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

‘THANKS FOR SAYING ALL THAT,’ Carter said, leaning back in his chair after Sofia and Simon had walked down the stone steps from the terrace to talk to her friends below. ‘It was perfect.’

‘I’ve always wanted to do something like that, so it was fun,’ I said.

It had been fun. I mean, how many girls could say they put a supermodel and her royal boyfriend in their places at a back-to-school barbecue with her hot fake boyfriend by her side?

Not many.

So even though it was highly possible Sofia might take an embarrassing photo of me and post it to her Instagram stories later for revenge, seeing the jealousy on her face as I’d cuddled up to Carter was totally worth it.

That’s right. I have a world-famous supermodel jealous of little ol’ me.

I was feeling so high on life right then that I almost told Carter he didn’t need to take me shopping for payment since I had so much fun doing it.

But I’d never turn down a free outfit, so I kept that info to myself.

‘You sure you’re not interested in auditioning for one of the school plays?’ Carter asked with a chuckle in his voice. ‘Because after hearing everything you just said, even I was starting to believe that we might be perfect for each other. And I’m in on the secret.’

‘I don’t know.’ I leaned closer to him, close enough that I could breathe in the delicious scent of his cologne, which I’d wanted to drown in since that first day in his truck. ‘Maybe we are.’

‘You think so?’ He narrowed his aqua-blue eyes at me, like he wasn’t sure if I was still playing a part or not. But then he sat up straighter, and his tall, muscular physique couldn’t help but capture my attention. He said, ‘Then I guess it’s too bad you wrote that little addendum to my contract, forbidding me from falling in love with you, huh?’

And the way he looked at me, like he might have been interested in me for real if I hadn’t needed his help with math and we didn’t sign that contract, made me wonder if something could have happened on its own even without this fake dating arrangement of ours.

But then I remembered that Carter only dated supermodels, and while I may be tall enough to be one, I most certainly didn’t look like one. So I pushed those thoughts away and simply said, ‘I guess it’s something we’ll always have to wonder about, isn’t it?’

He seemed to study me for a moment before saying, ‘I guess it is.’

CAMBRIELLE, Elyse, and the rest of the crew joined us as we finished the last half of our meal. Nash and Mack decided to recount stories of the various pranks they’d pulled on the headmistress and the drama teacher and soon had us all laughing until we had tears coming out our eyes.

When we’d finished eating, Scarlett challenged us to a game of volleyball on the court below with a few of her volleyball friends. After playing a game where she, Hunter, and Mack basically dominated on the sandy court, I decided to take a breather and explore the little path that led into the gardens Cambrielle had pointed out when she was showing us the pool-house and pool on our tour earlier.

I was just walking onto the stone path lined with bushes and beautiful flowers when Carter jogged up to my side and asked, ‘Everything okay?’ He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, his breathing still hard from the volleyball game. ‘You’re not escaping in here because you’re mad that your team lost the game, are you?’

‘No, of course not.’ I shook my head, finding it funny that he would even think of it. ‘I don’t care about the game. The only things I get competitive over are basketball games and when other girls try to steal guys from me.’

‘Okay, good,’ he said. And then, with a half-smile slipping up his lips, he added, ‘But thanks for the heads up on that. I’ll have to remember to warn my next fake girlfriend that you could be a little territorial over me.’ He winked.

I couldn’t help but smile at his comment. ‘Are you planning to make this fake-girlfriend thing a habit?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, maybe.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘It’s been kind of fun, don’t you think? And it certainly seems a lot easier than doing the real thing.’

‘Has finding a girlfriend been difficult for you in the past?’

Because yeah, I definitely wouldn’t believe that. He was hot.

And tall.

And from what I’d seen of his eight-pack abs in his room earlier, he was also in amazing shape—which was another kind of hot on its own.

Not to mention the less shallow attributes of being super smart and fun to talk to as well.

And while Carter wasn’t the life of the party like Mack and Nash were, he was still really fun to be around in his own way.

So yeah, him having a hard time finding a girlfriend was not something that could be real.

‘Finding a girlfriend isn’t the problem,’ he said, apparently on the same wavelength as me. ‘I guess it’s more the work that’s involved in keeping one.’

And there it was. This guy, who most girls my age would probably consider a teenage god, was insecure about his ability to keep the interest of a potential girlfriend because his last girlfriend had left him.

It was crazy, right?

