Page 53 of Control Us (Next Generation 1)

She shrugged. “Just go to him. Talk to him. And see what happens from there.”

“I agree with her,” Gigi said.

Piper nodded. “Same. Casual sex is dangerous anyway. Look at what happened with me and the twins. And besides, you deserve more than that.”

“And I don’t?” Meadow threw at her, raising a perfect eyebrow.

Piper rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant.” She looked back at me. “Talk to him.”

Talk. I could talk. Couldn’t I? Looked like it was time to find out.

***

Later that evening, I was standing at the back of Zach’s parents’ place like some damn creeper. I really couldn’t believe I was going to go through with this. It didn’t take much to slip out of my house and drive the few blocks here. I parked a few houses away, so I could go unnoticed. I just hoped that Zach was home and hadn’t gone back to the city after dropping the food off for his parents.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out from the shadows and ran up the backyard, thankful they didn’t have one of those security lights. No, they had Brogan and Coby instead. Both of them were lethal and didn’t need a security light to tell them when they had an intruder.

Once I reached the sliding glass doors leading to Zach’s room, I paused. Peering into his bedroom, I saw that he wasn’t in there. My heart raced.

Please be home.

Pulling a key from my back pocket, I unlocked the door. Memories of Zach giving me the key years ago, invaded my mind.

“If you’re ever in trouble, you come here. Alright?” Zach held out his palm, a gold key laying on top of it.

“I’m fine,” I said softly.

“I don’t give a shit if you’re fine, Moonbeam. Take the damn key.”

I took that key and kept it on me at all times. No matter what happened or where Zach was, I knew I always had a safe place to go. Not that I had a bad childhood, but my father was overprotective. Sometimes I just needed to get away. But I never actually used the key until now.

Slowly opening the glass door, I waited with bated breath for Zach to appear out of thin air. When he didn’t, I shook my head and forced myself to get it together.

I still wasn’t sure what I was doing but I knew that I needed something. Anything. I needed to prove to him that this was right. That whatever connection we shared as kids, was turning into something more. Something that neither of us could deny no matter how much we tried to fight it.

Slipping into Zach’s room, I quietly shut the door behind me and locked it. Taking in his room, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.

I had been in his room once but that was only because he needed me to grab his phone. I couldn’t even remember when that was, but I did remember feeling elated that I was in Zach Porter’s bedroom.

My eyes flicked to the large bed sitting against the far wall. It had two nightstands on either side of it. A tall dresser sat against the wall opposite me with a desk to my left. All of the furniture was dark. I imagined that was how his condo in the city was. Dark but inviting. Much like the owner himself.

Shaking my head, I dropped my bag onto the ground and took a step forward at the same time the door opened.

My eyes widened, my heart jumping to my throat.

Zach came into the room, holding his phone to his ear. “Yes, that’s right.” He shut the door behind him and leaned against it. “I know but I met him for dinner. That wasn’t what he agreed on.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. I’ll contact my lawyer.” Zach laughed. “No. I’m not bothering my father with this. He already helped me enough today. Yeah, I grabbed him and my mom food tonight.” He glanced up then, his gaze landing on me. “He has better things to do anyway than deal with a rich pompous…” He laughed again, the deep sound sliding over every inch of me. “Alright, I’ll talk to you later. Thank you for everything. Oh, and I won’t be available the rest of the night.” He hung up the phone and placed it on his end table. “I assume you’re here for a reason.”

“You assume correctly.” I walked over to his desk, pulled out the chair, and sat. “How was your date?” I didn’t know why that question came out. I knew he hadn’t gone on the date, but I still asked anyway.

Zach slowly turned toward me and began rolling the sleeves of his white dress shirt up his thick forearms. “There was no date. You know that. I did see her though.”

My heart jumped. “Y-You did?”

“I did. She wasn’t told that I cancelled the date. I still have to talk to Ashton about that but that’s what happened. I bought her a drink for her trouble.” His dark eyes locked with mine. “Before you jump to conclusions, I was being polite.”

“I would never jump to conclusions.” I couldn’t imagine going on a date and not being told that it had been cancelled in the first place. I hoped the woman kicked Ashton’s ass.

“Good.” Zach took a step toward me. “What are you doing here, Luna?”

---