031. mercy [5/?]
Title | Mercy
Chapter | 5/?
Rating | pg-13
Characters | Carter. Carter/Serena, Chuck/Blair
Summary | He set out to corrupt her, but on reflection he realized that she may have corrupted him.
No matter what you think you think, you think the same as I think.
-- Adam’s Rib
He stared back at her for a beat, a stunned silence settling between them. They were both breathing audibly, and Serena was still looking at him with those ocean-blue eyes, filled with infinite hope.
Taking a deep breath, he managed to smirk. “I, uh…I’m sorry, but I don’t have a ring.”
Much to his relief, she laughed, breathy and sweet, and leaned into him a bit. Her forehead pressed against his shoulder and she murmured, “I’m sorry, I meant to suggest that more…rationally.”
Carter smiled as his hand settled at the small of her back, keeping her close to him. “It’s okay if I distract you,” he said quietly against her hair.
“Shut up,” she mumbled, pulling away, but she was smiling.
He brushed her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear and letting his hand linger against her cheek. “You want to marry me?”
Her skin was hot under his fingertips. “For good reasons,” she insisted, “for both of us. It’s…a business deal.”
It wasn’t. He couldn’t marry this girl and not get emotionally involved. Carter Baizen had long ago perfected the art of doing many things without letting his emotions interfere, but he knew this would be an impossibility.
“You’re seventeen years old, Serena,” he told her gently, and felt the pang of it in his own chest, too young. “I can’t marry you. Not yet,” he added, a bit more softly.
“You can,” she insisted stubbornly, but a bit of vulnerability slipped into her voice as she said, “If you want to, I mean.”
She was adorable, and infuriating, the way she was so emphatic and yet shyly tip-toeing around the subject. “And how’s that?” he asked her, unable to resist knowing more.
“Parental consent,” she told him smoothly. “My mother likes you and my grandmother adores you - it shouldn’t be all that difficult.”
He shook his head, forcing himself to be logical. “Regardless, they won’t want you to get married so young. They won’t allow it.”
“But if I’m absolutely in love with you…” she said softly, her eyelashes fluttering prettily, “then why wait?”
For just an instant he abandoned all efforts to be logical and believed her words, felt them swell up within him - his body practically tingled, for god’s sake. But then he snapped himself out of it, refused to drown in her eyes, and gave her an admiring once-over instead, unable to stop himself. “Serena van der Woodsen,” he said slowly, “you are far more devious than you are ever given credit for.”
She winked, looking a little bit proud. “Sometimes it works to your advantage when no one knows,” she purred.
“How is this idea of yours going to help me?” He frowned as he added, “How is it supposed to help you?”
“Chuck will have to work with you. It’s not exactly going to be great PR for his first-ever major project if he refuses to work with his brother-in-law.”
Carter nodded thoughtfully. “True…”
“And even if Chuck doesn’t agree,” Serena rushed on, “it’s not like he has all of the say in the company. He’s still seventeen, like me; my mother holds the majority of the power in Bass Inc., though she’s been willing to let Chuck take the reins thus far. But if you’re part of the family…she could override Chuck’s decisions and hire you.”
Looking into her bright eyes, his stomach flipped a little when she said family, so casually, so ready to adopt him into her life. “You make good points, beautiful,” he told her quietly.
“But if…that’s not how you want to do things, if you really are being honest about earnestly wanting to prove yourself just like Chuck wants to…well, if you can convince me of that, I think I can convince him.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “You can convince Chuck,” he repeated sceptically.
Serena tilted her head, examining his expression. “I think you underestimate our relationship.”
Carter couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think that’s where my misunderstanding lies,” he assured her, thinking of the fierce look in Chuck’s eyes when he had informed Carter that Serena was his sister. He scrutinized her face and grinned. “Chuck Bass is a softie, deep down, isn’t he?”
She giggled. “In some ways. Probably ways that you will never be witness to. But that’s not it, it’s just - I get him. I think I could make this work for you, for both of you.”
“Baby, Chuck and I haven’t gotten along in a long time. That’s going to be something that’s going to be incredibly difficult to change now, especially on his end; however, you should keep in mind that I’m not his biggest fan, either.”
Serena was pouting at him, wide eyes and her bottom lip poking out. “Don’t call me baby,” she said firmly, her eyes narrowing.
“No?” he smirked. “Shouldn’t I be allowed to be affectionate with my fiancée?” he asked, arms encircling her and pulling her toward him; he daringly slipped his fingers up her shirt a bit to tickle her.
“Stop!” She batted his hands away, barely managing to hold onto her frown. He could see, from the way her eyes glittered, that she wasn’t genuinely upset with him. “It’s a business deal.”
