Page 24 of Dream a Little Dream

“Thought you hated the bar.”

“I do, but…” She shrugged. “Lottie’s going.”

Lottie. The girl Mel had a crush on.

“So go, then.”

“Come with me.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He had a lot to think about. Too much. But there wasn’t any room between thoughts of Dr Kenneth Lyons fucking a woman namedHeather.

Would he call her ‘good girl’? Would he fuck her in a backroom? Would he look at her with those intense eyes as he came down her throat?

Mel squeed, then hugged him, which was the most amount of human contact he’d had since Dr Kenneth Lyons had made him come. And it had been a long time before then, too. She then ran off toward her halls and Aaron made his way to his own block.

As he let himself in the communal entrance and onto his floor, the scent of curry prickled his tastebuds. His stomach growled, and he peered in through the communal kitchen where Rahul was stirring through the contents of a large pan, as had been the norm all week. Aaron had been salivating over it while eating his Smash and baked beans.

“Aaron, hi!” He grinned. “Sign up for anything?”

“Pole dancing.”

Rahul flinched as if he hadn’t expected that, then turned back to the curry before shooting a timid look over his shoulder. “Uh…this isn’t bothering you, is it?”

“What? Your cooking?”

“The smell. My mum’s daal recipe can be a bit much. The other lads have had a moan.” He jutted his chin toward the communal corridor where all the rooms faced each other, the kitchen combining them all. “Stops me feeling a bit homesick when I cook, y’know?”

He wouldn’t know. He’d never had a home to be sick from. Well, he had, but he’d long passed the vomiting stages of missing it. Now he was numb and bitter.

“It’s fucking beautiful, mate. Wouldn’t worry about those tossers. All they know how to cook is a microwave meal.” Aaron slipped out of his denim jacket, tucking it under his folded arms, beneath a thin plain white tee Aaron was sure was see-through. “And they even fuck that up.”

Rahul breathed through a laugh and glanced over his shoulder at Aaron.All the wayat Aaron. Lingering over him from top to toe. The way Taylor at the LGBT desk had done earlier. The way all the men in Inferno looked at him. HowDrKenneth Lyons had looked at him over the sea of gyrating bodies. As if he wanted to eat him. But Rahul’s self-consciousness and naïve oblivion to it allowed Aaron to let him look. Maybe it was the pole dancing comment? Rahul wasimagining him doing it. Then, as if he hadn’t realised what he was doing, Rahul stopped, swallowed sharply, blowing out breath from rounded lips, then closed his eyes and turned back to his food.

Aaron cocked his head. Maybe there was another way to relieve his pent-up aggression. “They giving you a hard time? The other lads?”

“No.” Rahul lied. “No, they’re just…well, I get it. But they are loud. And they drink. A lot.”

“Some blokes like to fill up the space with noise. They’re too afraid to be alone with their own thoughts. ‘Cause then they might actually have one.”

Rahul chuckled.

“You don’t drink?” Aaron leaned on the doorframe, clutching his jacket in his folded arms.

“No. It’s against my religion. Muslim.”

“What else is Islam against?” Aaron was pretty sure it would be against him.

Rahul didn’t answer. Because he was no doubt thinking the same thing. Stirring the ladle in the fragrant, spicy concoction, he glanced over his shoulder, changing the subject. “Do you want some of this? I’ve made enough for an army.”

Rahul wasn’t the type of bloke Aaron used to get off when he was feeling as he was then—bubbling. He was way too sweet and innocent. Aaron would ruin him.Forever. But thoughts of Kenny on a date with a dirty blonde had Aaron pulling out a chair at the round table in the middle of the kitchen, draping his jacket over the backrest and sitting. “Yeah. Thanks.”

The way to a man’s heart was, as they say, through his stomach.

He smiled his most dashing of smiles, and Rahul blushed. Despite many people telling Aaron over the years how ugly he was, he was certain they were referring to what was on theinside, because on the outside, he wasmagnetic. Even to a man who had to swear to his almighty that he didn’t have degrading thoughts about.

Except he did. It was obvious.

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