His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 255: Beauty and the Dresses

** Harper **

After a few more circles around the room that left her eyes in a bedazzled state of sensory overload, Harper stepped inside the fitting room with half a dozen options at her disposal, every single one of them gorgeous in a completely different way that she had no idea how she was going to choose.

"You might want Eli to go in with you so he can help with the zippers and laces," Sean suggested as she began to draw the curtains closed. "Or, of course, you can also just call my assistant whenever you need someone."

Harper’s hand paused on the drape. The standard comment unfortunately reminded her of a certain event from last weekend, and she darted a skeptical look at her boyfriend. "Ah, I think I’ll save myself the chance to surprise him when I come out fully dressed up," she smiled innocently. "I’ll just get everything as far as I can and then call for a little extra help."

She chuckled at the displeased expression on Eli’s face and shut the curtain, returning to her dress collection.

The first one hanging closest to her was a slim silver gown, figure-fitting around the hips before gradually flaring into a modest circular skirt with a short train. It had caught her eye with a unique off-the-shoulder design that twisted at the neckline like an ornate bow, and she liked the subtle pattern of laces and embroidery that ran through the fabric like vines of white roses blooming across the entire dress.

She decided to start with this one, quickly wiggling out of her own clothes and into the gown. The zipper on the back turned out easy enough to handle by herself, and she picked a pair of extra high heels that boosted her height just enough for the hem to brush over the floor. Satisfied with her outfit — though slightly uncertain about the result due to the lack of a mirror inside the fitting room — she flipped open the curtain and walked out.

"Wow." Sean did a double take the moment he saw her. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Eli, on the other hand, stared at her unblinkingly without saying a single word.

"Um ... How is it?" Harper asked tentatively when the silence started stretching on for a bit too long.

As if startled out of a trance by her voice, Eli blinked. "Oh ..." Then he covered his mouth with one hand, exhaling deeply, and Harper thought that she saw him—

Blush?

Wait, was that really? She must’ve seen it wrong. The lighting in this showroom must be doing something weird to her eyes, because there was no way, absolutely no way at all, that a guy like him could blush at the sight of a girl standing there innocently in just a dress.

"Um, sorry, you made me lose my words." The guy who definitely wasn’t blushing walked over to her, taking her hand and helping her step to the center of the room in those precarious stilettos. "You are breathtaking, love. I mean, I’ve always known you are, but this is some whole new level you’re showing me right now."

He nodded at the oversized mirror for Harper to see for herself, and she did.

The dress was gorgeous indeed, a hundred times more so on her compared to how it looked on its own sitting on a hanger. It hugged her curves nicely, bringing out a lovely hourglass shape even without perfect tailoring, and the slight metallic shine of the embroidery made it look like her whole body was glowing. Combined with the soft flow of the train flaring gently around her legs, the full package looked ... graceful. Dreamy.

Yep, dreamy was the right word for it. And from the dreamy look she could see in Eli’s eyes, he definitely agreed.

Though ... it still seemed a bit far from something that could make a guy blush? So she must’ve seen that earlier part wrong ...

"Stunning. Absolutely stunning." Behind them, Sean’s voice approached, and he walked around Harper slowly in a full circle, assessing her from all angles. "If you’re going for an elegant, modern, but still subtle look, this cross between a sheath and a trumpet is a perfect fit for you. Oh, and I think the off-the-shoulder neckline works wonders too. You have beautiful collarbones and I’ll highly recommend choosing a design that shows it."

To demonstrate, he reached from behind her and pulled her loose hair behind her back, letting her see how the dress complimented her features around the neck.

Almost immediately, however, the temperature of the room seemed to have dropped at least five degrees, with a rush of icy air blasting from Eli’s direction as he pinned Sean’s hands with a deadly gaze.

Sean: "?"

Harper: "..."

"Of course she has beautiful collarbones." Not at all subtly, Eli stepped closer and forced Sean out of the way, rearranging Harper’s hair behind her meticulously as if trying to dust off the poor designer’s touch. "Your back is beautiful too," he added, looking at his girlfriend in the mirror. "Maybe we could try the backless one next? I’d be thrilled to see it."

... Right, just remember not to chop Sean’s hands off while we’re at it!

With a speechless smile, Harper nodded and returned to the fitting room for the backless gown that had just been named.

It was a drastic change from the previous one, a lot more bold-looking and extravagant in details. A sapphire blue A-line featuring a thigh-high slit through the tulle skirt with pleated ruffles, paired with a deep keyhole cutout below the neck. The back, as Eli pointed out, was seductively bare, but also artfully so with an asymmetrical design that wrapped around the side of the torso in the shape of a butterfly wing. Not to mention the crystal studded fabric that sparkled like stars strewn over a late evening sky — the whole thing was an eye-catcher, a piece of art that boasted glamor and grand ambitions.

Harper wasn’t entirely sure if she could pull off a style like this, but since Eli had urged her to try, she gave it the benefit of the doubt and wiggled it on.

This time, when she waddled a bit unsteadily out of the fitting room from a lack of experience walking with such a complicated skirt, even the shop assistant gasped. And Eli did that thing with his hand again, his jaw clearly falling behind the cover of his palm.

"Yes, that’s my goddess," he whispered softly.