His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 210: Glib Talker

** Eli **

"Tyler, it’s not like that!" Eli desperately tried to clarify as soon as he recovered from the shock enough to speak. "I was just helping Harper with—"

"Helping?" Tyler didn’t even deign to hear the rest of the sentence. "You call that help? What kind of help are you so generously giving by talking to her like that?"

"... She’s writing a romance novel! That was a scene in the story—"

"Harper, out of everyone, is writing a romance novel with those kinds of scenes?" Tyler hissed, and the grip on Eli’s collar tightened to the point that it was getting hard for him to breathe. "Do you even hear what you’re saying? You expect me to believe that my sister would ever do such a thing?"

"..."

Yeah, the guy’s got a point there.

Back at the beginning of their "lesson arrangement" two months ago, Eli himself could barely believe that the innocent little dove would be adventurous enough to try her hand at steamy web novels. But at least the surprise at the time had been subdued by the inexperienced way she wrote those scenes, especially her choice of vocabulary that was innocent and vanilla to a fault. Now, however, for her brother to suddenly see a polished version so much more mature and wicked than the old drafts ...

It was no wonder that he wouldn’t believe it. If Eli was Tyler, he wouldn’t have believed him either.

"Listen. I know it sounds like a lie, but ..." Eli groaned in frustration, regretting over and over again that he hadn’t explained everything sooner when he had a clean slate to start with. "I swear, Ty—"

"Don’t you dare call me that like we’re buddies." Tyler lashed out at the nickname they had always used since they were kids. "And I don’t want to hear any more of your sorry lies. You have one last chance to tell me one truth. Did you sleep with her?"

"..."

Eli wished he could dodge the question. Tyler wasn’t listening to any explanations, and dropping the final bomb without any further context would only make everything worse. But there was no other choice. Eli wouldn’t dance around the topic like he didn’t want to take responsibility, so his only option was to look Tyler in the eye and say, "I did."

A horrible silence descended upon them.

For a moment, Tyler didn’t react, as if he was too stunned to even believe what he was hearing. Then his nostrils flared. "You fucking piece of—"

"Because I’m in love with her! For God’s sake, can you just calm down for ten seconds and actually listen to me?"

A second silence followed. This time, both of them were stunned.

Eli blinked, unsure how the words had just come out of his mouth. Did he really say that? Did he really just claim that he was ... in love? Did he really subconsciously slip out a word that he didn’t think he’d ever use for his entire life?

Apparently, the same thought was occurring to Tyler at the same time, because he was also staring back at his once-friend in a mix of disbelief and confusion. Even more so than when he heard the admission of the two of them sleeping together.

The wordless stare didn’t last long, though. Tyler recovered first, and his immediate response was to shove Eli into the wall again, hard with all his strength. "Do you even know what it means to be in love?" he snorted. "Or do you just know how to glib talk? I bet you’ve got tons of experience baiting women with sweet love words like that."

Ouch. That burns. Eli couldn’t blame anyone for thinking that way, given the objective evidence of his typical lifestyle ... But it still felt a little unfair, considering that ironically, he had never actually said the L word to any woman yet.

Not even Harper. What kind of idiot makes such a life changing confession to the girl’s brother first, instead of the girl herself?

Eli sighed dejectedly, wondering if he should give up explaining at this point. Tyler wouldn’t buy a word of it anyway, and to be honest, why should he? Why would any reasonable man stumble upon those lewd emails and then suddenly believe that the shameless womanizer who sent them was in love?

Maybe he should simply let Tyler bang his head against the wall some more. It would be easier than continuing this conversation and making an even bigger fool out of himself.

In the gloomy silence that resumed, Tyler’s phone rang in his pocket.

"... It’s probably Harper," Eli offered when the furious guy showed no sign of intending to pick it up. "I told her I’d be dropping you off around this time. She’s probably calling to say goodbye before your flight."

"Fuck the flight." Tyler still didn’t pick it up, probably not wanting Harper to hear all that rage in his voice. "I’m not leaving today, not until I figure out what the hell is going on and get her away from your clutches for good."

... Right.

Eli decided against arguing. Tyler wasn’t actually an impulsive or aggressive person, but like his sister, he could be stubborn when he was determined. The situation today must’ve shocked him to the core — probably even frightened him — and if he said he was going to stay and put an end to it, he would.

It might come off as a bit too overprotective and meddlesome, but in a way, Eli was glad that Harper had a brother who cared so much about her.

The phone kept ringing as the two men simply stood there, one fuming and one brooding. When the sound finally stopped, the room became quiet again, so quiet that they could hear their own unsettled breathing and the sound of footsteps from the hallway outside.

And then ... those footsteps stopped right at their door. Both of them were snapped out of their own thoughts when the keypad beeped, and the door swung open.

"... What the heck?" Harper stood at the entrance, her eyes wide. "Tyler! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!"