“Just keep it down.” He scowled. “Anyway, don’t you have work to do?”
“Not yet, no,” I replied. The amount I'd been putting off was shockingly big, and I’d been putting in a lot more hours than I wanted to. It was better than being stuck at home. I was still tossing away a priceless opportunity at a famous university by not keeping up on my projects, but I couldn’t muster up the energy when I’d been forced to come here.
Kids like me didn’t go to Cambridge Uni. Kids like me didn’t get off the council estate, full stop. But most kids didn’t have a family like mine.
Harry pursed his lips, giving me a frustrated sigh. “Well, I do, and I’d appreciate it if you could lower the volume so I don’t have to listen to you come two times in a row.”
My eyebrows rose while the awkward silence stretched with my grin. He froze as his bottom lip fell open. The hot flush I'd been admiring for months swept over his neck like a wave oflava to the tuft of dark chest hair which poked out from the neckline of his casual t-shirt.
“Excuse me,” he said hurriedly before he shot off, stealing my chance to dig further into that little nugget of information. By the time he’d fumbled with his key and staggered into his flat, I was covering my mouth so he didn’t hear me laughing. It looked like ‘flustered’ was my new turn-on.
Now that I’d actually seen him and spoken to him properly, there was no way I was keeping away. Especially because he was so cute.
I tensed my hand on my door handle as I returned to my room and slowly closed it behind me, making sure it clicked instead of slammed.
My gaze dipped to my left and I sighed at the guy sprawled out on the bed, already snoring away. I didn’t care that he’d nicked all the space. It wasn’t the first time I’d slept on a sofa. And, if I happened to stroke myself to sexy scenes of my neighbour’s blush as he gasped under me, then it was all part of the fun.
Dom
The pounding music beat through my body. It helped get my blood pumping and put me in the mood for a night of wild debauchery. Read: getting drunk and finding a decent lay.
I was through the club door when I spotted my regular friends in the mesh of sweaty dancing bodies under the strobe lights. We usually ended up at the same clubs, and they always promised a good time.
I’d been trying to get Harry out of his flat for an evening with something more tame, such as a night at the pub, but every time I brought it up, he usually vanished before I could even finish my sentence. At least we were having conversations, although he looked trapped every time I spoke to him.
The flashing lights and EDM had me dancing across the floor towards my friends. The four of them laughed as we said our hellos and found our rhythm.
This was the best way to start the night. A bit of fun before I found someone else who’d be interested in something more. I could have fucked one of my friends, but I avoided sleeping with the same person twice. I wanted easy—getting stuck in feelings was too messy; I gave that shit up years ago.
Until a certain neighbour became a permanent feature of my thoughts.
Harry Fischer was from a richer-than-rich family, who were usually splattered across the internet, with people constantly crowding around him and cosying up to him. I always saw strangers eyeing him up whenever I caught him out on campus. So I wanted to hang out with him more and beat the fuckers back, even though I was one of those said fuckers. But it was difficult when he ran away every time we talked.
There was a method to studying Law. My mum taught me to pursue a very specific set of skills, including learning all the legal cases directly related to her. It was all for her benefit, so she could continue running her scams, knowing that her darling son would swoop in to save the day if she got nicked. I defended my first case in court at fifteen, getting her off on the charge of petty theft. Mainly because I was tall and confident enough to get away with posing as an adult.
Mum and I scammed the fuck out of people for a living, and I’d loved it. No one was off limits. I was at Cambridge to do the groundwork for her. The other plan was for me to use my degree to scope out rich targets, gather information, and get close enough to them to hand them to her on a silver platter.
And Harry was her ideal mark. Which was one of the reasons why I was fucking the gig up as much as possible, hoping they’d kick me out of uni. Because I didn’t want to play her games any longer.
The only reason she still had me in a chokehold was my baby sisters. The twins were three years old and they were so fucking precious that even Mum had reigned it in a bit. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t use them to keep me on a leash.
By the end of the third song, I was ready for a drink, and it was my turn to buy. The guys yelled out orders, and I dodged past a sea of armpits to reach the edge of the crowd.
A cheer went up as my favourite song blasted out of the speakers, but there was no way I was going back to the dancefloor with a throat like a potholed road.
They’d lined the club with booths along the back, far away from the huge speakers, there for people to talk and relax. Like that’s what anyone came to the club for. Most people just used them for drugs and handies.
I gave it a quick scan, just in case anyone my type was taking a breather from dancing. Though, to be honest, ‘easy’ was my type.
My eyes landed on three familiar figures in a central booth pressed up against the wall. Harry was caged in by two shithead regulars I ‘worked’ with, one of them pushing a cup up to his mouth. I stopped dead, focusing to get a better view through the flashing lights. It was clear from the way he was slumped that Harry was out of it. There was no way he needed another drink. Unless the pair were feeding him water, though, from the eager looks on their faces, I was going to say no.
I was at the booth instantly, standing over the two dickheads, gracing them with a wide grin. They kept Harry trapped;Knuckles supported him, while Pip forced the mystery liquid down his throat.
“Evening, boys.” I swung my gaze between them. “Everything alright?”
Pip and Knuckles were the main dealers at the club, along with two other guys who'd be out scoping the crowd. I'd been dealing drugs on the side for extra cash since I arrived in Cambridge, and these idiots were my suppliers. There were people like them working every club in the city, all under the same large distributor. While I mostly dealt ecstasy and acid, they were always offering the students the stronger stuff to pick up more cash.
I said I refused to sell crack or dope because I wanted to protect the students, which was utter bullshit. I just wasn’t after the extra jail time if I got caught.