Page 53 of The Charade

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?"

---