Page 76 of The Charade

He smoothed his hands along the outsides of my thighs. As the nerve endings under my skin sparked to life, I was glad that I hadn't changed out of my school uniform yet and into jeans because having his hands on my bare skin there felt amazing.

Carter pulled away from the kiss. "I know you don't like wearing the same kind of clothes every day. But you in this pleated skirt is kind of the sexiest thing I've ever seen." And when he raked in my legs as he moved his hands up and down, the desire in his eyes made my insides feel like they were being scorched by a wildfire. While I knew that Carter didn't just like me for my looks, I kind of loved that this guy who was on a hotness scale all his own found someone like me sexy.

"I'm glad you like it." I took his tie in my hands and started loosening it for him as I spoke. "I was thinking about wearing a pink off-the-shoulder gown to Cambrielle's soirée this weekend, but maybe I'll wear this instead."

"An off-the-shoulder dress?" Carter asked, intrigue filling his blue eyes.

I nodded, fighting a smile as I undid his tie the rest of the way. "An off-the-shoulderminidress."

I'd originally brought the dress to school because Elyse had told me it made my boobs look awesome and I thought it would be fun to wear to a formal dance if I got asked, but now that I knew Carter was more of a leg guy, I figured I should point out the other assets of the dress. I let go of his tie and pointed to a spot a few inches above my knee. "It hits me about here," I said, peeking to see his reaction. "But the slit goes up to here." I moved my finger a few inches higher.

Carter's eyes went wide when I pointed to the spot just a few inches down my thigh. And after seeming to need a moment to respond, he said, "I think I might need to see this dress." He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing before he added, "Right now."

I shook my head, grinning from ear to ear since I hadn't expected his reaction to be this good. "Sorry, but you're not allowed to see it until the day of the party."

"But that's five days away," he complained. "How about we just call it my early birthday present?"

"But you don't like celebrating your birthday, remember?"

"I changed my mind," he said quickly. "I love celebrating my birthday. In fact, I think it deserves a week-long celebration."

I laughed at his sudden change of opinion all based on the promise of seeing me in a sexy dress, but I really did want to wait to make a grand entrance at the party and watch his mouth drop open when I walked down to him. "Just wait until Saturday."

He sighed. "Fine."

We endedup ordering in dinner after all since it started raining and we didn't feel like going outside. We ate our tacos and salad at the small table in the corner of my room and then cuddled up on my bed to watch the latest murder mystery movie together, alternating between watching it on my laptop and kissing when it got to the slower parts.

The dorm mom, Heather, walked past my room every twenty minutes or so to make sure we were behaving since she knew Carter was in here. But because my room was at the end of the hall and not many other people had a reason to come this far down, it still felt like we had a good amount of privacy for our movie/make-out session.

I was just unbuttoning Carter's shirt when Elyse barged into the room.

I wanted to remind her about the importance of knocking before swinging the door wide open, which was how we warned each other that someone was about to come in and hopefully avoid walking in on a make-out session. But when her jaw dropped at the sight of Carter and me, I figured her shock was probably a good-enough reminder of its own.

"You might want to stop what you're doing," Elyse said when she noticed that Carter's shirt was already halfway unbuttoned, revealing a good amount of his light brown, muscled chest.

"And why would I want to do that?" I asked, because I was pretty sure I'd been doing exactly what I wanted to do right now.

But Carter, being the gentlemanly sort, got himself back to a sitting position and turned around so he could sit up on the end of my bed. "Is something wrong?" he asked, buttoning his shirt up again.

It was then that I noticed Elyse seemed more agitated than usual. She bit her lip and held out the papers she'd brought with her. "I think I figured out who our dad is."

30

Ava

"You found out what?"I asked, bolting upright and scooting off my bed to stand in front of my sister.

"I didn't want to say anything until I had more information, but ever since I found out that mom and Carter's dad were so close in high school it got me curious about things," Elyse said, her eyes darting to Carter and then back to me. "At first I thought it must have been just a high-school romance that ended when they graduated, but then I started talking to Mrs. Simmons one day because I saw her in some of the photos from the play mom was in and found out that she was in their grade. We got to talking about things and she told me that Mom and Carter's dad were a pretty serious couple in high school and that everyone had been sure they were going to get married someday."

"Mrs. Simmons told you this?" I furrowed my brow, wondering why Elyse hadn't told me anything about this before.

"Yes." Elyse nodded. "Anyway, I was intrigued by this because Mom never talked about Mr. Hastings at all, or really said anything about high school for that matter. So I asked her to tell me everything she could about their relationship, since Mom has always been so closed up about her past."

"And what did she say?" I asked. "Did she say why they broke up? Or when?"

"I guess they had to break up when they graduated and Mom had to move back to Israel," Elyse said with a shrug. "Mrs. Simmons said she lost touch with Mom after that, but I guess Mr. Hastings took it pretty badly. She said she thinks he even offered to help Mom get her visa renewed and do whatever to make it work between them, but then Grandpa got really sick at the time and so that complicated things."

"I remember Mom saying something about Grandpa having his heart attack and surgeries right about the time she was starting college."

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