The Billionaire's Unauthentic Daughter

C H A P T E R 6 6

?Trust the timing of your life.?

"Ahhhhhh."

"Oh yeahhhhhhhh."

"Harder!"

"Faster!"

"Ah fuck."

"You've got to stop moaning like that. If someone were to hear you, they might get the wrong idea." Ethan said, while his hands worked magic on my bare skin.

"I know. But you're making me feel so good. I can't help it." I said as my fingers bunched up the bedsheets.

"At least don't be so loud!" Ethan panicked, visibly embarrassed.

I chuckled. "Okay, I'll try. You keep up what you're doing."

After we had dinner and decided to go to our cabin, Ethan noticed my neck and back muscles were still sore so he offered to massage it for me and that was why I couldn't stop moaning. He could be a good masseur.

"Does it hurt?"

"Yeah a little."

Ethan kept massaging my back and neck for a long time after which I started to feel guilty for making him do it.

"That's enough. Thank you."

"Are you sure? I can do it for some more time."

"No, it's alright. I'm fine now."

He stopped. "Okay. I'll go get ready for bed."

I pulled my shirt back on over my bra and stretched a little, wincing when I realized it still hurt a little to move around.

When he was done, it was my turn and I went inside with my bag of toiletries.

After I was done, I came out. I didn't have any plans for what we were going to do the next morning so I assumed we would just have breakfast and then call up the driver to pick us up.

We both were not in the condition to do any other activities anyway.

I hoped that his sprain wasn't anything major and that he could go to work comfortably from Monday.

Ethan was sitting on the edge of the small bed, bent over his phone. I suddenly realized that the bed wasn't as big as mine and that we would have to sleep close.

I realized I made a mistake. When booking a cabin, for some reason, I only booked one. Why hadn't I considered if Ethan would be comfortable with this or not? Why had I assumed that he'd be okay with sharing a bed with me?

It wasn't like we were doing it for the first time. But this time it was different. Our feelings were defined. We liked each other. Plus, hadn't he said no intimate contact?!

Cursing myself in my mind, I looked at him. He hadn't noticed my presence.

"Ethan." He looked up at me. "Will you be okay with sharing a bed with me? I just booked this one room with this small bed. I made a mistake."

"It's alright. I'm okay."

I wanted to bring up his no contact policy but held back.

"Okay, let's go to sleep?"

He nodded. "Let's. It had been a long but fun day. We should rest."

I switched off the lights and the lamp on the nightstand and suddenly we were engulfed in complete darkness.

I felt around for the bed, hissing in pain when I stubbed my toe on one of its legs.

"Are you okay?" He peered into the darkness but I doubted he was able to see me.

"Yeah. I am." I said as I quietly slipped under the covers.

"Hey." I looked at his silhouette in the darkness. "Can I take off my shirt?"

"Okay."

In the darkness, I saw him pull his shirt over his head and dump it somewhere on the nightstand. I could see his smooth skin against the background of the window.

And then he was lying right next to me, under the same covers. We were both lying on our backs, staring at the ceiling.

With what little confidence I had, I mustered up the courage to ask him something that I wanted to do.

"Do you consider cuddling an intimate contact?" I turned my head and could make out the structure of his face.

"No." He said after a few seconds of thinking.

"Can we...perhaps cuddle?" My cheeks flamed up as soon as the words left my lips and I made myself ready to hear his rejection.

"Okay."

I was a little shocked.

I felt him shift towards me and I slowly shifted towards him too until my fingers touched the bare skin on his chest.

He slipped his arm under my head and brushed some hair out of my face before resting it on my waist. Our faces were close. I could feel the gentle caress of his lips on my temple and I too, extended my hand and wrapped it around his waist.

I was fast asleep within a matter of few minutes. Sleeping in his arms felt like home. Like I was at a place where I was loved.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Ethan asked, with a little smile of his own playing on his lips.

I shook my head. "Nothing."

His smile widened and he looked down at his shoes to hide it.

We were sitting outside the cabin, waiting for the driver to show up. We were well rested but still not capable of another three hour journey down the mountain so we just decided to go home after some breakfast and a little tour around the place.

"Did you enjoy? Despite spraining your ankle?"

"Of course. Thank you. I think I really needed this trip."

"That's what I thought too." I said, pleased with myself.

We lapsed into silence. I rechecked if we had all our belongings.

"Juliet."

"Hmm?"

"I don't know if I'm right but is there a problem between you and Olivia?"

I looked at him. "There has been a problem for months. Took you quite some time to notice."

"Sorry. I never saw both of you together a lot so I had no idea. And I thought you just didn't like to talk during dinner."