Because I was pretty sure that if I hadn’t signed a contract saying that I wouldn’t catch real feelings for this guy, I might be in real danger of doing exactly just that.

Even with the contract, I had totally imagined what getting tangled in his strong arms and lost in his kiss would be like.

He was the forbidden fruit of Eden Falls Academy, and I was the girl tempted to taste him.

But since I couldn’t admit to any of that, I just said, ‘Yeah, dating someone because you like them and not just because you want to get revenge on your ex is for the birds.’

He put his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me against his side for the briefest moment. ‘See, and this is why our arrangement is so perfect.’

He let his arm drop, and even though I’d only been close to him for a few seconds, I felt colder when he stepped away.

We walked down in silence for a moment, just listening to the sounds of laughter and voices from the party growing quieter the farther we got down the path.

I took in the beautiful scenery around me. The path was lined with daisies and hydrangeas, and then just beyond were various shrubbery and trees whose leaves were just beginning to show signs of change.

‘How big is your family’s property?’ I asked. I’d never been to a home with such extensive grounds. They seemed to have everything you’d ever dream of having here. The beautiful home. The pool. The amazing yard.

‘All in all, it’s about a thousand acres.’ Carter slipped his hands into his pockets, his elbow bumping against mine as he did so. ‘But when my great-great-great grandpa first settled the town and bought his property, it was about ten times that.’

‘Your family lives on a thousand acres?’ I stopped in my tracks and didn’t even try to hide my shock. ‘What in the world do you do with that much land?’

‘Lots of things.’ Carter shrugged and continued down the path. ‘We have a horse stable out that way.’ He pointed north. ‘And then the blueberry fields are over there.’ He pointed to the east. ‘The golf course is this way.’ He pointed west. ‘And then there’s just a lot of land that hasn’t been developed much, and it’s where we ride our ATVs.’

‘Wow.’ I shook my head slowly. ‘I know it’s probably something I should know by now, but you’re, like, really rich, aren’t you?’

Carter chuckled, a deep and vibrant sound that made me happy for some reason. ‘The only money that’s mine aside from my trust fund is the small allowance they give me and the money I make tutoring. My dad and Dawn are the ones who are wealthy.’

‘I’m not rich, my parents are ,’ I mimicked him, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. ‘That’s just something rich kids say, isn’t it?’

Carter laughed again. ‘I don’t know. Is that something you say?’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Your mom’s a famous fashion designer. You can’t tell me you’re not one of us.’

One of us.

‘I don’t know,’ I said, looking around at the scenery again and feeling like such an insignificant drop in the pool of the rich and famous. ‘My mom’s money is new. Super new. It’s different from people who’ve had decades and decades for their investments to compound into something massive.’

‘I suppose that’s true. Having billions to your name is a lot different than millions.’

Billions.

I couldn’t even fathom what that much money would look like.

‘I’m guessing your dad’s one of those people working with billions then?’ I asked since he’d thrown the number out there.

‘That’s what his financial people tell him, anyway.’ He narrowed his blue eyes at me, the setting sunlight peeking through the trees making them brighter than usual. ‘You didn’t come up with this scheme to be my fake girlfriend because you heard my dad was the seventh richest guy in the U.S., did you?’

‘What?’ I choked a little on my own spit and then coughed. ‘Of course not! I didn’t even know your family was that kind of rich until just now when you said it.’ Sure, when his siblings said they lived on an estate I figured they weren’t dirt poor or anything, but yikes, I had no idea they were billionaires. Or the seventh richest family in the United States!

But when he still looked skeptical, I hurried to add, ‘If I had any ulterior motives for pretending to be with you, it would be because you’re hot. Not because of your dad’s position on the Forbes list.’

He needed to believe me. From my little experience with the rich and famous, I knew they were always on guard for people just trying to use them for some sort of gain. And while I was using Carter to help my math grade, I didn’t have plans for anything else.

I watched Carter for his reaction to what I’d just said, but then I realized I’d just told him exactly how attractive I found him.

Again.

I internally kicked myself because I’d been trying so hard not to think about how hot he was.

Carter got a mischievous look on his sexy face and said, ‘So you really were snooping around my room earlier today with hopes of checking me out, weren’t you?’ And when he waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive way, I wanted to smack the smug look off his lips.

I settled for shoving his arm instead. ‘In your dreams.’

