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Secret, Part 1

The touch of her silky hair against the side of his neck made his eyes open again. Zach cast a look at her out of the corner of his eye. "Are you asleep, Quat?"

"No," Quatrina replied as she lifted her head away from his shoulder. Her soft violet eyes regarded her fiancé with some amusement. "But you were."

Grinning, he tugged her onto his lap. "I'm awake now. And I'm sure with you in complete view, there's no way I could fall asleep."

She gave him a stern look as she now looked down at him. His ice blue eyes, much like his father's, had a teasing light in them. A half smile alighted her lips. "I'll take that as a compliment. Now, if you let me go, I could go to sleep and so could you, since you were the one dozing off for the last fifteen minutes…"

"Stay with me?" he asked, his eyes focusing on her face.

Frowning, she shook her head, catching his meaning. "…No…that's not such a good idea…I'm perfectly fine sleeping in the guest room." Her eyes swung away from his intense look.

"Come on…please, Quat," he whispered into her ear as he pulled her closer to his chest. He kissed the spot under her ear and inhaled the scent of her perfumed skin.

She closed her eyes as he continued to press tiny kisses on the side of her neck. They were making her heart accelerate and her body feel hot. However, at the same time, her body wanted to pull away from his touch and shut it out. Forcing herself not to give in to urge, she tilted her head away from his mouth. "Zach…it's not a good idea…too many things could happen," she sighed as she managed to break the hold of his arms around her, but she didn't stand. She moved back to her spot on the couch beside him. "If you want to continue holding onto me, we're perfectly fine right here."

"A couch is damn uncomfortable to sleep on. A bed would be much better. Besides, look at the size of this couch and compare it with my height, six foot five does not fit on this couch,"

"Then go to bed."

"I have to let go of you to do that," Zach countered as he slid one arm behind her shoulders. He could see a wariness flicker in her eyes before she hid it with exasperation.

"Then stay here. I'll go to bed," Quatrina said as she stood up.

He stood up as well and pulled her into his arms. His eyes caught hers. "That wasn't the idea. Please, Quat. Just for tonight…I'd like really appreciate it if you would."

His eyes were pleading and sincere. "Maybe one time couldn't hurt," she thought as she looked up into his handsome face. A lock of his midnight hair fell over his forehead, making him look younger than his twenty-seven years. "I guess it wouldn't be too bad," she finally replied, a hesitant smile crossing her lips.

Smiling, he couldn't help but to lean down and press a kiss on her lips. They stayed.

Tingles raced down her neck and arms as he kept kissing her. Warmth stole through her as he hugged her tighter to his muscular frame. Instinctively, her hands crept up his chest and looped behind his neck. She felt his hands sweep down her back, his fingers playing over her spine. The touch made her insides shiver. Her lips parted against the gentle insistence of his despite the niggling warning tolling in the back of her brain. 

He could feel the rapid pounding of her heart against his chest as her generously curved body fitted itself against him. Encountering the soft skin of her back, bared when she had raised her arms to go around his neck, made him stroke her skin in small circles between the hem of her shirt and the waistband of her jeans. He slid his tongue along the seam of her lips before sliding inside the wet heat of her mouth. When her tongue began stroking back, his arms banded around her, pulling her onto her toes, higher and harder against him.

His strong response made her insides quiver and the ringing inside her head grow louder. "Stop it! Go away! Kissing can't hurt me!" she shouted inside her mind. Her mind warred with her love for him, her love winning until she was vaguely aware of him carrying her out of the room to his without breaking their lips. Her heart began to beat faster, the ringing in her ears growing louder, as she felt him lowering her down to the bed. Her mind won out as soon as her back hit the bed and his body pressed down on hers. Tearing her lips away from his, she dropped her hands from around the back of his neck and braced them against his chest. "Zach, stop!"

Shaking his head, he looked down into her face. Her eyes were wide and huge as they looked back at him. Her hands were shaking against his chest. "Quat, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she replied, looking away. "That wasn't a good idea." "I don't think me, sleeping here would be a good idea."

