Page 50 of Dream a Little Dream

She, too, thought she was doing Aaron a favour.

“Hey.” Taylor leaned forward to tap his knee.

Aaron could get on board with the sweat. He had a surface level attraction to that. But Taylor’s mingled cloyingly with whatever aftershave he’d bathed in that morning, which wasn’t quite a repellent, but nor did it stir anything in Aaron to make him want to form a bond with someone…normal. Available.Easy.

Why was he like this? Why couldn’t he be like everyone else who fucked for fuck’s sake? Especially when he looked the way he did. People thought he was a slut. The pink hair. Tight clothes. His nipple piercing. The neck tattoo. Nose ring. All were the hallmarks of a man who said he was up for it.

Except he wasn’t.

Only to the right person.

“Good boy.”

Taylor waved over at the mates who’d all hollered to him and were making their way to the faculty blocks. “We’re having a few drinks round ours tonight. Me and my housemates.” He pointed to the lads grinning at him from afar, jeering him on. “Wanna come along?”

Aaron took another drag, flicking the ash to the ground. Did he want to go to a third-year party? Want to drink on a Monday night? Encourage Taylor to make another move?Not really.But what else did he have to do? So he blew out the smoke to answer when an authoritative voice from behind stopped him in his tracks.

“Aaron Jones?”

Aaron peered over his shoulder. A uniformed police officer approached, along with a plain clothed one, followed by Dr Kenneth Lyons.

Aaron narrowed his eyes. “Yeah?”

The plain clothed bloke lifted an ID. “DI Bentley. Could we have a quick word?”

DI Bentley?

“Hey, I’m PC Bentley. You can call me Jack.”

Aaron had spent years learning to mask his reactions. He’d had lessons on it too. How to handle a situation where he had to keep his mouth closed and learn to bury the truth had been instilled into him since entering the system. But he’d never come as close to a danger zone as this. Blurting out his real nameduring the throes of an orgasm to someone who probably didn’t have a clue what that meant was one thing. Saying it to someone whoknewwhat that meant was something else entirely. He should have thought about that before stepping foot back here.

He glanced at Kenny. Jaw set, his eyes spoke volumes.Do not say anything.

Aaron held up his cigarette to Bentley. “Can I finish this?”

“It’ll kill you.” Bentley took a step back.

Aaron turned his gaze on Kenny. “So people tell me.” He then took a final drag and jumped off the table to stub the butt on the ground.

“You okay?” Taylor asked, wrapping his hand around Aaron’s wrist. Second time today that had happened. People thought he was vulnerable. Needed taking care of. Except this time, Aaron’s heart wasn’t as excited about that. “Want me to come with you?”

“Nah, it’s ok.” Aaron then, for some malicious reason, pressed his lips to Taylor’s ear. Soft, sweet and seductive, with his eyes trained on Kenny. “See you at the party.”

Kenny glanced to the ground, finding something particularly nasty there if his grimace were to be believed, and Aaron smiled with malevolent triumph.Take that.Two can play at his game. Taylor scurried off back to his mates, every so often glancing back with worry.

Aaron clasped his arms together in front of himself. “Arrest me, officer.”

“Detective,” Bentley said, then narrowed his eyes as if assessing him. As ifwonderingabout him.

Aaron couldn’t do a damn thing about his face. Even if he had grown stubble, shoved a nose ring in, dyed his hair pink, it was still his face.

“Is there somewhere private we can go?” Bentley said, although not to him. To Kenny.

“We can go to my office.” Kenny gestured with his hands, then gave Aaron a pointed look as he put his back to the officers and squirmed past them all to lead the way.

Another,Do Not Say Anything.

In the Psychology building, the uniformed officer stood outside Kenny’s office. Kenny ushered him and Bentley inside and Bentley offered Aaron the tatty sofa while he sat on the office chair. Leaving Kenny to stand with his shoulder against the door, chewing his thumbnail, peering at Aaron over his glasses.

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