I must have pushed him harder than I thought because he stumbled to the side with the momentum. And either he had the worst luck or I had the best timing, because just as he was tripping over a rock sitting in the flower bed, the sprinklers turned on.

He ended up catching himself before he could face-plant in the daisies, but by the time he got back up to his feet, the sprinklers had already given him a pretty good shower.

‘So now you’re trying to see what I look like in a wet T-shirt contest?’ Carter asked as he wiped the wet dirt off his hands.

And when I saw the look in his eyes, I knew I needed to run as fast as I could, or I was going to find myself in the wet flower beds and getting way dirtier than him.

‘Oh no, you don’t, Cohen. You’re not getting out of this,’ Carter called out as I started sprinting away. And a second later, his footsteps were chasing me down the stone path.

I looked over my shoulder when I’d made it past a curve in the path to see if he was still running after me. He was only about five feet away, thanks to those long legs of his.

Crap! I was in trouble!

I came to a part of the garden where the sprinklers hadn’t turned on yet, and since there was a break in the flowers, I darted through the opening with hopes of escape.

I rushed through the trees as fast as I could, looking for a place to hide since I knew I couldn’t keep up this pace for long. When I found a big fat tree, I ran to the side that wasn’t visible from the path and pressed my back against it so I could catch my breath.

I strained my ears to see if I could make out his location, but my heartbeat pounded too loud in my temples for me to hear anything.

I was just about to peek my head around the corner when Carter suddenly jumped around the other side of the tree and said, ‘You can run, but you can’t hide.’

And then he pulled me into his arms and pressed me against him, the dirt from his shirt rubbing off on my new, red crop top and getting me all dirty and wet.

‘You’re going to ruin my new shirt!’ I squealed when he hugged me closer to him.

‘What?’ he asked, clamping his strong arms around my torso, locking me against him. ‘You don’t like this? You don’t like it when someone covers you in mud?’

‘Carter!’ I squealed again. Though this time, it didn’t sound nearly as annoyed, because now that I was in his arms, I kind of didn’t care what happened to my shirt anymore.

He felt good. Those abs and chest of his that I’d drooled over earlier felt really, really nice against me, and I kind of wanted him to ruin my shirt a little longer.

‘You know what I think?’ Carter asked, seemingly wrapped up in the moment as well. ‘I think I might need to throw you in the pool for payback.’

I stopped struggling and went still in his arms. ‘You wouldn’t.’

He looked me straight in the eyes and said, ‘I would.’

He was just squatting down to throw me over his shoulder when the silence around us was suddenly filled with two voices coming from the opposite end of the path.

Carter must have recognized the voices because he instantly stopped trying to abduct me. Instead, he pushed me against the tree with his body as if attempting to blend in.

‘Who is it?’ I whispered into his chest since his tall body was blocking my view of whoever was coming our way.

He narrowed his eyes for a second as he checked the area. Then he whispered breathlessly, ‘It’s Sofia and Simon.’

We stood there for a few moments. I tried to get my breathing in control, sure they’d hear my panting since I was still out of breath from my jaunt through the woods, but my breathing wasn’t cooperating because I was all too aware of how I was trapped between a tree and Carter.

I guess I wasn’t exactly ‘trapped’ trapped; I could probably slide away to freedom if I wanted to.

But as I let myself get drunk on his delicious scent and the feel of his strong body flushed with mine, there was no place on earth I’d rather be.

Carter was breathing hard too, his chest heaving with the movement, but he didn’t seem to be nearly as aware of me as I was of him since he was still watching Simon and Sofia’s approach.

So, deciding to just make myself comfortable, I turned my head to face the same direction that Carter was looking. He adjusted his footing, stepping so his feet were splitting mine, and then leaned even closer so that my ear was to his chest. I listened to his heartbeat as we waited, liking the sound. It was strong and steady, and thanks to our race through the woods, probably pounding faster than its usual tempo.

Hearing someone’s heartbeat was such an intimate thing. I’d maybe only listened to a few heartbeats in my life—like when I played doctor as a little kid—so it was kind of nice to have this little insight into the part of Carter that literally made him tick.

‘What are they doing now?’ I whispered, so it wouldn’t be so obvious how much I liked being so close to him.

‘It looks like they were just coming from the pond,’ he said. After a short pause, he said, ‘And now they’re sitting on the bench over there.’

Oh, darn it. Looks like I might be stuck basically hugging Carter for a little longer.

