His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 237: Once Again on the Sofa

** Eli **

"Do you have a headache? Would a little massage help?"

Harper sat down next to him, leaning him flat on his back with his head in her lap. Slender fingers grazed over his temples, drawing small circles there in a slow, gentle pattern.

Eli didn’t think he had a headache. Not until the refreshing coolness from those soft fingertips trickled over him like a spring shower, loosening that tight knot in his skull and calming the restlessness in his body like a magic spell. Damn, maybe he didn’t even realize himself how rough he’d had it today.

"Another impressive skill that you’ve kept hidden from me, Harper." His eyes drifted shut, and he let out the words in a lazy, comfortable sigh. "I need to start counting all these amazing things I missed out on in my previous life."

He heard a soft puff of chuckle in reply. "Should I give you a massage every day when you get back from work?" Harper asked. "I’ll be happy to. Although, I’d much prefer that you have fewer hard days to make it necessary in the first place."

He noticed that she steered away from the topic of his chat with his father, as usual, so he didn’t bring it up to ruin the atmosphere either. While her fingers continued their magic in a lulling rhythm, an easy silence descended between them, peaceful and soothing.

Yeah, he certainly wouldn’t mind a moment like this every day ... especially not when it was completed with the scent of her surrounding him in every direction. The subtle yet unmistakably sweet fragrance of honey and vanilla filled his nostrils, a dreamy reminder that his life was too beautiful and perfect to be wasted on any unpleasant thoughts.

"How about your day?" he asked, and the words came out in a somewhat indistinct mumble as he tried his best not to moan from the lovely pampering he was receiving. "Did the interviews go well? I hope people didn’t get too distracted by that golden couple board to do their proper work."

Harper laughed softly at that. "Actually ... Guess what, the interviews did go completely unexpected today. You’d never believe that my first candidate—"

She paused, as if suddenly remembering something, and cut herself off mid-sentence.

"What would I not believe?" Eli opened his eyes, intrigued. "It went unimaginably well? Or horrifyingly bad?"

Harper looked back at him, her gaze swaying slightly. "Let’s not talk more about work for now. Or anything else unpleasant, since you’ve had enough of it already." Her hands moved down, sliding from his temples to the back of his neck. "We’ll take it easy tonight. Turn a bit to your side so I can get to your shoulders."

Hmm. Must be horrifyingly bad then, if it counted as "something unpleasant" that she didn’t want to talk about right now. Eli was all in for an easy night though, so he obeyed her command and rolled to his side.

Then he let out another sigh when those nimble fingers glided down his back, kneading the muscles between his shoulder blades with just enough pressure that all the soreness turned into toe-curling relief.

As he fought the urge to make any more embarrassing sounds, the scene at this moment suddenly reminded him of the first time Harper had come to this apartment. When she lied down on this very couch and got a massage from him, in a similar enough position that they were in right now except for the swapped roles. Was that when she had learned her massaging techniques? The work of her hands seemed to be mimicking exactly what he had done back on that day, switching between gentle squeezes and deep strokes that reached all the right places.

And then he remembered the other "techniques" he had used on that same day, teasing her with every dip of his finger and—

With that thought, the caress on his back abruptly turned from comfortable to ... something else, and the heat at her fingertip was quickly redirected to a different part of his body ...

"What’s wrong with your muscles here?" Harper’s kneading paused, and she sounded concerned as she poked at a particular spot near his spine. "It’s so tense. How long were you sitting in meetings to make it so tight here?"

"..." Eli wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell her that he was simply getting tense all over now, not just in that one spot where she noticed. Especially tense in a place where she wasn’t massaging at all.

The problem was, he didn’t want to interrupt this precious treat he was getting at this moment. He liked spending time with her like this, quiet and comfortable, simple and innocent. He loved their heated and passionate nights too, of course, but there was a different kind of magic in these moments, a different kind of beauty to the chaste touch of her hands and the caring tenderness in her voice.

He didn’t want to ruin it. And most importantly, he didn’t want her to think that all he wanted from her was sex. Which definitely wasn’t true ... if only he could get his body to prove it! Because right now, with that image of her on this very couch two months ago sending little pulses and sparks to his groin, it was certainly difficult to prove anything otherwise ... freewebnøvel.com

"Um, bad posture, I suppose." He lied blatantly, shifting a little in her lap to roll further to his side, hiding the situation that was probably already visible over his pants. Then he grappled for something different to focus his mind on. "Did Tyler talk to you today, by the way? Is he home yet?"

Right, that was unpleasant enough of a topic that it cooled him off instantly by at least one degree.

"Hey, I said no unpleasant topics tonight." Harper pinched him on his shoulder. "Yes, Tyler is back home, but no more talking about him either. Just be quiet and enjoy your massage."

And then her hands worked their way further down, kneading closer and closer to his waistline ...

Eli groaned internally in pure agony. Shit, what had he gotten himself into again, repeatedly on this same couch?