“Alright. It’s a business deal.”
“Don’t be patronizing.”
“I was agreeing.” He scowled. “Can we get back to the topic at hand, please?”
“Fine, honey,” she shot back. “My point is that I think I can convince Chuck to at least tolerate you. The two of you will have some common ground.”
“Common ground?”
“Me,” Serena said, as if it was obvious. “And once the two of you see that you can come to agreements regarding one thing, it shouldn’t be so hard for that cooperative sentiment to extend to other things. Such as your work.”
Carter couldn’t help but smile. “And what about me tolerating Chuck, how is that going to happen?”
Her eyes skimmed over his body before landing back on his face. “I’m sure…as your wife…I could find some way of convincing you.” She blinked, daring him to call her out on her innuendo.
He grinned wolfishly. “Oh, I’m sure you could.”
“So…”
“Not so fast,” he told her, shaking his head. “This makes some sense, for me. But what about for you? In what way is marrying me of any help to you?”
She blew out her breath. “Look. Chuck’s habit of interfering in my personal affairs isn’t exactly…unfounded. I do things sometimes that aren’t…” She trailed off and began again. “But he just knows everything and he doesn’t trust anything, and now that he is basically the head of a business empire, there’s just no way of fooling him. But I think you could. I think I could, with your help.”
“And in what way does he need to be fooled?”
“He just…can’t know. About this person that I’m looking for. It’s important that no one knows, especially not my brothers.”
“Ah, yes. Who is this mysterious person?”
“I can’t tell you,” she whispered. “Not…not yet.”
“So, when do I find out? After the honeymoon?”
“Carter.”
“I’m being serious, Serena. You’re offering to help me, you’re asking for my help, you’re proposing an engagement, but you won’t tell me what your goal in all of this is?”
“It’s not dangerous,” she promised.
He chuckled lowly. “I’m not your big brother, beautiful. That isn’t my concern.”
“So just help me!”
“Not until you tell me.”
She crossed her arms. “I will tell you. I just need a little time.”
“You can marry me but you can’t tell me the name of…whoever it is?”
“You say that like we’re…getting married.”
He laughed. “I’m sorry, was that not the whole idea?”
“Yes, but not…like that. Not conventionally. It’s a business deal, Carter. There’s nothing emotional between us.”
It didn’t escape his attention, the way she couldn’t meet his eyes. “There’s not?”
Serena looked up at him, suddenly weary. “That’s not the point and you know it.”
“So that kiss -”
“Carter,” she cut him off, and he couldn’t ignore the way her eyes said please, so he dropped it.
“Fine. But answer me this - we convince your family, somehow, that this is a good idea, we get married. You find whoever it is you’re looking for; I complete this business deal with Chuck. And then what? We get divorced?” He stepped a little closer to her, his eyes boring into hers. “Is that your plan? Because, you know, I’m very easy to get attached to. It wouldn’t be fair to let your family or yourself, for that matter, fall in love with me and then throw me out of your life.”
A smile was playing on her lips. “I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
He pressed his lips to her cheek and spoke with his lips still close to her cheek, smirking knowingly when she shivered a little. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
She tugged away from him.
“Is that what happens, then?” he pressed her, “We accomplish everything, and then we end our marriage?”
Her chin quivered the slightest bit, and he could see the way she longed to say yes, that’s exactly what will happen. But he also knew that she couldn’t say that. Not after that kiss; he knew that it had changed something between them and that she’d felt it, too.
“Let’s just…deal with it when we get to it, okay?” she sighed.
“Alright.” That gave him plenty of time to change her mind. He extended a hand to her.
She looked down at it, and then back up at him.
“Let’s go, Serena.”
“Where?”
“Shopping,” he told her, reaching out and grasping her hand in his own before she could stall any longer. “It seems that I need to buy you a ring.”
“You’re crazy,” Serena whispered into the fabric of his pale blue button-down shirt, her face tucked into his shoulder and her hand gripping his tightly as they walked through the doors of Tiffany & Co. Her hair was still down, shielding her face, and she had worn a ridiculously large pair of sunglasses outside and had skirted from his limo to the door of the store in milliseconds, not wanting to be spotted by her peers for fear that she’d end up on some website of some sort. He’d taken it in stride, chuckling at her.
He chuckled. “I’m crazy? This, from the girl who proposed to me days after we first met.”
“Business. Deal,” she hissed back, the words separated and enunciated perfectly to enforce her point.
“Whatever you say, sweetheart,” he replied, smiling at the saleswoman who was looking at them with a smile of her own. “Even my fake wife needs the best ring possible.”
