Page 6 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

Fully awarehehad a problem here, that knowledge didn’tsolvethe problem. The really fuckinghugeproblem. All those hours of sun-drenched calm in Greece, to let the sun and sand dilute this relentless pull…none of it had worked. He’d tried compartmentalising. Shoving those insistent thoughts and gnawing feelings into little boxes inside his head to create some semblance of peace. The idea to go away by himself had been so he could recoup without distraction to figure out what he wanted. He’d decided he wanted to hold on to hiscareer.

Until he’d laid eyes on the pink-haired troublemaker.

Except Aaron didn’t have pink hair anymore.

He knew it wasn’t the colour of his hair attracting him, but every single tiny little thing about him. All of it. The whole fucking package. From the downright insufferable wretch he could be, to the fragile vulnerability hidden beneath. And how fuckingsexyhe knew he was.

It all had Kenny in bits and pieces.

But he tried to steady himself, rolling his shoulders as Aaron stepped out of his Halls of Residence, strolled up to the car, now platinum blond hair catching the last hints of daylight. Aaron looked older somehow. The summer months leaving a faint tan on his skin, his features sharper. It had only been three weeks. But it had felt like a lifetime. Kenny swallowed, turning to look out of the window. He shouldn’t have come. Should’ve left Aaron stewing and called it a lesson in accountability.

But there was no going back now.

The passenger door opened, and Aaron fell into the seat, his familiar, intoxicating scent filling the cabin, fighting over the new hanging air freshener and wrapping around Kenny to make his pulse spike.

“We’re over an hour late,” Kenny snapped, irritation sharpening his voice to mask the jealousy simmering beneath.

Aaron raked a hand through his hair, checking his reflection in the wing mirror, and adjusting the blond strands into a casual quiff. “Didn’t think we were doing this anymore.”

Kenny gritted his teeth. “You know damn well it’s not over.”

“You went on holiday.” Aaron slapped his hand on his thigh, the rips in his jeans not stopping at his knees anymore but torn all the way to just beneath his boxers. Kenny could seethe tight fitting cotton of his trunks poking out, his entire legs practically on show between stretched threads of denim. He could slide his fingers inside those cracks and feel the smooth skin beneath scattered with fine blond hair. He could do it. Aaron would let him. “You’ve not been around for three fucking weeks. How am I meant to know when you were back?”

Kenny clenched the steering wheel, willing himself not to rise to the bait. “I told you exactly when I’d be back and when we’d continue your sessions. I put it in your calendar.”

“Forgot.”

“Jesus Christ.” Kenny started the engine. “Dr Riley might not fit you in now.”

Aaron shrugged, completely unfazed. “Maybe that’s for the best. Pretty sure I’m cured.” He shot Kenny a sidelong glance. “Save your pennies.”

“You don’t get cured of arrogance.”

Aaron’s laugh was sharper this time. “Evidently. Cause you must have been trying for forty-one years to rid yourself of that.”

The silence falling between them was thick, tense, with only the hum of the car’s engine to dilute it. Kenny pulled out of the car park, trying to ignore the itch Aaron’s presence left on his skin.

“You still need to do this,” Kenny said, softer, calmer, after he’d told himself his temper came from his unwanted yet relentless attraction.

“Then maybe you don’t need to drive me there anymore.” Aaron’s voice was low. Weak. And it tugged on Kenny’s heart.

“What?Why?”

“Because I can’t stand it, Kenny!” Aaron stamped his boot on the back of the footwell so hard, Kenny feared he’d made a hole right through to the engine. He’d learned over the past year how Aaron snapped from cool cucumber to fucked-off firecracker within milliseconds. He spent his life forcing his emotiveresponses into his shoes, but there was always a trigger setting him free. “Youleftme!”

Kenny tightened his grip on the wheel, heat rising in his chest, and his next words came out unexpectedly. “And you have been withhim!”

Since they’d made the agreement to be platonic, to remain at a professional distance, they hadn’t talked about how they really felt. Kenny threw himself into work and Aaron did what freshers did—got himself a boyfriend. A fuck buddy. Kenny didn’t want to think about what Aaron’s relationship with the third year Taylor was about. And so they didn’t mention it. Nor talk about it. They undertook these weekly car rides, or the classes Kenny lectured, or the occasional group and feedback sessions for Aaron’s degree, desperately trying not to move any closer to each other. To block out this unrelentingthingthey had.

The three weeks apart had supposed to create distance, a deliberate effort to untangle their lives. Instead, it had heightened the pull between them, as if the separation had made the idea of staying awayunbearable.

“You think I’m not also struggling with this?” Kenny took his eyes off the road for a second too long, ready to let Aaron know how he really felt. If only to appease Aaron’s angry outburst. But also because he wanted him to know. “He opened your door to menaked.”

“I didn’t expect you to knock.”

“Then answer your fucking phone.”

Kenny knew Aaron’s radio silence was no accidental oversight. He was a Doctor of Psychology, for fucks sake. He’d studied behaviour all this adult life. Aaron’s deliberate intention was a carefully deployed avoidance mechanism. Crafted to elicit a reaction in him. An obvious example of displacement and provocation, meant to throw Kenny off balance, forcing him over boundaries he knew better than to cross.

---