by Emma Salah
But was Zac in love with her? Reagan pulled her legs even deeper into her chest, resting her cheek against her knees. The only thing she was sure of was her own feelings for Zac that seemed to only grow and grow over the years. She loved his thoughtfulness. The way he always remembered the little things, like how she loved throw pillows so he always sent her crazy memes about giant pillows or got her eccentric ones whenever he travelled. Or how he could spend hours talking about Wayne Gretzky but if she gave him a single compliment about his own abilities, he would change the conversation very fast. She loved that mix of cockiness and humbleness.
“Reagan? I swear to god if you’re having another Zac-induced fantasy, I am going to hang up on—”
“I don’t know if he loves me, Letty.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s never said he loves me. We’ve never even spoken about our feelings. I’m pretty sure though that he doesn’t even want to want me. He was the one to suggest we stay away from each other after that scene at the parking lot.”
“Then make him love you,” Letty said bluntly.
Make him love me? Um, how the hell does one do that? Was that even possible? So, she asked Letty.
“He’s attracted to you, right? Use that. It sounds to me like you haven’t even been trying to attract him and you’ve had this explosive chemistry anyway. Imagine what could happen if you put some effort into it. He wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Reagan scrambled to her knees. Letty was right. She had never really tried to win Zac over, but he still found it hard to resist her. Instead she’d been letting the men in her life, her brothers, even Zac, dictate who she could be with. Fuck that. No more sitting back and no more passive Reagan. I’m going all in and I’m going to show Zac that there’s something between us and if it doesn’t work out... Hey, at least I tried and I’ll finally know it wasn’t to be. Reagan’s heart thumped hard against her ribs and she almost reached up to caress the spot on her chest as if she could physically console it. But that’s not going to happen. She smiled.
“You’re right.”
Letty laughed. “Of course, I am.”
“No one likes a bragging friend.”
“Who said that? You? Because I know that ain’t true. You love me.”
“Bitch, bye! You’re lucky that I love you and put up with your ego!”
“Get your lazy butt out of bed and go use that devious mind of yours to drive that man out of his mind. Then into your bed.”
Reagan’s smile grew. “Oh, I will. Project Make Him Fall in Love with Me is a go.”
Zachariah Quinn won’t have any idea what hit him.
Chapter Six
Zachariah Quinn was fucked.
He had completely and utterly messed everything up.
Zac sat in an armchair in his living room, hands crossed and his head dangling down. Maybe the blood rushing to his head would help him start making better and smarter decisions. Decisions that didn’t lead him to having sex with his best friend’s little sister in the coatroom of the most prestigious party. If they had been caught both of their reputations would have been on the line. Not to mention he would lose the only family who had ever given a shit about him.
He groaned as he tangled his fingers into his brown hair.
The Thomas family had always been there for him. Ever since that fateful day when he was seven years old, in the cafeteria of his new school. He had been sitting in a corner by himself, stomach growling. He hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning’s burnt toast breakfast that he had made on his own and his mother had forgotten to pack him lunch again. Hands rubbing his stomach, Zac had contemplated what to do and was ashamed to think it, but he was seriously contemplating stealing from one of the other kids in his class.
And then a boy with short black hair and deep brown eyes had sat down in front of him.
* * *
“Hey.”
Zac stared. “Hey.”
The boy smiled. “We’ve all been wondering why you don’t talk. Dean—that’s my older brother, he’s in sixth grade—said it was because you’re a mute. A person who can’t talk.”
“I can talk.”
“I hear that.” He took out his lunch box and began to eat an apple. Zac watched him, confused.
“You’re from Texas, aren’t you?”
Zac nodded. “We moved here, because my dad got a job as the sheriff.”
“Oh, cool. My dad used to be in the military, but not anymore. Not since he hurt his leg.”
Zac dug his fingers deep into his stomach, silently begging it not to suddenly grumble and ruin one of the coolest things that had happened to him since he moved here last month.
And then the boy cocked his head to the side and asked the one question Zac didn’t want to answer.
“Hey, why aren’t you eating?”
Heart thumping so loud, he did the only thing he could.
“Left it at home,” he lied.
“Oh. You want one of my sandwiches?”
“No. It’s okay.”
“Come on, man.” The boy placed half of his sandwich in front of him. “It’s PB&J. Malcolm—that’s my other brother, he and Dean are identical twins—well, he makes them really good. Try one.”
Slowly, Zac picked up the sandwich and nibbled a little.
“It’s good, right?” the boy asked enthusiastically.
It was better than good. So good, before he knew it, Zac had devoured his half of the sandwich.
“The best PB&J I’ve ever tasted.”
“Told you,” he said smugly. “I’m Aidan, by the way.”
“Zachariah, but my friends call me Zac.”
“Do you wanna play softball with us, Zac?”
* * *
Meeting Aidan Thomas had changed his life.
He had taken him home that day and introduced him to his father. Lincoln Thomas had been and still was one of the most intimidating men Zac had ever met and that included his own father. Seven-year-old Zachariah Quinn had practically pissed himself when he shook the hand of the six-foot-six, broad-shouldered, dark-skinned, ex-military man. Even the cane Lincoln leaned on had just added to his imposing nature.
