My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 146

Chapter 146 Scared Of What Just Happened

We broke the connection.

The freezing wind rushed into the narrow space between our bodies. The drop in temperature felt like a physical strike against my skin. I stumbled backward. My velvet heel caught on the uneven concrete of the terrace. I gripped the thick wool lapels of his tailored jacket to keep my balance. I gasped for air. My lungs burned from the sudden intake of freezing oxygen.

I looked at him.

Ryder stood pinned against the rough stone railing. His chest heaved with deep, ragged breaths. The crisp white cotton of his dress shirt bore the deep, wrinkled evidence of my fists. His dark hair stood in chaotic angles, ruined by my frantic grip. The calm, calculated armor he wore into the gymnasium was gone. He looked unraveled.

We stared at each other in the dark.

“Raisa,” he breathed. His chest rose and fell in a rapid rhythm.

“Don’t,” I said. I let go of his jacket lapels and took a step back. My hands shook. “Do not say a word.

“I have to talk to you.”

“If you speak, it makes this real. The panic climbed up my throat, thick and suffocating. “And if this is real, we are in massive trouble.”

The adrenaline spike began to fade. The reality of the cold spring night crashed over my senses. The terror arrived.

“We had a contract, I told him. My voice wavered. “We drafted rules in blue ink. We built a fortress out of college-ruled paper. The rules gave us permission to exist in the same orbit.”

“We burned the paper, Ryder countered. He pushed his shoulders off the stone railing. “I burned it in the cafeteria. The contract is dead.”

“The contract kept us safe!” I argued. I wrapped my arms around my waist, fighting the biting chill. “If someone asked questions, we pointed to the arrangement. If the pressure grew too heavy, we blamed the performance. We possessed a shield.”

“I do not want a shield anymore. I want you.”

“There was zero performance on this balcony, Ryder. My voice cracked. “No society photographers waited near the locked glass doors to document a stunt. No classmates stood by the punch bowl to judge our posture. We just destroyed the safety net.

He closed the distance. He stopped a foot away from my face. “I kissed you because the starvation reached a breaking point. The act was killing me.”

The starvation won.

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13:49 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 146 Scared Of What Just Happened

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I touched my mouth. My fingertips brushed my lower lip. The skin felt tender and swollen. The phantom heat of his mouth lingered on my skin, fighting the bitter chill of the wind. The physical proof of our collision sent a new, cold shiver down my spine.

I loved him. I loved the boy who shattered metal lockers. I loved the boy who brought me a 1943 first edition to honor a humiliated fourteen-year-old girl. I loved him with a fierce, consuming fire that threatened to burn my entire world to the ground.

But love did not erase the massive canyon between us.

“What happens on Monday?” I asked. The reality of our separate lives crashed down. “How do we go back inside that building? How do I walk past Trent Lawson and pretend my entire universe did not just shift on its axis?”

“You walk past him with your head held high. Just like you did tonight.”

“It is not that simple!” I shouted. The wind swallowed the sound. “How do I sit across from you at the round wooden table in the library on Tuesday and lecture you about covalent bonds? The distance I built is a joke now. I can never look at you with a blank, indifferent stare again. The mask is gone.”

“Good, Ryder said. His tone carried a harsh, defensive edge. He used the anger to mask his own panic. I hated the mask. I hated sitting in that library while you treated me like a stranger.”

“I treated you like a stranger because we are strangers to each other’s worlds!” I pushed my hands through my hair, frustrated. “Love does not pay my medical school tuition. Love does not rewrite the destructive legacy of the Steinmann corporate empire. I live in a small house with chipped baseboards on the East Side. My mother works double shifts at a diner to keep the electricity running.”

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