I smiled to myself at the thought.

‘I’m sorry I’m so annoyed right now,’ Sofia’s voice traveled over to us. ‘I just expected tonight—this week—to go differently.’

‘Yeah?’ Simon’s deep voice answered.

‘I’ve been trying to fix things with Carter all week to explain everything,’ Sofia continued. ‘But every time I try to, he’s with that new girl.’ She paused for a moment, and then added, ‘And I can’t believe they think that we cheated on Carter. I know we got together quickly after I broke things off, but it’s not like I knew I was going to meet you at the London fashion show.’

‘I know, honey,’ Simon said, and I imagined him rubbing her back in a soothing way. ‘We did nothing wrong.’

I shifted my footing a little, hoping if I just moved a little, I would actually be able to see the couple through the bush blocking them from my view.

‘Yeah, and I just—’ Sofia started to say before I stepped on a stick, which snapped loudly, startling her.

Carter and I both held our breath, waiting for them to continue their conversation. But then I heard Sofia say, ‘Someone’s spying on us.’

I looked up at Carter with wide eyes at the same time he looked at me and whispered, ‘What do we do?’

He got an anxious look on his face, and after seeming to make a split-second decision, he whispered gruffly, ‘You’re my fake girlfriend, right?’

‘Yeah…’

‘Good.’

Before I could register what was happening, his face dipped closer and his lips pressed against mine, coaxing them in a give-and-take. And I was so overcome with the sensation of it all that my brain seemed to short-circuit itself.

‘Carter—’ I gasped, pushing against his chest so I could try to figure out what was going on. ‘What are you—?’

He put a finger on my lips to stop me. ‘Two hundred dollars at whatever store you want if you go along with this.’

He was bribing me to kiss him?

Was he suggesting we make out behind this tree so Sofia wouldn’t think we’d just been listening to them?

I must have hesitated too long because he leaned close to my ear, his warm breath sending chills racing up the back of my neck as he mumbled, ‘Please.’

Well, if he was saying please…

Who was I kidding? I’d make out with him for free just to see if he was as good as my daydreams from earlier this week.

So even though I wasn’t the type to turn down a free shopping spree, I pushed myself onto my tiptoes, wrapped my arms behind his neck, and said, ‘You can kiss me for free.’

And that was apparently all the okay Carter needed because in the next instant, his soft lips were back on mine and coaxing them into the kind of exchange that might just make me forget my own name.

The kind of kiss that told me Carter could indeed excel at everything he put his mind to.

He slid one hand up my arm, along my bare shoulder, and then let his fingers stroke through the hair at the nape of my neck.

Even though it was a warm September night, I shuddered under the gentle touch because having his fingers against the sensitive spot felt so unbelievably good.

He must have picked up the wrong signal though, because he stopped what he was doing. He rested his forehead against mine, concern etched in his eyes as he asked, ‘You still okay with this?’

I couldn’t exactly speak right then, since his kisses had left me tongue-tied and breathless. So I just nodded and mumbled, ‘Uh-huh.’

I was more than okay with this.

I was pretty sure I might be okay with doing this forever.

To prove he hadn’t pushed me too far in the least, I let my hands do some exploring of their own, sliding along the muscular ridges of his sides and rubbing up the damp fabric of his shirt so my palms could smooth over the solid contours of his chest.

And wow, he felt incredible. Every bit as good as I’d imagined.

Based on what I’d seen of his dad and brothers so far, I assumed part of his amazing physique could be attributed to winning the genetic lottery. But judging from how solid he felt against me, I knew he also had to spend at least some of his free time working out to achieve a muscle tone like this.

How was a guy like this even real?

And how in the world had Sofia dumped him?

She must be insane.

A huge part of me wanted to continue exploring more of him—maybe see if his butt felt as tight as it looked in his jeans, but since this make-out was only for show, I kept my hands above the waist in the territory appropriate for a kissing session with a fake boyfriend.

Carter’s lips traveled away from my mouth as he trailed slow kisses along my jawline. I was vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps approaching—most likely Sofia coming to see who was spying on her.

I should probably care that she was going to witness the hottest make-out session of my life, but I was so beyond caring about anything other than the way Carter was currently making me feel that I sort of blocked everything else around me out.

It was just Carter and me in this stolen moment. The reasons behind its existence didn’t even matter to me anymore, because I was currently floating away on cloud nine without another thought other than how I could get more of this.

