Page 84 of Dream a Little Dream

Aaron brushed his lips to Kenny’s, a temptation too far. “Liar.”

Kenny hovered where he was. So Aaron stole one more, chasing Kenny’s defiant tongue with his own.

Proving Kenny wrong.

* * * *

“Good party last night, was it?”

Kenny dropped into the passenger side of Jack’s VW Golf, then slammed the car door with a glare right at him.

Jack chuckled and started the engine. Kenny waved out of the passenger window at his mother’s care home. Shehadattacked the nurse coming to her aid last night, and they’d had to put her on lockdown. They needed Kenny’s permission to increase her meds. To let her sleep off the haunting dreams. He’d signed and sealed her fate for the next couple of days, then the call from Jack to ask him to attend this appointment had his head spinning. Thankfully, Jack had offered to collect him from here, so he didn’t have to rush back home to meet him.

“Thanks for coming along,” Jack said. “It makes more sense for you to be there.”

“Yeah. No problem. I’m glad you asked me.” Kenny clicked the seatbelt in. “Do you have a spare tie in here?”

“The glove box. Why? You think I need one?” Jack adjusted the collar on his fitted navy shirt. “Fraser said I looked more personable without one.”

“You do.” Kenny clicked open the glove box, rummaging through and found a pale blue silk tie. He held it up to the light. It would suit Jack far better with his colouring, but Kenny had on a checked navy and red gingham shirt, so at least it didn’t clash. “You’ll be fine. But she likes me in a tie.”

He put it on as Jack asked, “How’s your mum?”

Kenny looked away. “Not great.”

“I’m sorry. Did it interrupt a lazy Saturday in bed for you and Heather?”

Kenny smoothed down the tie. “We’ve not graduated to staying over yet.”

Jack took his eyes off the road to raise his eyebrows at him. “You’ve not slept with her?”

“I didn’t say that. I said, we’re not staying over at each other’s. She has a daughter. Teenager. Makes it difficult.” There was that, and there was the point that hehadn’tslept withHeather. Nor even stepped foot into her house as he was too busy sticking his tongue down his student’s throat instead.

He knew sexual deviancy. He wasn’t a deviant. What he had was a desire and an attraction too profound to shake. But it needed to stop. Aaron brought too much chaos into his life. He couldn’t function in chaos. It was why he kept his house so tidy. Because his mind was such a whirlwind of thoughts, he had to have the external ordered or he’d be dragged into anarchy.

“Fraser suggested we should go on a double date,” Jack’s voice floated over the unease as he sailed the car onto the lanes.

Kenny whipped to face him. “He did?”

“Yeah. Mentioned it when I got home in the late hours of last night. He knows you’re helping me with this case. How about it? Me and Fraser. You and Heather.”

Heather.Fucking hell.Heather.Shewas Kenny’s chance to have a life. A future. To have a smile like the one Jack had. He’d probably had breakfast in bed, made for him by his fiancé, and sent off this morning with a blowjob. Instead of waking up entwined with a beautiful mistake and the shame that came with it.

“This is him suggesting you shove your happiness in my face, is it?”

“Someone else suggested that.” Jack smiled. “C’mon. Might be nice. Fraser hasn’t got a social circle down here yet. Think he’s desperate for company.”

“Must be desperate.” Kenny studied Jack’s face as he navigated the roads out of town and onto the motorway. “You are aware he’s employing textbook behavioural positioning? An assertion tactic? Positioning himself as the primary figure in your life through a symbolic battle over me for superiority? He wants validation? To feel as if he’s won? I’m his opponent? And to look me in the eye while he does it?”

“If that means, he wants to size you up as competition? Then, yeah. Of course.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Of course.” Jack grinned, then laughed. “Oh, come on.” He slapped Kenny’s leg. “Makes sense to, y’know, move away from all the resentment and be…friends?”

Kenny glanced back out the passenger window. “I’m not sure we’re ready for that.”

“Me and you?”

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