Craved By My Brother-In-Law

Another Chance

Kira

Staring up into Kent’s blue eyes, every single ounce of resentment I’d carried over the last year evaporated. The months of ghosting, the unread texts, and the many nights I spent crying myself to sleep, it all vanished under the heat of his gaze.

Up close, his dark hair was perfectly messy, and the slight flash of that single dimple made my hands ache to reach out and trace his jaw.

"Why do I do this to myself?" I thought, my chest tightening. Whenever Kent was near, I felt like a teenager going through puberty all over any time he breathed in my direction.

My heart raced faster than normal, my palms drenched with sweat and my veins lit up o n fire. Everything about him made my body answer to him like a remote-controlled doll.

"You look different, buttercup," Kent murmured, a lazy grin spreading across his face.

"Different how?"

I thought I was dreaming, but Kent dropped his gaze and slowly lifted his eyes till I could feel them caressing me.

Before my heart could completely stop beating, he grinned and roughly ruffled the top of my hair, shaking my head back and forth like I was one of his hockey buddies.

Just like that, reality crashed back down.

"So, tell me everything," Kent said, pulling out a heavy wooden chair and spinning it around to sit backward, his arms resting on the headrest. "How’s home?"

"Home is good."

"Is your dad doing okay?"

"I gue—"

"More importantly... do you have a boyfriend back there? Or are you planning on hitting the campus clubs now that you’re finally a USC girl?"

I scoffed, "I don't quite understand."

"You're still pretending to be the saint. Don't tell me no one has ever tried to," he trailed off. I raised a brow, leading him on. But he let his eyes do the rest of the talking. He leaned in, a wicked glint in his eye as he said in a final tone, "Pretty sure those bastards will approach you and try to take advantage. Don't give in, okay?"

"And if I do."

His eyes narrowed as they glared at me. "I'll kill them myself."

My skin tingled at the deepness of his voice when he became protective, my face flushing in a dark red. As the chill spread down towards my chest, I crossed my arms, trying to look defensive. "I don’t club, Kent. And I’m definitely not seeing anyone. I barely have time to breathe between classes and dealing with this one insufferable student."

Kent’s brow arched. "A student?"

"Ethan Rain," I muttered. Merely saying the name left a bitter taste in my mouth. "He’s in my class. He’s arrogant, self-righteous, and goes out of his way to make me look stupid in front of the professor."

Kent didn’t say anything for a second. Instead, he reached out, hooked his fingers under the edge of my chair, and pulled it forward with one hand until my knees practically brushed against his. The sudden proximity made my breath hitch.

He reached up, cupping the side of my face in his large, warm hand. His thumb brushed over my cheekbone, his blue eyes dead serious.

"Listen to me, buttercup. You are the smartest girl I know. Don't let some prick make you doubt yourself, alright? You’re a scholarship student. You own that room."

My heart did a thousand flip. He cared. He really cared.

Then, he pulled his hand back, reached into his duffel bag, and dropped a massive, heavy stack of bounded papers onto the table between us.

"Which brings me to this," Kent smiled, tapping the stack. "I need a massive favor. It’s the mid-semester syllabus project for my business core group. It belongs to me, a few guys on the team... and my girlfriend. I know you're busy, but you can knock this out in a night, right?"

The words "my girlfriend" hit me like a physical slap to the face.

I stared at the stack of papers, then up at his smiling, expectant face. The warmth in my chest instantly soured into a freezing, bitter toxic rage.

He didn’t invite me here to catch up. He didn’t care about my classes.

"You brought me to an abandoned wing of the library... for homework?" My voice trembled, the anger vibrating in my throat.

"Kira, come on, it's just a quick look-over—"

"No!" I snapped, slamming my hands on the table as I stood up so fast my chair scraped loudly against the floorboards. "No, Kent! I am not your personal slave anymore! Do your own damn assignments!"

"Kira, wait, what's wrong with you?" Kent blinked, completely startled by my outburst, half-rising from his seat.

I grabbed my bag, turned on my heel, and stormed out of the dark room, tears blurring my vision behind my medicated glasses. I ran all the way back to the dorm building until my chest was heaving with an intense feeling of humiliation.

When I burst into Room 314, Amira was sitting on her bed, her headphones around her neck. "Whoa, Kira? What happened to you?"

"Leave me alone, Amira!" I barked, throwing my bag against the wall and violently pulling the covers over my head. "Just shut up and leave me alone!"

Amira went quiet, but the loud thumping of my own pulse kept me awake for hours. I felt used and discarded. I was a fool who had moved across the country for a boy who only valued her for her brain.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, Kira, wake up right now!"

A violent shaking snapped me out of my restless sleep. I groaned and blinked against the bright morning light as Amira aggressively yanked the blanket off my face. She was practically vibrating with excitement.

"What?" I croaked, rubbing my eyes. "Amira, I told you—"

"No, look at the door! Look!"

I forced myself to sit up, adjusted my glasses and my jaw dropped.

The door to our dorm room was wide open, and standing in the hallway was a small crowd of whispering, giggling students, all holding up their phones. But right in the center of the doorway stood Kent.

He was wearing his red-and-gold USC varsity hockey jacket, his blonde hair perfectly messy. In his arms, he was holding a massive, beautifully arranged bouquet made entirely of brand-new, leather-bound crime novels and textbooks, flanked by a massive box of sour candies, chocolates, and junk food.

He offered me a soft, apologetic smile, the dimple showing clearly as the crowd of students snapped pictures of us.

"Hey, buttercup," Kent said softly, stepping into the room and holding out the bouquet of books. "I'm sorry about last night. Can we start over?"

Staring at the junk food, the books, and the look of genuine regret in his blue eyes, the icy wall around my heart completely melted away.

My heart swelled with a sudden, overwhelming warmth. Maybe I hadn't lost him after all. Maybe this was finally my chance.