She sent him the briefest of frowns, aware that they were being watched, before glancing around with bright eyes. Serena could argue with him all she wanted, but what girl didn’t want the engagement ring? This, he knew, was the place to find it.
She gasped quietly as he steered her toward one of the displays. “Wait. When you see the best ring, do you mean the ring?”
He nodded calmly. “Yes, I do.”
“Carter,” she hissed, still wearing her smile and letting herself get mildly distracted by the slew of diamonds displayed in front of her. “The Tiffany Setting ring costs up to…Forty. Thousand. Dollars.”
“You could speak at a normal speed and I’d still get your point, beautiful,” he chuckled, pressing a kiss to her jaw. He’d realized very quickly that ring-shopping with her was going to be fun; while buying an engagement ring she couldn’t exactly act like they weren’t together.
And she’d apparently realized the same thing, though a little too late. “I should’ve pretended to be your sister or the bride’s best friend or something. Carter, you cannot spend all kinds of money on me, we just met. And didn’t your parents disown you or something?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to do this, you don’t have to. Or at least - buy me a small ring. I don’t need - ”
“You know, for someone who regards marriage as a business arrangement, you sure know a lot about this ring.”
She scowled deeply. “It’s Blair’s fault. She’s kind of obsessed with this place. But Carter -”
He cut her off, catching the eye of one of the many silent salespeople and pointing to a ring. “That one.”
“Congratulations,” the woman said as she walked over, smiling benevolently at them. “Weren’t sure of her ring size?” she asked knowingly.
He wrapped an arm around Serena’s waist. “She’s too much of a perfectionist to let me pick,” he joked with a wink.
Serena sent him a quick glare that turned playful in an instant when the saleslady handed over the ring and let Carter slip it onto Serena’s finger.
She took a sharp breath. “That’s…beautiful,” she admitted quietly, studying it, and he saw the briefest spark of panic (is this really a good idea?) in her eyes before it faded into something remarkably similar to longing.
Gently, he slipped his fingers beneath hers, causing her hand to rise a little so that he could get a better look at it. He touched the band and she shifted a little, uncomfortable, causing his hand to move a little lower on her hip.
“Is it a little loose?” he inquired, keeping his voice even, and the saleslady bustled about murmuring words that he was not really paying attention to. Serena was still distracted by the ring on her finger, so he capitalized on the opportunity, moving his hand from her hip and slipping it in the back pocket of her jeans.
The look she gave him was scolding, but it didn’t say back off, so he smirked at her and pushed his chances, leaning in to press a kiss - much more chaste and gentle than the previous one they shared that morning - to her mouth.
And the blush painting her cheeks and dancing over her collarbone when she pulled away, it made him want to grin like some thirteen-year-old with a crush.
The saleslady gave him another ring, still smiling at them as if they were the cutest couple she’d ever seen, and he noticed Serena’s hand shake a little as he slid it up her finger.
“What do you think, baby?” he asked softly, close to her ear.
Serena blew out a shaky breath. “Perfect fit.”
“And do you like it?”
“I -” She stopped there and shook her head, meeting his eyes and not looking away.
“Speechlessness is generally a good sign,” the saleslady contributed in a quiet voice. “Perhaps your fiancé has better taste than you thought he did, dear; he seems to have gotten it right on the second pick.”
“Maybe I have good impulses,” he agreed huskily, but he was speaking solely to Serena, his eyes still locked with hers.
It was Serena who broke the staring match, her eyes settling back on the ring in something close to awe. He smiled and nuzzled his nose against the side of her head, gently kissing her temple. “Is that your ring, beautiful?” he asked her; am I yours?
He found the answer (yes) even in the silence, slipped the hand in her back pocket out and cupped her elbow with it instead, directing her body closer to his, using his other hand to grasp her left.
“Marry me,” he said quietly, as if they were alone, letting everything else fade away. And to his surprise, the word did not feel strange on his tongue or sound odd when his ears picked them up. They just were, and he craved her answer.
Serena smiled, her eyes sparkling, and wrapped her arms around his neck, the cool band of her ring pressing lightly against his skin. She leaned in, and just a breath away from his lips, murmured sweetly, “A thousand times yes.”
Maybe she meant it to sound mocking, but he was sure it didn’t, and that suspicion was only confirmed when she kissed him.
Carter was not always the world’s best businessman, but he did know this to be true: business deals were sealed with signatures on paper, not lips meeting.
“Can I pay half?” she asked optimistically, skipping a couple steps ahead of him, spinning around so that she was walking right in front of him and moving backward.