As the months and years went by, Zac had found himself spending every waking moment playing with Aidan, the twins and, the albeit-quieter of the Thomas siblings, Callum, teasing the younger by two years Reagan and avoiding home as much as possible. They had played every sport imaginable together, but both he and Aidan had been hooked on hockey. They lived and breathed it.
But Zac had barely been able to afford any of the ice-rink time, the coaching and not to mention all the equipment necessary for the only sport he wanted to play. It wasn’t like his father would ever pay for him. The one time Zac had been stupid enough to ask, he’d had to stay home for a whole week, dodging Aidan and his brothers, so they wouldn’t notice the bruises and scrapes on his back that came from being belted. And the accidental bruise on his face from when he’d fallen and knocked into the side of the table. By the time Zac had worked up the courage to go to the coach and let him know that he was quitting the team, he had received a letter saying he had gotten a scholarship that had paid for everything.
He had cried. Zac had flat out balled his eyes out like a baby. Hockey was everything to him, the one thing he knew he could do in his future, to get far away from all the other shit. And now he didn’t have to worry that his father was going to rip it away from him like he did with everything else in his life.
Except, as he had discovered later on, Zac hadn’t actually received a scholarship. There was no such scholarship for ice hockey in their town. Zac had confronted the only man who would have ever done something like that.
Lincoln had sat behind his large desk in his study room, watching Zac casually even when Zac told him he didn’t want his charity. Aidan�
��s father had walked around the table and come to stand before him. “You are one hell of a player, Zac. I’ve seen you and I can honestly say you have a god-given talent. And, you shouldn’t have to do this yourself, son. You’re not alone. You have us. And I consider you to be like one of my sons.” Lincoln had ignored Zac’s dismissals of his own talents and just said, grinning, “If you’re uncomfortable taking this scholarship then don’t think of it as charity, but as an investment. Once you’ve become a pro hockey player, you can always pay me back. With interest.”
Zac had trained harder than anyone else on the team. It had all proved worthwhile when he got a full ride to several of the top universities in the country and then recruited right out of college. He paid back all the money he had owed Lincoln and then some the first year he had gotten signed.
And how had he repaid the Thomas family for all the generosity they had shown him? Oh yeah, he had slept with Reagan.
Zac groaned again.
His fingers tightened in his hair, his scalp beginning to burn. Usually, when Zac had a problem of this magnitude he called up his best friend and hashed it out with him over a couple of beers. But since it concerned Aidan’s sister, he didn’t even want to imagine how that conversation would go. He couldn’t even ask a hypothetical question without Aidan hounding him to death about it. Aidan was like a pit bull when he got his teeth sunk into something. He never let go.
Zac’s head snapped up, an idea forming.
He’d call the one Thomas sibling who wouldn’t ask him a million and one questions.
He reached over for his phone and dialed the number by heart. The dial tone clicked after several seconds.
“Yo, Zac. What’s up, man?”
“Dean.” He smiled. “I’ve got a hypothetical question.”
“Please say this hypothetical question involves dirty sex and a hot woman.”
And Dean is a mind reader.
Zac raised an eyebrow. “As a matter of fact, it does.”
“Good,” Dean said. “It’s been too long since you got any pussy. We’ve been starting to wonder if you had taken a vow of celibacy or there was some girl you were pining for.”
Offended, he replied. “I went out with that actress—what’s her name? Lindsay! I went out with Lindsay like last month. And I just took Brandy as a date to Steven’s party last night.”
“And did you fuck either of these girls?”
How could Zac fuck another girl when all he could think about was Reagan, how was that fair to any of them? The only solution was to somehow get Reagan out of his goddamn mind.
Dean chuckled. “Doesn’t count then. Shoot. What is this ‘hypothetical’ question of yours?”
Now, Zac was really questioning his sanity in recruiting Dean’s help. But fuck, did he really have any other choice?
“So, hypothetically, let’s say that after a couple of heated moments with this girl—”
“What kind of heated moments?” Dean interrupted.
“Just heated moments.”
He clucked. “Come on, man, I need details to really give informed and good advice. I mean what the fuck does ‘heated moments’ even mean? It could mean anything from you going down on her, her going down on you, you fingering her, her kissing you, you kissing her...you catch my drift?”
“Yeah.” Zac ran a hand down his face. “We’ve kissed a few times. Some heavy make-out sessions, always with clothes on.”
“Okay. So, you’re in the ‘I want to fuck you, but I don’t want to want to fuck you, but I can’t resist at least touching you’ stage. What happened?”
“I fucked her.”
“Really? As in you took her back to your place and made sweet, sweet love to her all night, or...”
“As in, I fucked her against the wall in a coatroom without even taking off my pants.”
“Wow.” Dean whistled. “What’s the problem, then? You got it out of your system, right? It sounds like you two have been working up to this for a while now anyway.”
