His Naughty Lessons

[ A/N: please note that the previous Chapter has been updated. If the version you read didn’t start with an author’s note that indicated such, please refresh for the latest revision (the original plot won’t flow naturally into this Chapter). Sorry again for the trouble and thank you! ]

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** Harper **

"You should’ve seen how popular he was in college." Julie swirled her red wine, idly watching the liquid clinging in a thick pattern to the glass. "We were always the center of attention at whichever party or club we showed up at. Imagine being swarmed by dozens of beauties at once! But he would only dance with me, of course, and that almost made a handful of my girl friends blacklist me completely from their little groups."

Harper didn’t mean to take that obvious flaunt seriously, but in pure reflex, a few scenes from the past couple of months were already flashing across her mind. The crowd of ladies circling Eli at the evening social in Hawaii. The girls in colorful bikinis surrounding him at the beach volleyball game. Even the dance they shared at the park two weekends ago ...

Damn it. She had to slam on a mental brake before going full force into imagining those scenes being a daily commonality for Eli, only with herself swapped for a different girl. She knew that wasn’t a rational thought — from the bottom of her heart, she was certain that he had eyes only for her now, and even if he had danced a thousand times with someone else in his arms before, he would’ve never looked at them the same way he looked at her. But still ... Confronted with such blatant gloating from his ex, it wasn’t that easy to stop those ugly little doubts from creeping into her mind.

Mentally shaking her head, Harper reminded herself that she couldn’t let trivial comments like this tarnish those sweet memories. "Well, I see why people say it’s best to be careful with the friends you choose." She decided to focus on a different part of the conversation instead, not giving her companion the satisfaction of seeing her jealous. "Your friends didn’t seem all that loyal, if they excluded you so easily for just a guy."

The smug expression on Julie’s face fell a little. But then she shrugged it off with a casual scoff. "What can I say, dating the heartthrob of the campus comes at a price. It’s totally worth it though, don’t you think? He’s such a treat to the eye to wake up to ... and one who takes such good care of his women as well."

Now, that was a totally different level of jealousy Harper never saw coming. Especially when she heard the "takes such good care of" stressed in a meaningful tone.

Ever since the beginning of their relationship, Eli had warned her over and over again that he wasn’t a saint when it came to women. Harper had been prepared — or at least she thought she was — because logically, she understood that all that mattered was who he chose in the end, not before. But once again, when words like this came so explicitly from a woman who had shared his bed just like herself ... It stung more than she imagined it ever could.

Shit. This conversation was not going well. Though in Harper’s defense, she wondered how it’d be possible for anyone to handle such a run-in with their boyfriend’s ex without feeling this sort of bitterness. Especially when the ex seemed to have come prepared. Every sentence was barbed, and every reference was going for the most sensitive feelings. It was difficult not to fall into dark thoughts when every word seemed to be chosen solely to provoke on purpose—