The Charade: A Billionaire/Fake Relationship Romance (Eden Falls Academy)
The Charade: Chapter 38

I SHOULD JUST LEAVE, I told myself as I stood near the refreshment table in my family’s grand ballroom in the west wing of the house, glaring at Mack and Ava as they danced to the orchestra arrangement of Justin Bieber’s song “Anyone.”

When I’d told Ava that all the guys at school would be dying to dance with her tonight once they saw her in her dress, I hadn’t meant for her to take that sentence as a challenge. But here we were, an hour and a half into the night and she’d already danced with at least five guys from the football team, three guys from the wrestling team, and was now currently dancing with my best friend who was the star player for the basketball team.

Did she have a thing for jocks? Or was it just tall guys with strong jawlines and big muscles?

Either she did, or all the guys who fit that description were just conveniently drawn to her.

Drawn to her tonight when I wasn’t allowed to touch her.

But boy, did I want to touch her. When she’d come down the stairs with my sister and her friends at her side, I had to work hard to keep my jaw from dropping. Because even though I knew Ava was gorgeous, and she’d teased me about how amazing she was going to look in her dress tonight, I somehow hadn’t been prepared for the sight.

I rubbed my jaw, still watching her. Even after seeing her dance with guy after guy all night, I still couldn’t get over how beautiful she looked tonight. Her hair was pulled back in an elegant side swept updo, showing off the long curve of her neck and the dips of her collarbone. Her pink dress looked like it had been made for her—knowing that her mom was a famous fashion designer, it probably was actually made just for Ava. The sweetheart, off-the shoulder neckline also did nothing to help with my jealousy. Because let’s face it, the girl knew just the right cut to wear in order to have every teenage guy within a two-hundred-yard radius turning their heads to stare at her.

And that hemline? Well, let’s just say that if I hadn’t already been a leg guy, the way Ava’s legs looked in the skirt and heels would have definitely converted me.

I closed my eyes and tried to shake away the carnal urges rising up in me as I raked her appearance in.

She might be your sister.

But when I opened my eyes again, I knew it would take actually hearing those words from my dad or her mom to really convince my hormones of that. Because right now, she did not look like my sister. Right now, she looked like the girl who had starred in every single dream of mine from the past week.

Well…longer than that, since yeah, I’d dreamed about her before it was forbidden, too.

I pressed my lips together, remembering how her cherry lip balm had tasted the last time I’d kissed her. How was it possible that a person could have so much power over my emotions?

I’d been determined not to get mixed up with a member of the opposite sex when the school year started, but I should have known the second Ava walked into the weight room that first day and my heart did a little flip-flop in my chest that my plans were worthless against the force that was Ava Cohen. Because she was not a mere human. No. She’d been right on the money when she’d written up her little addendum to my contract. She was a goddess and only a Titan would be able to resist falling hopelessly and irrevocably in love with her.

Yes, I knew it was crazy that I’d fallen so hard and so fast for a girl I’d only met a month and a half ago, but love didn’t care about things like logic—or how closely you may or may not be related to a person. It was controlled by some intangible force that I was powerless to resist.

I took another sip from my water as I watched Ava smile at something Mack said to her. And even though I knew the only reason Mack had asked her to dance in the first place was because I’d asked him to step in after Tayden Archibald’s hand kept sliding farther and farther down Ava’s back until he was almost squeezing her butt and making her look uncomfortable, I still couldn’t watch them without wanting to punch my own best friend in the face.

Because he was making Ava smile. He was making her laugh. And he was holding her in the way that I should have been holding her tonight.

I crushed the plastic cup in my hand and tossed it in the trash can beside me, knowing I should probably head upstairs before I did something I regretted—something like ripping Ava away from the next guy she danced with and telling her I was the only guy she was ever supposed to dance with, especially when she looked the way she did.

We’d joked about her dress being my early birthday present. And for the first time in thirteen years, I wanted to cash in on the special perks that the birthday boy usually got.

I wanted a ‘let’s forget about reality for the night’ card, so we could go back in time to a week ago when I didn’t know what was coming for us.

I checked the time on my watch. My dad should have been here before the party started.

Was he just hiding out somewhere?

Had he decided to prolong his trip so he wouldn’t have to face everyone and explain to Dawn how he’d fathered twins the month before they got back together?

Almost as if on cue though, through one of the ballroom windows that looked into the main part of the house, I saw the door from the garage open. A second later my dad walked through it wearing shorts and a teal T-shirt, his usual uniform for long flights home.

I expected him to bring in his luggage behind him, but instead, he held the door open for someone to follow him inside. Mr. Aarden walked through the door wearing a white polo shirt and dress pants. Following close behind him was a petite woman in a black designer dress suit who I’d only seen in photographs from decades earlier.

Ava’s mom.

My dad briefly glanced through the windows to the party, looking for a moment like he’d rather be in here dancing with Dawn instead of facing the conversation Mr. Aarden was probably forcing him to have with Ava’s mom.

But instead of coming inside, he gestured for his guests to continue down the hall that led to his office. And with one last longing glance at the party, he followed the friends from his past inside the room where I’d overheard that implicating call from over a month ago and shut the door.

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