Zac sighed. The problem was that every time he saw Reagan now he would know exactly how it felt to be inside of her. He was still imagining being inside of her, though preferably with all their clothes off.
“Ah, I see. You still want her.”
“But I don’t want to want her.”
“Why?” he asked. “Is she ugly? Daughter of a mafia boss? She has tits that sag down to her knees? Jeez, are you into cougars? I guess, each to their own.”
Zac laughed. Typical Dean and his dirty mouth.
“Remind me why the fuck I called you again?”
“Because you wanted great advice from the smartest Thomas sibling?”
“The smartest Thomas would be Callum and then Malcolm and then Aidan and then—”
“Ouch.” Dean pouted. “I’m smart.”
“You just asked me if I was fucking an old woman!”
“Well, are you? Because I have to say, I’m not judging, but I’m still kind of judging, you feel me? Tell me the truth, Zac, I’ll still love you, bro.”
And this was why he called Dean, because he really wouldn’t judge. Dirty mouth aside, he’d back him up in a minute and give him honest advice. I need that right now.
“Fuck, no. She’s hot and younger than me. But not too young, so get that out of your sick mind. But...let’s just say that her family would not be happy if they found out I had touched her.”
And that was the understatement of the year. If Dean knew that they were discussing his baby sister, he would break every bone in Zac’s body. He might be the most laid-back of the Thomas siblings, but when it came to his baby sis’s welfare, Dean didn’t dick around.
“And besides, I don’t think I even want to date her. I like her, of course, but she’s not my usual type.”
“Your usual type sucks.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on, man.” He could practically hear Dean rolling his eyes. “You pick the most perfect girls to date. Beautiful, smart and with impeccable manners. Perfect.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“They lack character.”
“They have character,” Zac argued.
“Please.” Dean blew a raspberry. “They bore me out of my mind when I talk to them for even a few minutes. I wonder how you manage to talk to them for months, not to mention fuck them. You need more of a challenge. A girl who makes you work for it. Now, this girl sounds like more of a challenge.”
“She is too much of a challenge. I’m not kidding when I say her family would cause too many problems for us. What do I do?”
“If you think it’s going to cause so many problems, stay away from her.”
If only it was that easy. Zac stared at his reflection from his plasma TV. Reagan had been the first person he’d called when his agent had told him The Comets were thinking of drafting him. They’d got drunk that night and sat on his kitchen floor talking about the future. She was the person who got how much it had meant to him, not that the others didn’t, but somehow being with her had filled Zac with hope that everything he’d ever wanted was going to come true.
“Been there, done that, it didn’t take. What do I do?” he repeated.
Dean was quiet for a moment. “Find out if she’s worth it.”
Zac stood up and began pacing. “If she’s worth it?”
“Yeah. It sounds to me like you need to find out if she is worth the risk, worth you trying to date her and worth you taking on her family. See if you even like her beyond wanting to bang her brains out.”
He stopped pacing. See if he liked her? In theory, it sounded like an okay idea. Maybe if he spent time with Reagan, all this sexual tension would ease up when they discovered that they didn’t even like each other in that way. Maybe it would work.
See if she is worth it? Spend time with the one woman th
at made his dick harder than stone? Zac smiled. He could do that. But should he do that was another question. And that was where he hesitated. Did he really want to risk his friendship with Aidan and everyone else? Not to mention his friendship with Reagan for something that was ultimately going to fade.
Zac’s smile faded. No.
“I can’t do that,” he finally said. “I won’t do that.”
He wasn’t going to risk it, risk losing everything for her to realize that he wasn’t worth much anyway, and if Reagan thought last night changed anything, she was in for a rude awakening.
Dean sighed. “Okay. If you don’t want to see if she is worth it, then why don’t you just back away from this girl? Avoid her until the lust cools down?”
“We’ve been trying to do that for months. The distance, if anything, just makes us hornier when we do eventually see each other. And, I’ve got a feeling that she isn’t going to back away this time either and give me space.”
He remembered when Billy Malone had knocked Reagan to her ass, she had come up swinging. She’d broken his nose and landed in detention for the rest of the year. Not to mention the blistering she had gotten from her father and brothers. But as soon as she had left the room, her dad had turned to them.
“The girl’s got a hell of a left hook, doesn’t she?” Lincoln Thomas had said, grinning.
“Mm. So you guys can’t be around each other without wanting to fuck each other, but you can’t be away from each other without wanting to fuck each other. I guess that leaves you with only one thing you can do.”
“It better be good.”
He could hear the smile in Dean’s voice.
“Oh, it’s good alright. You ready for it?” Dean paused for effect. “You got to make her stop wanting you.”
“That’s it?” Zac asked, incredulously. The idea didn’t even make any sense. Maybe, he shouldn’t have called Dean. He should have picked a saner Thomas sibling, like Malcom.
“Now. Now. Hear me out. All girls want to date, right? But you need to convince her that dating you would be a bad idea. So, all you have to do is show her all the things she would hate to have in a relationship and voila. She stops wanting to date you, the magic goes out of the mystery and you can start being around each other without wanting to tear each other’s clothes off.”