, her simple canvas shoes, her ugly pajamas that she used to wear all the time while lounging on the couch playing games with her best friend ..."

The clues were finally coming together in Eli’s head. Harper could feel it in the way he stiffened, and his breath hitched. "Harper—"

She pulled away slightly, placing a finger over his lips to shush him. His eyes were a storm of emotions as he looked back at her, but she tried to concentrate on the story that was yet to be finished, returning him only a wistful smile. "The girl kept thinking about that day for long afterward," she continued. "Weeks. Months. She thought about it for so long that by the end of summer, when it was time to start her own college, and the boy called to congratulate her on the first day of her new semester, she was still unsure how to talk to him again. So she never picked up the call. She watched her phone ring until it timed out, and the screen turned black." frёewebnoѵēl.com

Her finger brushed across his lips and over his jaw, and she let her palm cup his cheek. She still remembered the day when that call disconnected, how her heart had sunk when the picture of him smiling back at her dimmed on her screen. How much she had wished she could’ve been that beautiful blonde by his side, so that she could touch him and hold him and tell him all the secrets in her heart ... just like what she was doing now.

What an idiot and coward she had been back then. Though maybe that was precisely what made the two of them a perfect match. They might have lost four years of friendship because of her doubts, but those years had given her time to mature. To finally understand her feelings when she looked back, and to understand his too.

Eli’s hand reached up, cradling hers as he leaned into her touch. The look in his eyes was a hazed whirlwind, laced through with surprise, incredulity, relief, and so much tenderness. "Is this ... a true story that you’re telling me?" he asked softly.

A smile stretched wide across Harper’s lips. "Yes, of course it is. And it doesn’t end there." She kept her gaze locked with his, letting him see every unhidden thought she had bared before him. "The girl tried hard to forget the boy. But how could she? Even if she never answered his calls, even if she never saw him again for the next four years, she still remembered everything about him as if it had only been yesterday. Maybe that was the reason why she never felt fully invested in a relationship in her entire time at college ... because none of those guys was him. Maybe that was also why when the boy suddenly came back into her life again four years later, as the unlikely editor of an embarrassing web novel she wrote, she made the most daring decision in her life to ask him to teach her bedroom screens ... because somewhere deep down, she still wanted to see her wildest dreams come true."

Eli’s lips parted, the rhythm of his breathing becoming less and less even. This time, Harper didn’t try to shush him or calm him. Instead, she pressed her own lips gently onto his.

"She loves him," she said, softly and letting the words brush intimately against his mouth. "The boy told her that he hadn’t changed all that much in years, but he doesn’t know that the truth is, she hasn’t either. She is still the girl who fell head over heels for him. She is still the girl who secretly sought every opportunity to get close to him. She isn’t being blinded by impulses or swept away by unexpected experiences — she is simply in love with him. Has been, and always will be."