Page 105 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

“How?”

“Kiss me.”

Kenny hesitated for a fraction of a second, heart pounding. Then he cupped Aaron’s face, stroking his thumbs over the faint stubble on his jaw, and drank in how utterly beautiful he was. And when his lips met Aaron’s, the world fell away. Tentativeand languid, Kenny kissed him. And if this was his last, he didn’t care. Because Aaron responded with equal fervour, curling his fingers around Kenny’s wrists to hold him there, above him, his mouth fixed to his.

It wasn’t just a kiss—it was a promise, an apology, a declaration. And it sent Aaron’s heart monitor into overdrive. So Kenny let out a low, breathless chuckle, drawing back to calm Aaron to normal outputs and not alert the nurse.

“Easy,” he said, resting his forehead on Aaron’s and cradling his face. “Need you to get better. I want you back to destroying my life in the way onlyyoucan.”

Aaron smiled, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “You sure? Infuriating? Insufferable? Wild and reckless?”

Kenny gripped his face. “And mine.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

I Wanna Know What Love Is

Aaron spent a grand total of forty-eight hours in the hospital, which felt both fleeting and an eternity. Considering how close he’d come to death, it wasn’t nearly long enough for him to process everything. But the doctors, their clipped tones tinged with clinical detachment, assured him they’d flushed all the toxins from his system. He was stable, functional, and, as they reminded him, taking up a bed that someone else might need more urgently.

So, home he went.

And by home, it meant his tiny, cramped room in Halls of Residence.

He’d wanted to go back to Kenny’s place. But Aaron understood the necessity of not being discharged to there. Kenny had a professional reputation to salvage. And he had to explain Aaron’s absences from lectures without the university poking into their relationship any more than necessary. As Aaron was an estranged student without family support, Kenny, in his capacity as a pastoral advisor, had stepped in. It was plausible enough. It just didn’t include how Aaron had been in Kenny’s bed. And so desperately wanted to be back there.

“Heal first. Then we’ll figure this out.”Kenny’s voice, over the phone on his first night back in halls, kept Aaron from just turning up at his place and setting up camp.

He was, however, greeted like a war hero when he returned to campus. Word had spread about what had happened. Some of it true, most of it grossly exaggerated. The knocks on his door came in waves, first timid and curious, then bolder, as the first years he barely knew showed up with offerings of pizza, beer, snacks, even drugs. He took the first three. Politely declined the fourth. He’d had enough chemicals in his system to last a lifetime.

The isolation wasn’t entirely unwelcome, though. It gave him time to think. To heal. To replay everything that had happened in those sterile labs and what could have gone so horribly wrong. Mel stopped by frequently, bringing notes and updates from lectures he hadn’t attended. They shared a vape by the window of his room, the cold November air biting at their skin. But after a few drags, the thought of introducing anything else toxic into his body left him nauseated, not to mention the cloudy vapour reminding him of whatever Peter had sprayed on him in the lab. So he chucked the vape onto the desk and told Mel he was quitting. She’d smiled and promised to keep covering for him in class.

Taylor also showed up one afternoon. Awkward at first, but eventually, it felt… cathartic. Aaron told him the truth. Or at least, enough of it. He told Taylor about his parents and their crimes. About how he had come to this university to confront the ghosts of his past, only to discover some ghosts weren’t dead. Or locked up. He kept Kenny out of the conversation as much as possible. At least the damning parts. Not just to save Taylor the hurt of knowing Aaron hadn’t ever really been fully committed to their…situationship, but because his relationship, if it could even be called that, with Kenny had to stay a secret, at least until the fallout from Peter’s crimes settled. When the university stopped reeling from the PR nightmare of a serial killer infiltrating their staff.Again!

The days blurred together in a haze of recovery and waiting. Waiting for the case against Peter to begin, which would take at least a year. At least Kenny’s texts were quicker to ping through, even if they were sporadic and brief. He also had an awkward visit from Jack, who came with his team to take Aaron’s official statement. Sitting across from Jack while recounting everything had been surreal. Aaron could feel the unspoken understanding between them, especially when Jack, as he left, said with a smirk, “Say hi to Kenny for me.”

It felt like a truce.

He was still a bellend, though.

And he called Kenny late that night to tell him as much. And also to beg him to let him come round. But there wererules. Things dictating how they shouldn’t cross boundaries. Shouldn’t tempt fate. Not that either of them were particularly good at following those rules before. Still, it made sense to lie low when so much attention was on them both. Physical space didn’t limit their connection. Because it was there. Simmering beneath every casual text or quick call. And they were both grappling with the tension of being irresistibly drawn to each other, while desperately clinging to keep the distance that might be the only thing holding them together.

Kenny, consumed with the aftermath, was stretched thin as it was. Between giving statements to the police, coordinating with Jack, and helping rebuild trust at the university, his availability until the end of term was non-existent. Aaron knew all of that, but it didn’t make the silence easier to bear. So on the fifth night, restless and aching for something—anything—Aaron broke it, video calling Kenny at midnight.

“I miss you,” Aaron said, lying on his bed, naked, phone raised up to show enough of himself on the screen to entice.

Kenny showed the contents of his bed. Papers, laptop, books,then swerved the screen back to his face where he was in his sexy as fuck glasses and hair tied back. “That’s my bed, right now. There’s not enough room for you.”

“I reckon I could lie right on top of all that shit.”

“All right.” Kenny settled back against the headboard. “Touch yourself.”

Aaron arched an eyebrow. But did as commanded.

Phone sex might be better than the real thing.

But by the next day, Aaron couldn’t escape the reality of what lay ahead. Peter’s sentencing. The whispers around campus. The looming shadow of his past that wouldn’t stay buried. And somewhere out there was his sister—a name and a face he didn’t know, nor what had happened to her.

And he couldn’t park the deep yearning to find out.

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