Automatically, he glanced behind her, making sure there was nothing she was in danger of tripping over in her path. “No, Serena,” he said absently.
“But -”
He jogged ahead, catching her by wrapping an arm securely around her waist and pressing his mouth to hers to silence her.
“Mm,” she murmured, allowing herself to kiss him back for a moment before pulling back. He could see it in the way she was blinking a bit dazedly; she was trying to force herself not to let him divert her train of thought. “Stop that,” she said sternly.
“No.” He kissed her again, grinning against her lips, their teeth accidentally knocking together. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said, adding between kisses, “You can…pay me back…like this.”
She pulled away, skin flushed. “That’s not part of the deal.”
Carter shook his head fondly. “This isn’t just a deal.” Before she could protest, he continued, “Maybe you can’t trust me and maybe this is all a scheme you’ve come up with…but you like me, Serena. Admit it,” he dared her, “you find me intriguing. Attractive. You kissed me back in Tiffany’s. You think I’m -”
She scoffed, moving away from him and cutting him off, “You wish.”
“Maybe I do.”
She slowed down a little, making it easy for him to catch up with her, and shot him a coy smile over her shoulder. “Shut up and drink your coffee, Carter,” she sighed, affection seeping into her words, unbidden.
For a few minutes he did as told and they walked in relative silence, wandering lazily through Central Park and sipping coffee from styrofoam cups. He was aware of Serena peeking at him in her peripheral vision, but he waited for her to speak, giving her some time.
“Is this a date?”
He smirked, incredulous. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are we moving too fast? I just figured, what with the whole engagement idea -”
“Business!”
“Right.” He rolled his eyes.
“This isn’t a date. But it would be okay if it…looked like one.” She glanced around, eyes skimming over the faces of everyone near them.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Someone between fourteen and eighteen years of age with a camera phone.” She reached down between them, threading her fingers through his. “It would probably make sense if people think we’re dating rather than us getting engaged out of the blue.”
“You think?” he asked dryly, letting her drag him along. He had the feeling he’d follow her anywhere. “Serena, may I make a suggestion?”
“Mm-hm,” she agreed, not really listening.
He squeezed her hand, forcing her to look at him and slow down a bit to match her pace. “We could actually date, you know. And you could learn to trust me and fall madly in love with me. And later, in the future, we could get married. Somehow that just seems logical to me.”
“Flaws.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.
“I see flaws in your plan,” she clarified. “The first being that I will never fall madly in love with you; the second - and perhaps more important - being that by the time I learn to trust you I’ll be twenty years older and Chuck’s business plans will have thrived without your assistance.”
Carter ignored the second part of her statement. “Why would it be so hard to fall madly in love with me?”
“Because! You are thoroughly unpredictable and unreliable - ”
“Rumours, Serena,” he reminded her gently.
“And you drive me crazy, already,” she said pointedly, speaking over his interruption. “Even if there was something between us, it would take years to -”
“I could wait years, with you,” he said solemnly, his eyes fixed on her face.
“You don’t know me. You definitely don’t love me. And maybe you’d be willing to wait, but I’m not! What happens ten years in the future, you disappear from my life and everything falls apart and I have to do this again, hire PI’s and feel like -” She blew out her breath, frustrated. “I’m tired of waiting,” she said, suddenly sounding dangerously close to crying. “I can’t do it again.”
He watched emotions flit through her eyes carefully. “I’d never do that to you.”
“We’ve covered this already,” she told him thickly, breathing in deep. “I don’t trust you enough for those words to mean anything.”
“But you trust me in some way, don’t you?” he inquired softly. “You must, if you trust me enough to help you with…whatever this is.”
“I’m helping you back. It’s an exchange.”
“Serena -”
“Carter!” She took another deep breath and reached toward him with her free hand, gripping the fabric of his sleeve lightly. “I just need to get married, okay?”
“You could marry anyone.”
“You have better resources. A reputation. You and me, we’d demand attention.”
He smirked softly. “You do that all on your own, beautiful.”
Serena’s eyes were wet. “Not always,” she whispered, letting go of his shirt.
“Listen to me,” he began quietly, determined to find out what her goals were in their little arrangement, but he never got the chance to finish.
“Serena?” a delighted, familiar voice called, and they both looked toward the direction from which it had come.
Blair Waldorf was wearing a pale green dress and a pretty smile, her face having lit up at the sight of her best friend. It only took two steps toward them for her smile to fade and her eyes to narrow; she slowed her pace considerably and it took Carter a moment to figure out why: she was waiting for Chuck to join her, to reach for her hand and regard Serena and Carter with an equally displeased expression.
Serena's grip on his hand tightened.
tbc.
