His Naughty Lessons

** Harper **

Harper meant to give the savage man a serious and disapproving glare. After all, it seemed unprofessional and unnice to make such a ruthless comment in public to someone’s face, and she felt a little bad for what her coworker had to stomach. But on the other hand, it was simply too entertaining to see Wallace on the other side of that "getting embarrassed" table, and she honestly couldn’t feel guilty for enjoying it. So in the end, her glare turned out to be ... more approving than judging.

"How was I savage?" Eli asked with a perfectly innocent face while she continued to give him the not-much-of-a-glare. "I was only talking about his own ideas that he brought up during the meeting. That’s definitely no more savage than him dropping hints about your web novel all over your office."

Ah, someone was truly out for blood then, to go as far as put in the effort to pay his enemy back in their own style.

"Well ... I would rather call his version of hint-dropping ’dumb’, instead of savage." Harper chuckled at the reference to that awkward meeting a while ago about team building. "You, on the contrary, are just cleverly mean."

Eli snorted, as if being compared to Wallace was a thought completely beneath him. "Sure, I’m mean." He didn’t argue with that part though, and his arm tightened around her. "I admit that I don’t have the kind of all-forgiving calmness you showed when you saw me talking to Cecilia. I see red every time this shameless guy dares to lay his eyes on you!"

That admittance gave Harper pause.

The slight tinge of bitterness she felt while watching Eli and Cecilia chat was still fresh on her mind. She had learned the hard way today what jealousy was like, and she was lucky that Cecilia turned out to be only an imaginary threat. But in Eli’s case, how much worse must it be to watch Wallace hang around her all day — sharing meetings and work conversations that Eli himself couldn’t share with her — all the while knowing that "the suitcase jackass" was indeed someone with questionable motives?

Back when she first discovered this little vendetta between the men, Harper had thought that Eli looked adorable when he was jealous. But now that she could relate to the feeling ... she realized that there was a lot more to it than just something to joke about. Her heart grew a little softer for him, and a little fonder.

"I’ll walk around Wallace next time then," she offered. "Unless I have to talk to him about work."

"Hmm, I have a feeling that he’s going to do the exact same from now on." Eli smirked. "Especially when I am present. That was the goal, after all."