Page 29 of Killing Me Softly

Kenny froze.

Moonlight spilling through the gap in the curtains traced the lines of a body he knew intimately and reflected in eyes he’d drowned in a thousand times.

“Hey,” Aaron’s voice was timid. So unlike the man himself.

Kenny’s heart stuttered.

“I just wanted to know you were okay.” Aaron rubbed his eyes. “I can still fuck off if—”

Kenny crossed the room in three strides, the bed dipping under his weight, and he pushed aside the duvet. Aaron lay bare beneath it, skin luminescent in the dim light, a landscape of pale perfection. He cupped Aaron’s neck.

“Don’t you dare go.” He brushed his forehead to Aaron’s, fighting back the threatening tears.

Aaron pulled him down, and he went with him, sinking on top of him, limbs entwining, no skin untouched, moisture welling in his eyes. And when Aaron kissed him, those held back tears spilled without warning, streaking across to Aaron’s cheeks. Aaron said nothing. He just took it. Absorbing Kenny’s pain for his own. And Kenny kissed Aaron as if it would prevent his fallout. As if Aaron was the only solid thing left to cling to when everything else had slipped through his fingers. Aaron wrapped his arms around him, gripping his hair in that desperate, grounding way he did.

Kenny pulled away, brushing his forehead to Aaron’s.

“Use me for what you need, lover,” Aaron said against his lips. “I’m yours. Whatever you need to switch that mind off.”

Those words caught in Kenny’s throat, and he choked on a sob. So he kissed Aaron again, then trailed more kisses down Aaron’s neck, his shoulders, lavishing attention on the sensitive peak of his nipple piercing before settling beside him, spooning into his warmth. He held him tight, ghosting his lips along Aaron’s shoulder and as he closed his eyes, the tears fell hot andheavy. Aaron lifted his arm, sliding his fingers into Kenny’s hair, cradling his head to keep him exactly where he was. With him.

After a moment, Kenny reached over him to the bedside table, pulling open the drawer and rummaging through the contents. God, he needed more of Aaron. Neededinsidehim. To find that sense of completeness only Aaron could give him. Everything would make sense again then. So he snatched the lube, flicked the cap, pulling away from Aaron enough to squeeze the slick liquid into Aaron’s cleft and over his own throbbing length. Tossing the tube aside, he positioned his cockhead between Aaron’s buttocks, prodding his opening. Aaron shifted his hips back, letting Kenny know he was ready. So with a gentle thrust, Kenny eased inside him, revelling in the hot wet heat Aaron’s body wrapped him in.

Aaron groaned, dropping his hand to Kenny’s thigh, digging his fingers in, urging him deeper. And Kenny took his time to sink all the way in. To feel the way Aaron’s body welcomed him, then clamped around him as if never wanting him to leave. Then Kenny moved. Slow and languid. Each thrust a dance of connection. No rush. No fight for control. Just tender. Profound. Making love to Aaron the way he deserved. As if he held Kenny’s fragile heart in the palm of his hands.

He did.

He just didn’t know it.

Tears trailing his cheeks, Kenny kissed Aaron’s ear and Aaron lifted his arm again to swipe his thumb through those fallen tears, then licked them from his pad as Kenny eased in and out of him. God, Aaron was perfect. So damnperfectfor him. Drinking Kenny’s pain as if it was his elixir.

“Baby…” Kenny gasped through a thrust that had him reaching his end far too soon, but he couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t control how good this felt. How he wanted to give everything over to Aaron and have him keep it.

“Let go, lover.”

So Kenny did. A few more aching thrusts, where he slapped against Aaron’s skin, and Aaron clung on, moaning and grunting, until Kenny came, trembling, letting everything bleed over into him.

Only when Kenny moved did Aaron make a grab for his erection. But Kenny eased out of him, guiding Aaron onto his back, and traced a reverent path down his body with his lips and tongue. Aaron’s body was a temple to be worshipped, and Kenny devoured every inch, slithering between Aaron’s legs and taking Aaron’s beautifully throbbing cock into his mouth. There, he settled into a rhythmic, languid suck drawing out every sensation that had Aaron raking his fingers through Kenny’s hair, gripping the strands and raising his hips to ease more of his pulsating length into Kenny’s mouth.

Keeping his eyes on Aaron, Kenny watched the emotions dance across his face. The way his lips parted as he took him deeper, and the flush spreading across his cheeks. Aaron met each upward stroke of Kenny’s mouth with a gentle moan, and each downward motion drew out a silent gasp and an arch of his back.

“Kenny…fuck,Kenny, I…fucking l…”

Kenny braced himself. Not for what would inevitably explode in his mouth, but for what Aaron might finally say. Might let slip. Those words Kenny craved like nicotine were on the tip of Aaron’s tongue. And if Aaron said them, Kenny didn’t know how he’d come back from it. Not today. Notnow.

But Aaron did what he always did in those moments to prevent his feelings from seeping out. He clutched Kenny’s hair in fierce fingers and thrust himself deeper into Kenny’s mouth, snapping his jaw shut to growl through his torrid release. And Kenny was fine with that. Because he wasn’t sure he could take Aaron’s bravery right then. Wasn’t sure he could hold onto it how he should. And so he kept his mouth where it was, swallowing Aaron down to fill his empty heart, then finally licked off him and travelled up, kissing his stomach, his chest, his neck, then capturing his lips.

The comedown was brutal. The fall treacherous. And Kenny crumpled onto Aaron, forehead to his chest, shaking through the silent tremors. Every ounce of composure, every shred of control he’d built to hold himself together, fractured under the stress of his grief and exhaustion. Aaron wrapped his arms and legs around him, clinging on, planting desperate kisses in his hair. He didn’t speak. Didn’t even attempt to. Whether he didn’t know what to say or simply knew that words weren’t what Kenny needed, it didn’t matter. What Aaron chose to do, whatever he did, and why, was always exactly the right thing.

For Kenny.

The minutes stretched on, the room silent except for Kenny’s ragged breathing and the rain tapping the window. Aaron held him, his steady heartbeat beneath Kenny’s ear a grounding rhythm in the chaos of his mind. Eventually, the tremors subsided and Kenny lifted his head, eyes probably red-rimmed and damp. Somehow, the embarrassment of how he must look just wasn’t there. He was far from the composed professor in perfectly tailored suits who commanded rooms and shielded his vulnerabilities behind intellect and authority. The man who’d captured Aaron’s attention. But the facade didn’t matter.Couldn’tmatter. Because Aaron had seen it all. The mess he buried inside. The cracks in his armour. And the parts Kenny never let anyone else touch.

He met Aaron’s gaze, and for a moment, he couldn’t speak. The words were there, tangled in his throat, but they felt insufficient. How could he explain the depth of what he felt? The relief, the fear, the unrelenting ache that Aaron always seemed to soothe without trying?

“Thank you for coming back,” Kenny said, barely a whisper, his throat tight.

“That’ll happen when you don’t text back.”

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