"You said a minute or two ago, that you would." He arched a brow at her, the corner of his mouth quirking into a slight frown.

"That was before…before…this," she mumbled as she pushed him back, gently, as she sat up again. She didn't meet his eyes, looking out of the windows behind him.

He frowned when she looked away again, although it was her habit to pull away if things got too heated. There hadn't been a time that she hadn't. Their first date, she didn't even let him kiss her lush lips. He had to wait until the third and even then, it had been no more than a brief brushing of his lips against hers. And she had pulled back from that too, even though at the time, it hadn't been as noticeable. "Quatrina, you can't go changing your mind like that."

"It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind."

"Which you do constantly, need I remind you? I was only carrying you in here."

"You were doing more than that," Quatrina finally snapped back, crossing her arms across her chest.

"I was kissing you, you were kissing back! I was responding to you and if I wanted you lying in bed with me so I could kiss you, I had every right!" Zach bit out, his eyes honing in on her face. Unlike most of his family, he rarely lost his temper. 

"More than kissing could occur!" she hissed as she pushed herself off of the bed and went back into the other room. Part of her wanted to cry; she didn't want to fight him again about this. The other part of her was happy she had chosen to push him away. Anger welled up inside of her at her.

Taking a deep breath, he bit back another sharp reply and followed her back into the other room. "Quat," he said, his voice quieter, "we were only going to sleep there."

"More than kissing can happen, more than sleeping can happen," she returned, her own voice softer, less hostile.

"And is that so bad?"

Whirling around, she faced him. "Look at what happened to your cousin! Veronica played fast and loose and look what she got! That's what happens! And she dragged my brother into her mess, although, he helped himself by fooling around with that Maxwell brat!"

"Veronica has acknowledged and faced the consequences of her actions. She paid for them, but Vaughn knew exactly what he was doing. He's loved her although he was infatuated with Randy at the same time. What guy has not been infatuated with that little imp?" he sighed, having heard this before.

"And now Damien, of all people, who should be sane…is bedding down with that…that…girl…who has no morals, no nothing…"

"Except everything that your brother needs."

"That's not my point! Those twenty-year-old girls are allowed to run free and do, as they like! They get drunk, look like whores, they sleep around, they get pregnant…and have miscarriages!" she shouted at him. "Even my sister, Mira, she doesn't find anything wrong with any of that…in fact she takes more after Randy, Carin, Veronica, and Angelina!"

"They do not look like whores, Quat. So, they like to flaunt their…sexuality, there is nothing wrong with that. And Mira is old enough to do, as she likes. She does have her own mind. But my cousin's miscarriage was an unfortunate accident…so drop that one right there!"

She shut her mouth and gave him her back again. Leaning her head forwards, she let out a faint sigh. Her hands rubbed up and down her arms bared by the short-sleeved shirt. "I know it was an accident…but that's what happens. That's what happens when two people fall into bed with the other. Sleep may be the intent, but it never is once they're there."

"And that's all we were going to do," he said as he let his eyes slide from the back of her loosely bound tresses all the way down to her bared feet. In the brighter light, he could see the faint outline of her bra straps through the white tee shirt. "Quat…making out in bed, is not a bad thing…sleep would always come afterwards…"

"Sleep wouldn't come to mind," she replied softly as she turned her head towards him. "A guy's mind is never on sleep with a woman around," she said as she picked up her sandals and left the room before he could respond. The hardwood floor felt cool under her feet as she went down the hall and ran down the steps. She passed Thad, halfway down, but continued on. She went down the hall and found the guest room she usually slept in. There was one right across from Zach's room, but she opted to stay down here on this floor. Closing the door behind her, her tears that had been welling in the back of her throat broke free as she threw herself across the bed, and cried out her torment.

