The Charade: A Billionaire/Fake Relationship Romance (Eden Falls Academy)
The Charade: Chapter 27

WHEN THE MOVIE ended and the credits started rolling, the last thing I wanted to do was get up from the couch where I’d been cuddled up to Carter for the past hour and a half. It was probably strange that we were two high school seniors who had chosen to watch a cartoon, but it was probably what we’d needed after the heavy conversation on the back patio at dinner.

The movie was lighthearted and fun, and I hadn’t laughed so much in a long time.

Carter pressed a button on a silver remote to turn on the overhead lights at the front of the room. Then he picked up a black remote and used it to turn off the screen.

He set the remotes back down, and then he smoothed his hands up and down my arm. In a quiet voice, he said, ‘I should probably get you back to the school, huh?’

But after listening to his breathing and his heartbeat and basically just basking in the glory of what it was like to be near Carter Hastings for an extended period of time, leaving his side and going back to the school where I’d have to wait until who knows how long to be alone with him again was the last thing I wanted to do.

We hadn’t even really done anything besides watch the movie—no kissing, no fooling around—but it was probably the most enjoyable hour and a half that I’d had in a very long time because I’d been able to be near him. And I didn’t know what it was, but I just felt better when I was with Carter. He was like a calming presence to my erratic brain, and I was more peaceful and content when I was with him.

Which was crazy, because he was also the same guy who could send my heart racing into overdrive with just a flip of the switch.

I didn’t really know what he thought about me or what had been going through his head during the movie—for all I knew, his attention had been on Megamind and the character’s quest to be the baddest super villain of all time and he hadn’t even really noticed my presence at all. But he had to feel something, right?

And so, since I really didn’t want to get up from this couch and remove myself from this wonderful bubble of happiness, I burrowed my face into Carter’s chest and said, ‘I fell asleep. I can’t go anywhere,’ in a muffled voice.

Carter chuckled at my lie. But playing along with me, he brushed his fingertips through the hair that had fallen across my cheek, shifted his position so he could see my face better, and whispered, ‘Are you a sleep talker, Ava? Did you just say something?’

‘Yes,’ I muttered.

I could feel him watching me, and so I tried to keep my expression neutral. I breathed more rhythmically, mimicking a sleeping person because even though it was totally obvious that I was faking, I was now dedicated to the production.

‘I really hate to wake you up,’ Carter whispered, his hot, minty breath warming my forehead. ‘But you’ve left me no choice.’

Before I could brace myself, his fingers were tickling my sides. I clenched my muscles, resisting the urge to squirm under his tickling touch. But while I was able to keep from twitching for about ten seconds, I could only hold off for so long because the sides of my ribs were the most ticklish part of my body.

‘Ugh,’ I said, squirming away from his tickling fingers and sitting up. ‘You’re so mean. You know that?’

Carter laughed, and for a moment I thought he was going to keep the tickle torture going just for fun. But he stopped and said, ‘I had to be mean for your own good.’ He used the button on the side of the couch to move his seat back to the upright position. ‘And now that you’re awake again, I think it’s time for me to take you back so you aren’t late for curfew. You don’t want to get on the headmistress’s bad side.’

‘I really don’t care about getting on her bad side.’

‘That’s only because you’ve never seen her when she’s mad. Believe me, she’s not a woman you want to mess with.’

I considered telling him that I’d take my chances. But since I really didn’t know what would happen if I was late for curfew, I used the lever to put my seat back to the upright position as well. ‘Fine.’

Carter held his hand out to help me up. Then he patted the pockets of his jeans as if checking for something. ‘I must have left my keys in my gym shorts.’

We walked down the hall to his bedroom. While he went to dig his shorts from the dirty laundry basket in his closet, I took the opportunity to look around at the things Carter held special enough to display in his room. He had a few knickknacks here and there, and a framed photo of him, Mack, Hunter, and Nash wearing basketball uniforms sat on his desk. Another photo of him and his siblings standing on a yacht with the ocean in the background was beside that one.

In the corner next to the wall with all the constellations on it was a telescope, which made me think that maybe Carter was interested in astronomy.

There was a giant bookshelf along the wall beside his bed with at least a hundred books. There was everything from personal development books to the classics, to biographies, to popular fantasy novels and mysteries, and even a stack of Calvin and Hobbes comic books in one corner.

He even had a row of books in Spanish.