Chapter | 5/?
Rating | pg-13
Characters | Carter. Carter/Serena, Chuck/Blair
Summary | He set out to corrupt her, but on reflection he realized that she may have corrupted him.
No matter what you think you think, you think the same as I think.
-- Adam’s Rib
He stared back at her for a beat, a stunned silence settling between them. They were both breathing audibly, and Serena was still looking at him with those ocean-blue eyes, filled with infinite hope.
Taking a deep breath, he managed to smirk. “I, uh…I’m sorry, but I don’t have a ring.”
Much to his relief, she laughed, breathy and sweet, and leaned into him a bit. Her forehead pressed against his shoulder and she murmured, “I’m sorry, I meant to suggest that more…rationally.”
Carter smiled as his hand settled at the small of her back, keeping her close to him. “It’s okay if I distract you,” he said quietly against her hair.
“Shut up,” she mumbled, pulling away, but she was smiling.
He brushed her hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear and letting his hand linger against her cheek. “You want to marry me?”
Her skin was hot under his fingertips. “For good reasons,” she insisted, “for both of us. It’s…a business deal.”
It wasn’t. He couldn’t marry this girl and not get emotionally involved. Carter Baizen had long ago perfected the art of doing many things without letting his emotions interfere, but he knew this would be an impossibility.
“You’re seventeen years old, Serena,” he told her gently, and felt the pang of it in his own chest, too young. “I can’t marry you. Not yet,” he added, a bit more softly.
“You can,” she insisted stubbornly, but a bit of vulnerability slipped into her voice as she said, “If you want to, I mean.”
She was adorable, and infuriating, the way she was so emphatic and yet shyly tip-toeing around the subject. “And how’s that?” he asked her, unable to resist knowing more.
“Parental consent,” she told him smoothly. “My mother likes you and my grandmother adores you - it shouldn’t be all that difficult.”
He shook his head, forcing himself to be logical. “Regardless, they won’t want you to get married so young. They won’t allow it.”
“But if I’m absolutely in love with you…” she said softly, her eyelashes fluttering prettily, “then why wait?”
For just an instant he abandoned all efforts to be logical and believed her words, felt them swell up within him - his body practically tingled, for god’s sake. But then he snapped himself out of it, refused to drown in her eyes, and gave her an admiring once-over instead, unable to stop himself. “Serena van der Woodsen,” he said slowly, “you are far more devious than you are ever given credit for.”
She winked, looking a little bit proud. “Sometimes it works to your advantage when no one knows,” she purred.
“How is this idea of yours going to help me?” He frowned as he added, “How is it supposed to help you?”
“Chuck will have to work with you. It’s not exactly going to be great PR for his first-ever major project if he refuses to work with his brother-in-law.”
Carter nodded thoughtfully. “True…”
“And even if Chuck doesn’t agree,” Serena rushed on, “it’s not like he has all of the say in the company. He’s still seventeen, like me; my mother holds the majority of the power in Bass Inc., though she’s been willing to let Chuck take the reins thus far. But if you’re part of the family…she could override Chuck’s decisions and hire you.”
Looking into her bright eyes, his stomach flipped a little when she said family, so casually, so ready to adopt him into her life. “You make good points, beautiful,” he told her quietly.
“But if…that’s not how you want to do things, if you really are being honest about earnestly wanting to prove yourself just like Chuck wants to…well, if you can convince me of that, I think I can convince him.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “You can convince Chuck,” he repeated sceptically.
Serena tilted her head, examining his expression. “I think you underestimate our relationship.”
Carter couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think that’s where my misunderstanding lies,” he assured her, thinking of the fierce look in Chuck’s eyes when he had informed Carter that Serena was his sister. He scrutinized her face and grinned. “Chuck Bass is a softie, deep down, isn’t he?”
She giggled. “In some ways. Probably ways that you will never be witness to. But that’s not it, it’s just - I get him. I think I could make this work for you, for both of you.”
“Baby, Chuck and I haven’t gotten along in a long time. That’s going to be something that’s going to be incredibly difficult to change now, especially on his end; however, you should keep in mind that I’m not his biggest fan, either.”
Serena was pouting at him, wide eyes and her bottom lip poking out. “Don’t call me baby,” she said firmly, her eyes narrowing.
“No?” he smirked. “Shouldn’t I be allowed to be affectionate with my fiancée?” he asked, arms encircling her and pulling her toward him; he daringly slipped his fingers up her shirt a bit to tickle her.
“Stop!” She batted his hands away, barely managing to hold onto her frown. He could see, from the way her eyes glittered, that she wasn’t genuinely upset with him. “It’s a business deal.”