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Zach let out a sigh and flopped down on the couch again, leaning his head back, he stared up at the ceiling. "I had a feeling she would do that. I don't know why I'm surprised. I shouldn't be, but I am." He closed his eyes and let his mind drift. "I'm marrying her, she shouldn't be acting like this. I'm usually good about not getting annoyed with her behavior, I mean not asking for more has been chafing, but I don't push and don't ask for more. Even so, it's getting increasingly difficult not to want more when she responds like that!" he thought with another sigh. His eyes opened when he heard a knock on his door. He bent his head over the back of the couch to look at his older brother. "What?"

"What's the matter with the wife to be?" Thad asked as he walked into the room.

He gave his brother a dour look. "She's mad at me. Upset with me…take your pick." He leaned his head back and regarded the ceiling again as his brother spoke. He lifted his head back up, bangs falling back over his forehead. "Ever since she witnessed Damien and his little red head in bed together she's been more…" he trailed off, not being able to find the right word to describe Quatrina at the present.

"Frigid."

The choice of word by his brother, made him narrow the icy blue eyes, the only feature they had both inherited from their father. "She's not frigid…she's…" he trailed off again, shaking his head. He pushed his temper down. Taking it out on Thad wouldn't do him any good. He would just get a good punch in the face if he did. And he didn't want a black eye. "I'm not quiet sure what it is. I know something is bothering her, but she won't tell me what," he sighed, defeated. He shook his head, shaking it off. "But what are you doing home so late. Mom took Dylan to her room to sleep since you weren't home?" He knew that to his brother, his son meant everything, so he would have to have a good reason to come home late.

"I was at the studio with the Winners' American cousin, Penny. She's into music, so Vaughn introduced us," Thad replied, smiling ever so slightly.

A smile finally crossed Zach's mouth as he caught that look that crossed his brother's face. He pounced on it. "Is she pretty?"

"She's talented."

"She's cute, isn't she? You just don't want to say so since you swore off women since you had Dylan," Zach responded, propping his elbows on his knees. He had that look. She had to be when he didn't directly answer the question. "Well, is she?"

It was Thad's turn to frown. "She wears a promise ring. She belongs to someone else."

Zach arched a brow. "And how do you know that?" "And to think several years ago, that wouldn't have stopped him. That changed when Dylan came on the scene, but at the same time, he could look for a woman that wouldn't mind taking on a child and still love him. But just to needle him a little more since it sounds like he had a better evening than I did…"

"I could see the ring on her finger, Zach."

"Is that so?" he prodded a little more. He could see they eyes in front of him frosting over.

"You're being provoking, little brother," Thad growled.

Zach flashed him an unrepentant grin. "Defensive, isn't he. I need to get a look at her." "All I'm saying is that you took the time to notice her because it sounds like she didn't tell you or show you the ring. So what does she look like?"

"You just don't quit, do you?"

"No, but all I asked you was she pretty earlier and you didn't answer. You said she was promised to someone else, which means you did find her attractive, but you're avoiding the question because you don't want to let anyone know that you think she is. So, there is no harm in telling me what she looks like."

Thad growled again. "I don't remember."

"Bullshit, you remember perfectly. I bet she looks like that model sister of hers, Cherise Winner. Tall, light brown hair, soft brown eyes, lush lips, and a body to die for." "Come on, Thad, give me something. I know you well enough that you'll take the bait."

Thad snapped. "No! Her eyes are green, not brown!"

Zach smiled smugly. "So you did notice." He was the recipient of a glacial glare before his blond haired brother slammed out of the room. "Nailed it right on the head. He's getting out of practice. That was the easiest thing to get him to slip on." He switched off the television and walked back into his bedroom. The sheets still bore the imprint of Quatrina's body. He shut his eyes and tugged off his shirt, trying not to think of her. But he couldn't, as he laid down a few moments later. He laced his fingers behind his head and stared at the bluish wash on the ceiling from the moon filtering through the open windows. The look in her eyes bothered him. Bothered him a lot.

A/N: Well let me know how you liked it? XOXO!