Can't Stop the Feeling (Whispering Bay Romance 6)

Kate and Tim met five years ago, and it was a match made in heaven. He was a trust fund baby, too, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to sit around and live on other people’s money. He’d started his own company nearly a decade ago and was one of Florida’s most successful entrepreneurs. They lived in a beautiful, upscale home in ritzy West Palm Beach and had the perfect life.

“Tim is fine. Don’t change the subject.”

“Okay, but for the record, which means you have my permission to relay this back to my mother, this meeting is completely work-related, nothing more.”

“But—”

“End of story, Kate. Gotta go. Love you!”

Knowing she was defeated, Kate sighed. “Love you, too.”

Chapter Six

Now that Kate had riled her all up, there was no way she could get to sleep. Jenna turned to her side and punched her pillow into submission.

Ben Harrison.

She’d never forget the moment she first saw him…

It was day one of their freshman year, and the first class on her schedule was calculus. Jenna was anxious to get a good seat so she’d been the first one to show up. She sat at the table in the front of the room going over her syllabus, occasionally glancing up to watch the rest of the students as they filed through the door, some of them barely dragging themselves in, already hungover before the new school year had even started.

Jenna had never been that girl who stayed out late partying. Not in high school and certainly not now. The University of Miami was a private college, and although she’d earned a good amount of scholarship money, her parents were still partially footing a substantial bill. Her father was a civil engineer and her mother a school teacher. They made a comfortable living, but they were far from rich. She had no intention of either losing her scholarship or disappointing her family.

She was still studying her syllabus when the buzz in the quickly crowding classroom came to a still. Looking up from her paper, she expected to see the teacher walk into the room, but it wasn’t the instructor in the doorway.

Tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair and dark eyes, no doubt this guy was gorgeous, but it wasn’t his looks that silenced the class. There were a lot of good-looking boys at the school. The thing was, this wasn’t a boy. This was a man. He was still young, probably early twenties, but the slightly bored look of confidence on his face had every girl in the room sitting straight up in her chair, and every boy annoyed that every girl had noticed it.

Jenna half expected him to sit in the back of the class but instead he quickly zoned in on the empty seat next to her. Hot Guy sat down, laid his backpack on the table and pulled out a notebook. A pretty girl with long, dark hair sitting behind them tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hi! I’m Melissa. Do you have a pencil I can borrow?” She leaned forward giving him (and three other guys sitting in their row) a spectacular view of her cleavage. “I can’t believe what a ditz I am this morning! Long night, you know?”

Oh, brother. Sometimes her sex could be soooo obvious. What kind of student didn’t bring a pencil to a calculus class?

Hot Guy briefly caught Jenna’s eye then pulled a pencil out of his backpack and handed it to the girl.

“Thanks! I’ll be sure to return it after class.”

“No problem.” His voice was deep and husky and sent little shivers dancing up Jenna’s spine.

“So, my name’s Melissa.”

Jenna wanted to scream, yes, we already know!

“I’m Ben,” he said to the cute brunette.

Jenna ping-ponged his name around in her brain. Ben. It was a good name. Masculine and solid. Melissa continued flirting with him. He didn’t engage but he didn’t discourage her either. Jenna tried not to eavesdrop but she’d have to be in a coma to have not heard their exchange.

Yes, he was a freshman like her.

No, he hadn’t pledged a fraternity.

He lived off campus.

He was twenty-two and had just gotten out of the army.

The army. No wonder he seemed so…otherworldly.

Jenna had to give Melissa credit. The girl was good. Despite the fact Ben wasn’t a big talker, she’d gotten all that information in the span of just five minutes.