A/N: Well, Brandon seems to be winning the vote. And oddly enough, though I never intended it somehow it seems right to hook him up with Josh. What do you guys think? Let me know -DL
Chapter 4
Damian would have steered Rahul to a chair near his, but before he could Bill had invited the housekeeper to sit down in one that was more central. Rahul smiled at him and took a seat, and almost immediately everybody in the room tried to talk to him. Everyone was curious about this new member of the household, and only Brandon flirted with him. Damian tried not to feel disgruntled as he sat down in his wing-back chair, but he couldn't help but sulk a bit silently. He wanted to be near Rahul, to talk to him, to see that sweet smile! But instead, everybody else was monopolizing the housekeeper. It wasn't fair!
He shook his head at himself, knowing he was acting like a petulant little boy. But he couldn't seem to help himself. He'd never felt this way about anybody else before this. Rahul reduced him to a hormonal teenage boy. Was this love at first sight, or merely a crush? He didn't know. He also didn't know whether he wanted it to just be a crush or true love. He wasn't sure that he was ready for the love of his life, though he was beginning to suspect that that didn't matter.
He sat and listened to the chatter as the rest of the household talked, content for now to follow the conversations rather than participate. Rahul laughed at something that Brandon said to him, and that sweet sound mesmerized him. Damian had an image of the two of them walking along arm-in-arm down the street, while he made Rahul laugh like that. His heart picked up into a faster beat at this vision.
He sipped at his peppermint tea, trying to control himself. The urge to get up, walk over there, pull Rahul to his feet, and drag the housekeeper off to his room for a night of passionate lovemaking was so strong that he had to curl his fingers around the handle of his mug to keep himself in place.
He wasn't sure whether he was happy or sad when the household began to break up for the night. Bill had to grade some papers before bed, Josh was returning to his writing, Caleb grunted that he was going to take a shower, Isaiah fended off Brandon and went upstairs to do some homework, Tran left to make his nightly call to his parents who lived in New Jersey, and Brandon reluctantly left Rahul to go and get ready for another night of clubbing. The couples all headed upstairs to 'spend time together'(and Damian couldn't help but envy them for the sex they'd soon be having), and Damian rose to his feet to cross the room and speak to Rahul.
"Listen, do you want me to keep you company, since everybody else is wandering off?" He asked.
Rahul smiled at him as he got to his own feet. "Oh, no, but thank you, Damian. That's very kind. But I think I'll take a bath and go to bed early. I want to get up early, too, so I can start breakfast and take stock of what's in the kitchen."
"All right. Oh, there's a chart on the fridge that will tell you what we have for breakfast every day," Damian remarked. "Tomorrow morning is pancakes and bacon day. Is that cool with you?"
"Yes, it's fine. I make a mean pancake," Rahul told him.
"Awesome. Everybody will be coming downstairs at a different time, so if you could just make individual portions when somebody appears at the table, instead of all at once, that would be better."
"I can do that. And, Damian, thank you again for giving me this job," Rahul said gratefully.
"No, no. Thank YOU for taking the job! I was getting desperate. You're a godsend!' Damian said fervently.
A laugh. "All right. Then, I'll see you tomorrow morning, Damian."
"Yeah. Have a good night, Rahul."
"You, too," the housekeeper left the sitting room, and Damian stood and watched him go. Then he sighed, deciding to go to his own room and read a book. He'd also try his hardest not to think about how empty his bed was, but that wouldn't be easy...
Damian's alarm went off at nine o'clock the next morning, making him groan as he rolled over to switch it off. He felt hellishly tired. He hadn't slept very well at all - and only a late-night jerk-off session in his bathroom had eased his tension enough to allow him to finally go to sleep. God, he hoped that every night wasn't going to be like this from now on, just because Rahul was living in the apartment building! Because he could become one very sleep-deprived and grumpy person very quickly, if that were so.
He staggered into the bathroom to take a hot shower and try to wake up, a somewhat futile task. Memories of the dreams he'd had last night went through his head as he soaped himself up in the shower. They'd all featured a certain beautiful housekeeper, and some of them had been so erotic that he wasn't surprised that he'd woken up with a raging hard-on this morning. That's the first thing he'd done when he'd stepped into the shower, rubbing one out. Now he felt more tired than ever, and he yawned as he stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist.
He spent longer than usual about his morning ablutions, and admitted silently to himself that he was preening. He wanted to look good when he saw Rahul. With a last prink of his dark-blonde hair, he left his room and walked down the wide hallway toward the dining room. Inside, he saw that the table was cleared off. Not a shock; most of the other residents of the building were either gone for the day or(like Josh) had returned to their apartments after breakfast. Damian made for the archway that led into the kitchen, and as he arrived he heard a sweet voice singing.