“Alright. It’s a business deal.”
“Don’t be patronizing.”
“I was agreeing.” He scowled. “Can we get back to the topic at hand, please?”
“Fine, honey,” she shot back. “My point is that I think I can convince Chuck to at least tolerate you. The two of you will have some common ground.”
“Common ground?”
“Me,” Serena said, as if it was obvious. “And once the two of you see that you can come to agreements regarding one thing, it shouldn’t be so hard for that cooperative sentiment to extend to other things. Such as your work.”
Carter couldn’t help but smile. “And what about me tolerating Chuck, how is that going to happen?”
Her eyes skimmed over his body before landing back on his face. “I’m sure…as your wife…I could find some way of convincing you.” She blinked, daring him to call her out on her innuendo.
He grinned wolfishly. “Oh, I’m sure you could.”
“So…”
“Not so fast,” he told her, shaking his head. “This makes some sense, for me. But what about for you? In what way is marrying me of any help to you?”
She blew out her breath. “Look. Chuck’s habit of interfering in my personal affairs isn’t exactly…unfounded. I do things sometimes that aren’t…” She trailed off and began again. “But he just knows everything and he doesn’t trust anything, and now that he is basically the head of a business empire, there’s just no way of fooling him. But I think you could. I think I could, with your help.”
“And in what way does he need to be fooled?”
“He just…can’t know. About this person that I’m looking for. It’s important that no one knows, especially not my brothers.”
“Ah, yes. Who is this mysterious person?”
“I can’t tell you,” she whispered. “Not…not yet.”
“So, when do I find out? After the honeymoon?”
“Carter.”
“I’m being serious, Serena. You’re offering to help me, you’re asking for my help, you’re proposing an engagement, but you won’t tell me what your goal in all of this is?”
“It’s not dangerous,” she promised.
He chuckled lowly. “I’m not your big brother, beautiful. That isn’t my concern.”
“So just help me!”
“Not until you tell me.”
She crossed her arms. “I will tell you. I just need a little time.”
“You can marry me but you can’t tell me the name of…whoever it is?”
“You say that like we’re…getting married.”
He laughed. “I’m sorry, was that not the whole idea?”
“Yes, but not…like that. Not conventionally. It’s a business deal, Carter. There’s nothing emotional between us.”
It didn’t escape his attention, the way she couldn’t meet his eyes. “There’s not?”
Serena looked up at him, suddenly weary. “That’s not the point and you know it.”
“So that kiss -”
“Carter,” she cut him off, and he couldn’t ignore the way her eyes said please, so he dropped it.
“Fine. But answer me this - we convince your family, somehow, that this is a good idea, we get married. You find whoever it is you’re looking for; I complete this business deal with Chuck. And then what? We get divorced?” He stepped a little closer to her, his eyes boring into hers. “Is that your plan? Because, you know, I’m very easy to get attached to. It wouldn’t be fair to let your family or yourself, for that matter, fall in love with me and then throw me out of your life.”
A smile was playing on her lips. “I’m not going to fall in love with you.”
He pressed his lips to her cheek and spoke with his lips still close to her cheek, smirking knowingly when she shivered a little. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
She tugged away from him.
“Is that what happens, then?” he pressed her, “We accomplish everything, and then we end our marriage?”
Her chin quivered the slightest bit, and he could see the way she longed to say yes, that’s exactly what will happen. But he also knew that she couldn’t say that. Not after that kiss; he knew that it had changed something between them and that she’d felt it, too.
“Let’s just…deal with it when we get to it, okay?” she sighed.
“Alright.” That gave him plenty of time to change her mind. He extended a hand to her.
She looked down at it, and then back up at him.
“Let’s go, Serena.”
“Where?”
“Shopping,” he told her, reaching out and grasping her hand in his own before she could stall any longer. “It seems that I need to buy you a ring.”
“You’re crazy,” Serena whispered into the fabric of his pale blue button-down shirt, her face tucked into his shoulder and her hand gripping his tightly as they walked through the doors of Tiffany & Co. Her hair was still down, shielding her face, and she had worn a ridiculously large pair of sunglasses outside and had skirted from his limo to the door of the store in milliseconds, not wanting to be spotted by her peers for fear that she’d end up on some website of some sort. He’d taken it in stride, chuckling at her.
He chuckled. “I’m crazy? This, from the girl who proposed to me days after we first met.”
“Business. Deal,” she hissed back, the words separated and enunciated perfectly to enforce her point.
“Whatever you say, sweetheart,” he replied, smiling at the saleswoman who was looking at them with a smile of her own. “Even my fake wife needs the best ring possible.”