‘You have quite the book selection,’ I commented when he came to stand beside me. Even though there were a few inches of space between us, the electric charge that was always humming under the surface when we were together was there again.

‘What can I say? I like reading. You can live a thousand different lives without ever having to leave your room.’

‘I like that.’ I glanced up at him briefly, liking once again how tall he felt beside me. ‘Do you have a favorite genre?’

He shrugged, his elbow brushing against my arm with the movement and sparking my skin to life. ‘I should probably say that the personal development books or the biographies are my favorite since those help me keep up the scholarly vibe I try to put off.’ He peeked over at me, a smirk playing at his lips. ‘But I guess if you were to hook me up to a lie detector machine, I’d have to admit that a really good fantasy, like one from Brandon Sanderson, is actually the kind of book I prefer to get lost in when I’m reading for pleasure.’

‘Would it be safe to say that when you pulled out that Spanish personal development book during my first dinner at the academy, you were really just trying to impress me?’

He rubbed his neck with his hand, a slight blush showing on his cheeks. ‘I was actually reading that book. But…’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe subconsciously I was trying to let you think I was a serious student who didn’t have time for trivial things, like making friends with the pretty new girl at school.’

‘So you thought I was pretty when you met me?’ I arched an eyebrow, liking that he was giving me some insight into his first impression of me.

‘Maybe.’ He shrugged. ‘But since I had already decided that I wasn’t going to waste time on dating this year, I tried to not let myself notice.’

‘Ah yes. Because girls are such a huge distraction from the more important things, like getting straight A’s and reading impressive books while you eat.’

‘To be fair, I was still nursing my wounded ego after having my ex-girlfriend dump me for a prince.’

‘And how has your heart been doing the past few weeks?’ I put my hand over his chest where his heart was. ‘Has it gotten any better?’

He covered my hand with his, the warmth of his skin on mine feeling incredible. ‘Would you believe me if I told you it might just be better than it’s ever been?’

When I lifted my gaze to meet his, the intensity in his eyes scorched my insides, because I had the idea that they might be telling me I was part of the reason why.

His gaze fell to my lips, and I instinctively licked them, anticipating what it would be like to kiss him again.

But since I still wasn’t sure exactly where his feelings were concerning me, I tried to push those thoughts away.

He broke eye contact and moved toward his desk. After opening the top drawer, he pulled out a familiar contract with my purple handwriting scrawled across the bottom of the piece of paper.

‘I have a confession to make,’ he said.

‘You do?’ I asked, feeling breathless for some reason at the sight of that contract and the possible reasons for him to bring it out.

‘That third rule on my list of demands actually surprised me when we went over it.’

‘It surprised you?’ I narrowed my eyes, not understanding.

He nodded and leaned against his desk, partially sitting on it. ‘You see, I never wrote that rule.’

‘You didn’t?’

He shook his head. ‘It was actually put there as a prank by my conniving little brother.’

‘Nash put it there?’ I gasped, shocked because when we’d gone over it, Carter had not seemed one bit surprised at its existence. He’d played the part of the arrogant jerk so well.

‘I kind of panicked there for a minute as I tried to figure out how to respond,’ he said. ‘But then I channeled my inner Ian and decided to go with it.’

‘So you don’t really have throngs of girls throwing themselves at you on a daily basis?’ I asked. ‘Was that just you bluffing?’

‘It depends on what you define as a throng.’ And I didn’t know if he was trying to channel his inner Ian again, but the smoldering look that he gave me then was totally that of a guy who knew exactly how hot he was.

And I liked it.

I liked a guy with a healthy dose of confidence.

‘Well,’ I said, deciding that if he was going to bring back his whole Haughty Mc-Hot Hot persona, then I should bring back my inner goddess, too. I straightened my shoulders and said, ‘I guess I probably shouldn’t tell you about the dozens of guys I had to turn down this week because I had to keep our fake girlfriend-and-boyfriend thing going.”

‘Only dozens?’ Carter cocked an eyebrow and let his gaze slowly wander all along my body, obviously raking me in.

I held my breath as I waited for him to finish his appraisal of me.

I knew deep down that I shouldn’t care what a guy thought of me because I knew that I was awesome on my own and didn’t need anyone’s approval.

But there was still a huge part of me that wanted Carter to approve of me.

Wanted him to want me in the way I very much wanted him.

After he’d finished eyeing me from head to toe and then back up again, he said, ‘Are you sure it wasn’t hundreds? Because I don’t think a girl like you comes around more than once in a lifetime.’

