Page 103 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

“I see.” The doctor smiled. “He’s lucky to have a good pastoral team around him, then.”

“Thanks, doctor.”

“I’ll give you a moment.” The doctor then walked out of the room, leaving Kenny alone.

Kenny stepped closer to the bed, Aaron’s pale face and painfully shallow rise and fall of his chest, causing a lump to form in his throat. So he picked up Aaron’s limp hand, and it was cooler than he expected, but it was there, solid in his grip, and gently, almost reverently, he lifted it to his lips, pressing a kiss to Aaron’s knuckles. Then, closing his eyes, he sank into the chair beside the bed, keeping Aaron’s hand clasped in both of his, pressing it to his mouth as if it could stop the ache in his chest. He stayed like that, mind racing with everything he couldn’t say. Every word that felt too big or too small. Not that Aaron could hear him, even if he said any of it.

Then a faint, raspy voice broke the quiet. “That uni really takes their deadlines seriously.”

Kenny’s eyes snapped open, heart lurching as he stared at Aaron’s half-lidded eyes and the weak smirk playing on his lips. “Aaron…”

“My professor, huh?” Aaron croaked, his voice hoarse but laced with dry humour. “Coming to my hospital bed to demand my assignment.”

Kenny let out a shaky laugh, relief crashing into him like a wave. “You were awake?”

“Whole time.”

“What would you have preferred I say?”

Aaron’s shrug was barely perceptible, eyelids fluttering with the effort to stay open. His voice came soft, tinged with a faint, bitter humour. “I don’t know. Maybe… ‘he’s the man I can’t live without.’ Keep it light. Easy breezy. Nothing too deep.”

Kenny let out a low, unsteady laugh, brushing his thumb over the back of Aaron’s hand. His heart ached with how fragileAaron looked. Pale, drawn, but still trying to make light of everything, despite the undertone being so heavy.

“You scared the shit out of me.” Kenny let himself expose his fear and guilt because he needed Aaron tosee. Toknow. To bear witness to who he was to Kenny. Not his student, nor his patient, norprotégé, not even a pain in his arse. But hislover. “Again.”

“I think I might be doing it on purpose.”

“I have no doubt.”

Aaron coughed. “Did we get him?”

“We got him.”

Licking his dry, cracked lips, Aaron stared down at his hand in Kenny’s, then he twisted his, placing them palm to palm, entwining their fingers. A simple yet poignant gesture that had Kenny squeezing him tighter and never, ever wanting to let him go.

“How many?”

“How many what?”

“Victims?”

“No final body count yet. We know of the three and a couple of dogs he used to test his compound on.”

“Dogs?” Aaron clenched his hand in Kenny’s. “Fucking hate him more now.”

“Maybe you’ll get a dog one day.”

“Yeah? I want a golden retriever.”

“Then you’ll have one.”

Aaron smiled, but it soon faded, and he stared at their combined hands, the cogs in his mind ticking over. “I’m… not Child A, am I?”

Kenny gritted his teeth. He knew the conversation had to happen, but he didn’t want to have it when Aaron was still bleeding. But nor could he dismiss Aaron’s need to know. “No.”

Aaron’s chest rose with his deep, shuddering breath. “Who is?”

Kenny hesitated. “Your sister.”

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