She sent him the briefest of frowns, aware that they were being watched, before glancing around with bright eyes. Serena could argue with him all she wanted, but what girl didn’t want the engagement ring? This, he knew, was the place to find it.
She gasped quietly as he steered her toward one of the displays. “Wait. When you see the best ring, do you mean the ring?”
He nodded calmly. “Yes, I do.”
“Carter,” she hissed, still wearing her smile and letting herself get mildly distracted by the slew of diamonds displayed in front of her. “The Tiffany Setting ring costs up to…Forty. Thousand. Dollars.”
“You could speak at a normal speed and I’d still get your point, beautiful,” he chuckled, pressing a kiss to her jaw. He’d realized very quickly that ring-shopping with her was going to be fun; while buying an engagement ring she couldn’t exactly act like they weren’t together.
And she’d apparently realized the same thing, though a little too late. “I should’ve pretended to be your sister or the bride’s best friend or something. Carter, you cannot spend all kinds of money on me, we just met. And didn’t your parents disown you or something?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to do this, you don’t have to. Or at least - buy me a small ring. I don’t need - ”
“You know, for someone who regards marriage as a business arrangement, you sure know a lot about this ring.”
She scowled deeply. “It’s Blair’s fault. She’s kind of obsessed with this place. But Carter -”
He cut her off, catching the eye of one of the many silent salespeople and pointing to a ring. “That one.”
“Congratulations,” the woman said as she walked over, smiling benevolently at them. “Weren’t sure of her ring size?” she asked knowingly.
He wrapped an arm around Serena’s waist. “She’s too much of a perfectionist to let me pick,” he joked with a wink.
Serena sent him a quick glare that turned playful in an instant when the saleslady handed over the ring and let Carter slip it onto Serena’s finger.
She took a sharp breath. “That’s…beautiful,” she admitted quietly, studying it, and he saw the briefest spark of panic (is this really a good idea?) in her eyes before it faded into something remarkably similar to longing.
Gently, he slipped his fingers beneath hers, causing her hand to rise a little so that he could get a better look at it. He touched the band and she shifted a little, uncomfortable, causing his hand to move a little lower on her hip.
“Is it a little loose?” he inquired, keeping his voice even, and the saleslady bustled about murmuring words that he was not really paying attention to. Serena was still distracted by the ring on her finger, so he capitalized on the opportunity, moving his hand from her hip and slipping it in the back pocket of her jeans.
The look she gave him was scolding, but it didn’t say back off, so he smirked at her and pushed his chances, leaning in to press a kiss - much more chaste and gentle than the previous one they shared that morning - to her mouth.
And the blush painting her cheeks and dancing over her collarbone when she pulled away, it made him want to grin like some thirteen-year-old with a crush.
The saleslady gave him another ring, still smiling at them as if they were the cutest couple she’d ever seen, and he noticed Serena’s hand shake a little as he slid it up her finger.
“What do you think, baby?” he asked softly, close to her ear.
Serena blew out a shaky breath. “Perfect fit.”
“And do you like it?”
“I -” She stopped there and shook her head, meeting his eyes and not looking away.
“Speechlessness is generally a good sign,” the saleslady contributed in a quiet voice. “Perhaps your fiancé has better taste than you thought he did, dear; he seems to have gotten it right on the second pick.”
“Maybe I have good impulses,” he agreed huskily, but he was speaking solely to Serena, his eyes still locked with hers.
It was Serena who broke the staring match, her eyes settling back on the ring in something close to awe. He smiled and nuzzled his nose against the side of her head, gently kissing her temple. “Is that your ring, beautiful?” he asked her; am I yours?
He found the answer (yes) even in the silence, slipped the hand in her back pocket out and cupped her elbow with it instead, directing her body closer to his, using his other hand to grasp her left.
“Marry me,” he said quietly, as if they were alone, letting everything else fade away. And to his surprise, the word did not feel strange on his tongue or sound odd when his ears picked them up. They just were, and he craved her answer.
Serena smiled, her eyes sparkling, and wrapped her arms around his neck, the cool band of her ring pressing lightly against his skin. She leaned in, and just a breath away from his lips, murmured sweetly, “A thousand times yes.”
Maybe she meant it to sound mocking, but he was sure it didn’t, and that suspicion was only confirmed when she kissed him.
Carter was not always the world’s best businessman, but he did know this to be true: business deals were sealed with signatures on paper, not lips meeting.
“Can I pay half?” she asked optimistically, skipping a couple steps ahead of him, spinning around so that she was walking right in front of him and moving backward.
Automatically, he glanced behind her, making sure there was nothing she was in danger of tripping over in her path. “No, Serena,” he said absently.
