INICIAR SESIÓNZANE’s POV It was Monday morning. The fourth day since Alessia and I started a thing we weren’t sure of yet but both knew we wanted. We spent almost all night texting about random things, and that was when I realized I actually enjoyed texting with her. It had been normal. Nothing intimate, nothing suggestive, just us talking about stupid things until we both got tired. My stupid ass had actually enjoyed it. It was funny to me because after we stopped texting, I realized I hardly ever texted innocently with other chicks. It was either we sexted or did something purely out of context. I didn’t do random conversations, good morning texts or asking someone how their day went. That wasn’t me. And I knew Alessia wasn’t like that. If anything, she was the kind of girl that loved when their boyfriends told them stories over the phone, asked about their day and probably stayed up late talking about absolutely nothing. I wasn’t like that. I always said Alessia Bennett wasn’t my spec, and
ALESSIA’s POV. Something about Zane had changed.I just couldn’t decide whether it was him or me who was seeing things differently.It started that morning with a message.You awake?I stared at my phone for a moment. Zane rarely texted first unless he wanted something.Unfortunately. Why?His reply came almost immediately.Old-school concert tonight. Briarwood. You coming?I smiled despite myself.I had mentioned the concert days ago. I hadn’t expected him to remember it, let alone invite me.Maybe.Three dots appeared.That’s not an answer.I laughed quietly.Yes, Jaxon. I’m coming.Good. Seven. I’ll pick you up.No teasing. No unnecessary flirting. Just Zane deciding he’d see me that evening as if it were the most natural thing in the world.By seven, his car was waiting outside my dorm.I climbed into the passenger seat and immediately noticed a small paper bag sitting beside the gearshift. I picked it up and looked inside.My favorite cookies.I turned toward him. “You remembere
ALESSIA’s POV I had spent the entire morning wondering what exactly Zane and I were after last night. Not whether the kiss had happened—I could still remember that far too clearly—but what it meant. He had kissed me back, told me there was no going back, and looked at me like he had finally stopped fighting something between us. Yet somehow, I had walked away without asking the one question that had been sitting in the back of my mind ever since. What were we now? Were we actually together, or had Zane simply given in to the attraction between us for one night before returning to the same carefree life he’d always lived? I hated that I didn’t have an answer, but I hated even more that I was too nervous to ask him.Maybe I was expecting too much from a guy who had spent months making it painfully clear that relationships weren’t his thing. Zane liked things easy. No commitments, no explanations and definitely no girl expecting anything from him. I’d known that long before I kissed him
ZANE’s POVIt wasn’t supposed to bother me so much that Alessia was so sure of me. But it did. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the whole thing and our conversation yesterday. If I started, there was no going back, and something about my reputation would destroy things here. Alessia loves and I have fun. Two very different things. That’s why I was always of the opinion that she wasn’t my spec, even if she looked as hot and breathtaking as ever. And I couldn’t promise her a relationship or something different. If that was worth what she was expecting, then she needed to think hard again.Do you want me?Those words kept playing in my head like a sound tape. And that was the fucking problem here. Because I did.Damn me.I really wanted Alessia Bennett. And what made me want her more was the fucking part that she was off limits.I sighed loudly. I wasn’t mentally prepared for this. I never would have thought one sentence from her mouth could ruin me like this. I got dressed casually
ALESSIA’s POV. Three days.That was how long Zane had been pretending I didn’t exist.At first, I thought I was imagining it. Maybe he was busy with hockey. Maybe Adrian had dragged him into some team issue. Maybe I was simply overthinking everything because of what happened between us.But by the third day, there was no way I could keep pretending.Zane Jaxon was avoiding me.And he was terrible at it.At breakfast, he talked to Adrian without looking in my direction. At lunch, he somehow always found a reason to sit somewhere else. Whenever our group was together, he was perfectly comfortable joking with Mason and Jace, but the moment I joined the conversation, his attention suddenly became very interested in his phone.It was ridiculous.Especially because I knew what had happened between us.I hadn’t imagined that.Neither had he.I was beginning to get tired of being the only person acknowledging it.“You’ve been staring at your phone for five minutes.”Kendra’s voice pulled me
ZANE’S POV. I should have walked away. That was the first thought that came to me when I finally got back to my apartment, and it was also the thought that kept pissing me off because I knew damn well I hadn’t done it. I should have walked away the moment Alessia looked at me like that, should have reminded myself who she was and who I was supposed to be to her. Instead, I had stood there like an idiot, letting her words sink deeper than they had any right to. I dropped my keys onto the counter and ran a hand through my hair, staring at nothing in particular. Fuck. This was exactly what I had been trying to avoid for months. I had told myself it was nothing. Alessia was Adrian’s little sister. That was it. She was the girl who sat at our table, asked too many questions about hockey and followed us around with her camera whenever the school paper needed something about the team. Nothing more. Except it had never really been nothing. I knew that now. And after tonight, there







