Page 65 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

Aaron had been right. This wasn’t a turning point. It had already turned long before now. The rules Kenny had carefully crafted, the boundaries he’d sworn to uphold, had shattered beyond recognition. They’d been too close, too entangled from the start. Yet the wrongness of it—the ethics, the morality, the risks—buzzed faintly in Kenny’s mind like bees around pollen. He should have stopped this. Barricaded himself against it.

But, like the honey those bees made, the taste was too sweet.

If the world wanted barricade tape, fine. He’d wrap it around them both to hold them together.

“Can I get you anything?” Kenny asked, adjusting his position on the narrow sofa to avoid falling off.

Aaron dragged out a hand from under the blanket, scraping his platinum blond hair back with a weary sigh. “A new identity. A new brain.”

Kenny’s lips quirked into a small smile. “I can work on the brain with you. The identity… you don’t need it. I like this one.”

Aaron arched an eyebrow, scepticism etched into his face. “Yeah?”

“No one knows who you are. You onlythinkthey do. That’s paranoia. Warranted, yes, but everything out there is speculation. Sensationalised lies. You can ignore it.”

“Easy for you to say.”

“It’s not easy for me,” Kenny countered, because he never wanted Aaron to think he was in this alone. “But all we have is our integrity. Our truth. Cling to it.” He tucked a hand under the blanket, resting it on Aaron’s hip before pulling him closer, their chests touching as he kissed him, then pulled back. “But I sort of meant can I get you a drink? Food.”

“You should’ve led with that.”

Kenny chuckled. “I could order pizza. Or I have stuff to make pasta. But honestly, I’d rather not move from here.” He squeezed Aaron’s hip. “I’m oddly comfortably despite my arse hanging off.”

Aaron tucked a stray lock of Kenny’s hair behind his ear, his touch lingering. “Pizza’s good. But… later, yeah? Sorta comfy, too.”

“Whenever you want it.”

Aaron’s brow furrowed, as if grappling with something unspoken, and Kenny’s hackles raised. They’d already crossed so many lines, stepped so far past what was safe. He wasn’t sure he could take much more without free-falling entirely.

“I… uh…” Aaron’s voice wavered, but he pressed on. “Have a confession to make.”

Kenny inhaled sharply. “And I’m not going to like it.”

Aaron’s lips quirked into a half-smile. “Depends.”

“On what?”

“How much you’re already in this?”

Kenny kissed him again, capturing Aaron’s bottom lip between his own before pulling away just enough to speak. “That enough to let you know?”

“Yeah,” Aaron breathed out.

“Then confess.”

Fear sparked in Aaron’s eyes, but he did. “It’s about that night in Inferno.”

Kenny inhaled, sharp and deep, ready to take and accept what came next.

“It wasn’t random. I knew who you were.” Aaron winced. “I’d been following you for a while. From the moment I learned your name, I found out everything I could about you. Read your books. Articles. Set up notifications under an alias so I’d know anytime something new about you hit the internet. When I was seventeen and living in a halfway house in Woolwich, found out you were delivering a keynote speech in London. So I went. Snuck in.”

“You what?”

“You wouldn’t have noticed me. My hair was jet black back then. I dyed it from the blond after that bloke…well, he liked me blond, so, fuck him, right? But, anyway, I stayed in the back. Watched you speak. Watched you keep looking at some bloke in the crowd with pink hair. Afterwards, I saw you talk to him outside, exchange numbers. Then he left, and you lingered. Watching him like how I was watching you.”

Kenny knew he should say something, stop Aaron, but he couldn’t.

“I waited for you in the rain.” It was as if Aaron found his confidence babbling more of the home truths he’d kept from him for so long. “Thought I’d follow you to the train station. But youwent to Inferno instead. I couldn’t get in, obviously, but I went back. Week after week, I kept going. Got myself a fake ID. I just… wanted to see you. Watch you. Twice more, you were there when I was. You never noticed me because I didn’t want you to. Then that night, I thought it was fate.”

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