“But -”
He jogged ahead, catching her by wrapping an arm securely around her waist and pressing his mouth to hers to silence her.
“Mm,” she murmured, allowing herself to kiss him back for a moment before pulling back. He could see it in the way she was blinking a bit dazedly; she was trying to force herself not to let him divert her train of thought. “Stop that,” she said sternly.
“No.” He kissed her again, grinning against her lips, their teeth accidentally knocking together. “I’ve changed my mind,” he said, adding between kisses, “You can…pay me back…like this.”
She pulled away, skin flushed. “That’s not part of the deal.”
Carter shook his head fondly. “This isn’t just a deal.” Before she could protest, he continued, “Maybe you can’t trust me and maybe this is all a scheme you’ve come up with…but you like me, Serena. Admit it,” he dared her, “you find me intriguing. Attractive. You kissed me back in Tiffany’s. You think I’m -”
She scoffed, moving away from him and cutting him off, “You wish.”
“Maybe I do.”
She slowed down a little, making it easy for him to catch up with her, and shot him a coy smile over her shoulder. “Shut up and drink your coffee, Carter,” she sighed, affection seeping into her words, unbidden.
For a few minutes he did as told and they walked in relative silence, wandering lazily through Central Park and sipping coffee from styrofoam cups. He was aware of Serena peeking at him in her peripheral vision, but he waited for her to speak, giving her some time.
“Is this a date?”
He smirked, incredulous. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are we moving too fast? I just figured, what with the whole engagement idea -”
“Business!”
“Right.” He rolled his eyes.
“This isn’t a date. But it would be okay if it…looked like one.” She glanced around, eyes skimming over the faces of everyone near them.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Someone between fourteen and eighteen years of age with a camera phone.” She reached down between them, threading her fingers through his. “It would probably make sense if people think we’re dating rather than us getting engaged out of the blue.”
“You think?” he asked dryly, letting her drag him along. He had the feeling he’d follow her anywhere. “Serena, may I make a suggestion?”
“Mm-hm,” she agreed, not really listening.
He squeezed her hand, forcing her to look at him and slow down a bit to match her pace. “We could actually date, you know. And you could learn to trust me and fall madly in love with me. And later, in the future, we could get married. Somehow that just seems logical to me.”
“Flaws.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.
“I see flaws in your plan,” she clarified. “The first being that I will never fall madly in love with you; the second - and perhaps more important - being that by the time I learn to trust you I’ll be twenty years older and Chuck’s business plans will have thrived without your assistance.”
Carter ignored the second part of her statement. “Why would it be so hard to fall madly in love with me?”
“Because! You are thoroughly unpredictable and unreliable - ”
“Rumours, Serena,” he reminded her gently.
“And you drive me crazy, already,” she said pointedly, speaking over his interruption. “Even if there was something between us, it would take years to -”
“I could wait years, with you,” he said solemnly, his eyes fixed on her face.
“You don’t know me. You definitely don’t love me. And maybe you’d be willing to wait, but I’m not! What happens ten years in the future, you disappear from my life and everything falls apart and I have to do this again, hire PI’s and feel like -” She blew out her breath, frustrated. “I’m tired of waiting,” she said, suddenly sounding dangerously close to crying. “I can’t do it again.”
He watched emotions flit through her eyes carefully. “I’d never do that to you.”
“We’ve covered this already,” she told him thickly, breathing in deep. “I don’t trust you enough for those words to mean anything.”
“But you trust me in some way, don’t you?” he inquired softly. “You must, if you trust me enough to help you with…whatever this is.”
“I’m helping you back. It’s an exchange.”
“Serena -”
“Carter!” She took another deep breath and reached toward him with her free hand, gripping the fabric of his sleeve lightly. “I just need to get married, okay?”
“You could marry anyone.”
“You have better resources. A reputation. You and me, we’d demand attention.”
He smirked softly. “You do that all on your own, beautiful.”
Serena’s eyes were wet. “Not always,” she whispered, letting go of his shirt.
“Listen to me,” he began quietly, determined to find out what her goals were in their little arrangement, but he never got the chance to finish.
“Serena?” a delighted, familiar voice called, and they both looked toward the direction from which it had come.
Blair Waldorf was wearing a pale green dress and a pretty smile, her face having lit up at the sight of her best friend. It only took two steps toward them for her smile to fade and her eyes to narrow; she slowed her pace considerably and it took Carter a moment to figure out why: she was waiting for Chuck to join her, to reach for her hand and regard Serena and Carter with an equally displeased expression.
Serena's grip on his hand tightened.
tbc.