"I know. Your mind is always so occupied with work, you probably wouldn't even notice who's sitting next to you." I said, tapping his temple.

"I know you're sitting next to me. I always pay attention to where you sit, what you say, what you do." He said, making me giddy inside.

"Really? Let's test that, shall we?"

"A few days ago, you thanked the cook for the food but you addressed him as Keith."

I groaned. "I know. Gosh, that was embarrassing. My parents were looking at me as if Keith and I had a thing going on and now that he left, I was missing him. Well, I do miss him."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For taking away your friend. I know he meant a lot to you."

"Ethan, I've already said it's alright. If you would've told me that before he left, I would've convinced you to not send him away and he would've lost a great opportunity so thank you for not telling me.

This was the best for him. I should be the one to apologize for yelling at you that day.

I was upset with you and reacted out of anger.

I didn't mean whatever I said that day. I told I that I hated you. That's not true. You know that, right?"

"Of course. Why else would you be trying so hard for our dates?"

"I could never hate you. I hated myself for even saying that and all the other terrible things I said."

He nodded and caressed my hair. "But what happened with Olivia. You were such good friends."

I shrugged. "I don't know. She just changed.

I didn't even notice when that happened.

She just started acting cold towards me.

At first she was just avoiding me. She didn't want to hang out with me.

She would just hole herself up in her room.

She would only come out to eat and make excuses when I asked what was wrong.

Then after a few days, she started to be rude to me.

We even yelled at each other a few times.

I've ran reasons through my head a million times to see what I did wrong but I couldn't come up with anything. "

"Did you find anything strange about her? Maybe she's going through a tough time and doesn't want to make you worried? Perhaps a family problem?"

I shook my head. "She doesn't get along well with her family.

They have disowned her. They never call or check up on her.

It's not that. The reason is different. Ah, right.

One thing I found strange was that Olivia and Heather seem to be hiding something.

We had a girl's day out a few days ago and Heather and Olivia hung out together.

Amelia was distracting me with stuff and when I confronted her about them, she said she didn't know what was going on and was only doing what Heather told her to.

They were gone for the whole day and Olivia returned only next morning.

Heather dropped her off. She sounded protective about Olivia and she wouldn't let me see her.

Do you remember, Ethan? She was there early morning and she caught us in the kitchen-" I cut myself off, suddenly remembering that day which caused blood to pool at my cheeks. "Uh...kissing."

"Yeah, I remember that."

And now again we were smiling down at our shoes, trying to control the upper tilt of the corner of our lips.

I licked my lips, trying to concentrate. "My point is that they are definitely hiding something from everyone. Did Heather ever mention anything about Olivia to you?"

"No. But why wouldn't she tell you? You two are a lot closer that she is to me."

"I don't know."

We fell into a silence although both our minds were in chaos over what could possibly be wrong with Olivia Rivera.

"Have you ever considered the possibility that maybe...they are seeing each other?"

"Really? I don't think so. I don't think Olivia is into girls. She's always dated boys."

"She might be bisexual. Heather also dated and slept with men all this time because she was forcing herself to like men because of her mother."

"That could be a possibility. Oh my God, why didn't Olivia tell me?"

"She must be have been worried over how you'd react to having two friends dating each other?" He suggested.

"Why would I even matter? It's their heart, it's love. They shouldn't be worried about me. I'm going to be talk to Olivia tonight and tell her that she had been cold to me for nothing!" It all made sense now. They probably ditched us that day to spend time together.

"You do that. I hope you two work it out. I can see that this rift between you two has really saddened you."

"It has." I admitted. "I felt all alone. Even you were distant. I didn't have anyone to talk to. Everyone was busy with their own lives. I felt insignificant."

"You're not insignificant. I'm sorry." He brushed my hair back and I peered up at him.

"It's not your fault. I brought it upon myself. I pretended to not like you. I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you had a good reason for that."

I grabbed his arm. "I did. Ethan, I'm sorry. You probably wouldn't believe me but I had a reason to do that."

"Are you going to tell me what it was?"

"I can't. Not now. I will tell you soon.

" I held his hand tightly, my face serious.

"Just remember that my feelings are genuine.

No matter what happens in the future, I want you to know that I like you.

So much. My feelings are real. They are sincere and I hope I'm doing well to show you that through these dates. "

"Juliet, is everything alright?" He looked at me, uneasy. "Why are you saying things like this?"

"Everything's okay but I don't know if it will be in the future. You might hate me at some point of time. You'll be mad at me. You'll question the time we spent together but I want you to remember this day and what I said right now, when that time does come."

"You're scaring me."

"I'm sorry." I hugged him. "I like you very much."

He sighed. "I'm going to trust you and let you take your time to tell me what this is all about."

