Page 111 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

“I don’t know. She was taken from me. Just like you were.”

“And she’s never come to see you?”

Roisin’s lips curved into a slow, deliberate smile, her eyes gleaming with something dark and impenetrable. “Why wouldshe come to see me?Sheknows what she is. What she’s capable of. She doesn’t need me to remind her. She’s not seeking answers to questions she already knows the answers to.”

“What does that mean?”

Roisin dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Why do you come here, darling? What are you hoping to find out from me?”

“Why you spared me.”

Roisin laughed softly, a sound that made his blood run cold. “I didn’t spare you. Isavedyou.”

“Why me? Why not her?”

“Because I had to choose one of you. That was the deal.”

“The deal? What fucking deal?”

“With your father. One of you was mine. One was his.” She waved a hand. “Our little game. Our experiment. And I must say, it’s working out rather well, I think. It’s almost a shame he won’t get to see the outcome.”

Aaron flinched. “Your children were experiments to you?”

“All children are experiments, darling. No one knows what sort of parent they’ll be until they have them. Nor what child they’ll have.” She shrugged, looking away absentmindedly. “Unless you pick them, that is. But, whatever, it’s all an experimental risk.”

“Do you love me?”

Roisin stared at him, eyes vacant, as if there was nothing human behind them. The stillness of her gaze was unnerving. Nothing like how Kenny looked at him—filled with something he still wasn’t sure was love, but was definitely heading towards it. Care. Affection. Longing. And an abundance of lust in Kenny’s eyes, too. Desire. And when Kenny was inside him, those eyes were a testament to how utterly infatuated he was by him.

He supposed his mothershouldn’tlook at him like that.

But there should be at leastsomethingthere.

“Of course I love you,” she said, her voice soft but wrong, like a blade wrapped in velvet. Like she was reading from a script. “You’re mine.”

“You don’t even know what love is.”

“Do you?” Roisin titled her head.

“Yes.”

He was certain of that now. But he’d keep it to himself until he knew the admission wouldn’t ruin everything.

The laughter bursting from Roisin was sharp and jagged, echoing through the room like the crack of thunder, cold and cruel, making Aaron question everything he ever knew about anything.

“What you know, darling, is how toneed.Notlove.” She narrowed her eyes. “You know how tocrave.How to demand for someone to fill that hollow void inside you. You want them to make you feel whole. To tell you how special you are. Adore you. Worship you. You want to be the sun in someone’s sky. The centre of their universe. You want to consume their every thought, drive them mad with their desire to be enough for you. But here’s the truth, my sweet boy—” She leaned forward, her voice deceptively tender, yet her words dripping poison. “—They won’t love you.Can’t.Not the way you want.”

Aaron refused to look away despite not wanting to hear or see anymore.

“I told you every single day how precious you were. How you were everything to me. How I adored you.Worshippedyou. I made you believe you were the axis the world turned on. And now that’s all you know. That’s all you’ll ever want. What youseek. You want people tobleedfor you. Some might. Many won’t. But eventually, whoever you choose will bleed out for you completely and it still won’t be enough.” Her lips curled into a smile, sending shivers down Aaron’s spine. “You’re no different from me.”

“I’m nothing like you.” He hoped. He prayed, and he wished he’d never come here.

Roisin’s eyes glinted with feral predatory. “On the contrary, my dear boy. You areeverythinglike me. Isn’t that what you’re doing now? With Dr Lyons? Making him destroy everything just to keep you close? To be wanted by you? Isn’t he giving you everything? Yet one day he’ll have nothing left to sacrifice and therefore nothing to give.”

Aaron’s stomach twisted, a wave of nausea washing over him. “How do you know about Kenny?”

Roisin laughed, leaning back in her chair with a satisfied sigh. “I knoweverythingabout you. Always have. I know you’re suffocating him with your need to be loved, to be worshipped? But he won’t love you how you want, darling. Because he can’t. What you want isn’t love. It’s control.Obsession. And do you know how I know this?”

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