Page 36 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

Aaron hoisted up, sitting against the headboard, duvet draping down to cover his bottom half, and ruffled his hair back. “Do what?”

“Get through this.”

Aaron arched an eyebrow.

“If you need more time, completely understandable, I’ll mark you absent. Sick. You stay here. You donotleave. However, faculty will expect you to explain why you were not in a coremodule. Your bursary package requires perfect attendance, and we report on that to the department who issued it.”

“The other option?”

“You get up now. I take you to your room. You either stay there, be sick, or you turn up at my lecture. That will, of course, rouse suspicion.”

“Third choice?”

“You stay here, you wear what you wore to the party, you leave in one hour when I’m already on campus, you turn up to my lecture and you do not, under any circumstances, make eye contact with me.”

Aaron exhaled a sharp laugh, more a release of tension than amusement, bowing his head to hide the smirk pulling at his lips. “Okay.”

But Kenny didn’t move, didn’t let it end there. His stare bore into Aaron, unyielding, charged with something more than frustration. Aaron shifted, peering up through his lashes, and it was as if Kenny reached inside him, dragging feelings to the surface that Aaron hadn’t wanted to face.

Guilt. Concern.Fear.

Not for himself—Aaron had long since given up fearing what the world thought of him—but for Kenny. The man standing before him, trying so desperately to hold himself together, to cling to the boundaries he’d set even as they frayed. Just Aaron being here, in this house, in Kenny’sbed, could ruin him. Burn his career to the ground. But then there was the rest of it, everything else between them, each moment, each slip, eachkiss. Every single one adding another strand to the noose Kenny seemed intent on wrapping around his own neck.

And Aaron? He was complicit. Every word of defiance, every teasing smirk, every time he let himself linger too long in Kenny’s space, he tightened the knot that would eventually hang him.

“I’ll leave after you,” Aaron said, trying to rid his voice ofany sulk about it. “I won’t even acknowledge you in the lecture. Probably won’t even listen to you.”

“Very funny.”

“Would say I’m here all week, but…” Aaron started the no eye contact rule early.

Then the mattress dipped, Kenny’s knee digging in beside him as he leaned over him, tucking a hand behind his neck to drag him forward.

“There are things I need to sort out,” Kenny said, coffee breath warming Aaron’s face. “And only once I have, can I let you burrow yourself inside me any further than you already have.”

“So, this is all my fault?”

“No. It’s all mine. And I expect full consequences. But somehow, I can’t fucking stop this.”

With a surge of brutal determination, Aaron seized Kenny’s tie, yanking it free from neatly tucked into his waistcoat, silk skating through Aaron’s fingers like a ribbon of defiance, and held him a whisper away from his lips. He poured everything into his gaze. Anger. Longing. Vulnerability of knowing how much he needed Kenny,wantedhim, and the wild hope that Kenny might need him just as much. Or at leastwanthim. And he fisted the fabric of Kenny’s blazer, pulling him down, dragging him physically and emotionally into his chaos.

Kenny didn’t resist. He folded into Aaron’s pull, burrowing his face into Aaron’s neck, his academic armour slipping as Aaron wrapped his legs around him, locking them together. Kenny pressed him into the mattress, the searing heat of their connection ruffling Kenny’s meticulously groomed exterior, unravelling him, and his groan was guttural, torn from deep within as he licked along the tattooed Mars symbol on Aaron’s neck. He gripped his hips, fingers digging into the fabric of his borrowed underwear and Aaron moaned, because he knew then,knewthat when Kenny walked out of this house, when hereturned to campus, when he stood before a lecture hall and donned his professional facade, it would all be a lie. Because Kenny had beenhere. Been on top of him, contained cock hard within his suit trousers, and biting his neck to claim him. Aaron would make damn sure Kenny wouldn’t forget it.

Eventually, Kenny ripped himself away, standing and wiping his mouth, ruffling his hair back in place. He then pointed at him. “No eye contact.”

“Wouldn’t want to look at you, anyway.”

Kenny adjusted his tie, tucking it back into his waistcoat. “Liar.”

Aaron smirked. “We’ll see who breaks first.”

Then Kenny was gone. The sound of a door slamming. A car engine starting, tyres scrunching before fading into the distance.

This time, Aarondidsort himself out. How could he not? Rock solid enough for Kenny to have noticed, with his borrowed underwear already bearing a patch of wet pre cum, he was horny as fuck. So Aaron ripped the boxers off, rolled around in Kenny’s scent and fucked his fist, staining the sheets with his release, then fell back, a sweaty, disgusting mess.

Only slightly satisfied.

He showered, leaving the mess in the bedroom for Kenny to find, and the heat of the water did little to ease the tightness in his chest. The events of the past few days swirled persistently in his mind. He dressed back in his party gear, which wasn’t too far removed from his usual style, hair a damp, floppy mess which he pushed back half-heartedly, and caught his reflection in Kenny’s dresser mirror. It would do. It had to do.

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