Surprised, he stopped in the archway. He saw Rahul standing at the stove, his back to the door. His slender form was clad in jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt, and his lovely wavy hair was pulled back in a tail behind his head. He was singing along to the radio sitting on the counter as he expertly flipped pancakes out of a pan and onto a plate at his elbow. An elegant furry beauty was twining around his ankles, demanding attention in her loud Siamese way.
Rahul stopped singing and turned to look down at the cat, his hands on his hips. "Cleo!" he cried in exasperation. "I'm trying to cook!"
The cat didn't care in the least. She yowled again, staring up at the housekeeper. Rahul shook his head. "You're impossible," he sighed.
"I'll pet her," Damian said, making Rahul jump a little. He whirled around, seeing Damian standing in the archway.
"Oh! Good morning, Damian!" he cried. "Are you hungry? I just made some fresh pancakes."
"I'm famished. And those smell delicious," Damian replied.
"Let me make you up a plate. If you'll take Cleopatra, that is..."
Damian strode over to lean down and scoop up the cat. He fondled her ears, and she settled into his arms in happy acceptance of this attention. She began to purr loudly as Rahul got a plate down and piled pancakes and bacon onto it. He melted some butter on the top, then turned to look at Damian questioningly. "Maple, blueberry, or raspberry syrup?" he asked.
"Maple. And put lots of it on them," Damian told him.
Rahul poured a generous helping of real maple syrup onto Damian's stack of pancakes. Damian sat down at the small kitchen table to eat, since everybody else was gone and he didn't want to sit at the huge dining room table all by himself. Cleopatra draped herself over his lap as he ate one-handed, and petted the cat with the other one. Rahul bustled around cleaning up the kitchen, humming to himself under his breath. Damian watched him surreptitiously the entire time he was eating, enjoying the view and Rahul's seemingly boundless energy.
"So everybody's gone?" He asked after awhile, when his pancake stack had been reduced to some crumbs on the plate.
Rahul nodded, scrubbing the top of the stove as he did so. "Yes, except for Josh. He came down to get something to eat, then went back to his apartment to write." He paused, then laughed. "Not before he poked at Brandon, though. I don't know what time Brandon came back last night, but he looked really tired when he came downstairs at about nine o'clock. He was walking around like a zombie. That is, until Josh started to torture him. He kept tweaking Brandon's hair, and teasing him about trying to live on sex alone, and how he shouldn't be like a 24-hour buffet, open all the time...I thought Brandon was going to try to kill him with a kitchen knife. And I was trying not to laugh the entire time, which is really bad of me," Rahul said ruefully.
Damian chuckled. "Josh has always gotten entertainment out of poking at Brandon," he told Rahul. "I think it's partially because he gets so worked up about it. If he didn't respond so well, Josh would leave him alone. I've tried to tell him that, but he won't listen to me."
"Poor Brandon. I like him," the housekeeper remarked wiping down the counter with a cleaning cloth.
"Oh, so do I. So does Josh, for that matter. He just also likes to tease Brandon. Everybody likes him - he's sort of like the building's mascot or something. Sure he's a sex fiend, but he's not mean or bitchy. He's actually really sweet. And his flirtation is harmless."
"I've noticed that," Rahul replied with a smile, coming to take his almost empty plate and rinse it in the sink. "He's cute, actually. I wouldn't ever sleep with him..." he added with a shrug. "But..."
"Yeah. I wouldn't, either. I prefer my partners to be a bit more monogamous than that. I think Brandon thinks that 'monogamous' is the scientific term for the kissing disease."
Rahul giggled, a charming sight that made Damian swallow heavily as his groin began to throb. "That's terrible!" the housekeeper gasped when he could speak. "But it also seems so accurate..."
Damian grinned. He'd loved making Rahul laugh like that. "So, how are you settling in?" He asked. "And what do you think of everybody?"
"I think I'm going to love this job," Rahul admitted. "Everybody's so nice! They all rinsed their own plates and cleaned up after themselves this morning, and everybody thanked me for the meal and told me how good the food was. Even Brandon, who was half-asleep. True, he also tried to feel me up, but he didn't get mad when I slapped his hand."
Damian chuckled. "I'm glad you like it here," he said. "Because we'll want you to stay forever. A good housekeeper who can cook and is easy on the eyes? You truly are a godsend."
Rahul's cheeks tinged with color at the 'easy on the eyes' part of Damian's speech. He shook his head even as he admired that color. "Hasn't anybody ever told you that you're gorgeous before this?" he asked incredulously. "Because I find that hard to believe."
Rahul lifted his shoulders a bit in a rueful shrug. "Well, I've had some girls tell me that, but never a guy. The few men I dated in the past never complimented me on my looks. It's just weird to me, because I don't really think of myself as being good-looking or anything. I'm just me."
Not narcissistic or vain, in spite of his beauty. Damian was coming to admire Rahul more and more every minute. What a beautiful person he seemed to be, both inside and out! He was definitely in love.
Go to Next Chapter