Page 89 of Kiss Me Honey Hone

Kenny chuckled. “So I’ve been told.”

“I still want to know.”

Kenny inhaled sharply. “No. I haven’t.” He kissed him softly, as if the answer had lived on his lips all along. “Not like this. Not in a way that terrifies me... and still makes me want you, anyway.”

Aaron smiled against Kenny’s mouth, fluttering his eyes shut at the revelation warming through his veins. But when Kenny pulled back, Aaron dragged his tongue over the lingering wetness on his lips, opened his eyes and smirked.

“I still want to know about you and Bellend.”

“Course you do. Because you also like feeling you have one up on him.”

“So tell me. What was it? Fuck buddies? Passing fling? A relationship?”

“Yes.”

Aaron shoved him. “Prick.”

Kenny grabbed Aaron’s hand. Squeezed. Then tucked it back under the sheets, covering it with his own on Aaron’s hip. “It was all those things at various points in the six years we were in and out of each other’s beds.”

“Were you in love with him?”

Kenny’s expression turned thoughtful, eyes fixed on the ceiling for a moment. “Yes. But I didn’t really understand how to deal with that then. Nor did I know how to deal withhislove for me. It became…a weapon. Suffocating. He, rightly so, wanted to change certain aspects about me and I, rightly so, wasn’t ready for those things to change. And when you’re carrying that in a relationship you have to keep hidden, it stops feeling like a relationship at all.”

“Why were you hiding it?”

“Because our superiors would have taken us off the case we were working on. Neither of us wanted that to happen. We were both at the start of our careersand we knew we were on the verge of something that would be the making of us. But a defence lawyer worth half his salt would tear the case apart if he whiffed any conflict of interest. Could use it to discredit anything we said. It’s still a bone of contention now, despite us not having spoken in years. It was too much pressure. And eventually, our edges frayed, loosening the hold we had on each other.”

“How did it end?”

“Badly.”

“In what way?”

“In a way that I hurt him considerably and he couldn’t forgive me, so he left. Without saying anything. Just upped and left. Took a job in Glasgow. I didn’t speak to him again until last year.”

“Wow. Glasgow. What did you do?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Did you cheat on him?”

“As I said, when a relationship stops feeling like a relationship, it becomes easier to justify your actions.”

“So, you cheated on him?”

“Yes, okay. Fine. If you want to strip it to its simplicity. I cheated. I had…addictions back then. Things Jack wanted me to stop. Smoking. My obsession with finding Jessica’s killer. And…going to clubs.”

Aaron pursed his lips. “Lucky you don’t do those anymore.”

Kenny clutched Aaron’s arse, dragging him closer. “My addiction has changed.”

Aaron’s heart pounded, the intensity in Kenny’s eyes impossible to ignore. “Kiss me.”

Kenny did, slow and languid, as though pouring every ounce of regret and unspoken apology into the kiss. A promise and a confession wrapped into one. Aaron felt like he was being drawn deeper under Kenny’s spell.

Aaron pulled back just enough to whisper against Kenny’s lips, voice shaky but firm. “Is this why you’re involvedwith the son of serial killers? Because you know that if you stick your dick anywhere else but in me, I’ll have you killed in your sleep?”

Kenny’s lips twitched into a grin. “Does sound like a surefire way to help break a habit.”

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