‘You don’t?’ I breathed, my heart stuttering in my chest.

Did he truly mean it?

Did Carter, this guy who could have any girl he wanted at our entire school, actually see me that way?

But because I was basically fluent in finding the loophole in all compliments directed at me, I said, ‘You remember I’m an identical twin, right? So, someone like me actually did come around more than once in your lifetime. We came around twice.’

Carter chuckled at my logic. Then looking at me with the sincerest expression in his blue eyes, he said in a low voice, ‘You may have a look-alike, but you, Ava, are one in a million.’ He traced his thumb across my cheek. ‘You’re entirely and unapologetically yourself, and I kind of love that about you.’

Swirls of heat bloomed across my cheek where he caressed it, and I wanted to just live in this moment forever. I wanted to have him touch me like that everywhere.

But instead of continuing to caress my cheek or tangle his fingers in my hair like I wanted him to, he dropped his hand and reached for the contract again.

He held the paper up between us, and for a moment I wondered what he planned to do with it, but then he started tearing it down the middle.

‘You’re ripping up our contract?’ I asked.

He nodded. ‘My lawyer never got back to me about the loophole, but if it’s okay with you, I’d kind of like to get rid of this right now.’

‘Does this mean you don’t care if I show up on time to our tutoring sessions anymore then?’ I asked.

He shook his head. ‘That’s not the rule I have an issue with.’

‘You don’t want me to be ready and willing to learn from you?’

He shook his head again, ripping the contract in half once more. ‘Not that one, either.’

‘You don’t like the part I added?’

‘I’m pretty sure I’m already guilty of breaking that little addendum of yours,’ he said in a soft voice. ‘I mean, who couldn’t help but fall for a girl who is a goddess on earth with the most enchanting personality, charming wit, and captivating eyes?’

I couldn’t breathe.

Was he saying he’d fallen for me?

He ripped the contract pieces in half again. After tossing them on to the floor, he sat on the wooden chair beside his desk, reached for my hand and pulled me closer so I was standing between his splayed legs.

‘I don’t think I can keep up my half of the bargain anymore, Ava,’ he said. ‘I know we said we’d only pretend to like and flirt with each other.’ His thumb rubbed the skin along my knuckles. ‘And I said that falling for you wouldn’t be a temptation in the least, but I’m realizing that I was just lying to myself because falling for you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done.’

He pulled me even closer to him, so close that I had no other choice but to climb onto his lap. His hands gripped my hips and he leaned forward so our foreheads were touching. As he was looking deeply into my eyes, I knew that falling for Carter was the easiest thing I’d ever done, too.

I hadn’t really expected it. Sure, I’d thought he was the most beautiful-looking human I’d ever laid eyes on the moment I met him, but that had nothing on what I knew about who he was as a person now.

He was a little rough around the edges at times, but he was a good brother, a loving son, a caring friend. An all-around good person. And based on everything I’d seen from him the past few weeks, I also knew he’d make for an amazing boyfriend.

As we stared at each other, both of our breaths coming in short bursts, I knew I needed to tell him how I felt. So I gathered up as much courage as I could—because, let’s face it, this moment was what dreams were made of and I really didn’t want to mess it up—and said, ‘You’re not the only one who breached the contract. Because I think that I’m falling for you, too.’

He searched my eyes for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard me right. But then he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. His lips met mine in a long, slow kiss, and I knew from the urgency of his kiss that he’d been wanting this very thing to happen for as long as I had. That kiss in the woods had sparked something real inside us and the longer we tried to ignore it, the stronger the desire became. He cared about me. He wanted me.

The thought that someone like Carter could actually feel those things about me flooded my chest with a lightness I hadn’t felt in a very long time—maybe never before.

‘I’ve been thinking about doing this,’ he mumbled against my lips in between kisses. ‘Every day for the past two weeks.’

‘Me too.’ I sighed.

He slid his hands up and down my back as he kissed me, and it felt incredible. I slipped my hands into his hair, remembering how much he’d liked it the last time I did that. And when he let out a light moan, I couldn’t keep the slight smile from taking shape on my lips because I liked that I could do this to him.

‘You’re trouble, you know that?’ he mumbled in between kisses.

‘Good trouble, right?’ I asked, pulling away for a second to take a much-needed breath.

He nodded and said, ‘Very good trouble,’ before he started trailing kisses down my neck.

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