Page 13 of Killing Me Softly

And he knew how they had the power to ruin everything.

So he kept his mouth busy by kissing Aaron’s back, along his shoulders, revelling in the subtle squirms and the eruption of goose pimples over his skin. That was enough. For now, he could live with this being what this was.

Beautiful. Devastating. Unrepentant.

Aaron’s arm came up, tangling his fingers in Kenny’s hair, pulling him closer, as he did every time, as if afraid he’d slip away. Craving a connection he’d never had. Kenny let him, let himself be pulled closer, surrendering without hesitation. Because if Aaron was starved for touch, then Kenny wanted to give himeverything. Would press into him until there was no space left between them. Until Aaron had no doubt he wasthere.

“You need a shower, doc,” Aaron said to the pillow.

But there was always that quick deflection. A verbal sleight-of-hand Aaron used when the intimacy got too vivid. Too real. Kenny knew that move well. Aaron didn’t know how tostayinvulnerability. Didn’t trust it not to swallow him whole. Kenny didn’t need toreadhis mind. He was already there, bound to Aaron’s need and pain in ways he couldn’t untangle. Some of it was clinical reflex, yes, born from years of analysing fractured psyches. But this? What he had with Aaron? It was deeper.Primal. It wasn’t just analysis. Kenny wasn’t observing Aaron from the outside. He wasinside.

Caught in the eye of his storm.

And that was the scariest place Kenny had ever let himself be.

“So do you,” Kenny said, dragging his tongue across Aaron’s back, tasting the salt on his skin, the heat of him like an addiction he’d never break.

Aaron twisted in Kenny’s arms. “No, I only haveyouon me.” He kissed him, sucking on Kenny’s bottom lip. “You’ve still got academia, professionalism, and work stuck all over you.” He tightened his grip on Kenny’s hair. “I wantmyKenny.”

Then there wasthat. Those rare, searing moments when Aaron stripped everything back and said exactly what he wanted. No games. No deflection. Justtruth. That hewantedhim. Always him.Kenny. Creating an addiction settling deep in Kenny’s bones, in his blood, making him crave every unguarded word like a fix he’d never get enough of.

Kenny kissed him, flattening Aaron onto his back and travelled down his body, nibbling as he went to ensure he left enough marks everywhere on that delightful, sun-kissed skin so everyone who saw him tomorrow wouldknow. He belonged to Kenny. Then he rolled off the bed and Aaron put his arms behind his head with a wicked, devilish grin, and it took effort to go wash all they were to each other off in the shower.

But what his boy wanted, his boy got.

When he returned, ruffling a towel through his wet hair, Aaron was asleep. And Kenny watched him for a while with anache in his chest, heavy and unshakable. Because he knew it now. Knew for absolute certain.

He was in love with Aaron. Lovedallof him. The infuriating stubbornness. His guarded silences. Those rough, prickly edges that caused permanent damage. And the rare, startling moments of sweet vulnerability that made Kenny’s heart clench. He’d fallen so hard and so deep, he was drowning in him.

But he silenced that revelation in the only way he knew how. By slipping beneath the sheets, folding himself in with him and pulling him close until there was no space left between them. Then, clamping his leg around Aaron, he ensured every inch of his skin felt his touch.

Letting him know he was there. With him.

For as long as Aaron allowed him to be.

Chapter four

Do You Love Me Yet?

“So you’re definitely done with the boring stuff?” Aaron picked at a buttery croissant on their bistro table the next morning.

Tucked away in the quiet, labyrinthine streets of El Born, the boutique hotel where they’d been staying for the past couple of days of the conference felt like a secret woven into the very fabric of Barcelona. With breakfast served in a cozy, sun-dappled garden courtyard at the back of the building, it was a hidden oasis draped in climbing bougainvillea with vivid pink flowers spilling down the old stone walls. Kenny had chosen it, Aaron suspected, not for its romantic charm, although itwasthat, but because it was far enough away from where he’d been conferencing and thus, their secret escape.

Even here, a thousand miles from Ryston, he was still Kenny’s dirty little secret.

When Kenny didn’t answer, Aaron peered up, catching him staring at him with that look in his eyes, the one Aaron couldn’tquite read yet. If he had experience in this sort of thing, he’d consider it affection. Fondness. As if Aaron had momentarily distracted him.

“The light caught your hair.” Kenny pointed a finger from around his cup, offering the information he knew Aaron wouldn’t have. “Looked gold at the edges. Quite striking.”

“Okay.” Aaron’s heart thudded hard, but he shook it off with a roll of his eyes and a rip of croissant. “So, boring stuff. Done, yeah?”

Kenny lifted his espresso to his lips. “Considering you’re my student and voluntarily paying to sit in my class, the fact you call what I do ‘boring stuff’ doesn’t bode well for your future career.”

Aaron shoved the end of a crusty croissant into his mouth. “Yeah, but I didn’t pick the course for its content, did I?”

Kenny lowered his cup on its saucer. “Whatdidyou pick it for?”

Aaron leaned back, chewing, locking his gaze on Kenny’s. He would know. Heshouldknow. The only reason Aaron was at Ryston at all was because of Dr Kenneth Lyons.

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