I nodded into his shoulder.

The car came to a stop in front of us as we pulled away. We loaded our little backpack and would soon be home and back to reality.

"Are you and Heather dating?" The question bubbled out of my mouth. This was not how I had planned on approaching this matter.

"What?"

"Olivia, are you dating Heather?"

"Why would you think that?" She looked genuinely confused.

"Why not? You two seem so close to each other. You two are hiding seeming from me, aren't you?"

"We aren't hiding anything and no, I'm not dating Heather. I like boys. I'm straight."

"But then how do you explain what you two secretly have been up to?"

"We don't have to explain anything."

"Look, I'm not here to fight. If you two like each other, then be together! If you're worried about how I'll react, then you don't have to any longer. I'm not going to forbid you to date her."

"Oh, you can allow that but can't allow Tristan and I dating?" She arched an eyebrow.

"That was before. Now is different. Then do you like Tristan?"

"Yes! Julie, are you stupid? Of course I like him. Heather knew it. Amelia figured it out. They told me it was so fucking obvious. Are you blind?"

I did not expect a confession like that from her. "Then what's the problem? You want to date him? Date him!"

She scoffed. "Are you for real? You told me to fucking stay away from him. That if I date him, it might endanger your secret. I avoided him because of your fucking rule."

"What? I just...if you liked him so much, you should've fought me! You should've fought for your feelings. How could you give up?"

"Maybe because I considered our shitty friendship more important than him."

I didn't know what to say. She had avoided him because of me. Tristan was going to be so mad at me if he got to know about this.

"I'm sorry." I couldn't look into her eyes. They were hateful.

"Fuck you."

"I know I made a mistake but you can still go back to him, right? He likes you too. He misses you."

Tears glistened in her eyes, ready to fall down. "I can't. I can't go back now. I've made him suffer so much. I don't want to be so shameless and selfish to think he'll accept me back."

"But he will. I know he will."

She shook her head. "You don't know anything, Julie. Get out. I don't want to look at your face any longer."

"You're been too harsh, Liv. Don't you think you're over reacting to this?"

"Like I told you, you don't know anything. You don't know how deep my problems run. You're so self obsessed, you don't even know what I went through."

"Enlighten me then, Olivia. Because I can't find a valid reason for you to abuse me like this."

"I don't want to talk to you. Please get out."

From numerous fights we've had before, I knew better than to push her. So I left.

I thought that finally Olivia and I could reconcile. That we'd go back to being friends and forget all about our fights.

But instead it just got worse. She wasn't dating Heather. She liked Tristan but there was a bigger problem I was unaware of.

This was hopeless. Getting her to talk to me was turning futile every time. It was wasted effort. I wouldn't get anything out of her no matter how hard I tried. I wondered how long she was going to keep being like this. I was already tired of her.

When I returned to my room, Ethan was waiting outside his room. I had told him I was going to talk to her and he said he'd wait to see how it went.

"Well? Did you two kiss and make up?" He asked hopefully.

I sighed and shook my head. "No. It became worse."

"Why? Are they not dating?"

"No, we were wrong. She likes Tristan."

"Really? Wow. Okay. So what's the problem? They like each other. Shouldn't they be together?"

"They should." I nodded. "I don't know what's holding Olivia back."

Noticing I wasn't in a good mood to talk, he kissed my forehead which made the day a bit better after what just happened.

"I'm sure she'll come around. Don't worry."

I nodded although I didn't believe it.

"Now you go and get your beauty sleep. You're clearly tired. Do your arms and legs still hurt?"

"No, I'm okay now. Thanks to your massage last night."

"Are you sure? I can give you another massage right now. You just have to promise you won't moan so loud. If your father hears you moaning like that and sees me in your room, I'd be dead meat."

I laughed. "I don't think you'd be dead meat. My dad likes you. He thinks we are together and he said that you're a good person and he wouldn't mind if we start seeing each other."

"Really? He said that?" His eyed twinkled with happiness.

"Of course. And he's right. You're a really good person and I hope I can be with you."

"I'm going to decide that after the third date."

I pouted. "Right. I forgot the exam isn't over yet."

"Are you that tired of it already?"

"No, I like going on these dates. It's just that they are test dates. I want to go on a real date where we are a real couple."

"Well then hurry up with that last date so that I can make a decision."

"It's tomorrow."

"What? So soon?"

I nodded. "I came up with the perfect idea for the last date. I can't wait to take you on that date."

"I'm excited. You better not disappoint me."

"I'll try." I replied dryly.

We bid each other good night and went into our respective rooms.

Yes, tomorrow will be the third and last date that would determine our fate. I was confident that by the end of the day we'd be together.

I knew that we'd be together.