Infatuation. Alison Kent
had all been so very wrong.…
3
Nine years ago…
MILLA SAT ON THE end of the bed in Derek’s dorm, thumbing through his psych text and listening to Nirvana while waiting for him to get back.
An hour ago they’d finished off his roommate’s six-pack, and Derek had decided to replace it tonight. Rennie got in from work at ten and would be looking to unwind. Finding the minifridge empty would make him one unhappy camper.
But it was ten, and Derek was still gone, and Milla wasn’t sure whether to keep waiting and risk his roommate getting pissed or to cut out for home. It wasn’t like she was afraid of Rennie blowing a gasket over them drinking his beer. Really, what could he do?
But Derek insisting they make things right before Rennie got home did make her uneasy. Especially when she took into consideration everything else her boyfriend had told her about Rennie Bergen. About where he’d come from, the way his life was the flip side of theirs.
How he was so hard to read, so quiet. How he kept himself apart from the other guys when they’d all go out to party or to basketball games. How, when he did laugh, his sense of humor was wicked, almost cruel, as if he never had anything nice to say. As if he hated the world around him.
When she combined all of that with the fact that Derek never felt the need to cover his own ass…She swallowed hard, wishing he would hurry up. She didn’t know why she hadn’t told him earlier that she needed to go home. She had a ton of research to do before she could finish her paper.
Just then, she heard his key in the lock. Her fingers curled into the bedspread and she scooted forward, closing up his book and ready to call it a night. Only it wasn’t her boyfriend that walked through the door.
It was Rennie Bergen.
Her heart jumped into her throat and lodged there, making it impossible to breathe without feeling as if her chest were going to explode. God, why hadn’t she left earlier? Why had she come here at all? How was she going to get out of here now without him thinking she was running away?
He was taller than Derek by a couple of inches, his shoulders broader, the look in his eyes older than any of the guys she hung out with. She knew he’d just had a birthday and turned twenty. Derek had thrown him a kegger last weekend, but she’d been too sick with cramps to go.
Now she wished she’d made it so this wouldn’t be their first meeting, here in this very small room while she was sitting alone on a bed. Still, she met Rennie’s surprised gaze head-on, trying to smile—and to find something intelligent to say.
“Hi.” She gave a weak wave with one hand. “I’m Milla.”
Rennie nodded, glanced around the room. “Where’s Derek?”
His voice was gruff and she felt her face flush as his gaze came swiftly back to hers. She gestured again just as uselessly as before. “He went to the store. He should be back any minute.”
Rennie didn’t acknowledge her answer, but flung his duffel bag onto his bed where it bounced. He then crossed to the minifridge that sat between his and Derek’s desks, his strides long, the muscles beneath the fabric of his jeans and T-shirt impossible to ignore. He was built way better than Derek…everywhere.
It was after he’d pulled open the fridge, and had been staring silently into the empty interior for what seemed like forever that Milla found her full voice. “Derek went to get beer. For you. To replace what we drank.”
He closed the fridge door softly. Milla had expected to hear it slam. She watched as he straightened and turned toward her again. The deeply slashed V of his brows and the way his throat was working didn’t exactly frighten her, but did set her even further on edge.
And a big part of that, she feared, was a restlessness caused by the way he looked.
And the way he was looking at her.
His eyes were brown, dark and smoky. Like coffee with rising steam. He had a faint shadow along his chin and jaw, as if he hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. She wanted to touch it. It intrigued her. Derek hardly had to shave at all.
Rennie’s lips were full, both brackets on either side of his mouth deep. He looked like he worried too much, or didn’t smile often enough. He looked like the grooves had set in to stay. And that intrigued her even more.
She didn’t think any guy had ever made her tingle the way she was by doing nothing more than staring into her eyes. It was the way she’d felt when Dennis Quaid kissed Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy. The way she’d felt watching them in bed, aching to feel that same breathless sort of desire.
Sure, she got excited when making out with Derek, and the sex was okay. But she’d never wanted to take off her clothes because of the look in his eyes. Rennie Bergen made her want to get naked.
She groaned beneath her breath. She was in so much trouble here.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice as coarse as the rest of him.
Was that what it was? He wasn’t a gorgeous jock like Derek was? He was rough, and maybe a little bit dangerous because so much about him was unknown? Plus he was older. She shrugged. “Just wondering what’s taking Derek so long.”
He moved toward her, stopping to lean against the end of Derek’s desk, facing the bed where she sat. His hands were so big where they curled over the edge on either side of his hips. “There’s a wreck blocking the entrance gate to the dorm complex.”
Her heart fluttered. “Derek?”
Rennie shook his head. “Two compact imports. And both the wrong color.”
Derek’s classic Corvette was candy-apple red. She breathed easier, then she frowned. “How did you get in? If the entrance is blocked?”
Rennie canted his head toward the door. “A buddy dropped me off about a mile back. I hoofed it.”
That’s right. He’d totaled his car a month ago and was on foot until he got another. And then she remembered more. The Bergen’s family-owned a car lot. “You can’t get a loaner from your dad? Until you find something you want?”
“I have found something I want,” he told her, crossing one ankle over the other and drawing her attention again to the fit of his jeans, to his legs that were muscled and long, to his hips that were narrow and lean.
God, where was Derek? “But no loaner in the meantime?”
He shook his head, his gaze sharp and piercing as he stared down to where she was sitting not three feet away. On the bed. Just like in The Big Easy. “I’d rather work for what I want. Make it mean something.”
Were they still talking about cars? Or was he slamming Derek for having so many things handed to him?
And why was she suddenly so aware of his size? Or hers that was half of his?
“Well, sure,” she said, twisting the silver pinky ring she wore. A gift from Derek. One the allowance his parents gave him had paid for. “But why not take the help in the meantime? Wouldn’t it make your life easier? Give you more time to study and all?”
His expression hardened. “I don’t mind walking.”
Now he was just making her mad. “I don’t mind walking, either. But I don’t turn down help just to make a point.”
He uncrossed his ankles, slowly pushed off the edge of the desk to stand straight. “You think I’m on foot because I’m making a point?”
Right now, she didn’t know what to think. But she did know that she’d hit a nerve, so all she did was shrug. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
“Then I’ll tell you,” he said harshly. “My insurance doesn’t cover a loaner. I couldn’t afford the policy if it did.”
Oh.