Carter’s mouth worked its way down my throat and then back up again, leaving a trail of fire everywhere his lips touched. And when his lips captured mine again, I instinctively deepened the kiss. I opened my mouth to his, letting it tell him what I’d never dare say.

That I liked this. And wanted more of it.

That I probably never should have signed his contract because it was going to be impossible not to want a repeat of this moment after today.

And it was glaringly obvious why he’d had that rule in the first place. Because after just one taste of this forbidden fruit, I was hooked. Carter Hastings was my drug and going cold turkey after this might just send me into actual withdrawals.

I let my fingertips graze against his strong jawline before pushing them into his hair and up his scalp. His hair was softer than I’d imagined.

‘Ava…’ He groaned quietly against my lips, the sound so low and seductive it made my stomach muscles contract. ‘You… We… We should probably—’

But he didn’t finish his thought. Instead, he smoothed his hands along my lower back, flattening them against the skin just below my crop top and sending a heat wave through my system as he pulled me even closer to him.

He was feeling the effects of this fake kiss, too.

Even if he turned around after this and say he’d only been playing into this moment for Sofia’s benefit, his body language was telling me a whole different story.

Carter liked kissing me.

And the thought of someone like Carter enjoying this moment as much as I did scorched my insides from head to toe.

‘Do you think they’re gone?’ Carter asked a while later, pulling away and scanning the area, his chest heaving from the intensity of the make-out session.

‘Yeah,’ I said, smoothing my hair down with my hands and trying to catch my breath as well. ‘At least I think so.’

I couldn’t exactly be sure how long we’d been kissing, since time had seemed to disappear when I was in Carter’s arms, but the sun was nearly set now and I couldn’t see nor hear Sofia or Simon anymore. They were probably back to the party by now.

‘Think they bought it?’ He turned back to face me, and that was when I noticed I’d left lip gloss all over his mouth.

‘Maybe,’ I said, moving to wipe my lip gloss away. While I was at it, I fixed his hair too, adjusting until it looked close to what it’d been like before I’d run my fingers through it.

Carter just watched me as I worked to make him more presentable, and my nervous system was all too aware of how closely he was studying me.

Did he like what he saw when he looked at me? Was he as attracted to me after that kiss as I was to him?

‘Thanks for cleaning me up,’ Carter said when I’d finished with his hair. ‘I, um, I guess we better plan a time for me to take you shopping now, huh?’

‘I do deserve to be rewarded for suffering through the past few minutes, don’t I?’ I arched a teasing eyebrow.

He smoothed his fingers through my hair to tame it, and even though I’d just been kissing him a minute ago, the sensation of his light touch sent warm tingles from my head to my toes. ‘If that’s what you act like when you’re suffering, I can’t imagine what you act like when you’re kissing a guy you actually like. There must be literal fireworks and rainbows that explode when you’re into it.’

So apparently, he had caught onto just how much I’d enjoyed it all.

Oh well. It’s not like I needed to be ashamed since he seemed to like it just as much.

But to keep up the little game we had going, I shrugged and said, ‘I’m just really good at this acting gig.’

‘Really?’ He gave me a look that told me he didn’t believe I’d hated kissing him for half a second. ‘Well, I guess it’s good we’re on the same page then, because kissing you was pretty much the worst.’

‘Whatever.’ I gave his shoulder a playful shove. ‘More like, you’re probably going to take your little tutoring contract to your lawyer tomorrow to see if she can find any loopholes because you know you’re addicted to me now.’

He chuckled. ‘I was actually planning to email it over to her as soon as we got back to the house.’

‘I thought so.’

We stood there smiling goofily at each other for a moment, and I liked that when I studied his eyes there was a look of wonder in them. Like he didn’t know what to make of what was happening between us.

He broke the eye contact after a moment, though, and peered off into the distance. The sun was close to dipping below the horizon. ‘Should we head back to the party?’

I kind of wanted to stay out here all night to flirt with Carter and see what might happen, but I stood up straighter and said, ‘Yes, let’s go.’

The path was less visible in the dim lighting, my footing not as sure. After I stumbled over a few branches, Carter reached for my hand to guide me back to where we’d come from. And as we walked through the trees and bushes with our fingers laced together, sparks of electricity sizzled up my arm. I knew I was going to have a hard time letting go of him when we made it back to reality.

Man, my heart was in trouble.