Page 111 of Dream On, Liar

When Rihaan remained asleep, I couldn’t help myself but stare at his peaceful state.

Too bad.

Grabbing my pillow, I hit him hard enough to wake him up.

Waking him up instantly, his eyes squinted in confusion, before he noticed me. “What the hell?”

“What are you doing in bed with me!?” I asked, not giving any shit at how loud I’d been. “You said you’d call for a single bed.”

He rubbed the spot. “I did. They didn’t have any.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked, making an effort to be softer this time.

“I tried. I swear I did, but you sleep like the dead,” He replied, shifting until he was sitting against the headboard. “I had made a pillow barrier between us, and thought you wouldn’t mind that.”

I frowned, my gaze roaming around the bed, before I leaned over and found the pile on the floor.

“So, I take it that didn’t work?”

“Clearly.”

He opened his mouth to reply when someone knocked on the joining door.

“Rihaan? Everything okay?” Raina’s muffled voice boomed through the room.

“Yeah,” Rihaan said loud enough to make me cringe.

“Are you coming for breakfast? We’re just about to head down.”

“No. I’m just getting up, so I’ll be down in a few.”

A beat.

“Okay.” If I could hear the uncertainty in her voice, I was sure Rihaan could too, and his expressions confirmed just that.

“They didn’t call up, by the way.” Rihaan spoke softly. “I asked them when I went downstairs for dinner.”

I nodded, unsure what to say.

“I’m actually surprised you slept through most of the yesterday. Aren’t you hungry? I’m pretty sure your breakfast yesterday didn’t count, considering you threw it all up.”

I sighed, choosing to share an alternate version of the truth. “I woke up sometime during mid-day. You weren’t here, so I just had the snacks you got me. I tried reading my book afterwards, but I had barely slept the night before, and with the meds, I was so drowsy, I went back to sleep.”

He ran a hand through his hair, his curls more apparent in the humid hair than they had been back home. His tattooed skin was on full display, and this time, I couldn’t help but stare…appreciatively.

Noticing my gaze, his eyes flicked back in my direction and he raised a brow. “Yes?”

When I didn’t look away this time, his gaze darkened. Not like it had before—but there had been something different. He wasn’t angry, but it was almost like he’d just realised what we’d done. As I was sure, it was evident in my gaze. We hadn’t just shared a bed, we’d cuddled. For most of the morning—if not, the night too. I had considered myself to be a somewhat soft sleeper when it came to being around someone. I remembered it had taken me ages to get used to sleeping alone, in strange places—let alone with someone I’d shared a night with. So the fact I hadn’t woken up once when he’d entered the room, gotten in bed with me or cuddled me had me raising a sense of alarm inside me. Mainly, why in the world was my subconscious so trust worthy of him in my sleep, when I wasn’t even trusting of the dreams—or nightmares—it gave me.

I hadn’t exactly been lying to him when I had told him I hadn’t slept the night before. Only, I hadn’t slept at all the past week. Ever since I was a little kid, I’d had a recurring nightmare. They often started the same way: me as a child, out with my parents. It’d be us having a dinner at a restaurant, at the zoo, at the Royal Theatre watching the ballet—that never mattered. It was what happened after that did. Because we’d begun to have a good time, and out of no where there would be something that would make them leave me. I’d beg for them to choose me. To pick me as they both went in different directions to save their life, while I stood there frozen, unable to leave.

“Maeve?” Rihaan started again, his voice had been gentle, yet, it had been enough to startle me.

Snapping back my focus, I moved my gaze. “Do your tattoos have meanings?”

He blinked, almost like he hadn’t expected the question.

A beat.